YES in Action: Classroom Stories & Tips from Real Educators

Tonight I have the honor of um having

three YES educators join us tonight. Um

folks who have taught YES in their

classrooms. They've got classroom

stories. They've got tips from real

educators. Um so we appreciate um you

being here and us kind of hearing from

some some different voices other than

ourselves. So, um, I will let them

introduce themselves in just a moment.

Um, but to get us started, um, I have

some goals for tonight's webinar. And

so, we're really hoping tonight that,

um, after you attend this webinar,

you'll discover some effective

strategies, uh, to prepare and

facilitate your own youth engineering

solutions um, experience um, and, uh,

learn from these educators who have

implemented many times. Um and then also

just to to hopefully recognize um the

lasting impact that these experiences

have on student engagement. So we'll

we'll uh talk about a few different

things tonight. Um so kind of go over

our goals or I'll give you a quick

overview of youth engineering solutions

if you're new to the program. Um but

then we will hear from our panelists

tonight. And so they'll be talking a

little bit about the units that they

teach, why they selected, why they're

they chose the units that they teach. Um

they'll share some tips and tricks about

managing materials and preparing some of

those materials. Um and also some

facilitation, how do they modify their

these youth engineering units um to work

best for them? Then share a little bit

about the impact that they have on

students. And then again, we'll have

some time for Q&A. So, um, as we go,

feel free to, um, write any questions

you have in the chat. So, I'll be

monitoring the chat. Um, I also have a

couple polls that I'll ask you to fill

out. So, the questions that I ask our

panelists, I'll also ask you, um, just

to get your input as well from the

audience. Um, so you can certainly add

any questions to the chat and then at

the end of the session, um, I will, you

know, feel free to raise your hand and I

can unmute you and you can ask

questions. um online as well. So um

so again just I'll give you a brief

overview if you're not familiar with

Youth Engineering Solutions. Um our

mission at Youth Engine Engineering

Solutions is to create the next

generation of problem solvers through

hands-on STEM learning. We are based out

of the Museum of Science in Boston. Um,

and we, you know, really work to empower

young learners through accessible and

standards aligned STEM, engineering,

computer science curricula in K through

8. So really, if you are an educator in

preschool through 8th grade, we have

free resources for you to implement um,

highquality engineering with your

students and computer science. Um

they're all free for download. So you

can visit our website at yes.mos.org

to explore some of these resources. We

were we are formerly known as EIE. So

we're backed by three decades of

research and leadership in STEM

education. And so we really are trying

to kind of shape our future problem

solvers and um help develop skills in

our students um so that they can tackle

these real world problems. And so our

general approach to how we uh work with

students and how we've designed our

curriculum, you can see our our

framework for engineering learning here,

but we really focus on building problem

solving habits, um collaboration and

persistence.

And our main goal is to really help

shape students identities as as being

STEM people, you know. We want them to

see themselves as engineer and really

deepen their their STEM identity by

engaging in engineering activities. Um,

and so all of our units are really

designed around these authentic real

world problems. So they engage with they

address these kinds of problems like we

uh they address the issue of plastic

pollution or declining bee populations

or keeping medicine coolers cool. So

they're all um introduced to a real

world problem and then through kind of a

five to nine lessons sequence depending

upon which unit you select students will

engage through we'll basically follow

the engineering design process to um try

and solve that real world authentic

problem. Um, so they'll explore, you

know, just what engineering is. They'll

think about the problem. They'll explore

materials. And then finally, after many

scaffolding lessons, hopefully feel

prepared to use what they've learned to

engineer um and design a solution to

that problem. Um, so there's a lot of

resources online. So I encourage you to

go online. You'll see student

engineering notebooks that guide our

exploration. And all of the materials

that we have that are studentf facing

are also available in both English and

Spanish. Um so that again is just kind

of a very very brief overview of what

our curriculum is really all about. Um I

would now like to you know hear from

educators who are who have implemented

our curriculum. So, um, we have three

amazing educators here with us tonight

and I really appreciate them taking the

time out of their busy schedules and

Anthony even stayed home from school

with a cold today. So, they they're

sick. Um, and they are busy and tired.

So, I appreciate them being here. Um,

and I'll let them introduce themselves.

So, Anthony, if you wanted to say hello

and share a little bit about yourself.

