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1st grade STEM curriculum

1st Grade STEM Curriculum, Tips & Ideas [K-5 STEM Series] [ep.82]

by Naomi Meredith

1st Grade STEM Curriculum, Tips & Ideas [K-5 STEM Series] [ep.82]

1st grade STEM curriculum

Check out the full episode on 1st Grade STEM Curriculum, Tips & Ideas [K-5 STEM Series]:  

 

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Episode Summary

Have you wondered what a 1st grade STEM curriculum should look like? In today’s episode, I’m sharing an overview of my 1st grade STEM year-long plan. This is part two of a six-part series in which I’m breaking down grade levels K-5 and showing what it looks like in the STEM classroom.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The main lessons I teach my 1st graders
  • What a week of 1st grade curriculum looks like in my STEM classroom
  • The top three skills a first grader should leave your STEM classroom with

Resources Mentioned:

Some items are linked to my Amazon Affiliate account. When you purchase through my link, there is no added cost to you, but I receive a small commission in return.

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

What should a first grade STEM curriculum look like? In this episode, I’m sharing with you an overview of a first grade STEM year long plan, an example of a lesson throughout the week, and tips and tricks when you are teaching your first graders a STEM lesson. This is part two of a six-part series where I am breaking down each grade level, K through five, and what it can look like in the STEM space. Whether you are a STEM teacher, a classroom teacher, or a specialist that implements STEM, I think you will find a lot of useful information in this episode when it comes to teaching STEM with your little first graders. 


Naomi Meredith  00:52

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the last episode, I talked about how I break down everything in Kindergarten. I do get a lot of questions when it comes to teaching STEM with the littles. So if you haven’t checked that out, make sure to go back and listen. But not necessary, if you haven’t listened to it yet, you can still listen to this episode and then go back and listen. Likewise, if you don’t teach the younger students in STEM, don’t shut off this episode. It’s actually really good for you to hear where kids might come from when it comes to the STEM space. So maybe you don’t teach the littles in STEM, but maybe there’s an opportunity for classroom teachers in your building to teach them, and you could share this episode with them. So it’s great as a teacher in the elementary space to see that long range of what it can look like in the STEM space. Likewise, I know it is super overwhelming when it comes to lesson planning in STEM, especially when you teach all of the grade levels. I came from being a classroom teacher for six years and entered the K-5 STEM space with no curriculum whatsoever. But I have figured it out with tips and tricks along the way and through my experience for the past five years. So I am excited to help you all the time. I am working on something behind the scenes that I want you to join in on to get that extra support. So you can join at Naomimeredith.com/special. And you will be the first to hear about this brand new to me thing that I have never done with you guys. So definitely jump in on that you definitely don’t want to miss out. Also, if you’re driving, feel free to DM me on Instagram at NaomiMeredith_ and I’m happy to send you the link there because again, it’s something I’ve never done before and it’s so exciting to help you out in the STEM space. 


Naomi Meredith  03:18

For this episode about first grade, a fun fact is that I student taught in first grade for quite a while. My undergrad program was definitely trial by fire. I was working in a title one school. So my school that I went to for college had a partnership with a lot of districts in the area, a lot of Title One schools to push student teachers into these spaces. And oftentimes we got jobs out of these, which I actually did end up working at the school I student taught at so it was a school, a district I had never heard of. But a lot of my time, like I said was spent in first grade. And I have a special love, if you could see my face right now, I have a special love for Kindergarten. I still do. Kindergarten is still my favorite even after teaching them in STEM for five years. And I did also student teaching first grade. It’s just not for me. And I still feel that way. For some reason, a first grader and a kindergartner are very different to me. First graders are like tiny teenagers, I swear to you, my Teacher Honey is a high school teacher. And he’s not the best at little kids when it comes to teaching them. I’m also not the best at teaching high school kids. So that’s where we have our differences. But I told him he could definitely teach first grade because the things they say to me and their attitudes are what he tells me that his high schoolers have so we have a lot in common when I tell my first grade stories and he tells his high school teaching stories. So lots of fun to have there. But I’m going to share with you three different things when it comes to teaching STEM in the first grade setting. So I’m going to talk through a snapshot of the overview of the year. So the big main lessons that I teach my first graders, then I’m going to break down a sample week what that actually looks like. And then, in my opinion, three big things that a first grader should walk away with knowing in a STEM space. So let’s get into it. 


Naomi Meredith  05:19

If you’re curious to see the structure of my full year K through five, you can download the year long plan for free. If you go to Naomimeredith.com/yearlongplan or just go to my website, it’ll pop up and you can put your name in. I have a lot of updates in store for this next year, especially when it comes to the primary grades, so you can see where it’s at now. But like I said, there’s going to be some updates. And then you can re-download the plan and see what those awesome fun things are. So here is how I break down my year when it comes to first grade. It’s very similar to Kindergarten in the way I structure it. And so if you’re thinking about how you could do things for primary and Kindergarten, they’re very, very similar. I do teach different lessons when it comes to the major projects in first and Kindergarten. Now, when I do STEM stations, there are a lot of similarities or they might overlap the tools, but change out the content. So just keep that in mind. For this snapshot of the year, I’m just going to talk about the major projects and not the specific STEM stations. STEM stations are something that I started implementing in the past couple of years since I had more time with kids. And so that’s not reflective yet on the year long plan. So just keep that in mind. Also, with my year long plan, I do plan in curriculum unit. So K through five, we have the same big umbrella topic. And then there’s a progression of learning within that. So when you listen to this series, you’re going to hear those themes over and over again, because everybody’s working on a part of that theme that works best for their grade level. First, I start off the year to welcome kids back to school with STEM survival camp. And the first graders are tasked with the challenge to build a fishing rod or a fishing pole to catch the fish. So we talk about the Engineering Design Process. They use the materials in my classroom and things from outside, and they actually design a fishing pole. And there are different fish that I haven’t caught in my classroom. It’s so cute, they love this challenge. They do take them home, we make sure they go in their backpacks right away. But some of my students have come back and told me they brought their fishing pole on a actual camping trip, which is so so cute. From what I know, no real fish were caught with those fishing poles. But I love how they were taking the learning outside my classroom and into their own real worlds. Next, we get into digital citizenship for our next unit. And of course, digital citizenship is something that is taught all year long. It’s not a one time thing. And my vision of digital citizenship is that as a STEM teacher, you are giving a STEM twist. And really I think that about all the lessons that you should teach. So a classroom teacher is of course, and should be teaching digital citizenship, but you are also teaching it in your space, because it’s extremely important. I use a lot of Common Sense Media’s curriculum, it’s a completely free. I highly recommend they have some great video clips. And I have a STEM project that relates to those topics. So I know for sure that kids aren’t doing this lesson with their classroom teacher because I made it up. So what we talked about is safe online activities. So what are green means go activities, what are things that are good for kids at their age, because that is important. There are things made for kids out there, but they’re just not ready for it yet. So that’s when we talk about those yellow light online activities. So things that just want you to grow into. And then those red stop, those are not made for kids. We need to be cautious and really think about the things that we are saying online. So it’s really helping students with that metacognition, and what activities are safe, not safe and like a definitely big no, no. So we talk about the internet traffic light and we create a traffic light and we sort the different activities that I give them to help them understand what are different situations that can pop up in their little worlds. After that, we move into Makerspace month, and we are talking about bioluminescence in first grade. So there’s a standard that talks about how there’s Earth light. Well, we take it in a different direction, Earth’s light and living things. So not all light is coming from electricity, or even the sun, moon and stars but it can also come from living things like glowing mushrooms and anglerfish. I’m telling you first grade has some really great science content, first grade is hard for me kidwise. I love their science, they have some really fun content, and they have a lot of stuff about animals. So they love this topic, they are so enthralled by it. I wrote articles for them, me reading them out loud, to help them research more about bioluminescent things, and then they have to think of something that they wish was bioluminescent, and create that living thing and explain what that bioluminescent part helps them with. After that, we’re moving into November and this is a new lesson that I have been testing out with first grade, so it’s not up yet in my store. But they did an awesome job. And we talked about the sun, moon and stars things we can see in the sky during the day, during the night and both. And we’re doing a first grade version of video production. Now, there’s not a whole lot of editing involved. But kids can still make a thoughtful video that isn’t just rambling, if you know what I am talking about. So we talk about how the days are longer and shorter during different parts of the year, and how the Earth rotates around the sun and has that orbit. And students create props to represent these items, we create a guided script together. And then students help one another to use these props to demonstrate the concept that they learned. It is so cute to see the kids collaborating. Yes, we have the same script, because the whole goal is to really get them to be comfortable on camera, and also explaining their ideas thoughtfully. So one student is holding the camera, the other is doing the props, and they’re talking. And they’re really understanding these concepts and how the seasons work during the year. After that is the Hour of Code. So December is Computer Science Week and computer science month. And this is again, a great time to do this. I’ve said this on past episodes, I have a whole episode about the Hour of Code. But you really do want to do the Hour of Code during those December months because the kids are a little restless and it’s very low prep. This is one unit, I don’t do a whole lot of my own creation because there are so many great coding tools out there. So for first grade, I don’t do a whole big project. But I pull out a lot of different coding experiences, where they can explore different types of coding. A new one that I started implementing was the Osmo coding kit, which is excellent with iPads and Kindles. It’s a hands on coding, which I talked about it in the last episode, that Kindergarten episode. So I do this with first grade and it’s awesome. We are back from winter break and then we go from coding in December. And then we come back and work on some robotics. Again, another lesson that I tested with them. We were talking about animal babies and their adults and how the adults care for their babies. Not all animals care for their babies. So we talked about the ones that do. And there are different signifiers that help the parents take care of their young, like giving them shelter, giving them food, and giving them comfort. They always giggle when I give them the example that I am the animal parent of my dog, Frederick the dog. And if you are watching the video version, he is always sitting behind me in his little bed listening to me record. And I do all of these things for my little baby boy. So they giggle and laugh. And for this project again, another one that I am testing. It’s not up yet. So there’s a lot of updates coming to this year long plan that aren’t even written on the year long plan. Um, students were researching about their favorite animal that Epic Books had and how they care for their young. We create the animal baby and their adult. And then we have a zoo, where they code their robots to visit the different animals in the zoo. And you can use whatever robots in this one. So this is really fun, a quick challenge. We also do some STEM stations that are winter themed throughout the week. But that’s what I do for robotics. Next, we get into 3D printing. And I’ve said this before I do 3D printing K through five. And another standard that is in there for first grade is all about animal family traits. So again, we do some research about how parents and their young are similar and different in appearance. We talk more about their appearance, not so much their attitudes. And then again, they choose their favorite and then they design the baby animal and their adult and our 3D print program. And we print it out and then we add those physical features. So they’re so proud of themselves that they created. That is 3D printing. Next and I’m not sure if I talked about this in the Kindergarten one but I do switch it up and do my LEGO education kits. So currently in the year long plan you’re gonna see I do LEGO education at the end of the year. I actually switch that up and do LEGO education during the springtime because the kids are a little antsy and they need to work on that collaboration. In the LEGO we do 1.0, which is an older kit. You can’t get them anymore. So you can substitute the LEGO education kids however you want, if that’s something that you have. Now, if you don’t have the budget to purchase LEGO education kits, I recommend having some sort of task or challenge when it comes to LEGO, maybe not necessarily a build and take apart in one day’s situation. But think of a unit that they could do that’s related to standards that they could build and work on that. One kit I really am loving right now is the LEGO spike essential kits. It is diverse for first through fifth grade. So look into that if you are looking to buy some LEGO. I’ll do an episode about LEGO in the future and how I set that up with my students. But if you’re looking to buy something I highly, highly recommend. It’s so diverse, it can do so many things. Jennifer Mahin and I talked about it in her guest episode. It’s awesome. It’s really good. After that, if we have time in the year, we will get into stop motion animation, and we will talk about biomimicry. So how a lot of inventors use different things from animals. We will talk about the different things that humans see in nature that will inspire them for their designs, and really play off of those different things like think about a turtle. The design of it is a lot like a turtle shell it protects our head just like how it protects the body of a turtle. So students will research more about biomimicry, and then they will create their own invention that’s based off of biomimicry and all the articles that I wrote for them. And then they’ll create a stop motion to share their ideas. Then we will finish off the year with my favorite and the kids new favorite, it’s a close tie between STEM survival camp and we have STEM-musement park to end the year, they always ask about these two units. And we talk about how we can communicate things using light and sound. And how at carnivals they communicate using light and sound to attract customers to their station and also communicate if points are won. So students have to design a game that will have some sort of communication, whether it’s to draw customers in or it’s something in their game, and with light or sound, and they have so much fun designing this. 


Naomi Meredith  17:20

Now you heard the whole recap of the whole year. So what does it look like during the week. Like I said, it’s very similar to what I do in Kindergarten. But sometimes the projects can last a little bit longer in first grade, especially since they are used to me at this point. If you want to see how I actually go through and plan those, I have a K through two STEM planning workshop. It’s all recorded now, just two hours of your time. And you will be awesome at STEM planning and look at it from another perspective. So when I have my first graders, when I go back to that 3D printing example, I will do the project for about one to three days, I have kids five days in a row. But if you have a different schedule, you could do this too. We will work on the project for about one to three days. And then the last two days, we will do STEM stations, again, very similar to what I’ll do in Kindergarten, but I will change out the content. So I shared with you that 3D printing example when we’re talking about animal families and their traits. So we will go through that Engineering Design Process quickly for their grade level during those three days. And then the last two days are STEM stations. So some stations that I have done in conjunction with this unit is we have done pixel animals, so pixel art animals, I love using the blocks billboards for this or any similar type of small block that helps with their fine motor skills, then we will do some geoboard animals, and then move into a Seesaw lesson where there is one I created or one that I actually found off seesaw, which there’s been some really good ones in there lately. So definitely check that out. And then they will also do a robotics coding station where there are different animal traits on a board. And then they have to compare the baby animal and the adult, how they’re the same and different. And then code those different traits. Again, something else I am testing and working on. So this unit is going to get some revamping. First graders do an awesome job at stations. I know they do it with our classroom teachers. So I love doing stations with first graders and kindergarteners, once they get the hang of school. They’re really great and they are so calm. So if you want to see again, in my workshop, I’ll show exactly how I plan stations. When you think about the whole unit. It is an absolute game changer. 


Naomi Meredith  19:31

So you’re probably wondering, in my opinion, what are the top three skills that a first grader should walk away with when they are leaving a STEM class and are using those STEM skills? Maybe you’re a classroom teacher. What should they be able to accomplish? Based on what I’ve seen, here’s what I think a first grader should walk away with in no particular order. First is being able to use all of the elements of the Engineering Design Process or whatever method you are constantly using with your students. I do I use that with my students, but we really can get into it in first grade and being able to do that at a level that works best for them. So they should be able to walk away with a basic understanding of how that works, and being able to use that repetitive process. Next, as a first grader, I hope that they are able to collaborate in up to groups of three. So yes, with a partner and Kindergarten we talk about hopefully, you can collaborate with a partner, not just doing that parallel play. But sometimes in first grade, we can move up to a group of three when we have very specific roles. So that is something I really challenged them to be able to work on. And finally, I would love a first grader to leave my STEM space, being able to thoughtfully explain how their design works. So you get a lot in Kindergarten, look, look what I made. Look, see, see, see what I did, which they’re excited. Good. Awesome. Yeah, I’m so glad you worked. And you are creative on that. As a first grader, I still want them to be excited. I want all kids to be excited. But how does your design work? Tell me more about this. What does it do? What problem are you solving? And this is a great opportunity to share their thoughts in Seesaw because they love to chat. 


