Rockin' it in Fifth Grade: Rockin' the STEAM Flower Project

Monday, March 13, 2017

Rockin' the STEAM Flower Project

For this STEAM project, students worked in teams of four to first design a flower using pattern shapes, graph their shape choices on a Google Sheet, then calculate the cost of one flower and a dozen flowers, based on the value assigned to each shape. They also had to figure out how many flowers they could buy with $500. This gave students and opportunity to practice of our current math strategies.

This STEAM project included science of flowers, symmetry, creativity and collaboration of designing a flower, use of technology to create a bar graph, decimal addition with money, and multi-step problem solving.

Collaborating to design a flower based on actual flower structure.

Using Google Sheets to graph the different shapes used.

Calculating the value of one flower and one dozen based on assigned values for each shape. Also figuring out how many flowers they can buy with $500. Click here for the paper.

Some students added a photo of their flower creation to their spreadsheet. Taking a photo with their standard Chromebook was not easy.

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Meet Marianne

Marianne is a fifth grade teacher in Los Osos this year. She previously taught for Mariposa County Unified and Orcutt Union school districts. This is her 24th year in the educational field as a classroom teacher. Marianne is committed to providing students with an innovative 21st century curriculum that includes engaging, high quality instruction to expand students' opportunities for learning. This requires taking risks to get results, like when she moved all the desks out of her classroom in pursuit of new ways to use best practices to highly engage students. In order to prepare students to be future ready, she provides structures for learning through teamwork and whole class activities, which allow students to interact, think creatively, and be a part of each other’s learning. She has successfully implemented 1:1 iPads and Chromebooks with her class. Marianne’s innovative use of technology, creative lesson design, collaboration with peers, continual pursuit of learning, and being a leader on campus earned her the Mariposa County Teacher of the Year award in 2015. She is also a CUE Rock Star Teacher.

The students in Marianne’s class, and their families, are kept well informed through her use of a closed class Facebook group, class Twitter feed, and Class Dojo. The messaging services on all three of these makes it possible for parents to easily and effectively communicate with her “after hours.”

Being a part of the school community is also important to Marianne. She believes that her work on campus does not end at the classroom door. She is fully committed to the school as a whole, taking on extra duties like painting murals, heading up the spirit wear orders, organizing fundraisers, creating the yearbook, managing the school’s Facebook page, providing professional development to other teachers, and being on the Leadership Team and Educational Technology Team.