Back
K'NEX Education, Penn State University at Hazelton and Heights Terrace Elementary School Collaborate to Improve Literacy for Students
On May 7th and 9th, 2007, K'NEX Education teamed with Penn State and the Hazelton Area School District to present a series of two K'NEX Education based, hands-on engineering workshops to first and second grade teachers at Heights Terrace Elementary School in Hazelton, PA.
Penn State University professor, Dr. Eric Hazelton, and retired Hazelton Area School District teacher, Helen Grebski, used NEA/Staples Innovation Grant funds to deliver the workshops, improve literacy and purchase K'NEX Education sets for first and second grade classrooms.
Along with Hazelton and Grebski, workshop presenters included K'NEX Education consultant, Robert Jesberg, and four, pre-service teachers from Penn State's Hazelton Campus. The team of seven delivered dynamic lessons to first and second grade classrooms while using the K'NEX Education building sets as a fun, interactive teaching tool. Students built cars, trucks, and planes out of K'NEX parts and were challenged to relate these models to real world engineering concepts and design problems.
The teachers were excited to learn how to incorporate the hands-on K'NEX Education sets into their curriculum and keep students engaged. The participating students were equally as thrilled that these K'NEX Education building sets would remain within their classroom. Each first grade classroom teacher received a K'NEX Education Kid K'NEX Transportation Set and each second grade classroom teacher received a K'NEX Education Transportation Set. Both grades also received trade books to accompany the building sets.
This is the fourth year of successful collaboration between Penn State University at Hazelton and K'NEX Education. Scores of teachers have participated in similar workshops and received K'NEX Education Sets that they can use in their classrooms for over one year. Hundreds of students have participated each year and benefit from the interactive, inspiring method of learning that K'NEX Education building sets offer.
If you would like to learn more about K'NEX Education workshops, please call K'NEX Education at 1-800-ABC-KNEX and visit
www.knexeducation.com.
Products
