Naomi Meredith  00:00

Today, I have my very first guest here on the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. We are talking with Jen Sevy, a K through Five STEM teacher in Colorado. She is going to be sharing with you how she used the Engineering Design Process with her students' design challenges in a day. You're going to love her creative ideas for how she taught these quick one-day lessons that are perfect if you see students once a week or if you need an extra boost in your sub plans. Can't wait for you to hear this interview!  

Naomi Meredith  00:40

I am so excited to have our first guest here on the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I'm being so mindful of the people I'm having on the show to talk about their experiences, and I know that you'll love hearing what Jen has to say. I definitely have a growing list of guests that I would love to have on the show, so this is an exciting step here on the podcast. You are the very first guest here, so this is so monumental. I've known Jen for about five years, and her school is only five minutes away from mine. The students from both of our schools feed into the same middle school and high school. I've had the pleasure of being on her STEM virtual PLC over the years, and she's definitely been a great help to me, especially when I was leaving the classroom and then transitioning into this new to me district and STEM. So I'm so excited to have you here today, Jen.

Jen Sevy  01:56

Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's exciting.

Naomi Meredith  01:59

Yeah, you're so sweet. Well, I know you, and I'll probably learn more when you introduce yourself. I know your position has evolved a lot as an educator, so just tell us about yourself, what your role has been in the past and what you teach now.

Jen Sevy  02:16

Sure. Well, I started out as a classroom teacher. I taught third grade for eight years, and then I decided to go back to get my master's. I knew I wanted to do something outside the scope of just a normal classroom, so I went ahead and got my master's in educational technology integration. I did that from Boise State, almost actually 10 years ago. While I was working on my master's, our principal was looking for somebody to take over the role of the technology specialist to teach technology as a specialist. She asked me to do it, and I was hesitant at first because I was really nervous to leave the classroom. She had to ask me twice, and I finally said yes. The second time she came back asking, at first, I said no, because I just was really, really unsure about doing it. But it turned out to be a great decision.  I taught technology separate from STEM. We actually had five specials at that time, so we had tech and STEM as separate things. But I had always worked with the STEM teacher pretty closely. We did a lot of projects, we kind of partnered up as this, we shared students, and they would see me and then see her, so that was great. Then a couple of years went by, and we ended up getting a bunch of money as a district as you know that we got to redesign our classrooms with these innovation spaces. So I got to sit on the committee that redid the building, and I was then moved into this amazing new space. It was right at the time when our school was shrinking a little bit, and we decided to combine STEM and technology into one specials.  So at that point, the teacher who had been teaching STEM, she and I kind of job shared. So she taught STEM for third through fifth, and I taught STEM for K through two. Then we were actually both instructional coaches, and we did that for a year or two. She ended up going back to the classroom, and I took over STEM full-time. So now I teach STEM K through five. I see kids for a week at a time, 45 minutes a day, and I love it. This is my third year teaching STEM. My first year full time doing it was during COVID, which was crazy. But yeah, now we're back to normal, and life is good. It's a good time in the STEM classroom.

Naomi Meredith  04:30

I love how you have all these different experiences because I feel like all your experiences are similar to those in the STEM space. I know people who teach STEM full time, do coaching, or are technology teachers who want to do part of STEM. I feel like you have such a well-rounded experience when it comes to your teaching and being in the classroom, which helps so much, too, so you can see all the perspectives.

Jen Sevy  04:55

Yeah, for sure. I never pictured myself here when I decided to be a teacher. I thought I'd be in the classroom until I retired. I'm so glad that my educational journey has taken me this way because it's super fun.

Naomi Meredith  05:07

Was that a hard transition to get into STEM from Tech? Or was it easy for you?

Jen Sevy  05:14

It was easier moving from tech to STEM than it was from the classroom to technology. I think, just because I really got used to looking at what we were doing more as like a project-based, and you know, shorter time periods. A  lot of what I did in tech was similar in that I did use Engineering Design Process already. Just the projects were completely computer-based when I was doing that.

Naomi Meredith  05:40

Well, it shows that you're a really good teacher because you can literally teach anything, Jen.

Jen Sevy  05:45

I don't know about that. But sure, we'll go with that.

Naomi Meredith  05:47

Yeah, you could teach anything. So when I was in your classroom a couple of weeks ago, we hosted a little training together, which was so sweet, and it was so fun. But you had hula hoops hanging from your ceiling. I know everybody was asking you about the hula hoops. You were starting to explain to me that you had these Engineering Design Process sprints, and I was like, “I need to have you on this podcast.” I think teachers are going to love hearing about this, whether they teach STEM five days a week or once a week. So you have to tell us all about these. Where did you get the idea? Why are you doing this? Like, tell us all about it because I'm so obsessed.