Naomi Meredith  20:18

As a recap, here is how I would set up my first grade STEM curriculum. We first talked about the overall year and how you can break that up over the course of the month and giving a whole bunch of different experiences. Next, I shared with you the structure of the week and how I would break that down for a unit. And finally, in my opinion, the top three skills that a first grader should walk away, leaving your STEM classroom with now I know again, it is so overwhelming and I am here for you, I am loving this podcast that I know you guys are too I love all the messages. And so there’s so many things I’ve created for you to help give you support, I have that new thing coming up. So that will be officially announced on May 1 2023. But it don’t want you to miss out on that. So just make sure you sign up using the link naomimeredith.com/special. And you will hear all about what that new to you and new to me thing is that will definitely support you. And also all the lessons that I’m talking about and the future updates who will be included. So those are all linked in the show notes for you. So the K through two STEM planning workshop, there is a bundle of just the first grade STEM lessons if you only want those lessons, but I also have it broken into K through two STEM lessons as a bundle and also K through five you can get the full year. Again, there’s going to be a lot more updates in this upcoming year as I have been testing things with my students and trying new things out. And especially when it comes to the STEM station. So if you grab any of those today, you’ll get it at the cheapest price. And you’ll get all those updates for free. So I really try to analyze and make these work best for you and things that I’ve seen work well with students. Thank you so much again and I will see you in the next episode when we are going to talk all about second grade.

1st grade STEM curriculum

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

kindergarten STEM curriculum

Kindergarten STEM Curriculum, Tips & Ideas [K-5 STEM Series] [ep.81]

by Naomi Meredith

Kindergarten STEM Curriculum, Tips & Ideas [K-5 STEM Series] [ep.81]

kindergarten STEM curriculum

Check out the full episode on Kindergarten STEM Curriculum, Tips & Ideas:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Have you been wondering what a Kindergarten STEM curriculum should actually look like? In today’s episode, I share what you should consider when planning your Kindergarten STEM curriculum, including an overview of what your Kindergarten STEM curriculum can look like for the year and on a weekly basis.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • An overview of what your Kindergarten STEM curriculum can look like for the year
  • An overview of what your week of lessons can look like
  • The top 3 skills I want my Kindergarten students to leave my STEM classroom knowing
  • Why these are the top 3 skills I focus on with my Kindergarten students

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

What should a Kindergarten STEM curriculum look like? In this episode, I am sharing with you an overview of what your year can look like in Kindergarten, a breakdown of the structure of your week of lessons, and also some major takeaways of skills that students should be learning once they leave Kindergarten in STEM. This is part one of a six-part series where I am going to be breaking down each grade level, K through five, and the same overall structure when it comes to the overall planning in your STEM space. Whether you are a STEM teacher, a classroom teacher who’s implementing STEM, a specialist, or any other elementary teacher who is interested in this topic, you’re gonna be walking away with a lot of helpful information to implement with your STEM Kindergarten curriculum. 


Naomi Meredith  00:51

When I walked into my K-5 STEM teaching and coaching position, it was a brand new to me district and school, and a brand new classroom with a few tools and zero curriculum. This was very exciting for me coming out from being a classroom teacher, I taught second grade for two years and third grade for four years. It’s so exciting to have really nothing but also very overwhelming. I’m sure a lot of you had a very similar experience to what I had. So you can definitely relate to this experience. STEM is so exciting in the elementary space and it is absolutely needed. However, there are so many ideas out there that again, it can get overwhelming and you don’t know where to start. So that’s why I’m doing this grade levels series for you really breaking down each grade level. There was a lot of interest in this when I put my podcast survey out a few months ago. So I’m really excited about this and just breaking down for you what it looks like really all day and all year in this type of position. Everything that I’m going to be sharing is 100% linked in the show notes too. You can go back and check those out and get what you need with all the resources that I’m going to be talking about. Each episode is going to have the same structure. I will be sharing an overview of the year, break down the structure of the week, and give you my opinion of the top three skills that students should walk away from in STEM at each grade level. It’s pretty hard to pick three, but just based on my five years in this role, what I have seen and those types of trends. 


Naomi Meredith  03:17

First, I start off the year with STEM survival camp and kindergarten’s challenge is to cross the river. So they are tasked using some materials from outside and also things from in my classroom, for students to figure out a way for their little characters to cross the river. They are given buckets of water, and they can think about things that go across the river, things that go in the river, and also things that float. So we also talk about floating and sinking. After that when students are warmed up in my class and have a basic basic understanding of the Engineering Design Process, more so just what my classroom is, we talk about digital citizenship at a Kindergarten level. There are a lot of great free resources out there for teachers, my favorite being Common Sense Media. There are some awesome lessons and video clips out there that are made specifically for every single grade level. So I use a mixture of that, but also created a STEM challenge that is based on those lessons. So if they’re doing those things with their classroom teacher, then they have something extra that I know they’re not doing in their classroom because I created it. So we talk about media balance in Kindergarten, while it’s okay to do things with technology and sometimes we need a break and do things without, but both are good and it’s really important to have a balance of those things. So there are a few different stories that we read about media balance. And then students actually engineer a balance to balance those activities that are on unifix cubes, those on screen and off-screen activities. So that is a one-day challenge when it comes to the actual building. But the lessons throughout the week apply to that digital citizenship lesson. After that, we move into my maker month, my Makerspace month for K-5 and talking about different earth systems. For Kindergarten, we talk about how some animals change the land to create their homes, and we’ve zoned in on specifically on ants. The kids think it’s so funny when I talk about how ants can’t go to Home Depot and go get some building supplies and build their homes, they start giggling and think it’s so funny. But ants, they decided, hey, this is a great spot of land, we are going to build our home here. So we explore different things that ants add in their homes and how they work together as a team. And then we take a couple of days and students build their own ant house, which is in the form of a moveable marble maze that can be held in their hands. And then they’re able to add labels and pictures that describe this animal home. Then we also have some STEM stations that relate to this standard that go along with that. So we dive in deeper, but our main project is focused in on ants and how they change the land to create their home. After that, we move into my STEM-sational space unit where we talk about video and audio production in K-5. And this is something that I have been playing around with. So this lesson will definitely come up soon. But we create a short video to explain how the shade actually works. So what is the difference of that and what are different shade structures that can be made to give shade. So we can definitely have that. From there, there are some different stations that we do, again, focusing on shade structures, and how those are important and even testing our design. So we really zone in and focus on those standards, while also creating a small video. And like I said, that is the lesson that I am testing. That will be part of the updates within that whole year long plan bundle. After that we move into the Hour of Code for December and giving students a lot of different opportunities to explore coding that works at their level. Now when I do Hour of Code, that is the only unit that I’m not necessarily doing a specific project, which you definitely can. But I’m really exploring coding with different types of resources. So I’ll pull out robots that have directional coding, lots of different apps that are free that students can explore the coding. There are some things on the hour code website that we take a look at. And even something new that I implemented were the Osmo coding kits where there are three levels of coding and they are hands-on and excellent. So if you have Kindles or iPads in your classroom, I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about the Osmos in other episodes. Back in the episode about the best STEM toys for 2022, I talk more about what Osmos are. But definitely a really great kit when it can bring hands-on elements to coding and it works really well for K-2. Then we come back for the year and implement different stations that are related to snow. So we explore matter with different stories when it comes to STEM and stories, counting snowflakes, building snow, people looking at the elements of math with snowflakes. We do a lot of different stations when it comes to snow and read a lot of stories. So we’re slowly building up into other bigger projects. But again, this is coming back into the year, their stamina is a little bit low. So doing those STEM stations is just building them back up and practicing. And using all of those different tools is what I like to do when we get back from the New Year. Then we move into February, the kids have the groove of things. And believe it or not, I actually do 3D printing with all of my grades, which I have a little mini 3D printing series that you can go back and listen to. But with Kindergarten, we talk about ways to take care of the earth. So we do a lot of different research planning of all those different ways we explore resources. And then students create a key chain to help remind them of how to take care of the earth. So some of their key chain designs are maybe planting flowers, maybe they actually create the earth to help them to take care of the earth. Some kids like to create a recycling truck. So all of those different ways to take care of the earth. And they are so proud of their keychain design, once I get those printed, and then we color them with Sharpies, put a keychain on it, and then they take it away with them a month or two later. After that with there’s more time and this is a unit I will play around with I won’t always do. But if you want to explore stop motion animation, this is a great time to do this, in the spring. So students create a stop motion animation to describe the weather patterns that we have kept track of throughout the week. Now this is something that I have done when collaborating with classroom teachers. So the week before they keep track of the weather, they have a little weather journal that they keep all the data from. And then when they come into STEM, they have that data or at least the teacher has that data. And then we will use that to create a stop motion animation with either paper or playdough to show the weather patterns throughout the week. If we have time, we will add a voice over with that or even just students will talk about it in Seesaw. So just a really cool way to get them exposed to stop motion animation. Then I like to move into LEGO belts. This is typically state testing season. I know Kindergarten doesn’t do our state tests, but it’s just a busy time in general. So I recently bought this STEAM Park kit from LEGO education. They come in these ginormous boxes. And they are those big LEGO bricks, those Duplo blocks and I am so in love with this kit. It has been an excellent purchase. I know LEGO education kits are expensive. And you might be thinking do I even need to invest in this and my little learners 100%. Yes, this has actually been one of the better ones that I have bought. Now the kits are really, really big they come everything is sorted in these bags. And so I went and ended up sorting everything by color. And then every day there’s a new challenge. So there’s a little story that goes along with STEAM Park. And then students solve the problem. They can follow the inspirational pictures or create on their own and talk about these different topics that come in STEAM Park. So it’s been an awesome success. I really, really love it. And just has been really good for my little learners. And those big blocks have not been babyish at all, they love them. So if you’re thinking about a LEGO Education Kit, I highly recommend that we finish off the year with my STEM Musement Park. And we talked about the standards with the force and motion, how things can change direction, which we’re going to talk more about in this next section. But we talked about that where they build their cardboard maze on the wall, and then we have some different STEM stations. So overall, that is a recap of the year and what I do with Kindergarten, definitely mix it up. 


Naomi Meredith  03:17

First, let’s talk about the overview of the year. If you are curious to see what my actual year looks like K-5, you can check that out at Naomimeredith.com/yearlongplan where I have my entire year long plan for free and all of those standards connected with those. This upcoming year I’m going to actually be adding a lot of updates when it comes to the lessons that are provided and include bonus lessons inside, especially for K and one because I’ve actually updated the way that I teach these lessons over the past couple of years. So jump in on that now and then you might want to download it again later, maybe in a few months, whenI have a bunch of updates. But overall, the structure of this will be the same. Now if you’re curious to see how I actually plan a whole year and the whole method behind this, go back and listen to episode 14, where I discuss how to create your scope and sequence in the STEM space when I am planning my overall years. So K-5, I like to plan with overarching themes. So I look at the standards and think about the different topics that are related within those grade levels. I also think about the overall skills that I want students to learn. So when I am teaching LEGO education kits, everyone is doing a LEGO Education Kit or a similar activity at that time. As a teacher, this is so much easier to plan because you have that progression of learning. You also are in that mind frame as you were teaching. So you’re gonna think about those tips and tricks while you’re teaching throughout the day. And, again, you’re gonna know all of those differentiation techniques. So within that same day, because you’re basically teaching it over and over again, just at a different level. So I know there’s a lot of different ways to do this, you could break it up throughout the year. But this is just how I like to plan and it just has made it a lot easier. Just having all the materials out at one time, at the end of the unit I can clean it up and put it away. I’m going to go through the major lessons that I teach in Kindergarten and just a little snapshot of each of those. Again, check it out in my free year long plan, where you can see more of an in depth discussion of those. 


Naomi Meredith  14:20

But here let’s go into what is the breakdown of my actual week. If you need more support with your planning, I have a K-2 STEM planning workshop. I did host this live but recorded it at the time so you actually get to hear me answer real questions from real teachers who were at the workshop. In this two hour workshop, I break down exactly how I plan and give you all the planning sheets so you can be successful for your younger learners. So that will be linked in the show notes or you can find it at Naomimeredith.com/primaryworkshop. This is a new thing that I have started implementing the way that I like to plan my weeks for my little learners. And what I’ll typically do is have a main mini project, which you heard me talk about in the full year. And that will last about one to two days, then I will have STEM stations that will last two days. And then if I need a fifth day or a sub plan, then we will do a STEM and stories where we will do a challenge that is related to the story that we’ve read. And this story might be fiction or nonfiction. So I talked about at the end of the year, I like to do a STEM-musement Park. So when it comes to breaking down the week, here’s how I would do that. So days one and two, we start with that standard. So that force and motion standard that is in the NGSS, how things can change direction and move and building to figure that out, figure out the science behind it. So students have a will plan and then design a cardboard wall maze that we will leave up on the walls, and use tape and then test their designs. So the students love this. And they really do a great job collaborating and working together to build their maze, then we will move into STEM stations, we’ll do a variety of tasks. So I have a huge whiteboard that is magnetic on my wall. So I found these magnetic marble mazes that stick on there. So again, very similar but different to the challenge that they did the pieces already created. And they get to build and create these different mazes on the whiteboard. Then another station is I have found their fake LEGO bricks, but a fake LEGO bricks that where they can build a marble maze that stands up that is not on the wall. So seeing how that will actually change how things will move and turn. Then there’s also an app that I found that where students can build their own mazes and add different pieces. And then we have a robotic coding station where there are balloon animals where they actually have to roll the dice, find the numbers, then add them up, and then find the sum on the grid. So find different challenges that go along with our STEM-musement park, mainly about force motion, but a really great way to hone in and really get into that standard. So as you can see, I really liked again, planning and themes. But really zoning in on this standard, I’m not replacing what the classroom teacher is doing. Or maybe you are the classroom teacher, and you just want more ways to implement STEM and just really have a different way of learning. I’m not replacing that for that classroom teacher. So even if kids have learned this standard in their class, I know they’re gonna be doing something different with me. And really just having that hands-on experience to focus on that vocabulary, which is good for all students, not just Kindergarten, it’s great for everybody. 


Naomi Meredith  14:54

Here are the top three things that I think a kindergartener should leave STEM leaving. And this was hard for me to really pick three. And I think it’s going to be hard to pick three for all the grade levels. So here are my top three. So aside from kindergarteners, just like learning what my room looks like, where it is in the building, where the bathroom is in the proximity of my room, we do take a field trip to the bathroom, the first two days, and everybody goes and then we know where the bathroom is. So by the end of the year, they actually know how to go the bathroom independently where it’s located. But here are my top three skills that I think a Kindergarten nourish, should leave my class with. They’re not really in order, you can mix them up. But these are the top important things. First is for a kindergartner to be able to gather materials independently. So finding where those are, and also being able to clean those up independently. This is really important as the teacher to set up those structures where this can be possible. And it is 100% bras possible. I taught preschool in college and we had our preschoolers do this. So I know a five-year-old, a five and six-year-olds are definitely capable. And I can get out all of those materials, and they will be cleaned up at the end of class. The second skill that I want my kindergarteners to walk away with is being able to collaborate with at least a partner by this point and their age. They’re very used to having parallel play where they’re playing by themselves, but they’re playing side by side with others. And that is definitely how I start off the year. But again, based on the structures that I set up for students, I really want them to be able to successfully collaborate with a partner, whether it’s a partner of their choice, or it’s a partner that I choose. So again, setting up those roles for them. Helping them be successful is really, really important. And this is going to help set them up for the rest of the years when they’re in my class but also in school. And the third thing that I want kindergartners to walk away from my class is being able to complete a project that lasts more than one days and up to two days long. So it’s very easy for students to complete things in one day, but having them actually have a project that has multiple that, and being able to start that cleaned it up, and then get it out and then pick it up where they left off and finish it up a second day is huge, because they want to rush through their work and just do the crate part. So I do still use the Engineering Design Process, even in Kindergarten, it is an NGSS, Next Generation Science Standards, K-2 has the Engineering Design Process. But having a project that can last one to two and maybe three days can definitely be done. But it’s something that we work up to probably don’t start it until maybe that maker month, when we’re talking about the ant hills in all of that that lasts about two days. But that is definitely something I want to work up to. So that they are creating that long-term memory and remembering Oh, I did this the day before. Here’s what I need to do next. 


