We know that budgets at afterschool programs, camps, and schools can be tight, which is why the materials needed to teach EiE’s engineering activities are “inexpensive by design.” Our curriculum designers try their best to require supplies that teachers can easily locate at their local craft or hardware stores. If you are short on time and looking for an inexpensive afterschool engineering activity with easy-to-source materials, don’t be discouraged—Go Green: Engineering Recycled Racers, one of our Engineering Adventures units, is the perfect activity for you!

Bringing engineering to your classroom can seem like a daunting task. Visions of a craft supply mountain and a textbook-sized teacher guide can make even the most seasoned teacher hesitate. Here at EiE, we know the importance of introducing engineering to students, but we don’t want teachers to see classroom engineering as a difficult or insurmountable burden. To ease the potentially stressful task of introducing a new subject, the Engineering is Elementary team has worked hard to create resources, guides, and charts that provide educators with everything they’ll need to choose an appropriate EiE unit and easily implement classroom engineering.

The EiE Professional Development Team works tirelessly to find innovative ways to make high-quality, affordable professional development accessible to educators all over the world. That’s why we’ve been so excited to roll out our new Online PD experiences. Over the past year, we’ve conducted webinars about habits of mind and engineering in out-of-school time, and we’ve had some amazing discussions with educators around the country about STEM integration and ELA connections. In March, we mentioned our brand new Online PD Scholarship on the blog, and we were blown away by the response! From the huge volume of applications, the Online PD team has pulled together an amazing team of dedicated educators to help us pilot test the very first online PD workshop series.

The EiE team works hard every day to produce curricula that will engage young learners and get them excited about engineering. We know that over 13 million children have engaged in EiE, and sometimes, we’re lucky enough to see their designs! We love when teachers find us on Twitter or Facebook, or email us to share their students’ creations with us. Today, we want to invite you to use our new hashtag for sharing student work—#EiEDesigns. And to celebrate, we’re spotlighting an EiE design that got the whole team excited: a very well-engineered plant package sent to us from an enterprising first-grade class!

The students in Jean Facchiano's fourth-grade class have spent the morning engineering their own models of permeable membranes, using ordinary kitchen supplies like sponges, coffee filters, and perforated aluminum foil. The goal is to design a system that lets water drip into a frog habitat, keeping the container slightly damp, not dry or flooded.

Each group of students has come up with their own unique system for controlling water flow into the habitat. Now, in the video below, the students present their results. It's not just a show-and-tell; it's a concise demonstration of elementary students starting to apply their systems-thinking skills.