In normal times, we allow a good fifteen minutes of each class for the students to have some engineering play with various building materials. We launch amazing team and group challenges at them, such as, build us a bridge 30cm high out of Kiva Blocks (or Legos, etc…). Or, make a tower as tall as you can using 100 blocks of 1″x4″x0.5′ and measure how tall you make it. Hopefully, you get the picture. What is truly amazing is what the kids make in these challenges. They always go miles beyond our expectations. Given the freedom to express our simply directives in any way they can imagine, it shouldn’t be a surprise they make amazing structures, but it is!
They embrace and embody the maker mindset and express all the competencies promoted by our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) curricula in these play challenges. It sets them up for success in the more directed challenges of the weekly lessons.
This year is different!
With the Covid protocols in place, the kids at Dorval Elementary‘s maker space (#LeLab) aren’t allowed to share materials outside their class bubbles. We have 350 students spread across 18 class-bubbles. We need at least 18 different building bundles that can be used by about 20 kids per bubble. Ideally, we’d like enough materials for all the kids to participate.
This is where you, the community, come in.
We are asking for any Mecano Kits you may no longer want. The metal plates, screws, bolts and various pulleys teach much more than the hands-on practical skills of building; they offer access to a rarely used material for these kids and that fits perfectly into our cross-curricular engineering play-challenges.
Please drop off or send in your donations to Dorval Elementary c/o Le Lab @ 1750, avenue Carson, Dorval, QC, H9S 1N3
Thank you for helping your kids grow and learn.
The New Renaissance Mindset 