>> Thank you. Hi, everybody. My name is

Anthony Arno. Um, I taught fifth grade

for about 32 years in New Jersey and I

retired in 2019. Always had a love of

science and STEM, although earlier in my

career they didn't call it STEM. So

during the pandemic I went back to

school and became STEM endorsed in

Pennsylvania and now I'm teaching K to5

STEM at Willowdale Elementary School.

And you know, from the early days of EIE

to the current iteration of Yes, it is

an incredible program. And best of all,

like she said, it's all free. They used

to be for a fee, but you know,

incredible hands-on engineering that

kids really don't see at the elementary

level where they actually build stuff

and you don't need expensive materials.

It could be stuff like upcycled toys,

stuff that's being recycled. So, I'm

glad to be here. Thank you.

>> Thanks, Anthony. Michelle, you want to

say hello to everybody?

>> Hi, my name is Michelle Forbes. I'm from

Boston. Um, I teach at Bradley

Elementary School. Um, I teach K0 to

sixth grade. I teach a class called

innovation. Um, it's in addition to it's

a specialty, so it's in addition to kids

already receiving science between three

and um, five times a week. So, I get a

little more freedom. Um, so for me, um,

teaching, I teach a lot of engineering

standards, um, throughout the year, but

for me, the kits just fit right into

what I'm doing. Um, the hands-on

experiential learning is right where I'm

at, and the kids love it. It's great. We

have a lot of fun.

>> Michelle and Doug, would you like to say

hello and introduce yourself?

>> Good evening, everyone. Um, my name is

Doug Robertson. I am from Oxford, North

Carolina. I've been teaching for over 23

years. Uh being technology and

engineering, STEM, kind of a little bit

of everything. Uh my school is set up

where I can teach middle school and high

school at the time. And you know, we

have a what we call lower school. So a

lower school is K through six. And I

would like to kind of introduce them to

the YES program, which I have done um

previously. But I just want to create a

transition of this is it fits right into

I guess my pathway that I want to try to

create especially for the middle school

up to the high school. But looking at

the elementary which I see that the two

other teachers are doing elementary. I

think that's where we need to start and

and that's why I'm there. Um to start

that that learning with this project

based learning, collaborative learning.

that way when they get up to my high

school, they can benefit a little bit

more than what we're doing now. So,

hello.

>> Thanks, Doug. Appreciate it. Um, great.

Well, uh, let's let's dive in. I've got

some questions for the panelists. Um, I

also want to hear from you. So before I

kind of open it up, um our first kind of

topic for the evening um is for us to

think a little bit about um how did you

decide which yes units to implement?

What factors influence your um your

choices? So, I'm going to also open a

poll right now um that if you're online,

you can feel free to um share the kinds

of factors that you all from the

audience consider when choosing a yes or

or even just in general a hands-on

engineering unit. What what kind of

comes to mind when uh what do you think

about when choosing choosing a unit? So,

let's first hear from Anthony. I'd love

to hear about your units and what kind

of went into your process for for

choosing the units that you work with.

>> Thank you. Um I think the units are very

diverse. Some that you know even as an

adult you would never figure out with

engineering but everyday practical. Um

one of my favorite ones is assisted sock

devices where you have to create a

device that will put on a sock on your

foot if you cannot bend your leg. like

if you have a broken leg and it's always

a challenge because not every kid gets

it successfully.

Um but we look at it and see what could

we do differently and if if there's a

child there's a student in your

classroom who had has who had had a

broken leg, they can definitely relate

to this. whether it be their parent

helping them put their sock on or them

trying to put the sock on even though

their their leg is in a cast.

>> Nice. Thank you, Anthony. Um and Doug, I

know you also um have taught many of our

units. I don't wanted to see if you

wanted to share a little bit about um

how you use how you've selected your yes

units and and how you use them.