Naomi Meredith  20:49

As a recap, here are the main things when you’re thinking about your Kindergarten STEM curriculum and just those tips and tricks along the way when it comes to your overall year. First, we talked about the overview of the year, then I broke down the structure of the week. Then we talked about the top three skills that that kindergarteners should know by the end of the year once they leave STEM. Like I said, I’m going to do this series. So we will be talking about first through fifth in the next few episodes. There are a lot of ways that I can help support you when it comes to your Kindergarten STEM planning. Definitely jump on In in that K-2 STEM planning workshop, you will get a professional development certificate to help you break down how to actually plan out these lessons. I also have a K-5 year long plan that has all the lessons that I teach and constantly updating and adding things to those. So jumping on that the sooner you jump in on that the cheaper it is. If you only need Kindergarten, I have it broken down in just to Kindergarten bundle, and also a K-2 bundle depending on what you teach. So thank you so much again for joining me. I’m happy to support you and your STEM journey. And I can’t wait to see you in the next episodes.

kindergarten STEM curriculum

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

how do podcasts help students learn

How Do Podcasts Help Students Learn? with Jerry Kolber from Who Smarted? [ep.80]

by Naomi Meredith

How Do Podcasts Help Students Learn? with Jerry Kolber from Who Smarted [ep.80]

how do podcasts help students learn

Check out the full episode on How Do Podcasts Help Students Learn? with Jerry Kolber from Who Smarted:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Have you wondered how do podcasts help students learn? Podcasts are an engaging way to learn new content quickly. There are many amazing podcasts for your students. One of those is the Who Smarted Podcast. In today’s episode, I sit down to chat with Jerry Kolber, who works on the team for the Who Smarted Podcast. Jerry and I discuss how podcasts help students learn, the benefits of incorporating podcasts into your STEM classroom, and much more.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why the Who Smarted Podcast was created
  • The answer to the question how do podcasts help students learn
  • An inside look into how the Who Smarted Podcast team collaborates to create the podcast each week
  • Jerry’s favorite episodes on the Who Smarted Podcast

Meet Jerry Kolber:

Jerry Kolber has spent the last fifteen years creating some of the world’s most beloved and recognizable educational entertainment. He is also a past and current board member of many community and educational not-for-profits, including The Greenhouse for Artists, Tap Fusion, The Interdependence Project, and the Prague Project, and he serves in an advisory capacity to not-for-profits across the USA. From Nat Geo’s BRAIN GAMES to Netflix’s BRAINCHILD (co-produced by Pharrell Williams) to the WHO SMARTED? Podcast – family audiences are consistently entertained and enlightened by Kolber’s work. Kolber is the winner of a Parents Choice Award, Imagen Award for Diversity in Entertainment, Cablefax Award for Best Family Show, Common Sense Media Seal of Approval, and received an Emmy Nomination for Prime Time Informational Series or Special. His love of creating edutainment came from his experience of loving Science and Math as a child but being unable to connect with it presented in the classroom. Kolber is the co-founder and CEO of Atomic Entertainment and the President of the Not-for-Profit Make Learning Fun Foundation.

Connect with Jerry:

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

Are you curious about how you can use podcasts with kids? Podcasts are a wonderful way to learn new content quickly but also in an engaging way. Now, I don’t think I need to tell you that since you are listening to a podcast right now; however, think about how your love of listening to podcasts can be transferred to your students. There are great podcasts for kids out there, and I have the perfect one for you to check out. In this episode, I am chatting with Jerry Kolber, who has extensive experience when it comes to educational entertainment. He is currently working on the Who Smarted podcast, which I highly recommend for you to listen to with your students. His work ranges from Nat Geo’s Brain Games to Netflix’s Brainchild, co-produced by Pharrell Williams, to the Who Smarted podcast, where family audiences are consistently entertained and enlightened by Kolber’s work. This isn’t showcasing all his work by the way. Definitely go check out his full bio in my show notes. It’s pretty amazing. Kolber is the winner of a Parent’s Choice Award, Imagen Award for diversity and entertainment, Cablefax Award for Best Family Show, Common Sense Media Seal of Approval, and received an Emmy nomination for Primetime Informational Series or Special. His love of creating edutainment came from his experience of loving science and math as a child but being unable to connect with it because of how it was presented in the classroom, which I’m sure you might have had students like that. So that’s how podcasts can really fit in with your students. Jerry is so great and so supportive of education and making it attainable and entertaining for kids, schools, and families. I had so much fun chatting with Jerry, and he was such a delight, and I know that you’re going to love listening to this episode. 


Naomi Meredith  01:50

Well, thank you, Jerry, so much for being here. We connected through a mutual friend, and I’m really excited about this collaboration because I think a lot of STEM teachers maybe haven’t thought about how they could add this with their students and how podcasting can be really beneficial for their kids, and so on. So before we dive into all of that if you wouldn’t mind telling us about yourself, your background, and then your involvement with the podcast that you help with?


Jerry Kolber  02:53

Sure. So thank you, first of all, for having me here. It’s really fun to always talk to folks like you and talk to teachers. My background is as a TV producer; primarily, I made a show called Brain Games for National Geographic that I created. That was a science show that ran for seven or eight seasons. And then we made a TV show called Brainchild that ran on Netflix, which was a 13-episode science series for 8 to 12-year-olds, hosted by a young woman of color. With a female science expert, this is an awesome opportunity for some great representation and a lot of fun for the kids who get exposed to science through the show. Personally, I was a very bad student. If any of my science teachers knew what I do now, they would think it must be a different Jerry Kolber because I did not do well in school in science. But actually, that was kind of a strength for me because I loved science growing up, and I was always at the science museum planetarium. And, you know, for me, it was more of a struggle with connecting with how the science was taught in the classroom. And my teachers were all very good teachers, it was more an issue of just the sort of traditional way materials were presented. So as I started working in TV and media and audio, I always wanted to figure out a way to basically make the show that I wish it existed when I was a kid. And so that’s Brainchild. And now, most recently, Who Smarted, which is a 15-minute, three times weekly science and history podcast for elementary school kids, and Who Smarted is the podcast we’re talking about today. You know the strength of Who Smarted is that it’s short. It can be used as an entry into a subject matter in a classroom. It can be used during a car ride, and it’s easy to access because it’s audio. So it doesn’t require a teacher to have permission to have video connections. It’s very easy to use in the classroom. So you know, a lot of problems that we’d had with getting our TV shows in the educational setting, we solved by creating an audio podcast, Who Smarted.


Naomi Meredith  05:03

I love the background of Who Smarted, and the reason why you went the podcast route is because that is so true when it comes to the media release and all of that, it is hard for us to get subscriptions as teachers. In my district, YouTube is blocked. So I have to unblock it as a teacher, and I can’t have students access it. So I think that’s such a smart route and such definitely, with the increase of podcasts anyway, we might as well get kids listening and engaging. I love how you said that you created something that you wish you had as a kid. I feel like a lot of teachers who are in this STEM space now that’s probably how they got into STEM because that didn’t exist when we were kids. We had science, but just having more of that integration of the science, technology, engineering, and math all in one, I think you would have been great at that, Jerry. I think that you would have been awesome in this STEM classroom. You would have loved it. I do a whole video and audio production lesson with my kids, and you probably would have been my star student.


Jerry Kolber  06:09

Where were you when I needed you? But you know, the other thing for us, and this is a bigger issue, is STEM does not get the resources and support that it should, at least not in the United States. That range is literally from, like, we hear teachers all the time who have to buy their own supplies and stuff for classrooms, which is just, that’s ridiculous. Then, you know, on the other end of the spectrum, STEM just isn’t really featured in a really cool way. In American media, it’s always like, you know, nerdy or, you know, not always, but it’s often portrayed as a nerdy thing. It’s not something that’s good, especially younger women, and minority kids don’t really see themselves represented in STEM as much as they should. And then you fast forward, like, think of where we’re going to be in 20 years. If you don’t think that technology is going to be the solution to all the problems we’re facing right now, then you’re like living under a rock. And so it’s so important that we create curiosity and potential and a pathway into these careers for every possible kid. It’s just almost our duty as a society to do that. And so that’s why we’re so excited to be able to support teachers who are bringing STEM into the classroom because it’s such a crucial thing to do. And, you know, it’s so funny because, like, to your point, you know, it sometimes gets down to things like teachers going, Hey, we would love to use your Brainchild show in the classroom, but we’re not allowed to show videos in the class, or Netflix is blocked, or I don’t have a subscription I can use. And then you go, okay, we’ll put it on YouTube. Well, we can’t use YouTube in the classroom. It’s blocked. And so, like, we only sort of drill down to, like, how do we solve this problem? And it’s like, oh, audio podcasts don’t live on a single platform. It’s just one podcast, so teachers can very proactively say, I’m going to play Who’s Smarted or one of the other educational podcasts. And the beauty of that is that they can have a way to make these subjects entertaining and easy for kids to get into. I think that the biggest problem is that we’re just not making it fun in media for children to get excited about STEM topics. Right? It’s, yeah, yeah. That’s why we’re doing it. So yeah.


Naomi Meredith  08:24

Oh, I love that. And I hear you’re not a former teacher, right?


Jerry Kolber  08:28

No, I’m a former terrible student. But I like talking about this. 


Naomi Meredith  08:33

This is so good that you’re saying this because you aren’t a teacher. But you recognize the importance of STEM subjects and why that’s important for kids, and the way that our country has gone. Because I mean, it’s true, like us as teachers, we know what you’re saying, like you’re preaching to the choir right here with all that you said. And it’s like when I was getting my master’s in STEM leadership, there were all these articles about how there’s such a big drop off with kids getting into science because they think it’s boring, like there actually are studies about it. And yes, I teach them as a specialist; all the kids in the schools get it. That’s not always true in every building. I get the kids five days in a row, once a month. But a lot of schools don’t have that. And it’s up to the classroom teachers. And so they might, you know, I mean, it’s a lot of work. And so sometimes they might not always put in the effort they want because it is a lot of work for science, and then the kids get bored, and it’s a whole cycle. And so I love your podcast, the Who Smarted. I was listening to the peanut butter one the other day, and it’s totally different than this. Like if you’re a teacher, who has ever done podcasts with your kids, a podcast for kids, well, it can be boring, but this one’s not boring. So it has all these audio effects. There are just a lot of things that capture the kids’ attention. Where if they’ve never listened to podcasts, it’s very quick, where kids don’t sit there and get bored because of the sound effects, stories, voices, all the like interesting topics, and the weirder the topic, I feel like the better. How do you get inspiration for the episodes? Like because I know you have kids, or you have families who give reviews? Or do you guys just sit around and brainstorm ideas? 


Jerry Kolber  10:22

Oh, we totally read the reviews and look for ideas. We love when we get ideas from the kids. And it’s like, some, you know, if we see like enough kids saying we want a Roblox episode, we’re like, Okay, we’ll do an episode on Roblox or like do one on pizza or ice cream or, you know, gravity or whatever. So we totally look at that for inspiration. And then also our writers and producers all are always thinking about, like, what can be a good topic for Who Smarted. So yeah, that comes from all over the place. But we love taking inspiration from our; we call them our Smarty fans, say smarty pants. Yeah, so we love getting ideas from them. Yes, and that’s just to go back to the point you were just saying, you know, it’s so we know, there are so many teachers who are 100% on board with the idea of just how important STEM is and their STEM specialists. But we also know that teachers are burdened with so many requirements of how to teach and how to test, and how to prepare plus, gosh, you might have a life outside of school also. Who knows? So, we know it’s like the idea that a teacher would have the bandwidth to also create, like, really fun, you know, engaging material. It’s like you guys are superheroes, but there is even a limit to that, you know. And so we think of Who Smarted as kind of, like, the warm-up act before the main comedian, you know, like, the main. Yeah, so it’s like, we’re not going to teach the kid everything there is to know about peanuts and the history of peanuts, but like, we will get them excited to learn more by making it fun by making the topic relatable. And so that’s the function we serve, you know, and, yeah, it’s just, we just really want to support what’s going on in classrooms and homes. And anywhere, there’s potential STEM education happening, like we want to help make it easier, make it more fun.


Naomi Meredith  12:07

Oh, 100%, it’s such a great way to build background knowledge. Because with any topic, especially in STEM or science, you want not all kids to have a background on the topic. That’s why we’re teachers, I tell my students that I don’t know about this, and like, oh, my gosh, I’m a teacher, I’m gonna do my job I get to teach you. But definitely, a podcast is so helpful because you want to find ways to engage students. And if they don’t know about the topic, it’s a great conversation starter. And your podcasts are pretty short, I would say. But you can even pull clips if you’re a teacher and just listen to a little segment. And you could listen to segments of that same episode throughout the week. So it’s a really great conversational starter. So if you don’t have what 15 Or about 15 ish minutes, maybe a little less. But you could definitely take little chunks of that. And it could just be a real like you said, a good conversational starter. And this can relate to the project that we’re going to do. Or it could even be if you are doing a podcast project, as I told you, I do with my fifth graders; it’s a really great way for students to get ideas to create their own podcast, so it might be even inspiration for them. And it’s really cool how podcasting has just had this resurgence. Obviously, we’re talking right now. But I tell my students that not all of you are going to be a YouTuber, and you might not be great on camera, but there’s something called podcasts. And this has a lot of potential. And a lot of kids actually, I haven’t heard of it, at least at my school. But some kids have great podcasting voices and, like, Ah, you have a great voice for a podcast. And so it’s just really cool. Just another way where kids can be inspired and be creative. Because the show, Who Smarted, is very creative. And you work as a team, right? So what are all the different roles, you would say? Behind the scenes on your podcast?


Jerry Kolber  14:06

Yeah, so we have several producers for the show who are kind of like a higher level, you know, big picture, what are we doing? When are we doing it? What are the episodes? We have a bunch of writers there all over the country. Some of them are researchers, and some of them are current or former educators themselves. We have researchers who research topics for us. Then we also have a team of audio engineers, who are the folks who add all the sound effects and make us sound great. We have actors all over the place. Depending on the, you know, each of our scripts has either kind of time travel or space to go to another place. And so we have to have different actors to portray different roles. So we have a bunch of actors. So you know, it’s a small team and an amazing team, but it’s definitely a group effort to get the episodes out three times a week.


Naomi Meredith  14:07

I know that’s a lot. I do two a week, and it’s just me and my podcast manager, but she is amazing. So I mean, if I had a big team. One day, one day, Jerry, one day.


Jerry Kolber  15:14

Listen, I think you have it worse. You’re doing it all by yourself, you know? So it’s, yeah, it’s a lot. 


Naomi Meredith 15:20

It is a lot, but we’re six months in with this podcast. I think that’s really good to hear, just that something like this type of production is all a collaborative effort. And we talk about that with our students. So even hearing this, like, hey, not one person did this; they have a whole behind-the-scenes team. And that’s like a good way to even share about like a STEM job that they might have one day; who knows if podcasting will be in 20 years, who knows? It could be something else. But working together as a team and having those soft skills and being able to be creative and share ideas, I think, is really important. Like it’s a great model for them, for sure.


Jerry Kolber  16:06

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I, it’s where we keep talking about, like, it’s a whole new project. And we’re always like, Should we be creating some sort of wave to sort of package the idea of how to teach kids how to do their own podcasts? Yeah, because we hear that a lot from the smarty pants or, like, how do we do podcasts, and we want to be on the show. And, you know, my thought is always like, rather than putting someone on something that exists, especially if it’s a child who is excited about the creative process, is like, teach them the process of what you’re talking about, teach them how to collaborate, how to create, and how to work in a team. These are such important life skills that are not really part of like official school curriculum and are so important. So I love that you’re thinking like that. It’s exactly the right way to think about preparing kids for the real world and problem-solving. 


Naomi Meredith  16:56

Yeah, that’s what we’re in the business of. I teach the kids that the tools are going to change, but these soft skills aren’t. And it doesn’t matter if you have a STEM job, which most of you will, but you need STEM skills. And that’s where like really important because these LEGO robotics aren’t going to be here. And like in a few years like this, maybe you might not want to be a YouTuber; it’s going to be something else. But you need those skills for sure. So I think that’s a really good model for them, listening to podcasts. So what is your favorite episode on Who Smarted? Do you have your top three?