Jen Sevy  06:32

Well, actually, it kind of happened, as I like to tell my students, from a failure that I think I had last year. I had been planning all these great activities and units for my fourth graders. It was almost halfway through the school year, and I was like, “Oh my goodness, like we have been doing a lot of computer-based stuff,” which, as we just talked about, is my background. When we were in COVID, it was I didn't do a whole lot of the hands-on because we couldn't share materials. It was a lot of computer-based stuff, so I was kind of kicking myself. I'm like, “How are my fourth graders, they've been on the computer a ton?” So I was very intentional about “Okay, we are going to start off the year with zero tech. It's going to be all hands-on, simple materials. What can that look like?”  At the same time, last year, I also focused on the Engineering Design Process, majorly. My main professional goal for the year was to get kids interested in and understand the different steps of the Engineering Design Process. So funny enough, in talking to our PE teacher at my school, we were sharing ideas. She was like, “If you want the kids to learn this process, you should write a song or like a chant or something that would be catchy that they could really, you know, grab a hold of.” I was like, love the idea. Also, I'm sure someone else has already done that. So I went online, and I found this amazing guy named Baba Bomani. He has written this song, it's Engineering Design Process. It's a rap. It's super catchy and super cute.  He goes through all the steps of the Engineering Design Process. I was even more excited when I saw that he had done a music video for it with a class full of students. They have a little dance that goes with it. So for each step of the design process, there's a little dance move that goes with it. So I started teaching that to all my classes last year. I'm like, okay, so this year, we're going to do a hybrid year: I'm going to start out, we're going to remind ourselves every day, for a week, when kids would come in, we would start out with the song and doing the little dance moves with it, which they love and is so fun. Then so, what I did was I'm calling the unit design challenge in a day. Each day we would work through all of the steps of the design process at a rapid pace, just super quick, and they would have a simple challenge that they'd have to work through.  They'd have to go through all the steps of thinking, you know, here's my challenge, here's my question, and I'm going to imagine it and plan it out. I'm going to create it, test it and then improve it. It turned out really cool. The Hula Hoops were a major talking point. All the kids in every grade were like, “What's up with the hula hoops hanging from the ceiling?” I told them it's for fourth grade, which then kids are like, oh, you know, I'm not in fourth grade yet. Or, dang it, we didn't do that last year when I was in fourth grade. It was pretty cute. But the hula hoops were one of the one-day design challenges, and it was building a paper airplane that you could toss through the hula hoop from eight feet away was ultimately the challenge. 

Naomi Meredith  09:39

Oh, yeah, that's far. 

Jen Sevy  09:40

Yeah, well, it actually is far. I was testing it, of course, because I'm like, can I even do this? I marked spots on the floor. So the first one was about three feet out. The second one was eight feet, and then the last one was about 11 feet. The kids would stand at the markers, and they started the three feet, and if they could successfully throw it through, then they would back up. The middle marker was our eight feet, so that was ultimately the goal. If they could do that, then they would back up, which was fun. But it was really neat. Some kids had built paper airplanes before, and some hadn't. So they could either test out their own idea or build something they've done. I also let them get out the iPad, and they could search for different design ideas on the iPad, which was really cool. It was chaotic and crazy but so much fun. You've never seen kids so excited to go back and improve their design than when their paper planes didn't go through the hula hoop. They couldn't wait to go back and fix it up.

Naomi Meredith  10:35

Did they try different types of paper, or did they have a specific kind? Like, are they testing how different papers flew?

Jen Sevy  10:42

No, they didn't. Actually, now that you say that, that's a really good idea. I just had regular old plain copy paper. But that's a really cool idea to test out like construction paper. Yeah. I'll put that on my list for next year because that'd be a really great question to see if they could figure out which kind of paper flew best.

Naomi Meredith  11:01

I tried paper airplanes during COVID. There was a class that went remote last minute, and I thought, well, yeah, paper airplanes. Oh, it was so chaotic online. I, like, physically couldn't help them, and I felt so bad. Like, this is too hard. I'm like, It's okay, guys. Keep going. I don't know what else to say. You're online, I'm here. You're there. I don't know. So that's great you could do that in person with the kids.

Jen Sevy  11:25

For sure. For sure. It's crazy the things you don't think about that they need direct instruction on, like how to make a tight crease on paper, right? things pop up, and you have to be ready. 

Naomi Meredith  11:34

Like a life skill? 

Jen Sevy  11:36

For sure. 

Naomi Meredith  11:38

Did each grade each day have different challenges? Or did you overlap any of them? Or did you do something different?