>> Okay. Um yes uh I've used these units

the alert systems

um at the elementary level um last year

for the first time and I just want to

introduce them of the way it was set up

that way they can see who I am um what

the curriculum was like and they just

need to do more hands-on my opinion um

so we don't have a STEM teacher at that

level so I took the initiative to go to

them doing my planning planning period

and it happens to be that I was

approached by yes to try this particular

module. I ran out of time but I've

learned a lot from it and I'm hoping to

do more with that with the elementary

but with the other two the landing pads

um we did a drone camp the year before I

believe and I just want to transition

into that module and just show the types

of things that drones are used in the

industry and that we have to look at how

to safely drop the package. And I I

figured that fit right in perfectly to

what we have at the school. I haven't

taught the drones in classroom yet, but

we starting to do a little bit more. Um

there's only about two other teacher

that can kind of teach the STEM area,

but I'm the main one. So, I had to kind

of fit what's best for the students and

and what I have available. And for this

program, the the Yes, with the landing

pads, it was great for the drones, the

earthquake resistant buildings, I show a

documentary

um called Dream Big. And in that

documentary, it has a particular feature

about earthquakes. And it show it tells

a story of an individual how she became

an engineer and why she did what she did

to to help her country survive

earthquakes. So I used that system with

that video to show the students look

this is what we can do. So with the

materials that the YES program had, it

just fit perfectly with that video and

the students can better understand

earthquakes because of course the US

have earthquakes as well and you know

North Carolina we have earthquakes too.

So I was trying to connect with that

particular um project.

>> Thank you Doug. Um I'll also just end

the poll. So, if you wanted to get your

last thoughts in, um, I'm going to end

the poll and we can actually see what

factors you all um, let me share the

results. So, um, it looks like many of

you, what's kind of the the biggest

thing, uh, really you're choosing units

based off of the availability of your

materials and the resources you have.

Um, looks like the time required to

teach and how complex some of these

units are. Um, alignment with

curriculum. So, um, looks like we're all

kind of thinking about similar things

when choosing units. Um, but yeah, thank

you for participating in that. Um, I'm

going to stop sharing the poll now and

um, introduce us to our next

um, topic here. So the other thing, you

know, thinking about materials and how

um you use them and um and think about

them in terms of implementing some of

the yes units. Um I thought it would be

a great time to ask our educators here

to think about the systems that you

found effective for preparing and

storing materials because hands-on

engineering, hands-on STEM, hands-on

anything um requires a lot of

organization and um and strategies for

managing some of those materials. So um

I do have a poll again. So while we're

hearing from the panelists um I can also

um want to learn from you all not just

about um material management but also

you know that may be a challenge for

you. What are some of the bigger

challenges you face when doing hands-on

engineering with students? Is it

materials? Is it the prep time? Is it

establishing those roles? So feel free

to answer some of those poll questions

while uh the panel and I talk about a

couple of questions related to um

storage systems and just facilitation

tips. So I will would love to pass it to

Michelle because she's she shared some

beautiful pictures and uh tips about um

how she handles some of that material

storage and preparation tips.

>> Thank you. I um I do teach on a cart. So

I push into all my classes K to six. Um

and as you can see in the for front of

this picture is just a bunch of

materials that I have collected over the

years. And way in the back I have these

nice neatly stacked containers of yes

units um all ready to go. um they're

much more um they're ve they stack very

well in comparison to my other materials

that I have mass. Um this is a

particularly messy day but

um yeah I just really find you know

moving from room to room you know has

its own challenges. Um, and the Yes

units, everything. I don't have to go

through all my kits to find what I need.

Everything's in one place and I can I

have a I'm lucky enough to have a prep

in the morning. So, I can take what I

need from the kit. I have a big tray and

I bring it up to my cart and I have it

all set for the day. Um, and usually I'm

teaching probably two classes out of one

kit. And I I just make sure that I have

all the printed materials and um

physical materials ready for the

students lab. But like I said,

everything is in one place, so I don't

have to go. I also have a storage shed

out in um our schoolyard and sometimes

I'm running there to get materials.

Sometimes I'm running just all over the

building. I just have stuff on each

floor. We don't have an elevator. So

maybe some of you guys can relate to

that. I'm not sure. Hopefully you guys

have nice big labs, but

um

>> yeah, great. Thank you, Michelle. Um

Doug, I didn't know if you had any tips

or tricks you have for keeping all your

materials in one spot or or how you

manage that.

>> Well, I'm not as organized as Michelle,

but um I I I do not have a lab. It's a

smaller classroom where I teach middle

school and high school together. So, but

I do have working tables that have

components underneath. And what I've

done with these materials is I just fill

up the trays with the supplies that my

students need. Um, because all my

classes use pretty much the same

materials all day. And to replenish, I

just build up year after year and just

fill up my trays. Sometimes I'll have an

empty table where I'll just put all the

other other materials on that and my

students just when it's time to get

materials to do their prototypes,

they'll go to the middle of the table,

pick what they need and take it back to

the their workstations. But um yeah,

it's a challenge with with materials and

always a budget is an issue. But you

know, most of the materials I use are

consumable. So, I just ask all the

teachers, "Do you have newspaper? Do you

have this? Do you have cardboard?" And I

I save cardboard throughout the year

because I know I'm going to use that.

