Low-Cost Hands-On Engineering Projects and Curriculum for Elementary School Level Children

Elementary students have had a harder time staying engaged in the material during class time, especially since the start of Covid, whether they are online or in-person. Due to the virus, schools require there be enough materials for each individual student to work with so that they can all participate in the activity. Since the schools and teachers generally do not get enough funding, the teachers have to resort to doing the activity themselves under the document camera. Hands-on activities generally help keep the students involved in the curriculum and help them to remember what they have learned. In order to make sure every student can have their own materials, the project kits need to be low-cost and easily accessible.

This creative project will be to create a working prototype kit that can teach multiple lessons of the curriculum that the schools or individual families could purchase. The curriculum would be centered on the engineering and science curriculum that is introduced from fourth to sixth grade classes. By creating an interactive kit that the students could individualize and use for multiple lessons, the goal is to get them more engaged in the material.