Jerry Kolber  17:33

Favorite episodes? I feel like I just listened to them. I mean, let me look at my list of episodes here because there are so many. That’s like, which of your 350 Children is your favorite? Let’s see. I just listened to one recently that I really loved and then say which one it was. It was the Oh, the flamingos episode was really fun. We just did one last month on flamingos. I learned so many things from that episode, I did not know that flamingos basically just have a giant foot that’s like not a knee. But it’s an ankle that they’re standing on that.


Naomi Meredith  18:10

I didn’t. 


Jerry Kolber  18:11

Yeah. And then we, oh, you know what, we just did one on Greek gods last year. It was all about what is Greek mythology, you know. We do hear from the kids a lot that they want to learn about Greek mythology. We know a lot of kids aren’t necessarily into that. So we actually set the whole thing up as it’s about Marvel Superheroes and how each Marvel superhero that you love relates to a Greek god. Yeah, so it was really awesome. And then, we tell the whole history of the Greek gods and the epic stories. And so it’s, it’s a great trip. But yeah, that’s exactly it’s a great example of how we take something that might feel a little dry to some kids, but we make it really fun and relatable to something they love, like Marvel. And then, you know, by the end of the episode, they all want to know more about it.


Naomi Meredith  19:02

Do you guys have like on your website-related activities? So if they listened to the podcast, or they’re like recommendations for activities that kids could do at home?


Jerry Kolber  19:15

There are some, but not for every episode. The thing that we do every single episode is we put out a free newsletter called The Smarty Quiz that has little activities and follow-up quizzes, and you can sign up for that at who’s whosmarted.com It’s just a little fillable email signup box on there. And you’ll just automatically start getting an email for free with every episode, which is also a lot of teachers use as a reminder of like, oh, there’s a new episode Oh, this is a topic I want to you know, use so the email newsletter is actually the best way to to keep in touch with us and also get additional activities.


Naomi Meredith  19:52

I love that. That’s so good because we’re always clicking for just some inspiration. So all of this will be linked in the show notes for sure because we love all these fun ideas. We eat it all up for sure.


Jerry Kolber  20:06

Yeah. Well, the fun thing about the newsletter, too, is each one has, like, I think it’s three questions about that episode with, like, ABC D answers. So it’s a fun way to actually quiz the kids and see if they pay attention and then have, like, some follow-up conversation. 


Naomi Meredith  20:21

So good. Well, thanks for thinking of fun and games. Yeah. No, it is. It’s so much fun. It like makes me giggle out loud. And I don’t have my own children. But I was listening to it in the car. Like, this is really fun.


Jerry Kolber  20:36

Yeah, so that’s hilarious. Because, like, you’re falling into this category of, like, we call it like the sneaky and don’t listeners. So we hear from so many parents, they’re like, our kids love your show. But we keep Who Smarted on in the car after the kids get out because we just love it. It makes us laugh. So that was our goal was to make a show for kids that’s also really adult, you know, it’s like adult friendly. You know, a lot of shows for kids and adults are like, Oh my gosh, like, I don’t want to say this. But, you know, we’ve been, you probably noticed we sneak in all kinds of jokes for the grown-ups.


Naomi Meredith  21:11

I’m like, Ah, it was good. I’m like, it’s so cute. Well, we’ll definitely add a clip at the end of this episode. So you guys can get a taste of what Who Smarted is. But you mentioned the Smarty quiz. Are there any other ways that we can connect with you and or the Who Smarted podcast and things that we should know about?


Jerry Kolber  21:39

Yeah, so we have a pretty active Facebook community, which is facebook.com/whosmarted. We post content there all the time, whether it’s upcoming contests, giveaways, or information about episodes. That’s great. And then, you know, obviously, the email newsletter through whosmarted.com is great, a great way to keep in touch with us. And those are kind of the two main ways. But honestly, if you subscribe to the podcast, in any podcast app, you’re gonna get all kinds of information from us about upcoming. We do online adventures for kids like Space Adventures and sea adventures. So we always talk about that stuff on the podcast. But those are the three main ways 


Naomi Meredith  22:19

Yeah, perfect. Well, I know that teachers are gonna end this podcast and then go into their player and start subscribing and following the show. Because, especially for when this comes out, like the end of the school year, summer times coming up, we need some ways to engage our kids. And I definitely think that this is a great connection and definitely, a learning tool that should be employed and implemented with kids because we like we teach them how to read so we can teach them how to listen and engage in audio content. It’s such a valuable skill. 


Jerry Kolber  22:50

Yeah, absolutely. The last thing I would say about that is we’ve read and done some research that, you know, really shows that when kids learn from audio, they actually are able to comprehend at a grade level once two grades higher, which, you know, you’re nodding your head. And the other interesting thing is when they learn from audio, they are actually much more likely some huge percentage more likely to engage in conversation about a topic than if they read it in a book. So these are, we just like to tell teachers, and so if anyone’s like a while you’re playing a podcast in your classroom, it’s like, Well, because the research shows if they’re going to comprehend more, engage more and learn more. So you know, just a great little piece of information to have in your back pocket.


Naomi Meredith  23:37

It’s so true; we do read aloud, so we might as well amp it up with a podcast and have some podcast time. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate what you and your team are doing to just support the learning of kids and just keeping them engaged and excited. And little, you little Jerry would be so proud of, of present, Jerry, and all the stuff that you guys are doing, you know, so it’s really exciting. And it’s really important just having the support out there of people who are kind of around us and education and see the importance of really engaging tools and keeping it fun. So we appreciate the work that you’re doing.


Jerry Kolber  24:17

Thank you, and we so appreciate the work you and all the teachers are doing it’s just it’s often thankless, but just know we wait there are many, many people who are grateful and really appreciate everything you guys are doing. So thank you.


Naomi Meredith  24:29

Thank you. We appreciate it. Well, thank you so much again for being here, and we can’t wait to listen to the clip from who started. Awesome. Thank you.


Jerry Kolber  24:40

Did you tell them one out of every five or 20% of all mushrooms are dangerous to eat? Oh in fact I just and that there’s another 20% You can eat but aren’t very tasty. Overall, only about 4% of all mushrooms are both edible and tasty. If that’s what makes mushroom hunting such a challenge,


Jerry Kolber  25:04

of course, some smarty pants might be thinking, Oh, mushrooms tastes yucky, you, but have you really given them a fair shot? But before we can even think about eating them, we need to find them first.

how do podcasts help students learn

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

STEM teacher interview

3 STEM Teacher Interview Tips [ep.79]

by Naomi Meredith

3 STEM Teacher Interview Tips [ep.79]

STEM teacher interview

Check out the full episode on 3 STEM Teacher Interview Tips:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Are you hoping to land a STEM position at your school? Maybe you’re wondering what are some important things that you need to consider when interviewing for a STEM position. In today’s episode, I share three STEM teacher interview tips to keep in mind when you are preparing for a STEM teacher interview.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 3 tips for preparing for a STEM teacher interview
  • How to stand out in your interview
  • How my STEM teacher interview went

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

Are you hoping to land a STEM position at your school? What are some important things that you need to keep in mind when interviewing for a STEM type position in our elementary schools? In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing with you three tips to keep in mind when you are prepping for that STEM teacher interview. Take it from me, I have been in your position before. I interviewed for a K through Five STEM job, and I got it. So let’s jump into these STEM teacher interview tips. 


Listener Question  01:03

Hello, I hope you’re having a good day. I’m actually just sending you a message because I have an interview on Monday for a STEM job. And I’m just wondering if you have any suggestions for me. I have been a teacher for 18 years. And I’ve always wanted to be a STEM teacher. And they just recently had a position that’s coming open next year at my school first time we’ve ever had STEM. So I’m not really sure what kind of questions they are going to ask me. And I was just wondering if you could give me some advice.


Naomi Meredith  01:31

Great question from a fellow teacher. She must have been reading my mind because I actually had this episode planned for a while. I pushed it up on my content calendar because I’m sure she’s not the only one who was wondering the same question. Before I landed my K through five STEM role, I taught second grade for two years at a title one school, which was actually the school that I student taught at, so then I landed a job the following year. Then I moved and needed a job that was a bit closer to where I was then living. So I interviewed and applied for a job in another district and ended up teaching third grade for four years. During that time, I was attending conferences, every free and paid training where I could learn innovative and creative practices that can enhance my teaching. From there, I would apply those things with my students. I had so much fun being a classroom teacher for six years, but I had that feeling in me that I wanted to make an even bigger impact. So I was looking at a neighboring district, and there was a K through Five STEM position that popped up at the time. I didn’t really know anybody at this school. Later on, I applied and then ended up having a connection, which is pretty funny, because that actually happened when I got my third-grade job. But anyway, I applied for this position, and I interviewed for it. Long story short, I got the job. If you want to hear actually how the interview went, go back and listen all the way to Episode One. It might not be what you expect. Yes, I got the job, but my feelings about it are not what you expect. Anyway, I landed the job in this new to me district new to me position and a school with zero curriculum and limited supplies. So, of course, that is another story for another podcast episode, in which there are tons about lesson planning. 


Naomi Meredith  03:34

But you are here for those interview tips. So what should you keep in mind when you are prepping to be a STEM teacher and interviewing? More likely than not, a lot of you are probably coming from the classroom, you’ve been teaching for a while, and you’re interested in this type of role. You think you’re ready for it. So how do you interview for a position you haven’t done before? So here are my top three tips when you’re going into this type of interview. My first tip when prepping for a STEM teacher interview is to showcase your creativity. This is a highly creative role. I’m not saying to not apply if you’re not creative, but it is super up in the air. Pretty much, I would say for most teachers I’ve talked to when they’re in a STEM role for what you teach. So you have to be comfortable with being creative and trying new things. So definitely showcase that in your interview. It kind of makes sense to me with my journey with teaching over the years and even when I was in my undergrad getting my teaching degree. I love being creative, even if it’s not STEM related. I am a very, very creative person, and so this is something I definitely showcased in my interview. Think about the lessons that you will teach as a STEM teacher. All lessons are creative, even the lessons when it comes to coding and robotics, every single lesson that is taught in my classroom is creative. So you definitely want to highlight that. Now a good thing to keep in mind is to think about the creative lessons that you have taught your students. So you probably are interested in this world because you probably are doing this type of stuff with your students anyway. So before an interview, just sit down and write down some of those creative things that you have done with kids. If you have taught a multitude of grades and just thinking about primary and secondary, think about projects that you have done with both of those grade levels. In a position like this one, it’s very common, where you’re going to be teaching a huge span of students, and you need to have those capabilities to be able to teach them all. So I taught second grade and third grade. But then I did a lot of afterschool clubs with older students, I did a Math Olympiad, a Battle of the Books, club science clubs. So if you haven’t specifically taught that grade, maybe think about other ways that you have been involved with them. Or even think about the types of lessons that you would do with that age of students if you don’t have any specific experience to talk about. 


Naomi Meredith  06:14

Next, to think about in your STEM teacher interview is to showcase your technology skills. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but not only am I our K through five STEM teacher, but I am our technology person full-time. So, I also had to showcase what are some ways that I am able to troubleshoot and problem-solve with technology, which, even if you’re not the technology person, and that’s not going to be part of your role, you need to know how to do this with technology. I didn’t have somebody come in every single day that I’ve taught my students and say, “Hello, here’s the technology you’re going to teach as a STEM teacher. Here’s exactly how to use it.” That’s where I come in. That’s why I’m doing this podcast and doing what I do. But for me, I didn’t have that. So you might not have that either in your building at all times. Again, I’m here for you. But you need to showcase in your interview how you can problem solve, be creative with technology, and be willing to try new things. You’re not going to know everything, and technology is always changing. Like I didn’t know how to do 3D printing at all. I had a couple of 3D printers I troubleshooted. I did a lot of Googling, that is your best friend. So you definitely want to showcase that and think about, again, specific lessons that you have taught in your classroom when you have been using meaningful technology. I’m not talking about things like oh, my students typed on a Google Doc, oh, we use Google Classroom. Sure, great. But that’s not very innovative. What is going to actually make you stand out? What are some cross-curricular lessons that you have taught when it comes to using technology? Bonus points if you are being creative. 


Naomi Meredith  07:57

Finally, the third thing to think about in your STEM teacher interview is to showcase your lesson planning skills. Back in episode 11, I talk about all the ways that I think classroom teachers make great STEM teachers. So definitely go back and listen to that because I think that’s really going to help you when you’re prepping for this interview or hopefully pitching yourself to have this type of job in your school or district. As I said before, most of you might not have interviewed for a job like this before or even have had this type of job, so it is scary. You don’t really know what’s going to be expected of you, and that’s the creative part. It’s really fun. But you do have the skills when it comes to lesson planning. If I wasn’t a classroom teacher before becoming a K through five STEM teacher, I think I actually would have drowned when it comes to lesson planning. As I said, there was zero curriculum. Over the years, I have built a full K through five STEM year-long plan that is differentiated and leveled based on the ages of my students, you can grab the whole year-long plan at Naomimeredith.com/yearlongplan. But you coming into this interview, you don’t need to have all of your STEM lessons figured out. You can have them, but you don’t need them necessarily for this interview. So think about how you creatively lesson plan. See how all of this kind of goes together. Creativity, technology, the lesson planning standards are still important in STEM. There is a huge misconception out there that STEM is just throwing out cool toys and letting kids play with them. There is a ton of exploration in my class, but everything is very purposeful, and everything is aligned with standards. There is a big goal in mind. So yes, we do robots. Yes, we do that. But what is the purpose behind the robots? What is the task that we are going to complete? How are we integrating Common Core ELA and math standards? How are we adding in Mathematical Practices, the ISTE standards for students, the Engineering Design Process, your science standards? Don’t just listen as I did. But really think about a lesson that you have done when you are integrating standards. Again, think about primary and secondary, but you have the skills of lesson planning, you’re just going to be shifting to how to merge that all together for multiple grade levels. Also, how can you implement some tools that aren’t always super common in the elementary classroom yet? 


Naomi Meredith  10:32

So as a recap, here are the three things that you need to keep in mind when you are tackling that STEM teacher interview. First, showcase your creativity. Next, showcase your technology skills. Third, showcase your lesson planning skills. Now, you might be wondering, what was the end result of that voice message that that teacher sent me? Here is what she emailed me back. So I actually sent her some interview questions, something that I had in my Google Drive. I sent them to her, and she emailed me back. I got the job, thanks for checking out your stuff. And just so you know, she has checked out my stuff. And she is actually a member of our STEM teacher bookshelf community and is collaborating with like-minded teachers like us. So a great place to join. Now, if you want to get in on these questions, I have them for you inside my STEM Teacher 101 Course. I have added a new module where there are 10 sample questions that, if I were interviewing people to be a STEM teacher, is probably what I would ask. These are probably some most common questions, or ones that are similar, that you would be asked. Not only are the questions inside of this STEM teacher 101 course, you actually will be able to hear me answer the questions. So I am taking on the role of a classroom teacher, so looking at my past self and how would I answer them coming into this type of interview. So you can get some ideas, hearing me talk, you might even have similar experiences, of course, make it personal to you. Let your personality shine, but I want to help you on this journey. That’s why I do what I do. And definitely check that out. It’s a great way for you to feel confident about this STEM teacher interview, and I am here right by your side. You can grab that at Naomi meredith.com/stemteacher101. And, of course, that is all linked in the show notes. Thank you so much. And let me know if you get that STEM interview. I can’t wait to hear and have you as part of my big STEM community.

STEM teacher interview

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

free materials for STEM projects

3 Ways to Get Free Materials for STEM Projects [ep.78]

by Naomi Meredith

3 Ways to Get Free Materials for STEM Projects [ep.78]

free materials for STEM projects

Check out the full episode on 3 Ways to Get Free Materials for STEM Projects:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Struggling to gather STEM supplies for our classroom seems to be a common theme for STEM teachers. There are many ways to gather materials creatively and for free. In today’s episode, I share three ways to get free materials for STEM projects.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 3 methods for getting free materials for STEM projects
  • Tips for successfully using these methods to gather materials for your STEM classroom
  • Examples of how I used these methods to get free materials

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

Many of us struggle to gather STEM supplies for our classroom and really any type of supplies as a teacher, let’s be honest. However, there are a variety of ways to gather materials creatively and for free. In this episode, I’ll be sharing with you three ways to get free materials for your STEM projects.


