Project Name: Tiny Home Builders: Animal Edition

School: Attwood New Tech Magnet School

Facilitators: Caitlin Donnelly, Haleigh Lane, and Jonathan Rush

Course: Elementary (all subjects)

Driving Question: How can we design and build shelters that meet the needs of our homeless animals?

Partnering with Ingham County Animal Control and Shelter, the Capital Area Humane Society, WILX News 10, Home Depot, and other community members, fifth graders at Attwood New Tech Magnet School designed and built shelters for animals. The focus of the project was on mathematics and design for engineering. Groups conducted research to better understand the needs of their animal clients, designed shelters using graphing paper, and made a 3D model to test. After testing their models to see if they could withstand natural elements (i.e., wind), students made improvements. Finally, students met with expert builders who helped them build their actual shelters which were donated to Ingham County Animal Control and Shelter. 

Final Product: Animal shelters

Audience:  The Attwood community, animals (dogs, cats, chickens, or rabbits), and future builders of animal shelters

What made this project stand out: Reviewers loved the strong focus on community connection. They were also impressed with the depth of project outcomes – kids were considering construction as a career and the project served to dismantle gender stereotypes. The school’s STEAM club saw a large increase in female attendance after the project! Reviewers also liked that the project incorporated math, science, and English (writing) broken into segments. This allowed students to get excited to learn each type of content because they could see how it added value to their project product.

Austin Beachnau (Fifth Grade Student): The most important thing to me is the animals. I love animals, mainly cats.  The project impacted me because I am sad when I see a lot of bunnies and cats on the streets and that is really sad but I am really happy that we made the bunny house. We are building the houses for the animals to stay safe. It is important to our community, so the city of Lansing is not seeing animals on the streets without a home. I loved the bunny house because of the walls so there’s a place for them to stay. This lets bunnies play with each other and they can go in and be safe. What I learned from the project is math like the feet, length, and the height. What I also learned from the project is making sure that the animals are not all over the place, to keep caring for the animals, and to give them a home. We were able to give animals a place to stay for an owner to have to keep their pet safe and warm.

Angel Hobbs (Fifth Grade Student): I liked that we got to have fun and learn at the same time. It made me feel like I was doing something good for the world and not just being lazy, it made me feel great. I think that this project is important for our community because it is helping animals be safe and warm. It is also important because it helps other people and animals besides ourselves. It helps other people by keeping animals safe, not cold, and alive. That way people do not have to be sad because their pets died. I learned that it is important to listen, respect others, the space around you, and be safe. I also learned that in order to get anything done you have to listen to other people’s ideas, not just your own, and that you have to cooperate with everyone. This project is impactful to me because it is good for everyone to work together. I loved doing the project and I really had fun doing it!

Alex Beachnau (Fifth Grade Student): This project makes me feel sad and happy. It makes me happy because we are building the houses and we will know if the animals are safe or not. It also makes me feel sad because just thinking about animals without a house makes me feel sad. The project is important to me because as a student I have spent a lot of time working on our bunny house and really wanted to make sure this project gets done right. The reason why I like the bunny house is because it has all the materials for the bunnies. I learned that the bunnies are going to be warm and safe. I also learned that it had to be four inches and for all of the other parts needed to measure right.  

Caliyah Ross (Fifth Grade Student): I really enjoy this project because it helps more animals survive, not be cold, and have a happier life! What I enjoy about this project is that in some schools some kids want to be builders but, in their school, they do not have any building class or building teaching. So, this project really helps me if I need to build a doghouse in the future for my dog or just need to build something! This project makes me feel sad and happy at the same time. So, I feel happy about helping the environment and the animals. But I feel sad about how some animals do not have homes or an owner to take good care of them that is why I wanted to do this project. I think this project is great for the community because some people like me really like animals and want to help them as much as we can. So, this will help dogs, cats, and even more animals! So when I see animals saved, it makes me relieved and happy for that animal! I’ve also learned A LOT from this project. I learned how to build, how to graph, how to plan, how to measure right and how to care for animals more! So, therefore I want to thank my teacher so much for picking this project and teaching us how to build and how to save the environment!