Um, so when I do use the when I use the

yes modules, I just gather materials in

one location and say, "Okay, this is

what I have here." And at your tables,

you have the other supplies. So, it just

kind of it kind of blends in together.

Um, no, I don't have the all the

compartments yet, but that's in the near

future. Uh, we we are expanding to a

newer facility where I will have a a one

of those traditional labs where I have

more space and things. So, seeing

Michelle's

picture there, that's that gave me some

ideas on what I can do with my space.

So, I appreciate that.

>> Yeah, thank you for the picture,

Michelle. Um, and then Doug, we actually

have a follow-up question from our

previous um, comment. And uh,

Christopher is uh, wondering if you've

been able to adapt the units for high

schoolers at all.

>> I was just looking at that. I was

wondering how I would respond to it.

>> Um, like I said earlier, I want to

correct this pathway from the elementary

to middle school into high school.

I use this particular approach in the

high school. I have a curriculum that is

perfect fit with what the YES is

promoting with the engineering design

process. And in my class, I really

promote the documentation and following

the process. So the way the YES program

is set up with different lessons, it

follows the design process just like my

high school and the high school level. I

do a more advanced projects which they

learn through these systems here but in

my high school level they have to come

up with a problem to solve. They have to

come up with the solution and they have

to come up with the materials and and

build the prototype and test the

prototype and then showcase their

prototype. So it's it's a much bigger

aspect than using this yes approach. I

hope that makes sense.

>> Okay. Well, we'll hear we can feel free

to to add any other questions to the

chat. We'll take them as we can. Um but

thank you Doug for sharing that. Um

another thing I wanted to to touch upon

is not only material management, that's

one one component, but also just

teaching strategies and um facilitation.

So, um, I'll point to Michelle first to

just kind of share a little bit about

facilitation strategies she's found most

effective in supporting student learning

and then any kinds of modifications that

you've made to the curriculum so that it

better fits your students or your

teaching environment and I'll share some

of your pictures, Michelle, uh, so you

can refer to them as you as you share

some thoughts.

>> Thank you. Um I um for me I really do

find that one of the strategies

um that's very effective for supporting

a variety of learners is um having a lot

of visuals, you know, to teach to hit on

all the kind of learning modalities. And

I find that the kits are just filled

with visuals and

um tactile experiences and um you know

it's just a sensory they're exploring

materials and they're talking and

communicating

um collaboratively and um I really think

that getting kids to learn in this way

does take a little bit of a you know a

you have to really approach it from it

being like a totally new skill almost

like how do you talk to your partners?

How do you get up from your seat and get

materials and bring them back?

Especially at the younger age and um you

know we start out small as the year goes

on and then as the year grows they it

just becomes natural. Um some

modifications that I've made because

some classes I only see once a week. Um,

instead of doing individual worksheets,

we might do a worksheet as a whole

class. Um, I might break some of this,

um, material exploration down into

centers for the younger kids so that

they're rotating through different

centers. It's very engaging. Um, and

then they can get it done in one day.

Um, and I also oftentimes add on to the

visuals by having like a physical

reference for the kids to be able to um,

see. This is one I just recently made

>> um, for the um, eco slipper unit.

>> I hope that was helpful.

>> Yeah, that's great. Thank you so much,

Michelle. I appreciate you sharing that.

And yeah, that's I want to use that. Uh,

I love the eco-friendly slipper visuals.

So that's um that's it's beautiful. So

thank you. Um Anthony, I was hoping you

could share a little bit about um some

facilitation strategies and you can you

can speak to this. I don't want to

overwhelm folks with all these words. Um

but uh I was Anthony we had kind of

talked about your thoughts around uh

getting kids to think like engineers.