Naomi Meredith  00:53

Before we jump in, I wanted to give a special shout-out to my newest members of the STEM teacher bookshelf membership. Shout out to Audra R., Susan E., Laurie D., Julianna S., Georgia L., Tracy Y., Janessa D, Amy R., Jackie B., Megan B., Kandi S., Jackie M., Stacia A., Kelly H., Beth S., and Jacqueline F. I am so excited that you are all in this community with me and it is growing, and I love adding your name to my little bookshelf image. This is a community where we talk about STEM professional books and STEM topics that are important to you, have that space to connect with one another, and a live monthly Zoom call and, of course, opportunities to win the next month’s book. It’s only nine bucks a month. You can have your name read out loud and your name put on the bookshelf. You can join at naomimeredith.com/stemteacherbookshelf, and if you are part of the first 50 teachers in this membership, there are a few spots left, then I will send you a handwritten note in the mail along with a special, exclusive STEM teacher bookshelf sticker. So I’d love to see you in there. 


Naomi Meredith  02:13

Now for this episode, when we are talking about free STEM supplies. They don’t call me a maxxinista for nothing. I am known for being someone to shop on a budget, and these are all strategies to get things for free. Some will actually have a cost to them, but I’m all about it. I graduated with both of my degrees, my undergrad and my graduate degree, 100% debt free. So I paid my way through college both times, so I have never had any student debt. I’m all about saving money and finding good deals when it is possible, especially if they are good deals that are free. So let’s jump into these three ways that are definitely actionable that you can start tomorrow. If you are unsure of what you should actually be collecting for your classroom, and you might not get it all in the first year, but what should you be looking for, I’ve created a free spreadsheet inventory, which is actually based on my classroom. You can grab that naomimeredith.com/classroominventorylist. Of course, it’ll all be linked in the show notes. 


Naomi Meredith  03:21

The first way that you can get free STEM supplies for your classroom is through outside donations. Now I have some creative ways for you to do this, so it’s not your typical ask, and you shall receive blah, blah, blah, but actual creative ways. I feel like the more creative you get when it comes to asking for donations people haven’t heard about it before, and they are probably more apt to tune in and donate rather than the typical giving tree and all that. That’s super cool too. When you hang up something, people grab something as well. I talked about that, actually, in my Back to School Night episode. But here are some other creative ways to gather supplies. First, you could do a one-grade level at a time, asking if it’s specific things that you are looking for in a project. I’ve explained this over the course of this podcast a lot. But my role teaching K through Five STEM has been very unique. There was a point where with our budgeting, I was able to co-teach with the classroom teachers in my building to help them implement STEM and innovation in their classrooms. I did a really cool project with first grade one year during the springtime, and we were talking about insects. So that was something that they were studying in their classrooms. I wanted to help them with this project, so we came up with them building their own insect and adding in all of the elements that they talked about that insects have. We did this by using Makerspace supplies. Now we know these consumable products that can run out very quickly, and especially if you’re creating an insect, you want some things that are pretty colorful, and there actually is a reason why they have all of these colors. So we reached out to the parents of just first grade with a very targeted list of things that would work really well for this project, such as pipe cleaners, tissue, paper, toilet paper rolls, googly eyes, pom poms, and a lot of these things people had laying around in their homes. What I took upon myself is that I actually organized all of the supplies. I love using those pop-up fabric cubes, you can get the ones at IKEA that are really large or get the smaller ones. I have some green ones, actually a set of 24 that I use for all sorts of things. They were actually intended to be small green screens. But then, when I’m done with that project, I actually use them for other things. Anyway, I use those to organize all the materials. Then when I was co-teaching with students, they would come into my space when it was their time. Then we would do the lesson together. Now what was another great benefit of this is that all the extra supplies the classroom teachers didn’t have room for, they let me keep it and put it back into my Makerspace, which was awesome and didn’t cost anything. 


Naomi Meredith  06:06

Another quick and easy way is to have a donation box in high-traffic areas. When it comes to families entering your building, you could post a letter of typical things that you wouldn’t mind seeing all year, and parents can donate to this box. This has been highly successful. I’ve got just the most random things in this box. I will collect all of it. Some of it, I will recycle. If it’s too big, you know, my feelings about projects that are too big, they take too long, too many materials. But anyway, I will collect these items. And it’s just so helpful to get these things year-round. I do have a donation letter template that is 100% editable, besides the cute little pictures. But all the content is editable for you, which you can get linked in the show notes and in my TPT shop. Back in episode 76, I talked to Jennifer Mahin, and she gave some awesome tips when it came to grant writing. Now when we were done recording, we were still talking off the air, and she actually had two tips that she said were okay if I shared, and I said I would give her credit because these are really good ways to get donations for your STEM classroom. The first one that she mentioned is posting any specific donations that you are needing on your school’s social media pages, such as a Facebook page or Instagram. Maybe your school has a school-wide PTO or text messaging system, that could be another way that you could reach out to families. Again, this could just be things that they have sitting around, and they’re not quite sure what to do with. Another cool idea that Jennifer mentioned is around the springtime, you typically are creating those classrooms supply lists for all of the grade levels. So if possible, try to see if you can add a couple of items to each of the lists and have different ones per grade level. So it could just be a small donation, and it would just make a huge difference. So maybe something like batteries, maybe rechargeable or not. If you have specific items that still use batteries, playdough, and maybe magnets, kind of thinking about those things, they’re a little bit pricey, but not too much of a cost. Even if they donated one or two, think about if every kid brought one in that would make a huge difference in your space. So I thought those are some really creative and interesting ideas to get donations from outside sources and into your classroom. This one is kind of out of your control, but in a way, it kind of is in your control when it comes to donations. It’s all about creating partnerships with the parents. So, especially if you’re a specials teacher, it is hard to connect with the parents and have them get to know you. So just try to get involved in different ways that you can. Hosting after-school clubs is a great way to do this. But I randomly will get parent emails asking me if I would be interested in specific items that are not Makerspace related. I’ve been donated Snap Circuits that somebody has grown out of Duplo blocks, which are those larger LEGO bricks that a family didn’t want, colored Dominoes, marbles, and just really random stuff that I can definitely use, which has been so amazing. So again, a little bit out of your control, but those are like hidden gems. Those are awesome when that happens to you. 


Naomi Meredith  09:17

Another way to gather free supplies for your classroom is to have a donation box in your teacher’s lounge and make this donation very specific. I’m doing a project with our art teacher. It’s a collaborative art project where the students are going to build something in art, and then when they come to me in STEM where we’re going to do the electronic components. Now this is a new lesson for me that I have never done. That’s all I really going to share because I don’t know what is going to happen next. I actually have to learn the technology myself. But we need a lot of thin cardboard, like cereal box cardboard, so we put a donation box in the teachers’ lounge next to the microwave. So when teachers are opening up their microwave meals that are Oh So Delicious, then they can put the cardboard in there, and then we can use it for our projects. So just a quick and easy way. They’re gonna throw it away anyway, but we can give it new life in our project. You could do this for other things like K-cups, the coffee cups, and maybe some bubble wrap when people get orders in. So just think of typical things that are in your building already that end up in the trash or recycling. But you can have one little hub in the teachers’ lounge to gather those things. Likewise, the spring and back-to-school time is an awesome way to go garage saleing in your own building. When you’re thinking about the new curriculum that is being developed, or if those storage spaces need to be cleaned out and there are things that teachers don’t want anymore. Put out a radar in teachers’ minds that you are happy to collect all of those things for your STEM classroom. So you need science, technology, engineering, and math items. I have gotten so many things this way: unifix cubes, balances for measuring, and rulers. I got a huge bucket of wooden blocks one time dropped off at my door. So I’m always looking for these items, those non-consumable things. Again, it might be too old, or they have just duplicates in their classroom, they just want the newer version that was sent to them in the curriculum, and they don’t have places to store the older stuff. Well, this is a great chance for you to take it upon yourself. I have a guest coming out sometime soon on this podcast, and she did this exact thing and had a cute story about this. So definitely a good way to get some free stuff. Another quick and easy way is just to send out a staff email. If you have an upcoming project and you need something specific, send out an email and see what people say. When I’m doing projects where students are building things and when they’re saving their work over time, I like them to save their work in grocery bags because everything fits inside and they can tie the top. So certain times during the year, I just send out an email blast, and people will bring in grocery bags for a week or two. It’s just super helpful and, again, gets it off of their hands. It’s another great way to get free stuff. 


Naomi Meredith  12:03

The last way to get free stuff for your classroom, and this isn’t always just Makerspace supplies, is writing grants. There are two past episodes that I’ve had before this one that you definitely should check out when it comes to grant writing. One is from Jennifer Mahin, to talk about the tips and tricks when writing grants. She’s been very successful with that. Also, if you’re a little bit more nervous, check out the one from DonorsChoose. They lay things out super, super easy, and they even handle all the purchasing for you. I know that they have a spring incentive coming up. So this is a really good time to try it out. I know that it’s scary and it is a little bit of extra work, but you do get better with it over time. But again, this is a really cool opportunity. You’re going to feel so proud of yourself when you do get a grant funded. There are times, as I’ve talked about you do need higher-level products to do higher-level things. Yes, you can do Makerspace all year, there is nothing wrong with that, if that is the class you teach, hey, that’s awesome. But if you’re thinking about adding in more variety, or you’re just seeing that your kids are stagnant or need more engagement, having some of those higher-level things that can be reused for multiple grade levels is definitely worth checking out. So check out any local grants in your area. Any national grant or statewide grants DonorsChoose, again, is another great place to check this out. But try writing a grant and make that your goal at the end of this school year or going into the next school year when you’re thinking about summer planning. Set a goal for yourself that you want to write three grants, and hopefully, one of the three can get funded. So definitely try it out. Everything new is hard at first, and, like I tell my students, it’s definitely worth your time. 


Naomi Meredith  13:49

As a recap, here are three ways to get free materials for your STEM projects. First, check out different ways to get outside donations. Next, get creative with those in-school donations. And third, make it a goal to try out some grant writing. If you want to dive in more when it comes to gathering materials. And when it comes to grant writing, which will be something new, I will add in the upcoming future. Definitely join me in my STEM teacher 101 course, this is a section to get you started for the school year. So if you’re thinking about going into the summer, this is definitely something great for you to jump in. And I do have a private podcast for this course. So you can actually listen to all of the modules on the go. You will get forever updates and all of the things inside of there. So definitely jump on in you can get some credit when it comes to professional development, credit, and definitely all the help that you need to set up a good foundation for your STEM space. Thank you so much for listening, and I will chat with you in the next episode.

free materials for STEM projects

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

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The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

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grant writing tips for teachers

Grant Writing Tips for Teachers with DonorsChoose [ep.77]

by Naomi Meredith

Grant Writing Tips for Teachers with DonorsChoose [ep.77]

grant writing tips for teachers

Check out the full episode on Grant Writing Tips for Teachers with DonorsChoose:  

 

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Episode Summary

In today’s episode, I sit down to chat with Brittany Walker, who is the Senior Engagement Community Associate at DonorsChoose, to discuss what DonorsChoose is and how it works. Brittany provides grant writing tips for teachers and highlights some of the successful STEM projects that have been funded through DonorsChoose. If you are a teacher who has been wondering what the process is for writing a grant and how to gather STEM supplies for your classroom, this episode is for you. 

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • What DonorsChoose is
  • What the process is for getting a grant through DonorsChoose
  • Grant writing tips for teachers
  • The importance of building community between teachers and donors
  • How DonorsChoose supports teachers with getting materials for their classrooms

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi M. (00:00) Have you always wanted to write a grant to gather STEM supplies but are not sure where to get started? What is the process? What should you say? And how do you even get the materials? Today I am talking with Brittany Walker, who is the Senior Community Engagement associate at DonorsChoose, and she is giving you all the insight to answer all of your questions. In this episode, we discuss what DonorsChoose is and how to get started, types of project ideas, and tips to be successful when writing a grant through their platform. Speaking from experience, if you haven’t used DonorsChoose before, this is an excellent resource to use as a teacher when it comes to gathering supplies for your classroom. You’re really going to love this episode and all of the helpful tips, and I can’t wait for you to listen. Well, thank you so much, Brittany, for being here today. I am so excited to have you, and I know that, , our teacher audience will be really happy to hear from you too. So, <laugh>, it’s funny cause you have a really interesting background in teaching, and, I’m happy and excited to hear about that. So if you wouldn’t mind telling us more about yourself, your background, and then what your role is at DonorsChoose.

 

Brittany W. (00:57) Of course. So I’m so excited to be here today. First of all, I am a former educator. I actually taught science for about five years in Washington, DC. I taught at the elementary level, so grades one through four. I wore a few different hats during my time in education, as many teachers often do. I actually started as a resident teacher, you know, like learning how to do the real thing. <laugh> Yes. And shadowing others. , and that was with first grade. And then, I went on to teach science for the rest of the elementary grades. Also helped to develop some science curriculum, and led our school science club as well as like our, we had a YouTube channel and a, a whole bunch of things and that was one of my favorite roles for me cause it fostered like a real love and excitement for community engagement, and creating educational programming. And so I’ve been so fortunate to transition into my role at DonorChoose where I am the community engagement lead, , pie living, building, and managing initiatives, , building a community amongst our teachers and donors. So it’s, it’s a huge one. , get to do what I love. So yeah.


Naomi M. (1:07) <laugh> That is so cool. Like your background. And it’s perfect for this podcast because we even have some science teachers who listen in the elementary space. So similar roles as you, a lot of STEM teachers in elementary, and even a lot of classroom teachers who are interested in implementing STEM. So I’m really excited to talk with you and, yeah, this is like perfect how this all works out because you’re like the perfect audience. Like you’re like, like our audience with your background.


Brittany W. (2:04) – I’ve lived it.


Naomi M (2:04) – Yeah. Yeah. So you know, you know how it goes. , so with that in mind, so you work at DonorsChoose. Yes. And for people who haven’t heard of DonorsChoose, what is it, and how does it actually work? Because I’ve used it, and I love it, and it’s super user-friendly. , but for teachers who haven’t, what is the whole point of it?


Brittany W. (00:02:28) – Absolutely. So DonorsChoose is really the leading way to give to public schools. About four out of five public schools across the US have a teacher who has posted a project on DonorsChoose. What we do is make it easy for any public school teacher in need to request the materials and tools they need in order to really transform their students’ learning experience and have a great education. We’ve been around since the year 2000, and our donors and partners have contributed about 1.4 billion to support 2.5 million teacher requests. It’s been a huge help for many teachers. What they do is they use our platform to request classroom resources. Donors who feel inspired to give to certain projects or support a certain resource type are able to search the site and directly support that teacher. Each request is vetted by our DonorsChoose team, and we ship the funded materials directly to the teacher’s school.


Naomi M. (00:03:31) – It is such an awesome resource, and I used it. I heard about it when I was student teaching. So at the time of this recording, what I don’t know, 13, 14 years ago. So I heard about it then. And then I know for even just my experience, like checking in and like putting a request, it’s really improved and really grown. And I know, like the materials that you can request, especially when it comes to STEM, there are so many different partnerships that you guys have when it comes to materials. And I love how you do all the work when it comes to ordering and then delivering it to us. And there are some really cool ideas out there, and it’s literally a template, right? Like you just put in what you want.


Brittany W. (00:04:13) – Definitely. So, teachers, they’re able to request the exact amount of the amount of materials, the exact materials that they want. We partner with certain vendors in order to get the materials that they need. And once they select the materials, they also like to describe the need for the materials in the form of a short essay. And yeah, the process pretty much takes them straight through once, once their request is screened and, and their project is live and other donors and even like their family or friends, whoever would like to can give. We also provide teachers with templates, email templates, and graphics for social media or, just to share within their network so that their community knows about, what they’re fundraising for.


