Report written by Amy Savela, Media Specialist at Murphy Elementary
Project: STEAM Kit – Magna-Tiles
This is a popular story bin that I have checked out from the Arrowhead Library System for our library and the students love them and create a great many wonderful projects. Students develop problem solving skills and often work together as teams. It is nice to have a quiet activity for the students to do after they have checked out a book. We were able to purchase one set of Magna-Tiles from a Grant from the District 318 Endowment Fund but there were never enough tiles to work with in groups. Now with three 100 piece sets it helps to divide up the tiles a little better. You can never have enough Magna-Tiles. I have seen bridges and castles being built. Students working together and helping each other with problems. Students are sharing now with the increased number of tiles to go around. Students request to use the Magna-Tiles on a daily basis in the media center at school. The Magna-Tiles were also used for a STEM project that a Teacher used during our Winter Fun Day. I have them available during our check out book days (twice a week) and I have 4 students working with them at a time. If I don’t limit the number of students, there are a lot of disagreements as to how they should be divided up. So, having a group of 4 works really well because they team up and work together on projects.