Staci Welcome to the PCS Adventures Educator Spotlight series. In today's sponsored feature story, we're exploring why giraffes and lobsters are stealing the spotlight. With STEM learning at the Green Bay YMCA, we caught up with Judy Dvorak, who shares how kids are building the animal kingdom with BrickLAB Zoo and making connections to what they're learning in school.
Judy Dvorak I work for the school aged child care through the YMCA in Green Bay. I do before school, after school and summer programs. I've been doing that for about sixteen years with them. I also worked in the schools for special education for over twenty years. That's kind of my background and how I was working with the kids.
Staci Before you started using the BrickLAB Zoo program, what were some of those challenges that you faced in planning some hands-on activities for these kiddos?
Judy Dvorak Well, because of a busy lifestyle with raising four kids and just working, finding the time to research the things and having the lesson plans and the activity of the supplies ready could be a challenge because we transfer from after school program to summer. We only have a couple weeks to get one ready versus the other one closing. So there's quite a time crunch. So that's a challenge to get all those supplies and things ready for our eleven week program.
Staci Was this primarily used just in the summertime?
Judy Dvorak That's when I used it. You can use it other times, but I was using it for my summer program. We do clubs and that was my club that I did with the kids once a week. And so then the kids had a choice, their ages five to twelve to join the club, and then they had other options.
Staci So when you first got this kit and you opened up the box, you saw everything that was in there — Walk me through your first thoughts when you saw all the supplies and what were you thinking as far as, like, oh, well, this saved me time. Will this help me, you know, provide fun activities? Like what was going through your head when you opened everything up?
Judy Dvorak Sure. It was great to open it up and see the quantity that it had. Because then we can have anywhere between five kids joining us to fifteen, depending on the kids for that day, how many you have. So knowing that I had plenty of supplies was just great. And they were already packaged ready to go. And the books there was enough for all of them to have
one and then the lesson plans to introduce the thing. You know, we always started out with the little conversation on like, say we did the giraffe where their habitat was known for. And then they would talk to me about adding in how they learned in school. So it was a great connection that way. So it was like, “Oh, I have this all ready to go and all I gotta do is review it before the kids join me.”
Staci How much prep was involved to get that first lesson up and running? How would you describe that?
Judy Dvorak Very minimal because everything was laid out. It was just reviewing, and then I would pick which animals that I would do to go with our theme for that week and then just review what they had, the information if I wanted to add more or use what they had and be ready for the kids and they went to it as you saw the pictures. A lot of them did multiple ones.
Staci Yeah. Can you describe kind of the vibe in the room and the kids experience this for the first time? What were they saying? What were they doing? How are they reacting?
Judy Dvorak Well, with any kind of blocks or Lego type of things, they always love building. And then when they had a purpose, some of them like to have something given to them to do. So when we say, well, it's a giraffe they would add to it. Then I had some more advanced ones that would add trees and their habitat with the blocks. So they really expanded on it and then multiple animals, multiple giraffes or multiple alligators. They really enjoyed it because it gave them an option for themselves to expand. So it was like, good for all ages. Some of the little ones maybe struggled a little bit, but when we would guide them with it, and, they would be very proud of themselves that they could get it done. So there was some mentoring going on with the older kids that got the hang of the blocks right away versus the younger ones. And then there was some really accomplishments that they were excited that they got to make one and knew how to do it. It was good.
Staci That's fun. So what were some of those aha moments? Is there anything specific that stands out in your mind with some of the kids that they're like, yeah, like that kind of clicked?
Judy Dvorak Yeah. Uh, the kids, like I said, some of the younger ones would get frustrated and not want to do it. So I would help guide them, but I wanted them to look and see. I said there is written pages that some of them wouldn't know how to read, but I said there's pictures. So that the pictures you guys had were great because it did step by step. So I'd show them this is a two by two, this is a three by three. Then it started to click with them and they go, "Oh yeah, I know.” And then they would say, "No I'll do it myself." And then, they would just start exploring. So it was nice to see that they could, even though they couldn't read a lot, they could still do it.
Staci And what were some of their favorite animals?
Judy Dvorak Well, the giraffe was one. Um, alligator? I'm trying to think what other ones we did. There's a few of them that just went off the script and just started building their own animals. Some tried the monkey and things like that, but, yeah, those two that stand out.
Staci Super, super fun. And so as far as the kids' confidence, you mentioned a little bit about that. Like they, you know, didn't get something and they kind of clicked and they're like, oh. And then talk to me about some of those skills that they've developed from a program like this.
