Launching STEM with Staff

   STEM is new at my school so half of the teachers here had no idea what STEM meant...at least until today!  I didn't really even know either until a few months ago.  The more I learned, the more I really believed in what it can accomplish.  I gave the staff an introductory lesson on STEM so they would have a better idea of exactly what it is and what their students are doing when they come to specials.
    I made a brochure that tells what STEM is all about and why its coming to schools.  

    I explained to teachers that STEM helps our students learn 21st century skills while enabling them to prepare for STEM jobs.  STEM is a fast growing field and their are jobs available...just not enough qualified workers to fill them.  STEM will help make our students marketable!  

    I also told them that just because its a project, does not mean its STEM.  You can ask yourself these questions to judge whether a lesson is STEM or not: 

¶Does it engage students in the engineering design process?

¶Do students address a real-world problem?

¶Do they work in teams to solve this problem?

¶Are there multiple possible solutions?

¶Do students get to explore and come up with ideas on their own, without being spoon-fed?

   

    Then teachers tried to make a tower from 20 pieces of spaghetti, 1 foot of tape, and 1 foot of string, to support a large marshmallow at the top.  I thought there would be grumbles about this project, but everyone excitedly dove right in!  A picture of our teachers completing the project:

   You know there is a prezi to go along with this presentation to teachers!   

Lego Stop Action Film

I was a kindergarten teacher for 6 years, but I have discovered that I LOVE teaching the upper grades as well.  I get chuckles (instead of blank stares) when I crack a lame joke :)  Every student is very interested in STEM and enjoyed their first project of building a tower with only 10 post-it notes.  Next goal - to not disappoint with their grade specific projects!

For 5th grade I decided to start with something that I too was interested in learning more about.  With our STEM grant, we also received iMovie to put on our iPads.  I wanted to use this to make a stop-action lego film with the 5th graders.  When I realized it wouldn't be installed by the time I needed it (and I wouldn't have time to become familiar with it myself in advance), I had to get resourceful!  Enter Lego Movie Maker App! ** update: Lego Movie Maker went universal!  It is now iPad friendly!**  All students have to do is take pictures (lots!) and add music and the app does the rest!  I'll post the finished products soon.

I love prezis (can't you tell) so I made one for the students!

Launching STEM with Students!

     I am teaching STEM as a special for our students K-5 this year!  Most of the students (okay, all) have never heard of this thing called "STEM" and what it stands for: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  To start the year I made a Prezi to explain what STEM is all about and what we would be doing in our STEM lab.  You can find the Prezi here.

     This prezi includes a video that describes in kid-friendly words STEM and how its beneficial for their future careers.  It also includes a project that I used to kick off the idea where students built a tower out of only 10 post-it notes and nothing else.  I used this project for grades 1-5, but found it was too difficult for students in kindergarten right at the beginning of the year.  I had the kindergarten students try to build a tall tower with cubes that was freestanding, so they had to make a larger base than just 1 cube.

     I also used the book, Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis, which is a good example of thinking of common things in an extraordinary way.  It's about an animal that is using a stick to go fishing, ride a horse, and paint a picture...all in his imagination!  Which is exactly what we do in STEM!!!  A toilet paper roll is not just a roll - it can be a racecar, a bridge support, a flashlight, etc.