Maya McFadden Photo
Martinez School students Jeremiah and Eddie float test class-built boat.
Third graders Jeremiah and Eddie each held one side of a handmade aluminum foil boat and prepared to fill it with pirate gold, as part of a hands-on science challenge.
They were two of a classroom full of third-grade students at John S. Martinez School at 100 James St. in Fair Haven to be tasked with designing their own pirate boat for a schoolwide science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) challenge.
Martinez School STEM teacher Alyssa Basso hosted the final day of October’s STEM challenge. She assigned her third-grade students that goal of building a treasure-toting boat for a fictional character named Pirate Pete who had gotten shipwrecked.
The students built boats from aluminum foil, plastic and Styrofoam cups, straws, and rubber bands to help the good pirate float his treasure home.
Basso, who has been teaching at Martinez School for six years and in the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district for a decade and a half, came up with the schoolwide challenge towards the end of last school year after learning that her colleagues were interested in leading more hands-on classroom instruction.
The monthly tasks are “solution driven,” Basso said. They allow students to learn, regardless of age, about scientific concepts that they can apply to real life.
The STEM challenges are also rooted in perseverance, relationship building, and patience, Basso said.
One day last week, students worked in pairs to build a boat and test out its strength by counting how many pennies it could carry while floating.
Throughout the class each boat was brought back to the drawing board to be improved and repaired. That allowed students to think critically about the materials they used and about scientific concepts like absorption, balance, and buoyancy.
Basso started the challenge in September and plans to continue the challenge monthly throughout the year to engage students in STEM while also offering support to those educators looking to learn firsthand how to do this same type of teaching in their own classrooms.
"I Need My Little Engineers Back!"
Basso led the students into the school’s library. Students filed in at around 1:30 p.m.
“Guys, I need my little engineers back!” Basso told the class as the students took their seats.
The group’s first task was to talk through the instructions for the challenge. Basso explained to the class that Pirate Pete was shipwrecked and needed the students’ help to build a new boat to carry his treasure home.
When asked what shipwrecked meant, students raised their hands with a thumbs up. They used words like “destroyed” and “broken” to explain what happened to Pete’s boat.
One student defined shipwrecked as “like Moana when the ship falls apart and gets taken away.”
Before sending the students off to begin brainstorming plans for their boat designs, she reminded them to focus on their goal, always work with their partners, and to never give up.
With tools like plastic wrap, tape, tulles, plastic bags, spoons, and popsicle sticks, each pair began talking through a design plan for their boats.
Basso and third-grade teacher Katie Landino-Mastrianni stopped by the tables to hear the students’ plans before giving them the green light to start building.
Basso asked the students thought-provoking questions about their plans and reminded them to consider the tools’ strength, flexibility, and ability to withstand the test of water.
“Do we want our boats to get water in them?” Basso asked.
“Yes, because the pirates can drink from it,” one students responded.
“No, because it will make the boat too heavy,” another answered.
Diva and Joelle add "treasure" to boat.
Classmates Diva and Joelle talked Landino-Mastrianni through their plan before building. Their design would be a big but thin boat to have space for Pirate Pete to sit and carry all his treasure, a flag for the wind, and a big rug to protect from any water that might enter.
The pair planned to use cups cut in half and taped together for the body of the boat and foil for the rug.
Other groups taped small spoons to their boats to equip Pirate Pete with paddles and a telescope made of a straw to see the islands coming up ahead.
After 15 minutes of building, students were encouraged to try their creations out with a first test.
Eddie and Jeremiah were the first pair to test out their newly built boat. They predicted their boat would be able to carry at least 1,000 pennies, aka treasure.
Jeremiah and Eddie used aluminum foil as the base of their boat and a straw flag taped at the center for “balance.”
“Why use the foil?” Basso asked for the students’ first test.
“Because it doesn’t get that wet like paper,” Eddie explained.
“It doesn’t suck up water that much,” Jeremiah added.
They further explained that they made the boat big to have room for more treasure and would use a plastic bag to carry their treasure to protect it.
Take 1: 50 Pennies ... & Sunk
Eddie and Jeremiah's aluminum boat.
Their first test was to see if their boat would float.
The group started with 10 pennies. When that held up, they continued adding pennies in increments of 10.
At around 40 pennies, the boat tipped slightly to its right. When they placed another 10 pennies in, the boat gave in and sank.
“Oh man!” they exclaimed. “We have to make it stronger!”
The two went back to the drawing board to decide how to do that.
Meanwhile, another group of third-graders reached 90 pennies on their boat and cheered in excitement. When trying to go for 100, that boat capsized.
Take 2: Styoforam, For The Win
Eddie and Jeremiah create new boat from scratch...
...then put their new boat to the test.
Jeremiah and Eddie decided that they would scrap their old boat and start fresh. They made a second boat out of styrofoam cups which they described as “light” and a “good water fighter.”
While testing their boats, many students gestured towards concepts like even distribution to explain why they didn’t place their pennies on only one side of the boat.
On a second try, Eddie and Jeremiah cleared 80 pennies with a new boat made of styrofoam cups wrapped in tin foil.
"The Vibe Is Electric"
Teacher Alyssa Basso.
Basso aims for the STEM challenges to be interdisciplinary so students can refer to concepts learned in other courses. Her lessons also focus on getting students socializing through play-based learning.
Last school year, Basso said the school experienced a significant pedagogical shift due to fear of spreading Covid. “We lost our whole experiential piece that was such a huge part of who we are,” she said.
Basso therefore hosted professional development for educators to get back into the flow of experiential and outdoor learning.
She recalled teachers telling her: “I don’t do enough with my kids anymore.”
As well as educating the students, Basso hosts the STEM challenge for the dual purpose of helping teachers better learn how to implement STEM and experiential learning in the classroom on a daily basis.
Basso does daily professional development throughout the school for teachers of all grades and subjects.
“It feels like we’re finally getting back to normalcy,” Basso said. “The vibe in the building is electric again.”