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I am a 3rd grade teacher with a masters in reading teaching at a STEM school. Because of my background, I strive to tie in STEM activities to literature. I have plans to do a literature study on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I think reading this book will set the stage for our exploration of machines and inventions. I am requesting one STEM Nonfiction Book Set, K'NEX Levers and Pulleys and Wheels and Axels, Match & Sort Science Quickies, Elapsed Time Write & Wipe Boards, one Academy de Vinci Clock, one Rube Goldberg: Inventions!, Time Equivalency Puzzles, and one Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions: You Can Build Yourself (Build It Yourself). With these materials, we will dive into the graphic novel as a class by working on elements of fiction and comprehension during our reading block. Since the setting for part of the book is in a clock tower at the Paris train station, we will learn telling time and calculating elapse time during math. We will also extend our connections to the book into science by learning about six simple machines through games, trade books, and building with the K'NEX kits. As an extension, students will be allowed to create and explore combining simple machines to make more complex inventions such as Rube Goldberg machines. Students will then be able to explore and design their own inventions, just as Hugo did with the mechanical man automaton in the book. The books will spark my students' curiosity and imaginations, which can then be applied to their learning of the concrete skills of telling time and basic physics. Providing them with materials to explore, to use for testing their ideas, and to extend their thinking will strengthen their connections and problem-solving abilities.
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