What an a-MAZ-ing start to the school year! ♻️🎉 Grades 3–5 designed and built their own maze or marble run using cardboard, bottle caps—and just 30 minutes on the clock! ⏱ Best part? Each student will take their work home to share with friends and family! #STEM

Math in a Stack: Counting with Bottle Caps! 🔢🟣 K–2 students started by stacking caps to represent numbers—then turned it into a self-selected exploration of balance and design! ⚖️💡 Early numeracy, engineering, fine motor skills, and creativity with bottle caps! ♻️ #STEM

How it started: a chaotic pile of 6,000 straws How it’s going: neatly color-sorted boxes 🎨 A “small” #STEM classroom management win—less time rummaging, more time creating, testing, improving, and sharing! In a 50-min class, every minute counts!

What would you build with bottle caps and jumbo craft sticks? Here are just three creative takes: a cat, an apartment complex, and a school. Now imagine the rest! Simple materials. Endless possibilities. 💡#STEM

A colleague asked for some bottle caps a few days ago. Today, she surprised me with a LEGO flower bouquet in a vase made from those caps. Such a thoughtful gift—and a great conversation starter about ♻️ upcycling in my engineering classroom! 🌻 #STEM

In our elementary engineering class, K–2 students used bottle caps to build numbers, traced them into circles, and created their own coloring pages. A fun blend of STEM, design thinking, and creativity—all from a simple recycled material! ♻️ 🖍️ ⭕️ #STEM

“I created a mini skate park. It was fun! It was challenging to do, but I did it in 25 minutes. I am proud of my work. Skate parks are fun to make and to play on. It helps me build my creativity up! I love this class!” - 5th grader (written reflection)

“I created a skatepark today. It was hard to build the ramp because you had to tape it down & it took a while. Next time I would use more hot glue to make it more sturdy. Engineering is fun because I like building stuff.” - 4th grader (✏️written reflection & design plan) #STEM

⬇️ Pass the Pom Pom! ➡️ ♻️ My students got creative with cardstock, bottle caps, and straws to engineer a super fun and challenging passing game! They overlapped two cardstock boxes where rotating straws (with bottle caps attached) guide a Pom Pom across or down the path. #STEM

From a kind colleague assisting with the book fair: “Some kids were checking out this skateboarding book all because of your lesson.” This was a meaningful reminder that when #STEM education is made accessible and engaging, it can ignite curiosity far beyond the lesson itself!

🛹 The Feel Good Skatepark and beyond! Check out these epic fingerboard parks built by our 2nd–5th grade engineering pros! From kicker ramps to mini bowls, flat bars, spine ramps, and more — creativity and design skills are rolling full speed ahead! #STEM

A handwritten note and a candy bar from a colleague showed up in my mailbox today. Just a few kind words—but they completely lifted my spirit. It’s amazing how small gestures can make a big impact. Grateful. 💌🍫

Just received donated packages of Nurcs from Mike, who’s been following my work with students! Huge thank you for supporting my elementary engineering class! I can’t wait to see what we build with Mike from Nurcs Craft Stick Connectors! #STEM

I’m incredibly humbled and grateful Jacie Maslyk chose to include me as one of the featured educators in the 2nd edition of #STEAMMakers! ✅Pre-order it today! #ThankfulThursday #STEM

Build Your Own Bean Grab Game! Our 2nd–5th grade engineers created their own version of Hungry Hungry Hippos—with perimeter walls, a soccer field layout, 20 beans, and one instant-win pom-pom! Now they’re equipped to challenge their families to build, play, and talk!

600 students, 1200 skewers, and one mission: safety first! ⚠️ 🔥✂️🖐🏾 This weekend, I’m trimming sharp tips and pre-gluing beads to protect curious hands from pokes and hot glue burns. Let the next engineering challenge begin—safely! #STEM

How it started: 📝 “Next year I want to work on some space stuff.” – 2nd grader 🪐 “I want to build a solar system… it feels hard and fun!” – 3rd grader (EOY reflections) How it went: 👇 Solar System Marble Drop Game #STEM #StudentVoice

After making a solar system-themed marble drop game with my students (using bottle caps, cardboard & pre-glued skewers), we reused the leftover beaded skewers (cut to 3”) to build a solar system model showing planetary orbits & distances! 🪐 #STEM

Hallway duty: A 1st grader walked up to me, held out a carefully colored picture, and said, “Do you remember when you taught us to use bottle caps to make a picture with only circles? I made this at home with a Gatorade lid, a magnifying glass, and a tape ring. It’s for you.” 🥰

After a demo with a newsprint rocket, my 2nd–5th grade students designed and built two straw rockets each. They measured flight distance in square feet and compared their fin designs. A high-flying experience in data, design, and engineering. ♻️ 🚀 #STEM