Naomi M. (00:05:00) – Oh yeah. I love that cuz I think as a teacher, it can, and you probably have this experience, it can be overwhelming thinking, how am I going to write a grant? What do I even say? What do they want? Where do I even go to do a grant? There are opportunities out there. So I love how it’s super user-friendly, and the templates are really nice cuz we’re busy teachers. <laugh>


Brittany W. (00:05:23) – Definitely,


Naomi M. (00:05:24) – We dunno what to do. So <laugh>, it’s super streamlined. And when it comes to projects, have you seen any certain ones that have been great when it comes to STEM or things that have gotten funded over the years?


Brittany W. (00:05:37) – Yes. , one, for example, we have a teacher, Mrs. Dixon, at Woodmore Elementary School, she hosted a STEM Family Fun night, and she was able to request materials for various stations such as DNA extractions. They were able to extract DNA from the strawberries. Also, kaleidoscope making, slime creation, building circuits, and balloon race cars. , and that was just for one project to support 200 students. We have, for another example, Mrs. Coates at Rustic Lane Elementary School requested programmable handheld game consoles that her students could use, with Microsoft Make code. And her students were able to really take advantage of that video game technology and be active creators of it. , and it can go from the small things like Lego blocks and magnet tiles to big things like Makerspaces and helping all of the hands-on activities that our STEM teachers love to do and get their students involved in.


Naomi M. (00:06:45) – I love that, but I would never have thought of writing a grant when it comes to community engagement when it comes to a family night. That is a really creative and great idea when you’re thinking maybe you are a teacher who actually has what they need in their classroom, which you probably don’t, but maybe you have a pretty well-stocked room. So that’s a really cool way to utilize donors, choose to have some just more unique projects when families are coming in. I love that idea.


Brittany W. (00:07:15) – Absolutely. And what we’ve seen on our site is that our teachers, really think outside of the box to get these materials ready for their students. And, even if, as you said, even if their classrooms are well stopped, then they’re thinking more out of the box on how to, like, create these engaging, diverse learning experiences, with new products that they may not have had a chance to do or have had access to before.


Naomi M. (00:07:40) – Oh, absolutely. And I love even that video game when you’re talking about, I was talking to another STEM teacher, we were talking about just grant writing in general, and she’s in a similar role like me, we’ve had our classes for about five years, and when you first get started, you probably saw this too when you were teaching science, when you first start, the kids like you kind of can do the same thing with a lot of the kids because they might not have used a tool before, but then as you get going over the years, they need more of a challenge, and you might have to be getting materials that are just at a higher level or just different, or it needs updates because the kids’ skill levels haven’t increased, which is awesome. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So that’s a really great way to extend like differentiation opportunities too.


Brittany W. (00:08:25) – Absolutely. And what we see is that many teachers write that into their stories when they’re requesting items so that potential donors can, can see like exactly how they’re supporting their students by providing those differentiated learning materials. And it’s, it’s like a win-win for, for everyone.


Naomi M. (00:08:42) – Oh, that’s a really good idea when it comes. Yeah. I’ve never thought about that, either. Say, I’m so glad that you’re here because <laugh>, you, you see a lot of these projects come through <laugh>. , so when it comes to those projects, when writing a grant, so you guys have the templates, you have examples, but do you have some recommendation with, when it comes to ensuring that a project will get funded and just the way you should word things and be very specific, what are some things that teachers should keep in mind?


Brittany W. (00:09:11) – Absolutely. We found that while it is easy to post a DonorsChoose project, we like to provide teachers with the best tools for success that they can have so that as soon as a donor sees their project, they feel moved to support it. And we really recommend four things. One is to be specific. The more specific in detail you can be with your request, the clearer it is to that donor, what it is you’re looking forward to really enrich your students learning. Second, we ask, you to tell a story, and put us into your classroom. Describe why and how the project will help your class and how it will feel for your students to experience these resources, maybe even what it may look like in your classroom. , thirdly, we ask that you let your students shine <laugh>. They’re the beneficiaries of these materials. And so when writing about your students and your DonorsChoose project, really focus on their interests, strengths, and dreams, not just their struggles.


Brittany W. (00:10:11) Ask yourself if your students and their parents will feel proud of themselves after reading your DonorsChoose project. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And lastly, be strategic with your project. Smaller requests are more likely to get funded quickly. We like to say that within the range of anything, , projects under $200 have a 90% chance of being funded quickly, while projects over a thousand dollars are funded only about 43% of the time. So as a teacher, you can just ask yourself, are there some ways I can lower the cost of my projects or maybe like break a project up into two or three different projects so that, when donors look at it, they are more, more pulled to maybe even like finish the project off and you know, cover the whole bid or, you know, just breaking it down and making it smaller.


Naomi M. (00:11:03) – That’s really good advice, just seeing those trends on there because I think a lot of us when we’re writing a grant or new materials like I need a thousand dollars right off the bat. And then you put like all the things like Lego bricks, magnet tiles, glue, and crayons. Like, so that’s really smart, just breaking it apart and making it more tangible.


Brittany W. (00:11:24) – Definitely. And we see teachers being really creative with that. Just for example, back to the examples of the STEM project, they’re teachers are able to like title their project, and if I’m a donor and I’m seeing something like a STEM family fun night, I’m like, Ooh, what is that? You know? So teachers really also really think out of the box on the titles and how to, , really off the bat engage donors and get them interested in their stories.


Naomi M. (00:11:52) – Oh, totally. Do you feel like STEM projects, in particular with outside donors, do STEM projects, do you feel like get funded faster or does it not really matter from what you’ve seen?


Brittany W. (00:12:04) – I haven’t really noticed any difference, specifically for, say, STEM versus any other subject. I think it may go down to again, like, the size of the project as well as the storytelling bit and uh, yeah, if a donor more, more able to, to really like put themselves in that classroom and, and really can, can see the need for the materials. I think I think any project, uh, with a great story, engages donors all the same.


Naomi M. (00:12:37) – That’s a really good story. There’s so much impact in storytelling. We love stories <laugh>


Brittany W. (00:12:43) – And, I also will say I think every donor is everyone who wants to give to a classroom in need is so different. And so you may have, former science teachers who really like us, love STEM and science, have a passion for STEM and they may seek out those projects. Donors do have the freedom of selecting their resource type and subject area. So, we do see a lot of that as well.


Naomi M. (00:13:10) – Oh, that’s so cool. I actually donate myself. I actually look for, STEM classrooms that I’ll


Brittany W. (00:13:16) – Really


Naomi M. (00:13:16) – Back to. Yeah. Every quarter I’ll go look and find some STEM projects and use some of my business funds to help other STEM teachers out there. Awesome.


Brittany W. (00:13:25) – That is so, so beautiful. Yeah.


Naomi M. (00:13:28), so when you had the projects on there, is there a certain timeframe that they have to get funded or, also, how long do projects typically get funded? I don’t know if that’s the same or different when it comes to DonorsChoose.


Brittany W. (00:13:42) – Sure. I think it can take anywhere from, I’ve seen projects funded in as little as a day, and teachers will come into the community and say, oh my gosh, I just, the this, my project just got approved yesterday after, you know, being vetted by our team. And today is, you know, I got my rocket. That’s my celebratory email we sent to them. , I would say anywhere from as soon as the project goes live to two weeks, there’s no, specific timeframe on, that teachers or deadline that teachers have to get their project funded. , yeah, they can, they can keep it up for as long as they need to. Ok, that’s cool. Or keep requesting the items for as long as they need them.


Naomi M. (00:14:23) – Does it change for summertime at all or when it comes to long winter breaks? Are there any parameters around that since we might not be around during the summer to get things delivered? Or how does that work?


Brittany W. (00:14:34) – There is, with our customer support team, we do, I believe there may be a, a slight pause in shipping certain items, but that’s not to also say the teachers can’t order them. Uh, it just takes maybe one extra step to coordinate the teacher in their school on getting those, making sure that those materials are delivered safely.


Naomi M. (00:14:55) – Oh, okay. So they could just still write the project. It could still get funded. Absolutely. And then, when the school year starts, the supplies can get delivered at that time?


Brittany W. (00:15:04) – Absolutely. It’s, it’s year-round. Oh cool. Year-round operation when getting those, uh, materials delivered to their classrooms.


Naomi M. (00:15:11) – So that’s good to know because I feel like it sometimes could just feel overwhelming. I don’t, I wanna write a grant, I just don’t have the time Right now, it’s the end of the school year. So some teachers might sit down and write it out over the summer, get it approved, and then hopefully it gets funded and then they can get the supplies mm-hmm. <affirmative> like a month or so later, which that’s good.


Brittany W. (00:15:29) – Definitely. And what we’ve also seen is teachers are starting may start now, like in March, thinking about the beginning of next year, and they may start writing projects, so that they can already have those materials in their classroom when they open that door too, to the new school year. Some teachers are our, I will say again, our teachers are very crafty, they’re very strategic when it comes to getting the materials they need for their students. So, , yeah, they, they make sure that they have what they need, and we work again all year round to make sure that their items are delivered and in a timely manner to their schools.


Naomi M. (00:16:04) – That’s so good. And I, I can tell, I mean, they obviously hire teachers, you are a teacher, but, you guys are very teacher and student focused and just really trying to make the process easy because, like we said, it’s hard to get materials and just knowing what to get, how to order it, just where does the money, like all that stuff is just mm-hmm. <affirmative> so nice how everything is laid out on there and just, it makes it like, takes so much stress away because, I mean, it’s funny cuz us as teachers, we don’t usually go to college like, oh, I’m gonna learn how to write grants. Like that’s not something that <laugh> you really know how to do. It’s not something you ever thought you would have to do. Especially with STEM materials, it can get expensive, and if, when you teach all the kids, it’s a lot of materials. Like what I need for kindergarten is so different than what I needed in fifth grade.


Brittany W. (00:16:53) – Oh, absolutely. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. We definitely do serve the elementary, middle, and high schools. We want it to be a space where no matter the age or grade level, teachers can, you know, request whatever materials that they need. And again, as you said, we really try to take the work out of it for them, so that, , they’re not spending hours writing up a project, and they can focus on more. So telling their story and tell the story of how amazing or how transformed their classroom is about to be with these projects. I will say one example is, and I just love, we’ve been having like a lot of science, a lot of STEM, , examples Oh good. Mainly come through in our teacher Facebook community. , one teacher, , just shared how she’s doing a unit on animals and or on animals and they are hatching chickens. Oh


Naomi M. (00:17:49) – Yeah.


Brittany W. (00:17:50) – And she showed, she shared the pictures of the, the students in her classroom, you know, playing with the, the, the, the newly hatched chickens. We could see them taking notes in their science journals. So we, yeah, we wanted to get to that with, with the teachers. We wanna be able to celebrate their rockets and make, , the heavy lifting of the grant writing. , not as time extensive.


Naomi M. (00:18:12) – I love that. That’s a great grant. I did, uh, chickens when I taught third grade, and that is a great project if you’re allowed to have animals in your building. Didn’t


Brittany W. (00:18:21) – Didn’t know it was a thing. <laugh>.


Naomi M. (00:18:22) – Yeah, it is. So, they’re so cute and soft. They’re like the softest little things. <laugh>.


Brittany W. (00:18:31) – Oh my gosh, now I need to experience this at least once.


Naomi M. (00:18:34) – <laugh>. Oh, it’s so cute. And what, this is pretty naive of me, but I guess the reason why there are different colored eggs, it’s different breeds of chickens and so when they’re born, Oh yeah, right. It’s not like how healthier, it’s just a different breed. <laugh> <laugh>. But when they’re born, they hatch out, and then they try to give you different colors of different breeds of chicken, so they hatch in their different colors and it’s so cute. <laugh>.


Brittany W. (00:19:01) – Oh, mg uh, okay. I need to do a YouTube bath.


Naomi M. (00:19:05) – <laugh>. Yes. They’re so cute. They’re cute as little things <laugh>. Uh, yeah. The great project, though. , so when it comes to anything else, is there anything that I’m missing or any other things you wanna tell teachers when it comes to, , DonorsChoose, or anything else that I didn’t get to?


Brittany W. (00:19:24) – Absolutely. We are gearing up for our Teacher Appreciation Week. It’s always a huge thing at DonorsChoose. , which this year it falls from May 8th to the 12th. It’s one of the biggest times of the school year for donations to school projects. We’re hoping to help teachers fund up to 10 million on DonorsChoose projects that week. Wow. Right. Huge goal. But I know we’re gonna get it done, and teachers can sign up for a DonorsChoose account, join the community and follow us on social media to get the latest about funding opportunities during Teacher Appreciation Week. And just to give some more insight on our teacher Facebook community, we do have a, it is called DonorsChoose Teachers Community, and we have about 30,000 teachers who are in the community. They share tons of tips for project funding and project creation, and they share important updates like the chicken hatching and <laugh>, like the family fun nights, and just the awesome activities and projects that they do with their classroom. We get to see the materials that they got funded through DonorsChoose in real life and, it’s an amazing community.


Naomi M. (00:20:38) – Oh, I love that. I’m gonna link all of this in the show notes and this will definitely be playing thank, you before teacher appreciation. So that’s really good to hear. And that’s just really cool how you guys are just trying even outside the grants, just building a community and giving that inspiration and just seeing, that’s the whole thing we love about teaching is like, what is the outcome of this and the story and how is this impacting our students? And, that’s really cool that you guys get to play a role with that and really make like just really powerful experiences happen and, just really cool activities.


Brittany W. (00:21:12) – Yes. And one more thing, this summer, we always encourage teachers, again, as I said before, to get a headstart for the next school year. Most of our DonorsChoose teachers will start posting the resources they need for the 2023 –  2024 school year as early as June or July. So we recommend that as the year starts coming to a close, start thinking about some of those projects, head of the mind before the school year closes out, just as a, a friendly reminder.


Naomi M. (00:21:40) – Oh no, that’s perfect. We need all those reminders <laugh>. We do, we do <laugh>. No, I love that. Well, I appreciate you so much and all of your knowledge and just explaining the background of that, of DonorsChooseand how, , you and your team helped support us in the classroom and just making it just sound very easy and it is like based on experience, it’s very easy to do. Yay.


Brittany W. (00:22:05) – Love that you have that experience.


Naomi M. (00:22:07) – Yes, it’s very easy and just, it’s actually kind of fun too. And, just a great way to get started, especially if you’ve never written a grant or even if you have mm-hmm. <affirmative> just getting better at that writing piece, and Yeah. , telling that story. And again, of course, getting those awesome projects in your classroom. So thank you so much for your time today. Definitely.


Brittany W. (00:22:27) – Thank you for having me, <laugh>.


Naomi M. (00:22:29) – Awesome. Well, we will post everything, and I’m sure you’re gonna see a lot more projects coming your way. More STEM projects soon.


Brittany W. (00:22:36) – Yes. Bring them on. Bring them on. <laugh>.


Naomi M. (00:22:39) – Well, thank you again, Brittany.


Brittany W. (00:22:41) – Thank you.

grant writing tips for teachers

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

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Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

STEM grant ideas

STEM Grant Ideas for Teachers with Jennifer Mahin [ep.76]

by Naomi Meredith

STEM Grant Ideas for Teachers with Jennifer Mahin [ep.76]

STEM grant ideas

Check out the full episode on STEM Grant Ideas for Teachers with Jennifer Mahin:  

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Episode Summary

For many of us, when we first enter the elementary STEM space, we are tasked with doing innovative activities with our students, but we are given zero curriculum or zero budget to do so. 

In today’s episode, I interview Jennifer Mahin, who has received over $32,000 in grants to buy supplies for her STEM space. Jennifer started out like all of us, with zero curriculum and no budget. In this episode, she shares STEM grant ideas that she has implemented to receive funding. She provides great tips for successfully getting grants and encouragement for those times grants are denied.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Jennifer’s journey to becoming a STEM teacher
  • How she got started with writing grants
  • STEM grant ideas to help you get started with writing grants for your STEM classroom
  • Tips and tricks for writing good grants

Meet Jennifer Mahin:

Jennifer Mahin is a K-5 STEM teacher and technology integration specialist at East Elementary School in Belleville, KS. Jennifer is an MIE Expert, a Flip Trainer, a Pear Deck Coach, and an Ozobot certified educator. Jennifer is a blogger who is passionate about rural education and the importance of STEM and CS in the K-5 classroom.

