Lower School Principal Dana Jenkins hosts hands-on "drain rescue" project in 4th grade.

At HHCA, STEM isn’t a once-a-week special. We are committed to weaving STEM into regular hands-on learning that compliments our unique Inquiry Based Model. This quarter, Lower School Principal Dana Jenkins is rotating through K-5 classrooms to lead hands-on design challenges that reinforce what students are learning with their mentors.

4th graders faced a real-world problem that required quick thinking:

You’re at the airport and everything in your bag slips through a storm drain. How will you get the most important items back? Working in teams, students sorted “trash” for useful materials (wire, string, tape, cups), brainstormed, developed a plan, and then built various contraptions that could reach through narrow slats to retrieve priority items such as keys, a wallet, a boarding pass, or a phone.

After testing, they refined their designs and tried again.

"I loved watching the teams take on different roles—designer, builder, tester—and then light up when one of the prototypes worked," said Mrs. Guess, 4th Grade Mentor.

The challenge highlighted the engineering design process (ask, imagine, plan, create, test, improve) while building collaboration, perseverance, and wise decision-making. Most of all, students saw how creative problem-solving mirrors the order and ingenuity we see in God’s world.

Our goal is for every child to learn to think like an engineer—asking good questions, trying new ideas, and learning from mistakes. Bringing these STEM challenges into the classroom is not only something I’m committed to, but also something that brings me great joy. I love helping students make this mindset a natural part of their daily learning.

- Dana Jenkins, Lower School Principal