Jen Sevy  11:48

Yeah, so it was just fourth grade that worked their way through this. The other grades were still doing Engineering Design Process stuff, but the design sprints were just for fourth grade. The fifth graders, I felt like, had a pretty good handle on it. Plus, I was starting out with 3D printing for them just for ease of getting things printed throughout the year. I did focus on the Engineering Design Process with every grade. So every grade did start out with their little song and dance each day. The fourth grade I just focused on primarily because I wanted to be very intentional, knowing that I felt like that was an area that I had lacked in the year before, and wanting to make sure I'm super intentional with fourth grade getting hands-on and building things. So each day, fourth grade had a different challenge.

Naomi Meredith  12:28

Okay, so they had airplanes. Then what were the other ones that they did?

Jen Sevy  12:34

One day, they started out with paper airplanes. There was a day when they got to come in and build a building using only paper and masking tape that had to withstand a fan being blown directly on it. That one was hilarious, and really, it was cool. The things that popped up were great because the conversations we had, I think, really helped with some critical thinking because there were some groups that were building things. Other groups were like, well, that's not a building. Like that's just a pile of paper all balled up. Right. So then we had to get into what defines a building in this situation. They had one that was to build the longest paper chain, you know, when you cut strips, yeah, and loop them together, the longest paper chain using only a single sheet of construction paper.  That was one of my other favorites because while the paper planes were an individual activity, this was a group effort. I made sure to focus on that as it was more collaborative. It was really cool to watch the kids have to figure out what everyone's role would be. They were like, “You're going to be the cutter, you're going to be the taper, I'm going to be like in charge of the wall, or whatever they would do.” So the collaboration and the strategies they developed were really cool to see. I would always give them the planning part was really fast. It wasn't anything that was in-depth every day because we didn't have a ton of time. Most days, the planning phase was just, I'm going to set a timer for three minutes, and you're going to talk to the people in your group that whole time. What's your strategy, come up with your plan. So yeah, so that was when we also did cup stacking. They had 20 plastic cups, and they had to build the tallest tower that they could. So a little bit of friendly competition there with that one and the paper chain. So that was pretty fun.

Naomi Meredith  14:21

I love that. Those are really good. In a way, you were probably teaching the four C's along with the engineering design. So you really had a creativity day with the buildings like maybe let's go, here's what a building could look like. That's a little bit of a two, like, buildings can look ugly, but if they are more beautiful, people really like them. 

Jen Sevy  14:43

Exactly. 

Naomi Meredith  14:45

So you really had a lot of those four C's. And I love how you talked about planning and how you had kids talk about planning because I think teachers think planning always has to be drawing and labeling, which is important, but it just depends on the day. I actually talked about that in one of our past episodes. It's all about planning for the engineering design. I definitely have done that, like kids talking through it and verbalizing because that's an important skill. Also, being able to articulate your thoughts, and you might not have paper in front of you. So figuring out how you can explain it in a way that would make sense. So that's really good that you did that with your kids.

Jen Sevy  15:22

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, it turned out really well. It's really neat to see, especially again, coming back from COVID. I don't know if you've noticed this, but one thing I've seen with my students for sure is they're struggling a little bit to be able to collaborate and work together. I mean, give direct instructions on how to work with a partner, like this is how you take turns, this is how, when there's a disagreement, how you can talk it out and figure out, you know, how you're going to move forward. So it was good to have them working in groups like that, where they get that practice.

Naomi Meredith  15:55

Oh, yeah, we're definitely like, we teach all these cool skills, but really STEM, when it comes down to it, we're all about those soft skills. The tools are going to change. You used paper and tape, and the kids were super engaged. But really, they're working on, like, the skills that are going to carry them throughout life. I have seen the same thing, like being very intentional about how to talk to each other and what is appropriate and not appropriate. Like, we don't just say, “Help me, help me help me.” Explain what you specifically need help with. So yeah, all those communication skills are so important, especially when they're face-to-face. It's like, whoa, so much happened, like, the past couple of years? Like, I'm so glad you're at school because we can definitely work through these things together.

Jen Sevy  16:38

Right? Exactly, exactly. I was gonna say the competition aspect of it led to a lot of good reflections from kids too. When we did the paper chain, there was a clear winner there, with one of those chains being longer than everyone else's. It was still great to honor everyone's process and talk through their process. Each group would share individually what they did that they found worked well and what possibly hindered their progress. It was neat to see that and, honestly, having a table group that had been the quote winners. It was neat to see everybody really listen to that table. I feel like more than anybody else. In the end, they were willing to hear it.  Instead of telling the other groups who lost that they got the wrong answer and trying to show them the correct way to do it.  The winning group shared the strategies that their group used that worked really well for them. So it was awesome to see the respect and the other groups listening to them.