Connect with Jennifer:

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

There’s something that I find super interesting in the elementary STEM space. Oftentimes, we are given these amazing spaces and we are tasked to do amazing and innovative things with our students. But we are given zero curriculum and zero budget to do so. Don’t get me wrong, you can do a lot of awesome stuff with recyclable materials, but you definitely want to level up when it comes to those amazing resources that we want our kids to get their hands on. I know that you are feeling it too. A little while back, over 70 of you filled out my podcast survey. Thank you so much for doing that. I got a lot of great insight as to what you’re feeling right now and what you’re needing, and to help me plan future episodes just like this one. There was a common theme when it comes to gathering materials in your space, and how this is definitely a struggle for you. Some of you even said that there is an issue with the budget, gathering materials, planning activities that won’t break the bank, and very little resources and materials. I completely understand and that’s why you are definitely going to love today’s expert, Jennifer Mahin. We have been chatting over the years over on Instagram, and I noticed that she was getting a lot of awesome supplies through grant writing. In fact, over the years, she has gotten funded over $32,000 worth of supplies, and combined grant writing to build up the space for her students. Yes, you heard that right, $32,000, not all at once, but just a bunch over time. She was a lot like you. She was given a brand new classroom with zero curriculum and zero tools to do these amazing things in STEM, so she took it upon herself to do all of this awesome grant writing. Jennifer Mahin is a K through five STEM teacher and technology integration specialist at East Elementary School in Kansas. Jennifer is a MIE expert, a flip trainer, a Pear Deck Coach and an Ozobots certified educator. Jennifer is also a blogger who’s passionate about rural education and the importance of STEM and computer science in the K through five classroom. You’re going to get a lot of information in this episode when it comes to gathering materials for your space, and some tips and tricks when it comes to grant writing. I hope after today’s episodes that you feel inspired and that you can start writing grants for your space, so that you can gather those awesome supplies that you know that you want your students to get their hands on, and really have them be a 22nd century learner. I can’t wait for you to listen. 


Naomi Meredith  02:54

Thank you so much, Jennifer, for being here. Okay, this topic that you’re going to talk about, I’m so excited about because before we hit record, you said a lot of people ask you about this topic. A lot of people ask me about this too. And I knew that you would be the perfect person for this when it comes to getting supplies for your classroom and writing grants. I’ve done a few over the years, but I know that you have a lot more experience. I know it’s really hard when we as STEM teachers are creating a program pretty much from nothing. It’s pretty rare that everything’s handed to us. We want to or expect to do all this cool stuff and then we don’t have stuff to do the cool stuff. So I’m really excited to hear all about that today. But before we jump into that, if you wouldn’t mind telling us about yourself, your teaching background, and then how you stepped into your role as a STEM teacher.


Jennifer Mahin  04:18

Yes. So my name is Jennifer Mahin. You can find me on social media @jennasuarustech. I feel like that’s usually what I’m known by. My name is actually Jennifer. I am in my 10th year of education, my fourth year of teaching STEM. Prior to that I taught fifth grade math and social studies for three years. I also taught special ed for three years, two years, severe profound disabilities sixth through ninth grade and then one year of just second through fifth grade special ed. I honestly never pictured myself as a STEM teacher, maybe like, I don’t even know like looking back from when I started teaching to where I am now. I’m like how did I get here? But I loved integrating meaningful technology into what I was teaching. I went to tech conferences and things like that, and I kept learning about STEM and learning about computer science. As a fifth grade teacher, I started integrating coding into my math curriculum. And my social studies was so boring. Like, if you don’t know, fifth grade social studies, it is like up to, I believe the 1800s.


Naomi Meredith  05:21

Oh, that’s good.


Jennifer Mahin  05:23

It’s like math. So what I did is I started integrating STEM into that and trying to make it more hands on, more fun, and just getting that cross curriculum in there. And that’s kind of what got me interested in STEM. And I was also getting my master’s in instructional technology. So like, all of these things happening at once. And that’s how I ended up here. 


Naomi Meredith  05:43

So I feel like I stories are very similar. And I think we’ve talked about this over the years. Also, I did not know you taught special ed. I had no idea. That’s super important too. I mean, teaching all the kids in the school, you have all the needs, all the IEPs that we still have to meet. So that’s actually really valuable experience in your STEM role. So I think that’s actually really common with a lot of STEM teachers listening. Whereas, oh, we like technology, we like STEM. All right, I think I’m qualified to be the STEM teacher. It’s kind of how it goes. That’s how it was for me for sure. So I don’t know how I’m still qualified. But here we are. Full of them. So when you stepped into your space, was there a STEM program before? Or was this something brand new to your building and your district?


Jennifer Mahin  06:36

So I’m really like the only STEM program in our district. Now we have a little bit for sixth grade, but like, there’s not much in our high school, literally at all. 


Naomi Meredith  06:45

Whoa!


Jennifer Mahin  06:46

It blows my mind. Like we have such a huge Makerspace and a STEM program here in our elementary, so like not to barely have it. And we have it in sixth grade, but not beyond that it’s like, mind blowing.


Naomi Meredith  06:58

Oh no! That’s sad.


Jennifer Mahin  06:59

I know, I know. I’ve been helping and working with that teacher to write some grants and get that one. But so I when I was teaching fifth grade math and social studies, you know, it kind of all started in a few different ways. We had a keyboarding teacher and kids, that was one of the specials, they would go to keyboarding, like twice a week. And that’s literally all they did was keyboarding in those 30 minutes. So at the time, I knew I wanted to start integrating more like STEM based stuff. So I also knew there was potential to be that a STEM program could be coming with tech integration. So that’s kind of like I wrote a grant, in hopes that this would be a position we were creating. And if we weren’t going to create it, I was just going to be this fifth grade teacher with like, the coolest STEM stuff. So it definitely, like we had nothing. And I’m from a small rural school district like, we have 250 kids in our preschool through fifth grade. 


Naomi Meredith  07:57

Whoa, small!


Jennifer Mahin  07:58

Like our town is so small, like I live in a town of 297 people. Yeah, the town I teach in is probably like, I don’t know, I would say like 1800. So again, not a lot of people. 


Naomi Meredith  08:09

Oh, wow! 


Jennifer Mahin  08:10

We did not have money for this program. So I was kind of like thrown into this program with literally nothing. I think they gave me like a stapler. And unlike the keyboard covers, but I mean, there was there was like nothing, except for maybe what I brought from fifth grade and teaching special ed but like I had, I had nothing to start a STEM program.


Naomi Meredith  08:32

Oh my gosh. And I think that’s very common. Sadly, that’s so true. It’s like, Hello, welcome to your job. But you don’t have curriculum, nothing. Yeah, you have to teach all the children with your imagination. I don’t know. It’s like pulling out of the Barney bag. Like what’s in it today? I don’t know if you know that song.


Jennifer Mahin  08:55

It’s so accurate, though. Because it’s like you’re being thrown in. And that’s I think when people talk to me, it’s like, how did you do what you’ve done? Because so often we’re thrown into this position with minimal STEM experience and, like, make magic happen with yeah, here’s $250. But now you teach every single kid and not just like 40.


Naomi Meredith  09:16

Yeah, yeah, you’re like good luck. Okay, thank you, like $200 can barely buy one LEGO Education Kit.


Jennifer Mahin  09:24

It can’t. Prices went up. 


Naomi Meredith  09:28

They have gone up. That’s true. So that’s why I asked you to be on here because you have stuff now. And so what successes have you had with writing grants over the years? So it’s your fourth year in STEM. I know you have a lot of stuff now. So what things have you been able to purchase and you can even just start from the beginning kind of the process of what you’ve done, because it’s really awesome what you’ve done.


Jennifer Mahin  09:52

Yeah, so that May I wrote a grant for $5,000. Like yeah, if I get the STEM program $5,000 I’m gonna, it’s gonna be awesome. And then I got $5,000. And I’m like, I need more. I mean, $5,000 didn’t even cover what I wanted or needed, or thought I needed. And then, so that would have been May. August, I wrote another one for $5,500. And luckily, I was awarded both of those. And then after that, I kind of kept writing grants. But I learned the hard way that you know, I didn’t always get them. And I didn’t always maybe research enough of what I ordered, so that I get some things and I’m like, looking back, I wouldn’t have ordered those things. But you know, as a new STEM teacher, I didn’t know what I would need, or I didn’t know what would like how, okay, those kids I started with in Kindergarten four years ago are now probably smarter than I am. And I need to push them.


Naomi Meredith  10:49

Yeah, that makes sense too. Yeah, because the gap. That’s another thing. I don’t know what I mean. What were some things you regretted purchasing. We’re not throwing any companies under the bus. But you’re like, oh, this wasn’t great.


Jennifer Mahin  11:01

So Well, I have like LEGO essential LEGO prime. We do 2.0 Brickey motion. I love all of those. Yeah, in the beginning, I ordered the LEGO boosts robot. Oh, yeah. It’s a great robot. If you’re like a child at home, ah, really lesson based as much as it is like coding, super fun to build, but it wasn’t conducive for our space. Like it took way too long to build. 


Naomi Meredith  11:28

I see. Yeah. 


Jennifer Mahin  11:30

And the other one that I wouldn’t purchase again, would be I think they’re like, Jimu robots.


Naomi Meredith  11:36

I don’t even know what that is. 


Jennifer Mahin  11:38

They’re really neat. I went to a tech conference. And they were like, Oh, these are great. And I was like, Oh, they’re great. But at the time, they didn’t have like a curriculum or a way to save student progress and things like that. And for me, that was important. And I also wouldn’t order things with 9000 batteries again.


Naomi Meredith  11:56

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.


Jennifer Mahin  11:59

But I also think it’s hard. I think, like, as a new STEM teacher, you see STEM teachers who have a lot of followers, and a lot of people who kind of promote things. So I saw some things that teachers were promoting, like, oh, my gosh, I need that. And then I realized afterwards, I think it was an ad and not something, you know what I mean, they’re actually using. So I have like, these little critter robots, which I wouldn’t.


Naomi Meredith  12:25

I’ve seen those. Okay, Well, that’s good to know.


Jennifer Mahin  12:29

The reason I wouldn’t order them again, is because you know, your Bee bots, your robot mouse, they all turn like an angle. The critters go for like a y turn around. It’s so different than what you’re teaching and coding and things like that. So definitely research things before you purchase it. And if you see someone cool sharing it doesn’t mean you need it. Yeah, absolutely.


Naomi Meredith  12:50

I know. And I’m very, I think I’ve talked about on here various times, picky about specific things that I’ll buy, because I’ve had the same thing happened, like, Oh, why did I buy that? Or there were things that were kind of leftover in my classroom that were cool, but they were for older children. So like, I had things that were made for like middle school kids that were left in my classroom, like I tried. I tried with like, a GT class, they couldn’t even do it. And like, this isn’t, I can’t use this. Like, I was so bad. And I donate them to our middle school. But I think that’s good to keep in mind. Yeah, definitely want to research. So when you wrote the grants, did you have to list out what you were going to buy? And like, how did you find these grants? Because that’s a lot of money to ask for. Like, how did that all work out?


Jennifer Mahin  13:41

So altogether, I probably have been awarded over $30,000 over four years, which is a huge amount of money. But I started our STEM program, I started our Makerspace program, and now I’ve helped our sixth grade, kind of get like a STEM once a week thing. I’m trying to help them get it up and going. So at the time, Well, I don’t say at the time, but like my husband, he at the time, his role was economic development. So he kind of knew some grants too like a direction to steer me and he doesn’t do economic development anymore. But I mean, he’s still helped me with grants. Yeah. But where I’m located, we have like, it was called Dane Hanson. And it was a local foundation, like Republic County Community Foundation. You know, you have Donors Choose, you have some, like Bayer fund, large STEM grants. There’s so many different things like Duclos foundation for me personally, I think, looking like if I’m giving advice to people, I always tell them look at what your local community foundation is, look at what your local groups are, because there’s so many groups wanting to give money to education, especially if you’re doing technology or STEM or something hands on. Like if you’re showing how it’s real world connections. People want to support that. And I will say I definitely didn’t get all those grants and how was like heartbreaking Yeah, I remember I wrote a grant for $8,800 and Then when you write a grant, like if I want these 15 robotics kits, I have to list every one. Like, you know, when you’re writing grants, it does take time. So when I doing that, I don’t get them. I was so. But I had to really stop and look like, okay, my first few grants were super easy because I was building a program. But now when I wanted to do a Makerspace, it was like, Well, you don’t need this. Why should we give you the money? So I really had to stop and think, Okay, I live in rural Kansas, What sets me above other people that’s going to make you want to give me money. And for me, it was our fifth graders were going on a STEM based field trip, and they were driving two hours away to Manhattan, Kansas. Oh, and no school at the time, within probably a 45 minute drive, even has a STEM program. So showing, hey, this is a need, you know, yeah, we’re in rural Kansas, but I want our kids to be able to compete with bigger towns, I want them to like, make connections with industry here. Because you know, you can work remote, you can do so many things. So once I really keyed in like, Hey, this is what I want to do. Why I want to do it, I’m going to share it with other community members, like Hey, bring the Girl Scouts bring the four h people bring in other schools for free, because Alright, a grant for them to come do cool stuff. Like, that’s a good idea. When you identify your needs, it definitely plays plays a role in making it work more.


Naomi Meredith  16:26

Yeah. So instead of saying I need this stuff, like, here’s how it’s gonna make an impact. And that would be specific. Yeah.


Jennifer Mahin  16:35

Yeah, say, and for me, it was really tying in. I want my students in rural Kansas to have the same experience as kids in a big district. You know, I don’t want them to be held back because of where we’re located. And I don’t think so once I really played up that part. Yeah, play it up. And for me, it was even tying it into our industry. We have a lot of, like manufacturers here. But this is preparing students for the real world. This is how I can tie it in. And even some of those businesses will like donate to schools and donate to certain things like that. So I’m like, Hey, I’m writing a grant, so that my kids can work for you in the future, if you want to give me money. I’m gonna take it. Yeah,


Naomi Meredith  17:15

Yeah, like you said, they are looking for connections. Sometimes those companies don’t even know how to reach out. Like, it’s like where it’s opposite. We’re scared of them. Like, oh, we don’t want to ask, but then the company is like, we don’t want to ask, we don’t know how to ask. So it’s like kind of a two way street. We’re just kind of like, I don’t know where to start. So when you found the local partners, did they have grant opportunities already? Or did you reach out like blind like on an email like, Hey, I would like to write a grant. Here’s what I’m thinking, or was it kind of a mix.


Jennifer Mahin  17:46

So the the majority of the ones I’ve done like Dane Hansen, Donors Choose or republic County Community Foundation, they’re all local. Dane Hansen’s over a larger space in Kansas, but they were all ones that it was like a republic county is twice a year. The Dane Hansen’s once a month, the Duclos is like twice a year. So I knew I kind of researched it and found those. Like, when I saw the Bayer fund one that was maybe like, once a year or something, but certain people, like I reached out to them, or if it was, like some of them, you could just find them. Okay, so googling.


Naomi Meredith  18:20

Okay, so just like even Googling, that’s a good point. And, and yeah, you never know, when you asked are there? Do they ever give you like a template that you have to fill out? Or do you have, like a specific format that you use when you write a grant that works? So obviously, the storytelling and how it makes an impact? What do you do for that when you actually write it?


Jennifer Mahin  18:41

So for grants, so far, everything I’ve done, it’s like, you create an account. And then it’s like specific questions like, what’s your impact? And how is this going to impact your community? What are your goals? How are you going to reach your goals? How are you going to tell us if those goals were met? What’s like, what makes your air like what how do you stand out more in your area or something like that? It was very, like a template that they’re providing for you. And I just had to sell myself in 250 words or less sometimes,


Naomi Meredith  19:10

Okay. So that’s helpful having that template, because that’s hard to know where to start. Like, I don’t know what to write. And you can probably reuse some of them stuff, too. If you save it in like a Google doc on the side, I would totally reuse that.