Well, yeah. You know, at the elementary

level, we the posters that the kids come

with have the five stages of the

engineering level. And I think it's

always interesting in that when we do

our gallery walk or the kids walk around

the room, they might copy something. And

these kids get so upset that other

people are copying from them. And I have

to stop the whole class and remind them

that's part of the engineering design

process. that in the real world

engineers they collaborate and they

share ideas and even though that's not

your group it's the group at the next

table you could take it and hopefully

make it better and then I'll usually

stop the class and ask them about a

popular invention whether it be the

telephone or something like a paper clip

knowing that the first telephone was

nothing like a smartphone. Um, and then

I actually have a little video clip I

play with Belle um, recording his voice

at like the Philadelphia World's Fair

and not a single student understands

what he had said until I say, you know,

hello, this is, you know, Belle. So

>> nice. Thank you, Anthony. Appreciate it.

Um,

all right. I'm going to end the poll.

what are some of the challenges that you

feel like um and you you think of when

thinking about engineering with students

and let me share some of the results. So

we shared some of the the tips and

thoughts that people have but that our

panelists have but um yes some of the

biggest challenges is this idea of

materials and limited space. So

hopefully those pictures from Michelle

kind of inspired you to find space and

to really keep it organized. Um that

prep time is is huge. Um, and then yeah,

I think just this idea of it looks like

another big one is adjusting pacing or

timing to fit class schedules. So just

even Doug, Anthony or Michelle, just

thinking about that adjusting pacing. So

um Michelle, you already alluded to the

fact that you know sometimes a whole um

a whole worksheet might be done as a

class. Um any do Anthony or Doug do you

facilitate the yes units exactly as

written like lesson one, lesson two,

lesson three or do you kind of adjust

the pacing to fit your schedules?

>> I probably follow the sequence and

especially the slides with the different

cartoons. I'll definitely include that.

Um I try not to make a heavy paper

trail. So if you're familiar with like a

digital book like book creator each kid

I might make a page you know just

reflect on what you did today instead of

having to collect from each class 20 or

24 papers where they're reflecting.

>> Mhm. And what I like about that is at

the end of the unit, the kids could take

a picture, whatever they did that worked

or didn't work, and very simple. It's in

digital format, so you could see the

beginning, the middle, and the end of

their design process, whether or not it

worked and what they would do

differently.

>> Oh, nice. Thank you. That's great. Doug,

anything to share on that?

>> Yes. Um, I I do follow the sequence. Um,

I I print out the engineering notebook

that that Yas puts out and um I group my

students together and they kind of work

together in the notebooks, but also it's

um I do combine some of the units,

especially when it comes to

um constructing, testing, and kind of

elaborating on it. I kind of do all that

together

>> and I kind of I let my students grow in

that aspect when they are creating their

module the prototype that they learning

the the process but also they want to

troubleshoot it. So I just kind of let

them go with it

>> for the last I guess couple unit uh

lessons in the unit. I just kind of let

them go. Then I I I pause them for a

minute. Then we talk about what they had

just done and then they record what they

witnessed and observe and just kind of

combine those together because yes the

the time in my class you know I only see

students

um twice a week so I'm on a AB schedule

a block schedule so I kind of have to

speed some things up. So, I find it

really, really good that if I combine

those particular lessons, I can get done

a whole lot quicker or on time. So,

that's what I do.

>> Nice. Thank you. Thanks for sharing. Um,

okay. I'm going to stop sharing the poll

results and, um, or did I show? Yes.

Okay, great. I shared them. Um, let's

now chat a little bit about

impact on students. So um

again just um we'll hear from our

panelists. What impacts have you seen

these yes engineering units have on your

students. I will also I just launched

another poll for folks to just from the

audience share a little bit about any

impacts you see yes and really any

hands-on engineering uh lessons have on

your students. Um so let's start with

Doug if you wouldn't mind just sharing

just some of the um impacts that you've

seen um on your students.

>> Well some of the impact I've seen you

know I I see a lot of different impacts

and I want my students to to do

something. So when they come in my

classroom I introduce of course myself

and and the class you know it's a STEM

class. We're going to do a lot of

projects here and there, but I also, you

know, I want them to learn some of the

background information just to

kind of FYI kind of situation and enable

to get them to know what they're going

to do with the project. Um, also I tell

them that you are applying these

concepts. You're just not sitting in a

math or science class lecturing because

90 minutes is a long time to sit there

and listen to our math teachers or our

science teachers or English especially.

