ENGAGING 8TH GRADERS IN HANDS-ON SCIENCE
What do you do with antsy 8th graders in their last month at middle school? This year, science teachers had new options, thanks to a grant from BEF. Hats off to middle school science TOSA Melody Childers for developing a new hands-on learning activities for teachers to help keep 8th graders involved.
The new project was built into a Sustainability unit that is taught at the end of 8th grade. That unit included lessons on Tribal History/Shared History especially around the Columbia River, how energy is produced in Oregon, culminating in a new, creative STEAM project.
“Teachers often struggle to put together an engaging, student-centered unit for 8th graders at the end of the year,” she shared.
This project-based unit provided relevant, hands-on learning using solar power kits with a design project to build solar powered water foundations, with lots of opportunities for student creativity, which helped them keep on learning, even at the end of the school year!
Scenes from 8th grade science classes learning circuits and design water fountains powered by the sun.
GETTING READY TO TEACH
On March 18th, 2026 science teachers from seven Beaverton middle schools participated in a specialized professional development session to prepare for this spring’s rollout of the new unit. Educators stepped into their students’ shoes, experiencing the design-build challenge firsthand by integrating circuitry and solar power to create functional models. By troubleshooting these systems themselves, teachers are now better prepared to guide their students through the iterative thinking and data-informed design process required to build collaborative solar-powered STEAM sculptures.
This innovative curriculum doesn’t just teach science; it provides vital career-connected learning that helps students visualize their own ambitions in the trades and technical fields. We extend our deepest thanks to the PGE Foundation for their generous grant, which provided the essential funding for curriculum development and the supplies necessary to make this hands-on exploration possible for our students.
Also supporting the project was an in-kind donation of solar power kits assembled by employees of KLA TENCOR.