Facilitators:

Caitlin Donnelly (Co-Facilitator and Project Design): This project was one of the hardest feats to accomplish, but one of the best decisions we’ve made as educators. We were learning along with our students and I’ve never seen them so eager to learn. The biggest surprise to me was just how much the community came to work with us and how much the students were genuinely enjoying what we were doing. Hearing the students talk about how much they were looking forward to building made me super excited to teach them everything leading up to the build. When we conceptualized this project, we knew it was going to be a challenge, but I never could have foreseen how impactful this was going to become for the students, the community, and for us. The shelter we are donating to was so hands-on with the process and we even had an architecture firm come in to discuss designs with students and a construction company come in to help build. There were quite a few students who were considering the construction field because of this project. We started with a lot of standards and ended up with this project that was so much more. Seeing how curriculum standards and “real world” application matched up to create something amazing made me so proud as an educator. That’s what made me believe in this project so much and want to show off all the hard work our students put in. 

Haleigh Lane (Co-Facilitator and Project Design): This project opened our eyes in many ways that we will never forget and not just as educators but as students and community members. As educators, we got to watch our students grow in ways that we normally wouldn’t have. They were finally excited about what they were learning. Every day they would ask when we were going to work on the project because they were so eager to keep moving forward. As students, they got to be more hands-on with their learning and with professionals they may have never crossed paths with if it wasn’t for this project. The tools they used to collaborate and communicate were huge for them. They got to talk to other professionals as equals and to them being an equal at this age makes a great impact. The building skills they learned may be something they use again in the future but, regardless, at least they can say they know how to use basic tools. As community members, they not only got a nice change of pace from their “normal” but they got to teach our future what their profession does, has to offer, and lend a helping hand. At the beginning of this project we never would have imagined the amount of community involvement we would end up having. Our local shelter coming into our school and the local news to start off the project was beyond what we imagined. Then we ended up getting even more involvement and they wanted to keep coming back and being involved. Just talking about the involvement with our community makes me so proud. It also showed our students that others care about their learning and want to help them in any way they can. This project has really made a huge impact on everyone that was involved and has seen it come to life! 

Jonathan Rush (Co-Facilitator): The opportunity for my students to collaborate with professionals in multiple fields is the part of this project I felt is invaluable. However, the part of this project I liked the most was seeing my students realize that they are seen and heard. This project is important for our community because it is essential that we build a relationship between our students and their community. This project has provided a window for students to view aspects of their community that aren’t commonplace. As well, members of our community were given the opportunity to work hands-on with the future of our community. I learned that education is the profession I should stick with because building design and construction are not my forte. I am glad I had a class to do all the work. Seeing my students band together at times of frustration and setbacks had the greatest impact on me. It was a reminder to me that one day these students will be the adults and while I’m glad it is not today, it gives me hope for the future if they can continue to work together during hard times.

Amber Moreno (Focus Teacher/Coach): In the support role that I serve, I was able to follow the project from an outside lens. From the very start, I observed so much excitement and satisfaction to be working toward an authentic need that our community had. Each time I checked in with the 5th-grade classrooms, there was always an intense focus on the task at hand. I was there to offer my support, but they always had things under control! It was great! I loved how this project gave our students opportunities that most of them have never been given before. Our students were able to see how their learning could be applied in the real world, how it was possible for them to work together to achieve an end goal, how each of them, especially our female students, were capable of performing design, engineering, and construction skills, how our community partners cared about them and wanted to help them succeed, how it was possible for them to do something that mattered to their community, and so much more! Throughout the project, I noticed that it allowed us to experience something we’ve never really seen in our building before. We all became quite the team of kids and adults, each serving a different role, but all working together for one important cause. What a great learning experience we will always remember!

Link YouTube video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGWKBtNerIE

Link Project Toolkit/Design Document here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vaxA878gHu5ayTOpp7PWA9-kiZpXYsS-5h2PbOTuNrI/edit?usp=sharing