So I kind of create that atmosphere in

my room is that you you going to do

something. Just give me 5 10 15 minutes

and you're going to do something for the

rest of the 45. And I do have students

that come in and say, I I'm not gonna be

an engineer. I don't I don't know how to

be an engineer. But I tell them,

everybody's an engineer because you can

problem solve. We're going to work

together collaboratively to come up with

this solution to the project. And you

know, I do have a good mixture of all

the the the different diversity in my

room. um females especially because you

know sometime you don't hear a lot of

females in that profession. So I just

tell them that you know we're gonna work

through this and to see them working

together and come up with different

ideas differently. That's what makes the

classroom work so well. And and I have

students just say I liked your class cuz

we we get we get to do different things.

We get to make things. We get to solve

problems. And and that's what it's about

is working together to solve problems.

And I I see a big impact from that. And

I tell them that it will benefit you in

your other classes because you have to

present in my class and I know you

struggle with presenting because I have

students come to me oneon-one. Mr.

Robertson, uh I don't speak out in front

of students or other people. I said,

it'll be okay. the things I want you to

do, you already know. It's very

informal.

Just just re elaborate what you done and

just tell me, focus on me and you'll be

fine. And I have students come back to

me after when they were in my high

school from this transition in the high

school level. They have come back to me

saying, "Thank you for that." because I

can now do those things and present and

talk about other things like like this

hands-on learning. So, um it's it's very

beneficial. So, that's the major impacts

I've seen.

>> Nice. Thank you, Doug. Appreciate it. Um

Michelle, actually, do you want to um

share some of your your thoughts?

So, I I just really think that overall

um getting kids to solve a problem

together um gives them

just opportunities that you can't teach

them I guess um in terms of you know

communicating and disagreeing with

somebody politely

>> and um

just thinking around manage like time

management

and the need to um

honestly just just have a conversation

with somebody that you're not friends

with, you know. Um and in the end you're

coming up with this genuine um you know

a prototype that the group has come up

with together and it really you just see

it in the kid's face. It's joy,

joy in science. And it's really um

something you can't get from, you know,

just sitting in front of a screen or

hearing about a a lesson or hearing

about um a great project that someone

did. They're really exploring really

wonderful concepts um in engineering,

math, science, technology. Um this

little girl here, I had her I have that

little arrow. She um you know started

young with the um that's the shelters

kit from the museum and you know they've

they're accustomed to the curriculum as

they grow with it and they just have so

much confidence and the language

um around engineering and they really

truly do start to see themselves as

engineers like I'm an engineer Miss

Forbes and I'm like yes you are. Yes of

course. Um, it's it's it's it's a joy

for me to teach. I love teaching it. I

if I had to teach something else, I

would be very sad. Um, and these kits

just really help to set up a really um

intuitive structure to teaching it. Um,

so I just the kids love it. I love it.

>> Nice. Thank you, Michelle. And Anthony,

any thoughts from you? like how do what

have you seen on your the impact on your

students?

>> Well, my building uh I've been there

about 3 years and prior to that they

didn't have any type of STEM experience.

It was a computer science lab. But I

always get a kick out of when you ask

the uh the kids what is an engineer and

either they'll say they fix things or

they build things or an engineer builds

bridges. Whereas when we're in class and

we're promoting the ideas behind yes and

eie engineers solve problems and it

could be something like another favorite

one of mine is the rescue shuttles which

is basically using like a stomp rocket

but there's a target we're trying to get

that might be 40 ft down the hallway and

imagine if you were working with a fire

department and you're trying to throw a

rope to somebody out on the ice or in a

lake that it needs quick uh attention.

So I think over time and through the

past two or three years of my building,

my kids, especially the older kids, know

that engineers solve problems. So

>> nice. Thank you, Anthony. Appreciate

that. Um, okay. I'm going to end the

poll in a moment for you to just um

share a little bit about the impacts

you've seen that Yes. or any other

hands-on engineering uh lessons you've

seen on your students. So, um, let me

end the poll there and share the

results. So, I see a little bit of, um,

just this increased engagement and

enthusiasm for STEM. Um, a couple people

here haven't implemented yes, which is

totally fine. So, I'm happy you're here.

Hopefully, you can feel a little

inspired from our folks here today. Um,

but we also see um, kids uh, who have

stronger perseverance or greater

collaboration. So, thank you for sharing

your thoughts um, from the audience as

well.