Naomi Meredith  17:35

That's really good. We're any kids frustrated since the time was shorter? Were there any kids complaining about not getting enough time? Or were they okay with it? 

Jen Sevy  17:45

They were okay with it. Most days with the paper chains, I think I gave them about 20 minutes, which is a long time. But most groups still could have produced more after that time. I'm also famous for putting up a timer on our projector. I just will go to YouTube and type in 20-minute timer, and there are crazy timers out there. There are some that look like little bombs going to explode when the timer goes off. Some of them are happy and cheerful. I always put one up on my whiteboard, and it's huge. So there's no question that they know exactly how much time they have left. That really kind of put a kibosh on anyone saying they need more time. I never got any of that because they knew exactly how much time they had the entire time.

Naomi Meredith  18:27

Okay, good. Because yeah, I get kids who I use a timer with also. When I tell them it's clean-up time, I still get kids that say they need more time. I remind them that they have to leave and they're not here forever. My favorite timer is Classroom Screen. Have you used Classroom Screen?

Jen Sevy  18:43

You showed that to me last year! Yes, I have used that where you can have it on there at the same time, right?

Naomi Meredith  18:49

Yeah. I get scared of the YouTube ones because sometimes I don't personally like the sound. I get scared. Oh my gosh, I'm like really startled, and then the kids start laughing at me.

Jen Sevy  19:03

I learned which ones have crazy alarms at the end. I usually will run up to the computer and pause it right when it has one second left. So they know, but then there hasn't been some crazy siren blaring because nobody likes that.

Naomi Meredith  19:17

So how did you get the ideas for these challenges? Were there specific resources you used? Or were they lessons you've done in the past that you pulled out? Because these would make good STEM sub plants for teachers, too, if they're looking for things to do in a day.

Jen Sevy  19:31

That's actually a really good point. I hadn't thought about that either, making it a little emergency binder or folder to pull from. Every teacher should have an emergency binder or folder they can pull out when something happens, and they don't have the capacity to write those awesome plans. No, I actually just went online, searched around for some ideas, and then modified some of the ones that were there. I also looked for ideas using materials that I had plenty of on hand because some of them would be there. They were simple and required basic materials like paper, tape, and plastic cups. 

Naomi Meredith  20:07

I think that's so good for the kids to see that you can create complicated things out of very limited materials, which is such a good way to start off the year because it's not all robots or coding. You can use paper, tape, and glue to create a giant chain.

Jen Sevy  20:26

Right? Yep, absolutely. It was cool to see. I mean, again, back to those little skills like the folding of paper. I have perfected the art of teaching children how to tear tape because they would say, “Well, we get paper and tape, what about scissors?” I would say, “Those aren't on our supply list.” They would respond, “Well, how are we supposed to cut the tape?” And I'm like, “You're not. You're supposed to tear it.” So I have completely perfected how to if you ever need advice on how to teach kids to tear tape. I'm your girl.

Naomi Meredith  20:52

What do you say? Yeah, what do you say to that? What's your advice? You're leaving me hanging.

Jen Sevy  20:57

I know, right? You pinch it with both hands. Then, after you're pinching it, one hand goes forward, one hand goes backward, done. I mean, as long as it's masking tape, it'll rip easily. So even practicing in the air, one hand goes forward, and one hand goes backward.

Naomi Meredith  21:14

Okay, I'm gonna use that.

Jen Sevy  21:18

I mean, it's a silly thing, right? But it really can be cumbersome with kids trying to use tape when they're trying to cut it, and it's getting all stuck and all over. I mean, it's those quick little things that make life more manageable for sure. 

Naomi Meredith  21:30

Yeah, it's good. It's good all these things. I love all of this, and all the little skills that you're teaching kids it is so, so applicable. I know teachers are going to be so excited to try at least one, if not all, of these challenges. We'll definitely have to make sure to link these challenges in the show notes for teachers or list out the ideas so they can definitely do that in their classroom. I appreciate you being here so much. Where can people connect with you if they have any questions? Can they send you an email? Where would you like them to reach out?

Jen Sevy  22:02

Yeah, email is probably the best for sure. My email is jsevy@cherrycreekschools.org.

Naomi Meredith  22:12

Perfect. We'll link that for people as well. So if they're driving, they don't have to scramble and write that down. But thank you so much for your time. You're our great first guest, the first ever on the podcast. So this was monumental. 

Jen Sevy  22:28

Yeah. Well, thanks for having me.

Naomi Meredith  22:30

Yes, of course. We'll have to have you back because you're full of ideas, and I could just talk to you all day. Well, thank you so much again, and I'll chat with you soon.