Elementary Workshops

In this workshop, students explore the principles of buoyancy and the step into the role of a marine engineer to design a boat to hold weight. Students will make use of the Engineering Design Process in groups to design and build their ships in class with simple materials that could be found at home, guided by instructors. All designs will be tested to see how much cargo they can hold!

Curriculum Links: Objects and Structures, Movement, Buoyancy, Stable Structures, Properties of Matter, Form, Function, and Design, Fluids, Systems in Action

In this workshop, students will learn about the world of traffic lights and how electricity plays an important role within society. Through the Engineering Design Process, students will design and test traffic lights; thinking as an electrical engineer. An advanced version of the workshop is available for higher grades to practice their coding skills and optimize how the light functions.

Curriculum Links: Light and Sound, Electrical Devices

In this workshop, students will explore fundamental concepts of light and the electromagnetic spectrum, and learn about spectroscopes - a hands-on tool revealing the hidden spectrum of colour behind any light source. Students will have a chance to test a 3D printed Spectroscope, and then work to replicate the design using much simpler materials with the help of the Engineering Design Process.

Curriculum Link: Light (waves/particles, electromagnetic spectrum)

In this workshop, students will have the opportunity to step into the role of a biomechanical engineer and design a prosthetic leg to replace the functions of a lost leg. With several constraints and requirements, students will need to use the Engineering Design Process to make use of the simple materials provided to design and test a functional leg.

Curriculum Link: Biology (human body and body systems)

How do robots work? In this workshop, students will experiment by controlling a robot's direction and speed using drawn commands on paper.

Curriculum Links: Coding. This workshop covers how to use simple commands to move a robot on a course at different speeds

Python is a common programming language that is widely used in the sciences. It is also one of the most popular programming languages in the world. This workshop introduces students to the basics of coding in python such as assigning variables, if/then statements, and performing simple tasks (e.g., making a calculator) in preparation for high school.

Curriculum Links: Coding. Teachers can request certain topics (e.g., loops, conditional statements) be covered depending on what they’re teaching in class

Student will learn about engineering's importance, programming's real-world applications, and input/output logic. The focus varies based on grade levels:

• Grades 1 - 2: Learners grasp ecosystem concepts, types, and basic food chain systems. They practically apply this by creating ecosystems in Bloxels, including environments and pixel art animals. Understanding input's impact on character movement in the app is a key takeaway.

• Grades 3 - 4: Students gain familiarity with Bloxels' environment, explore engineering and programming's significance, and delve into diverse ecosystems and food chains. They employ pixel art to craft animals and ecosystems, extending learning to predator-prey dynamics. Adding predator characters and utilizing game elements like power-ups deepen understanding.

• Grades 6 - 7: Similarly introduced to Bloxels, these students tackle engineering, programming, ecosystems, and food chains, while also mastering scientific terminology for their game development. They construct prey and predator characters, using power-ups, multiple characters, and checkpoints for added complexity, showcasing an advanced comprehension of ecosystem dynamics and game design.

Curriculum Links: Coding, Biology (biodiversity and ecosystems)

Students will have the opportunity to explore the Bloxels application and create a gaming environment of the story, The Three Little Pigs. While students learn about engineering and its applications, programming significance in the real world, programming input and output controls logic as a software/game developer, they will also be able to learn basic literary structure of a story. Grasping terms like beginning, middle (climax), end, protagonist, antagonist, setting, and story repetition, students will master these concepts by recreating the story in Bloxels by using pixel art to create characters, settings and power-ups to make their plot more interesting.

Curriculum Links: Coding, Literacy