Warwick School District

3rd Graders at John Beck Use STEM Activity to Create Assistive Technology

The third grade students at John Beck Elementary have been intrigued and highly interested in the assistive technology that is often used by their third grade peer, who participates in the MDS class. Through their homeroom and specials, these students have really gotten to know and understand one another, finding commonalities, as well as recognizing differences.  

The students’ interests lead Mrs. Hannah Edwards and Mrs. Kirstin Loperena to develop a STEM lesson focusing on cultivating empathy, understanding differences and building assistive technology to ensure everyone is able to be included. For this first STEM project the students developed a device to assist someone who has limited hand mobility, allowing the individual to be fully included in a game of UNO (or any card game for that matter.) Throughout the week in December the students were introduced to assistive technology, they played a game of UNO as part of their research, then developed and built their assistive technology, tested it and finished by redesigning, building and presenting it.  

“The Assistive Technology STEM project provided students with the opportunity to create a tool that would make a meaningful impact for an individual(s) with a handicap, physical disability or someone who needed additional support,” stated Mrs. Kirstin Loperena, MDS teacher at Warwick.  The students collaborated with their peers, discussing ways to include all individuals in activities, despite any personal or physical challenges.  

In addition to problem solving, teamwork and design, students developed empathy and compassion for individuals with special needs.  They learned that we are all capable, however some of us just need a little extra support.  

The plan is to expand on this project in the future.  Many students have shared that not only did they enjoy the project, they desire to continue to create assistive technology.  Student interest is what drove the project initially. “We would like to continue to design real-world scenarios as we work to ensure all individuals and students are included to the best of their ability, with additional support and forms of technology,” stated Loperena. 

“As an MDS teacher, I truly enjoyed being able to not only support Mrs. Edwards’ third grade class, but be able to provide instruction to the students, discuss a personal passion and collaborate to create a lesson that started out of student interest.”