Um I'll stop sharing these results and

uh before uh we kind of wrap up. I just

want to and and open it up for some

questions um from our panel here. I

asked a couple of targeted questions,

but now is the time to uh any final

thoughts or practical tips? It does look

like we have quite a few people who have

never taught yes here before. Um so

they're not sure how uh this might

impact their students. So any thoughts

that you might want to share? Um, and

Michelle, I know you you have a thought,

so I'll let you go first and then

anybody else, uh, Anthony or Doug, you

can chime in as well.

>> Um, so my big thought was that, um, it

is, you know, and I kind of alluded to

this earlier about, you know, getting

the class out out of their seats and

talking to people they're not

necessarily friends with and working on

something they don't they might not feel

totally confident in. um it's you know

can be a little challenging

um if you don't approach it you know go

over expectations explicitly. So I

always find that like starting out small

and then working up to bigger projects

is really helpful especially around the

younger grades like talking about roles

during group work. Who's going to do

what jobs? Um how are we going to move

around the room?

um how are we going to get materials? Um

and just really setting clear

expectations. And if you're anxious or

nervous about kind of getting kids you

doing hands-on projects, it really maybe

like honestly just start out small with

um I don't know even if you're just

doing a cup tower or the museum has

great like the bent there's like a

couple mini little hands-on lessons

where you can just get your feet wet and

see how the kids um you'll see how much

they like it actually I think is what it

is is like you will be you'll be nervous

to implement it and then you'll see that

their brains are going and they're

talking and they're problem solving and

it's just um starting I guess my

wrapping up my final thought is that

just start out small if you're anxious

about starting out with a big kit and

then work towards um setting clear

expectations around group work and then

you know once you have the kit it really

helps to guide you um to really bigger

um ideas for the kids bigger or

prototypes. Um it's it's a lot of um

fun.

>> Thank you, Michelle. Appreciate that.

Anthony or Doug, any other final helpful

tips or final thoughts that you didn't

get a chance to share?

>> Just that again, you know, the Yes

website has older resources. And then

they even have a YouTube channel. Maybe

you can talk more about that. You could

actually see a lot of these lessons in

action in classrooms and it'll help you,

you know, plan ahead like what problem

did this teacher have or what problem

did they have? But the you could

download the teacher guides, they have

the slides, all the cartoons, they have

color pictures for the materials to show

the kids this is what we have available

on the table to try and solve your

problem. So,

>> yeah, thanks for bringing that up,

Anthony. Sorry, Doug. I'll get to you in

a moment, but we we do have a whole

webinar on how to get started. So,

there's a recording um that I can share

in the chat in a moment of uh just the

the link to last month's just getting

started and sharing all those resources

and how-to videos. So, thank you for

bringing that up, Anthony. Sorry, Doug.

Go ahead.

>> No, uh thank you. Um I agree with

Anthony Michelle that great tips when

you first starting with this particular

module with the Yes. Um, just to be

short with it, you know, is it's kind of

a it's organized chaos. Um, but I my

suggestion is to start like Michelle was

saying, slow, follow the path of the

curriculum. But when you get to that

point where you going, it's it's going

to be chaos with all the materials going

out with all the students talking among

each other, but if they're not

discussing

the solution on how to do something, I

to me they're not really learning. But

if you stick with

>> the process,

>> then you'll be fine. Um, I've done this

and I' I stay with the process of the of

the document and it it works well. But

yes, it's going to be some some

challenges for yourself, but you know,

it's it's what it's about is it's about

them getting together and learning what

to do and how to solve these problems.

So, just just follow the process and

it'll be fine.

Thank you. Um, yeah, I appreciate I

appreciate your thoughts and um, just

your experiences. It's always nice and

feels a little comforting to to know

that other people are out there doing

this and trying these things with with

students. Um, so I have one last poll

that I just launched. Um, I'd like you

to just share your thanks. Um, so was

there a piece of information you found

really useful? um uh you can just fill

in the blank on this poll here just to

share something that you um took away or

your appreciation for some of the

thoughts that um Doug and Anthony and

Michelle shared today. And then also um

you can I'll just open it up for a Q&A

here. Um, feel free to either raise your

hand um and I can unmute you so you can

ask your question or you can share a

question in the chat. I know um

Christopher already asked a question.

