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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Bits ‘n’ Pieces: STEM, art students team to make night lights

By , Columbian Staff Writer
Published:
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View Ridge students teamed on light-up sculptures, such as a monster, an &quot;Aladdin&quot;-inspired lamp and a replica Daft Punk helmet.
View Ridge students teamed on light-up sculptures, such as a monster, an "Aladdin"-inspired lamp and a replica Daft Punk helmet. Photo Gallery

View Ridge Middle School teachers Michelle Hankins, Sheila Davis and Tylor Hankins met over the summer to discuss possible collaborative projects, and one idea clicked with all three like a — well — like a light bulb going on.

Michelle Hankins, an art teacher at View Ridge, was looking to have her students sculpt clay lamps. Davis and Tylor Hankins, both science, technology, engineering and math teachers, already had a unit where students created night lights as part of their Project Lead the Way STEM curriculum.

“Together, we thought that adding the night lights to the clay projects would be a natural connection that would make the design challenge relevant and get the students excited in both classes,” Michelle Hankins said.

The project involved most of the school’s eighth-graders, as 150 art students researched, designed, engineered and created their clay night lights in the art room. The art students then sent a night light order form to STEM 2 classes. About 90 STEM students worked in groups to make the circuitry and test the lights before sending them back to the art students. Roughly 75 students worked on both sides of the project, Michelle Hankins said. In total, 150 lamps were made.

The designs included a lamp inspired by “Aladdin,” a blue monster whose mouth glows orange and a replica of helmets worn by members of the band Daft Punk.

The project used fiber-optic lights, which Davis suggested based on a field trip she took with the school counselor and a group of female students to the Women in Trades Conference last year in Portland.

The idea to work together came from View Ridge Principal Chris Griffith and Ridgefield School District Assistant Superintendent Patsy Boles, who gave departments time to collaborate with the intent of working STEM into other curriculums.

“The importance of projects like these begins with showing the students how learning in one subject area directly relates to and impacts the learning in other areas,” Tylor Hankins said. “Any time a student can apply what they learn in one area to a project they do in another, we believe their benefit is greater.”

Other departments at View Ridge are also working STEM teaching into projects. Math 2 students designed an American Disabilities Act-approved wheelchair ramp, and Math 3 students are doing a unit on scale that incorporates Lego architecture, and will result in constructing models of buildings in Ridgefield. Science classes are going to incorporate an earthquake bridge design project into their geology unit, as well.

While all students at View Ridge have to take STEM in either seventh or eighth grade, teachers are looking to show students how STEM ideas can pop up not just in other classes, but outside of the classroom as well.

“This project also brought many real world experiences to students which incorporated several occupations such as electrical engineering, manufacturing, industrial design and fine art,” Davis said.

“We truly believe that students benefit from being able to apply their learning, which is what STEM is all about.”


Bits ‘n’ Pieces appears Fridays and Saturdays. If you have a story you’d like to share, email bits@columbian.com

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Columbian Staff Writer