Period: 13 – 14.04.2022

prof. Cateluța Enciu, Galați, Romania

Sports, movement, levers, locomotor system – ingredients for a successful STEAM activity developed in two schools from Galați, Romania (Școala Gimnazială Nr. 33 Galați and Școala Gimnazială Sfinții Împărați Galați)

Preparation: 2 weeks for preparing projects (establish teams, gather information, team work at home, in the classroom and on the school sport field), 4 hours for evaluation of the projects

Actors: 6 teachers, 60 students

Goal: through a STE(A)M interdisciplinary approach, students understand the role of locomotor system in integration of the organism in the environment through movement.

Objectives:

• To recognize and name components of locomotor system (muscle, bones, ligaments)·         To explain the concept of levers in the human body (types of levers, components)
• To underline advantages of levers in human body

STEM concept is found in each of the components of our daily lives.

”How my body work?” is a complex integrated activity developed in order to make connection between contents from different curriculums with the purpose to apply concepts and knowledges, make connections with everyday activities of the students.

After completion of the theoretical training regarding locomotor system, types of levers and their components, role of levers in movement of human body, students formed teams in order to make projects about different types of sports, types of levers that are frequently used and their advantages.

Challenging part of the activity was that each team had to choose their favorite sport, take pictures during the game and process photos in order to mark the component of identified levers. They used worksheets, recycled materials, online platform in order to process photos.

Key points of the activity:

• Introducing the concept of levers: types, components, objects from everyday activities which are functioning through different types of levers (exemplifying with personal objects used by the students at home) (responsible: physics teachers)
• Studying the locomotor system (bones, muscles, joints) underlining types of levers from human body and their role in movement ( using on line platforms, completing worksheets and online assesments – Quizziz, LearningApps) (responsible: biology teachers)
• Practice different type of sports on the sports field of the school, identify levers and explaining mechanical advantages
• Establishing team and work tasks, realizing their projects
• Presenting projects in the classroom and exercising the sports in the schoolyard

The main strengths of the activity:

• mixed activity: indoor & outdoor activities, classroom & home activities
• use of online and off line information sources
• interdisciplinary activity which involved biology, physics and physical education teachers
• integrated STE(A)M approach (robotic hand, jumping –jack puppet, puppet theatre, online presentations using online platforms or applications)
• ecofriendly activity ( students used recycled materials for their projects)
• activity stimulate critical thinking involving research, teamwork

This type of approach is appropriate  also for online or in person activities, for formal or non formal contexts and contribute to the development of the 21th century skills: critical thinking, creativity, cooperation and communication.