Kindergarten engineers at Round Hill put creativity to the test in hands‑on Project Lead the Way lesson

Kindergarten engineers at Round Hill Elementary School were hard at work at every table, as they collected their materials — popsicle sticks, string, Styrofoam balls, feathers and a putty‑like glue — and assembled their very own paintbrushes.

“We’re going to be engineers today,” art teacher Isabella Dorozynski told the class as she held up her sample paintbrush, a bright fan of feathers bound tightly with the putty glue and string. “We have to build our paintbrush.”

Students warmed the sticky putty between their fingers, pressed feathers into place, wrapped string around their designs, and one-by-one carried their creations to the testing station to see if their paintbrush would stay together under a stress test. Each student dipped their brush into water and painted on a sheet of paper to see how their invention performed.

“This is a test,” Ms. Dorozynski reminded them. “If it falls apart, it’s OK — engineers rebuild.”

The lesson is part of the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) initiative, a hands‑on STEM program that Round Hill Elementary has been expanding across grade levels. This year marks the first time kindergarten students are participating — a milestone that librarian Kerilee Berben and Ms. Dorozynski have collaborated on.

It has already made a noticeable impact, Ms. Berben said. “Project Lead the Way is important for our kindergarten students because it lays a strong foundation for future STEM instruction by giving them opportunities to explore, design, and solve real-world problems.”
Ms. Berben and Ms. Dorozynski have been co‑teaching the unit, blending literacy, art, engineering, and hands‑on exploration.

Ms. Berben introduced vocabulary and stories that anchored the design concepts — including fairy tales like The Three Little Pigs and Jack and the Beanstalk. Students studied how structure and function work in each story, then built models of houses and beanstalks with Ms. Dorozynski before the culminating paintbrush challenge.

“This unit also teaches the importance of problem-solving, collaboration, and perseverance,” Ms. Berben said. “Through hands-on STEM activities, students learn by exploring and playing while discovering solutions to challenges they may encounter in real life. The knowledge and skills they gain help build lifelong learners who ask questions, explore answers, and create models of solutions.”

The PLTW design process — ask, explore, model, evaluate, and share — guides each step. Ms. Dorozynski’s classroom was where the “model” and “evaluate” stages came to life. Students tested their brushes, observed what works, and made adjustments, as needed. Some brushes shed feathers because they weren’t attached strong enough. Others produced unexpectedly light strokes.

“Everything begins with a problem,” Ms. Berben explained. “For kindergarten, the challenge was: How can I design a paintbrush to paint the way I want it to paint? Some kids wanted fine lines, others wanted dots. They learn to invent, create, persevere, and revise when something doesn’t work.”

“Being an engineer is hard work,” Dorozynski told a student who hesitated over a loose feather. “But you can fix it. That’s what engineers do.”

Round Hill began implementing PLTW three years ago with fourth and fifth graders to prepare them for the middle school technology program and eventually high school, which both use PLTW curriculum. With grant support, the district is expanding the program downward this year to reach all 250 kindergarten students at Round Hill.

“It teaches kids to solve real‑world problems through the design process,” Berben said. “They learn that engineers and designers don’t always succeed on the first try. That’s a powerful lesson.”

As Ms. Dorozynski watched her young engineers work, she summed up the spirit of the day: “Everyone’s paintbrush is different — and that’s the best part.”

“Mrs. Berben and Ms. Dorozynski have worked diligently to be trained PLTW instructors, to collaborate on an on-going basis as a team and with administration to ensure that the unit of study has been rolled out in a well-timed and well-paced fashion, and have implemented the components of STEM standards with fidelity so that we can build the next generation of eager, curious, and STEM-minded students at Round Hill!” Principal Kristin Shaw said.