And if anybody has any other questions

to ask these uh veteran yes teachers um

who have who've done it uh please feel

free to unmute oh so raise your hand or

type it into the chat and we can answer

some of them.

And while we're kind of waiting for any

folks to do that, I also

just want to share, you know, folks were

alluding to, you know, all the great

resources we have online. So, we if you

have any questions whatsoever, we are

happy to to answer them. um whether

they're general kit and ordering

questions, you can reach out to yes at

MOOS professional learning questions and

the team. I think I forgot to introduce

myself. My name is Shannon Mcmanis. I'm

the director of professional learning.

So you can reach out to this email and I

can help you with any professional

learning questions, any sales. And then

also you'll learn a lot about all of our

resources if you sign up for our

newsletter here. And it looks like we do

have a question here. Does anybody have

recommendations for grants to get kits?

So, any thoughts on funding or grants

that you might be able to use to get

some of the kits?

>> Depending on your district, if your

district has like an educational

foundation, um, our district has one and

the grants are usually $500.

And just like I said earlier, the

resources are free, the printed

material, the virt the digital material,

but if you choose not to p purchase the

materials on your own, you could buy a

completed kit. And um I don't know,

Shannon, what's the average price of the

completed kit? Maybe $250, $300.

>> Yeah, 200, 300 might be average. I think

the middle school ones are a little bit

more expensive, but um yeah,

>> but I have to say, you know, me being a

little bit frugal, there's nothing I've

ever taught in this these Yes. units

that you cannot purchase like locally at

the dollar store or Walmart or Lowe's.

So, but having a kit, it helps. You

know, I have one or two kits that

everything is right there in the tub,

the printed material and all the

resources. So,

>> yeah.

Any other thoughts in terms of funding?

>> I definitely crowdsource my parents. Um

maybe if you're at a private school, you

might do that already. Um

I,

you know, there's a lot of reusable

items in the kit, but you know, a lot of

consumables as well. So, like Anthony

said, Dollar Tree, I pick stuff up

around the house. A lot of cardboard.

Um, there are some things that might be

an Amazon purchase. I It's not anything

that parents that I've asked at my

school and if I've put out like a

newsletter and ask for them, they're

happy to give. Sometimes it's just stuff

they have at home. Um, but I don't

really know anything specific in terms

of grants. Um, I'm sorry. I wish it

could be more helpful.

>> Yeah, I'm Same with Michelle and

Anthony. You know, we do have grants

here, but I do rely on my parents. I'll

I'll put up an Amazon list, wish list of

all the different types of materials

that I need for these particular units

or just things in general for my class

cuz like I mentioned earlier, we do a

lot of things with consumables. So, I go

through a lot of different stuff. So,

I'll just beginning the year maybe

mention, hey, we need these particular

items that you may have at home. Um,

paper towel holders or bottle tops, pill

bottles, or whatever, and my parents

would bring them in to me. So,

>> thank you. Thanks, Doug. It looks like

um we have another uh point here. Garage

sales and flea markets are good places

to find things. um you can get free

items by just saying you work with kids.

So um those are some thoughts too. We

you know you can also you know reach out

to us. We don't have you know very many

funding opportunities. We have some for

public school educators in Massachusetts

because that's where we are. But we um

you know if if uh you're we're welcome

to are happy to work with you uh to try

and support um or help find grants and

things like that. So feel free to please

reach out to us too if you're um looking

for for any supports and that side as

well. Um I will I will go back to those

contact uh the emails as well so you can

get those again. But um I do just want

to highlight that we do have another

webinar you know. So, every month we

have a free uh webinar, same time um

every it's not not same time, same

evening, but it's always from 7 to 8.

And next month on um November 13th, we

have our new um we're releasing our new

career exploration resources, which is

really very exciting. Um I've been

waiting uh all year for this. Uh it's uh

the webinar is called engineering

futures connecting youth to real world

careers and you'll get an overview of

the new resources that um are aligned

with our um our yes enrichment units.

And so they're um kind of extra um

supplemental lessons that support um

students in exploring various career

options, not necessarily just

engineering options, but thinking about

that same hands-on challenge that they

experienced with the engineering unit,

but now, you know, looking at it from

the perspective of the day in the life

of a biomedical engineer or um there's

also like little quizzes that they can

take um and a variety of other

resources. So, you'll learn about those

um next month on November 13th. You can

click that uh uh use that link to

register or use the QR code to register.