First Graders Engineer Leprechaun Traps Just In Time for St. Patrick’s Day

McLEMORESVILLE — Something sneaky is lurking in the hallways of West Carroll Primary School and the first graders are ready for it.

First-grade students at West Carroll Primary School in McLemoresville are applying engineering design principles in an unconventional context this week: building traps intended to catch a leprechaun ahead of St. Patrick’s Day. The project, timed ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, has turned the classroom into a workshop of problem-solving and creativity.

Working collaboratively, the young engineers worked through a foundational STEM process of planning, designing and constructing. Students were asked to identify the problem, consider possible solutions and build a functional trap using available materials, mirroring the thinking skills at the core of engineering.

Students extended the project beyond the classroom by designing “Wanted” posters, which now hang throughout the school’s hallways. The posters serve the dual purposes of reinforcing writing and visual communication skills while building school-wide anticipation for the holiday.

Whether or not the traps prove effective remains to be seen but the learning, by all accounts, has already been captured.