The following was written by Melissa Moser, an elementary and middle school teacher and DoW STEM Ambassador. DoW STEM Ambassadors work with the Defense STEM Education Consortium (DSEC) to advance STEM outreach for students who are underrepresented in STEM and/or military connected. Moser was selected by FIRST, a DSEC partner, as their DoW STEM ambassador for the 2021-2022 school year.

Between 365 million and 1 billion birds die annually from striking glass in the United States. I learned this astonishing statistic in 2015 from the 9-year-old students on my FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team. During 10 weeks of after-school practices, they designed an innovative solution: a motion sensor that recognizes when birds are approaching and thereby triggers windows to project solid images that no longer reflect the sky. The students even wrote and presented a hilarious skit about their research and sensor invention to FLL judges. On top of that amazing project, they also designed, built, and programmed an EV3 LEGO Mindstorm robot. I was in awe of their creativity, collaboration, and dedication. They won second place at a local competition for their innovative project. As a bonus, the real winners will be my future students because I learned firsthand how to teach STEM and project-based learning (PBL).

My first year coaching FLL was better than any PBL and STEM professional development that I’ve ever attended. During that year, I witnessed students fully engaged in the engineering design process, 21st-century skills, growth mindset and PBL. Aristotle’s famous quote sums up that first year of coaching for me: “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” I heartily recommend that any reader who is curious about STEM and PBL jump right in and coach an FLL team! FLL teams are small, about 6 to 10 students, with 6 being the perfect size for a new coach. The experience will serve as unofficial professional development, and it will be the best PBL and STEM training you’ll ever attend.

It’s all there for you to learn by doing. The FLL innovation project satisfies all components of the Buck Institute’s Gold Standard PBL. According to the Buck Institute, “PBL includes key knowledge, understanding, success skills, challenging problem or question, sustained inquiry, authenticity, student voice and choice, reflection, critique and revision and public product.” Let’s break this down.

Challenging Problem or Question

My teams start by brainstorming possible problems related to the theme. This past season’s theme was “Cargo Connect,” so we attended a field trip to an Amazon facility where we brainstormed problems with deliveries, chose a problem to research and wrote a driving question. Their collaborative efforts produced a driving question for each team, such as “How can we prevent theft of home deliveries?” and “How can we use less fossil fuels during the shipping process?”

Sustained Inquiry

My teams spend time during every practice on research. Either they are figuring out how to refine their solution or they are finding information for their presentation.

Authenticity

My teams create projects and solutions within an assigned theme that are near and dear to them. For example, student experiencing homelessness on one team came up with the idea to repurpose an abandoned school for housing and job training. Another student had a grandmother with a mental illness. Her team created a list of mental health interventions for astronauts disconnected from family.

Student Voice and Choice

Students choose how they want to present their product and what they want to research, create, and design, which leads to student ownership of the project. As an educator it is thrilling to watch students become the creators, engineers, and problem-solvers, where their voices and choices direct most decisions.

Reflection, Critique and Revision

To improve their projects, my teams have an engineering mindset and offer productive feedback to each other while also seeking advice from others. They have consulted wildlife biologists about their sensors, city planners about homeless housing and a school janitor about their trash can designs. Sharing with others is an important part of FLL judging with scoring on the innovation project rubric.

Public Product

Besides sharing their projects with their school, which the students enjoy doing, FLL is a competition, so students also present their final product to judges. Some products have included physical models of redesigned trash cans, blueprints of handicap-accessible playgrounds and apps for locating health services.

In addition to meeting the gold standard of PBL, FLL provides many resources to facilitate successful PBL, such as the following:

• Professional videos describing the current competition theme
• Links to suggested field trips and guest speakers
• Coach’s notebook with lessons for each team meeting
• Online resource library
• Innovative project-judging rubrics
• Regional coach meetings and mentors
• FIRST Educator Curriculum

FLL continues to gain popularity at my school and has inspired a community of teachers, parents, and principals at Curren, a K–8 school. Leona Prebble, a 6th grade teacher and 3-year coach says, “It is so beneficial to the students. They are learning coding and STEM skills that they aren’t learning during the school day. I’m impressed that the students do research and writing on their own, even after school. I was learning with them and used what I learned about coding and engineering in my classroom.”

Raluca Razus, a fourth-grade teacher and four-year coach shared, “Students are proud of their FLL accomplishments. They use critical-thinking skills to iterate on a challenge until they meet their goal. The small group after school was so calm because the students were focused and willing to try repeatedly. I saw a true growth mindset and problem-solving. I learned to include more voice and choice in my classroom and even gamified some learning activities because of coaching.”

Jeralyn Negri, a parent and coach, said “I loved watching the children overcome and conquer personal and STEM challenges to accomplish what they wanted to create.”

Curren’s former principal, Christine McDaniels, was inspired to start two FLL teams at her new school: “FLL gave our students the opportunity to collaborate with students from other grade levels as well as problem-solve as a team. Students gained confidence as they presented to judges during their competition. FLL gave students the opportunity to shine as they learned to design, program and solve a problem.”

Getting started can be as simple as inviting families to a “LEGO Night” to play with LEGOs while a video of past FLL competitions is displayed. If there is interest, ask parents to support your requests for funding to purchase a Spike Prime Robot and FLL registration. With your team of 6 interested students, let the joy of learning by doing STEM and PBL begin!

RESOURCES TO GET YOU STARTED

• About FIRST LEGO League
• FIRST LEGO League Season Resources
• FIRST Educator Curriculum
• Droid Robotics: FIRST LEGO League Tutorials