Judy Dvorak Sure. Like the older ones that kind of knew it. They learned how they could help others and guide them so that teaching instinct for some of them would go good, they would make their own. And then they'd see one of the younger struggling. So I wasn't the only one helping. So the older ones would mentor the younger ones, but they felt accomplished that they could guide the little ones. When they realized they didn't need to read, they could see the
pictures and follow it. That gave them a boost of confidence that they could, do something enjoyable and do the bricks and build the animals. It gave them the boost that keep trying. You'll eventually get it. Don't give up. Perseverance was a big word we used. They learned that.
Staci If you were to piece all the different parts of the program together on your own and source your own bricks and write the curriculum, could you talk about the time saving that this supplied you in creating such a fun, hands on experience for the kids?
Judy Dvorak Well, sure. And number one, the quantity of supplies we would need, you know, saved on that because you had a couple of buckets full of the Legos. So there was more than enough for each table because I would spread them out on the table for the kids to search. I didn't have to collect those and get all the different sizes measured out. They were all there because you need the eight by eight, two by eight to the four by four. I mean, there was a lot of different bricks. So that time consuming, there would have been a lot for me. Uh, along with the researching the animal and some basic facts. Again, those are all supplied. So that was a big time saver. I mean, some of the kids said, "Oh, we learned that in our class" and they would add to it. So that was kind of fun. That was a big conversation for the first half of our club time. And then they would get into it. I would just dump the bricks onto the table and they would start with the books. They grabbed it, found the page, and would start.
Staci Excellent. And how is the durability of all the things in this kit? Is it something that you'd be able to use over and over from summer to summer?
Judy Dvorak Yes, definitely. We, we would clean them or spray them down afterwards because just the number of kids that would handle them, and they showed no wear and tear the eleven weeks I used them in my summer. And I know there's some other sites that have used them since then. So yeah, they're very durable.
Staci What about the built in curriculum? So how easy was that to follow and how did that help you teach the kids about some of these, these zoo animals?
Judy Dvorak That was very easy to follow. Reading it was very fluent. Understandable. It would talk about the habitats and about the uniqueness of that animal. So it would tie in with our theme that year. I think it was the Wild Things or something that we had going on so we could connect it with that. Then it connected with their school learning. We would do our visits, like to the new zoo. And so maybe I'd pick an animal that they had known at the new zoo. So, some of our field trips, we could connect with it. And yeah, it all went together very, very nicely.
Staci Super fun. That's why I was going to ask you if you found any ways to adapt the activities or anything within the curriculum, like tying it into zoo outings or things like that. Any other creative ways that you thought of to kind of go off script a little bit from what was actually in the curriculum?
Judy Dvorak Well, right. So like I said, we had some field trips that would be to like a nature center. So, some of the free play I would allow them to have is to think about their summer and to maybe try and build one of the animals that they thought were unique in one of our field
trips, or our trips that we took to the zoo or to the nature center, they would do that, and they like to go on their own and be creative.
Staci Very fun. And then last question, any other skills that they have learned? Any big takeaways that they've learned from this Stem program that will carry throughout the coming years? What are some of those takeaways of things that might be transferable into helping them in other areas of their life?
Judy Dvorak The perseverance that was a big word that we used a lot so that when they would struggle and say, you have to keep trying even though it's hard. So that was a big take on it. And as we know, the kids today, just learning how to read, write anything in school or even sports, if they don't do it right the first time, they have to try again. And even if it's a little different, it's still okay. It's okay to make mistakes. So that was discussed. And they learned that even though it didn't come out just right, it's okay. We can go back and fix it or try again. So those were some of the things I think the kids took from that. And the older ones that helped the younger ones is that, you know, their mentoring skills to guide someone else that may not be able to, and to learn how to communicate those ways to that child. So I think they took off a lot from that.
Staci That's so sweet. I love to hear those stories. And again, what was the age range of the kids that were in there?
Judy Dvorak Five to twelve.
Staci Five to twelve. Okay, so you've got those twelve year olds helping the younger ones. That's so sweet. So fun. That's really nice. It is nice when kids just naturally do that and they just naturally find ways to help. And it, it's just a win win for the older kids and the younger kids. That's so sweet. That's all the questions I have for you today. Is there anything that I haven't asked that you would like to add just with your experience with using this program? I just want to double check if there's any other programs that you are planning to use from, from PCs.
Judy Dvorak I think we have the historical one that has some of the monuments, if I remember. Right.
Staci Architecture. Okay.
Judy Dvorak Right. Architecture one. I'd be interested in using that, in our future summer program. Yeah.
Staci It's a fun one.
Judy Dvorak Yeah, exactly. Or in my school age, we start transitioning. We have another week of our summer program, then we're going into our fall programs. So I might grab some of those. It's like, oh, yeah, those are so cool to use.
Staci Thank you Judy. It's inspiring to see how much kids are learning during out of school programs. To listen to more stories from educators like you, visit edventures.com/spotlight