Jennifer Mahin  19:24

So that’s what I do for most of them is I type them all out in Google Doc. And then I copy and paste them that way. You know, a lot of my answers I can reuse or even like, I have a lot of people who asked me for grant advice and like, Hey, here’s what I’ve done. And that way you’re not seeing like my school’s EIN number, you’re not seeing like our diversity or our you know that we’re a title one school so I’m not sharing that with like, those specific people or whatever they’re trying to find out. 


Naomi Meredith  19:49

Yeah, exactly. So for your grants, you mentioned you did like a Makerspace one and then some other things. Do you typically be like I need all this random stuff? Or now are your grants like I would like to do something like more focused? How do you format all of that?


Jennifer Mahin  20:08

So my very first, I would say two were building my STEM classroom. After that it was building my Makerspace classroom. Following that one, it was more of like, Hey, this is what we’ve done. And it’s great, and we appreciate you. But now I have these kids who are here, and the stuff that I have is like to hear. So I need something to still push those kids and challenge them. So I kind of just use that approach now. Or it’s just been something specific, like, this is what we would like. And this is why.


Naomi Meredith  20:40

Yeah, that’s a great way to put it. And that’s good, too. Like, if you already have things, where where are your kids going to be? Because I totally agree with you. It’s my fifth year instead, what my kids are doing now is way more advanced than than what they’re doing. At the beginning. I had fifth graders who could not log into their username and password. They did not know what to do. I can relate to that so much. Yeah. So now they can do it. Like yes, we can do this. So hooray. But totally different. Like the LEGO we do. 2.0 was hard enough for my fifth graders at the time, because they weren’t used to collaborating in that way. Now, it’d be like, Oh, piece of cake. like, Where’s, where’s the next thing? Where’s the next thing, but so important that what you’re doing? Because, like you said, you’re you want them to compete with other schools. And that’s so important. And some times we do need some cool stuff to do it. Like, I can’t do I mean, yeah, you can do cardboard every lesson that if that’s where you’re at, that’s where you’re at. But it is really nice to have some of the fancy stuff, too.


Jennifer Mahin  21:48

And especially for me, like in the beginning, you know, I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t make a chart or like a map of my curriculum that first year, because it was fine, because everyone could use the same thing. But now it’s like, okay, first grade has to do this second grade, you know, does this and it definitely different has to differentiate. Yeah, and I mean, I have things that I use, and I try to find things that I use with all the grade levels, that it like, breaks it down. Like I don’t know, if you have the spike, essential.


Naomi Meredith  22:14

I do. And I just bought more. I love them. 


Jennifer Mahin  22:17

I love them. And I don’t think they have like 20 lessons for groceries. 20 lessons for second grade, some that are third through fifth like that. They know what they’re doing with that kit, because Oh, yeah, it was so many grades. And I mean, I love the LEGO we do. But it’s so I feel like it’s so much more advanced now, because you’re using with more grade levels, and it’s challenging or easy. And it’s, I love it.


Naomi Meredith  22:40

You actually get that look, it got tougher. I agree. I totally get that kit. People don’t believe me. I’m like, No, it’s like multi grade. Like it really actually. It’s like, how am I I don’t know, they just like really thought through this. 


Jennifer Mahin  22:53

It’s all standard base. Like it’s not just literacy and computer science. But it’s also like, I think it’s NGSS science to you, which is great, because then you can get that buy in from other grade levels and other teachers like, Hey, I’m doing this for a purpose. 


Naomi Meredith  23:05

Oh, yeah, you’re like, we’re not just rebuilding, it’s actually like, really actually doing something. So that’s good to keep in mind too, when you’re writing your grants, like finding things that can be used for more than one grade. Has that helped you in your grant writing, I’m sure like it can be used for this great blah, blah, blah.


Jennifer Mahin  23:20

Yes, I think I think my grant writing from year one has evolved so much now like I still will do like Donors Choose and some of those things, or even like a local one every now and then. But in the beginning, I was asking for like five to $8,000 every time. Now, I’m like, can I just get like $1,000 a lot, or, you know, I’m asking for more of like a specific, like, I just got the spike essential at the beginning of this year. So which the price went up. And they were kind of expensive, but it’s like I just needed something new to add. So probably for me, I’m at the point where if I just add one thing new every year, I’m gonna be happy. I mean, I don’t have to, but I really like to.


Naomi Meredith  23:55

I know. And there are new things that come out. And we want the kids to kind of experience that to not kind of we want them to experience that, too. So it is important to kind of just keep your eye out of not every bright and shiny item like you said like not everything’s good. There are some staples that you really want. But yeah, with the upgrade, like we know LEGO education kits are good. And so they this upgrade is worth it. So just kind of being mindful and talking to STEM teacher friends and podcasts or whatever and doing all that.


Jennifer Mahin  24:26

And save money for storage containers because you never think of that you can use for all of the stuff you’re about to start to buy. Yeah, I’m gonna be like, where do I store this? I don’t have a container and go for the expensive ones because they’re better. 


Naomi Meredith  24:38

Yes, they are better. Dollar Tree containers don’t work. Wow. They break. That is really good advice. Actually. Speaking of advice, so you’ve went through the process. Is there anything else like kind of like a checklist like what you should do when you’re writing your grant and like things you would recommend?


Jennifer Mahin  25:00

So one thing that I have learned is things that work across grade levels, definitely minimum batteries, or at least a rechargeable battery, align it to other standards. So teachers don’t think you’re just playing. And the last one is probably my favorite, I look for things with replacement pieces for free, like Osmo is fabulous. So we do that a lot. Or like teachers use it in stations. But if you if something like breaks for them, they replace it for free. And that’s fabulous. Because when you’re investing in some of this stuff, like I don’t want the spare pieces, I don’t want to spend 50 bucks to buy something that just breaks in wear and tear, or like Snap Circuits. Sometimes they’ll replace pieces, things like that. So I would say definitely look into replacement parts, or like what’s the replacement plan is for education before you purchase it, because that I mean, that helps me sway a little bit. Like, if you’re if you have good customer service, and you’re going to support educators, I’m gonna give you my money.


Naomi Meredith  25:59

That’s a really good point, like the longevity of a tool, I would never have thought about that like that you could do right that in your grant, like, I know that they have this replacement plan.


Jennifer Mahin  26:10

I have. Like when I was doing 3D printing, I kind of put in there, you know, I’m choosing this 3d printer, because it has someone who does every single thing is everything every single Thursday, they’ll do like a two hour zoom. And if you hop on you hop on and they’ll help you and if not me who had no knowledge of 3D printing or how to fix them. And obviously, I’ve we’ve chatted about 3D printing before.


Naomi Meredith  26:35

I thought you built your printer. Didn’t you build that to build them? 


Jennifer Mahin  26:38

I had to build these three massive 3D printers, like had no idea what I was doing, and then making them work. I mean, I knew how to print but I did not know how to assemble, fix to do all the things. So that’s important, like find you a company who can help you when you’re stuck. Like if you send them an email, and they don’t respond to you. Nope, move on to a new company.


Naomi Meredith  27:02

Yeah, it’s true where, like, that’s something people don’t think about in this role, is you’re not trained to do anything. And there’s all these different products that some have support, and some don’t. And so were responsible of learning how to use that tool. So that is great to add to your grant. Like I live by this because they have support my 3D printers came with teacher training for you. I can’t remember I did not have to build them. I remember watching you like on Instagram, like Oh, no. Or you like you brought them home?


Jennifer Mahin  27:35

Not because I brought them home. Because I was like, I don’t even understand these directions.


Naomi Meredith  27:40

It’s like ultimate IKEA, like, oh, no, it’s like AP, IKEA building.


Jennifer Mahin  27:45

What was so great, though, is like later on when I had issues with them, which were issues that I just didn’t know how to like fix, or I put something together wrong. They they were like, if it’s a time, because the Thursday time didn’t end up working for me. Sometimes they’re like, we’ll meet with your kids, we would actually love to train your kids to pull this for you. So you don’t have to be like so let’s meet with your kids. Let’s do this. And I’m like, yes. 


Naomi Meredith  28:08

Did it work? 


Jennifer Mahin  28:09

Yeah.I mean, they met with my kids wants and helps me fix it. And after that it was more of me, like logging on in summer trying to just do some stuff like that. But it was nice having to meet with my kids and trying to fix it with them and troubleshoot and like talk about the skills they learned from that.


Naomi Meredith  28:25

Yeah, and that’s like stuff, that’s real STEM actually, that’s like for fixing the 3d printer. That’s real life learning that in the grant, like if it breaks, the children will learn how to fix it. And if they don’t, then they have to stay with me another year. But anyway, anything else that I missed when it comes to grant writing or anything else you want to share? Because I think this is so so insightful, and also encouraging that you have done this, you are a teacher, you have done this and it has worked.


Jennifer Mahin  28:58

Thank you. I just think the biggest thing is like, you’re not going to get every grant and that’s okay. But don’t get discouraged. Because you know, I got two and then I didn’t get two, I got three and then I didn’t get one. You know what I mean? Like, definitely identify your need, and you have to prove why you need this why it’s important. So identify your need and just don’t give up like you’re not going to like instead keep trying. 


Naomi Meredith  29:23

Yeah, I think that’s great. That is super great advice. And probably like it sounds like to spread your wings don’t do just one. Put your feelers out there from multiple because you never know. 


29:34

Reach out to other STEM teachers on social media because they’re gonna help you like I that’s that’s a question like you said, you get a lot. I get a lot. I get emails about it all the time. And you know, I think that’s what’s great about St. Peters is we’re so willing to help. And we want like we want to tell you what works and what doesn’t work because we went through it and like learn from our failures.


Naomi Meredith  29:52

Yep, yep. 100% Yes. Maybe don’t get a printer you can build. I’m just kidding. Maybe it worked out. It worked out. Don’t get them Jimmy robots. Yeah, I guess those were some of the I don’t know what I’ve bought those bad. I’m sure I’ll think about I have bought some bad stuff. Oh, you know what I did. I did a grant for video production tools. So I bought tripods super cool. All this other stuff. And I added in like costume props, because they had a vision, like the little kids could be like community helpers in the videos. But like, The costumes were so tiny. They’re like for a two year old. And like, nobody can wear them. It’s super awkward and like, weird stuff. I was like, Why did I put that in there? This is so dumb.


Jennifer Mahin  30:39

I love that. I’m glad I’m not alone. But I think mine was more expensive.


Naomi Meredith  30:44

I don’t know, those costumes are extended. I think they’re in my closet. They make me mad every time I look at that.


Jennifer Mahin  30:50

You have to leave them there. Because obviously you got them. Look at them. And think about that when you you know, apply for money next time had like.


Naomi Meredith  30:58

Maybe if I teach pre K STEM, they can wear it? I don’t know.


Jennifer Mahin  31:03

But good luck with pre K STEM if you teach it.


Naomi Meredith  31:05

Let’s say I don’t know, maybe? Well, I appreciate your time and all your knowledge. And I’m sure people will use you mentioned your handle at the beginning. But where can people find and connect with you?


Jennifer Mahin  31:18

Yeah, so definitely I am on Twitter, Instagram. You know, I think my week looks the same. It’s all Genesis tech, very responsive. And I like to help others because you know, people have helped me along the way. So reach out, find me there or you know, jennasaurustech@gmail.com. I am available.


Naomi Meredith  31:34

And she’s super helpful. We’ve chat over the years. Yeah, she’s great. I’m so glad and she is knowledgeable about a lot of other things too. So definitely check out his stuff. Yeah. Well, thank you so much again, and I appreciate your time, and hopefully everybody’s grant writing is way better off now.


Jennifer Mahin  31:56

Yes, thank you so much for having me. It was fun.

STEM grant ideas

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

STEM online community

3 Ways to Build Your STEM Online Community [ep.74]

by Naomi Meredith

3 Ways to Build Your STEM Online Community [ep.74]

STEM online community

Check out the full episode on 3 Ways to Build Your STEM Online Community:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Being a STEM teacher can sometimes feel lonely if you’re the only one in your building implementing and teaching STEM. It’s a lot of fun thinking of and implementing new STEM ideas in the classroom, but it would be nice to have a community of like-minded teachers to share these ideas with and who get what you experience as a STEM teacher. If you’re feeling alone as a STEM teacher, a STEM online community is what you need. In today’s episode, I share three ways to build your STEM online community.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 3 ways to build your STEM online community
  • My personal experience with these online communities 
  • Tips for creating and joining a STEM online community

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

Part of the fun of teaching elementary STEM is you have a lot of autonomy within your position, especially if you are the only teacher in you’re building teaching STEM. It’s a lot of fun to think of new ideas and implement them in your classroom. However, it can get quite isolating and lonely being the only person who is implementing all these cool ideas in your building. Likewise, maybe you’re a classroom teacher who is implementing STEM and innovative ideas, and you might feel a bit alone because you’re the only one who’s ready to jump in and try all of these new ideas. I totally understand, and I have been in both of those positions. So you might be wondering, how can I connect with like-minded teachers who get what you are doing and keep that momentum going? In this episode, I will be sharing with you three ways to build your STEM online community that are easy to implement but also that will bring you a lot of value. 


Naomi Meredith  01:04

At the time of this episode that it’s being released, it is this springtime, and you might be thinking, “Well, it’s too late to start a community.” I actually don’t think so. I know that springtime can be very overwhelming, but spring is actually an awesome time of year to actually try new things. Instead of just kicking back and relaxing for the end of the year, it’s actually really fun to try new things, not only with your students but for yourself. Then in the summer, you can relax, you can refresh, and think of how you can keep that going into the new school year. So when it comes to building your STEM online community and connecting with teachers who are like-minded like you, these are things that I have definitely done, and they have brought so much value to me and made me feel less alone in the STEM space. 


Naomi Meredith  01:04

The first way to build your STEM online community is to build a virtual PLC. My definition of PLC is a professional learning community. You may even have heard it as PLM, your professional learning network, or other names that are very similar. When I first got started in this K through five STEM position, I was brand new to the district, brand new to the building, and brand new to the position with a limited amount of materials and zero curriculum. I was the only actual STEM teacher in my building, so I needed to reach out to people who had similar positions to me in my district. Luckily, there were a few others, and I got connected with them. They were other STEM teachers whose students would feed into our neighboring middle school or one that was nearby or the neighboring high school. So it was really good to connect with teachers who are in similar positions. We had similar schedules, and we could talk about different things, whether it was lesson planning or behavior management ideas. We would talk about how we can have our student learning outcomes and do some grading, which I do have a past episode about that, and how to create student learning outcomes for your students in STEM. But this has been so powerful in my growth as a STEM teacher and just having teachers that I can rely on. We meet about twice a month, and we have a day during, luckily, our planned time. We all have the same planned time. But you can even think about how you could do this after school or even just once a month. We just meet over zoom or Microsoft Teams or whatever we are using that year. But we meet virtually, and it’s just been really awesome. Being able to connect with these teachers and, again, have these conversations that you probably would have if you had an actual team, but just not feeling so alone, especially since we are in the same district. Now if you don’t have that luxury of being in the same district, this next tip might actually help you out in how you can build your professional learning community, and if you don’t have anybody else who’s doing the same thing as you. 


Naomi Meredith  02:59

And finally, the third way to build your STEM teacher community, to wrap it all up nicely, I would say in a pretty little bow, is my new upcoming STEM teacher bookshelf. Now, if you are not an avid reader, don’t just shut off this podcast like don’t worry about it. The whole goal of this is that we will have a book to base our conversations on each month. I’m very picky about the books that I have chosen, and for the time of year, I have picked them. Most of the ones during the school year have an audiobook companion, or they are very short, so it’s not a big deal reading them. But if you are an avid reader during the school year, or that’s just not where you’re at yet, or you want to wait till this summer, you can definitely join this community. A big part of it is there’s actually a private community of teachers where you will get to interact and talk about these topics that are discussed in the books. Again, if you read the book, it’s really helpful. But if you don’t, that’s okay too because they’re topics that we should be talking about anyway. It’s a great chance for you to post questions, chat with each other, and even maybe connect with teachers where you could meet virtually. But not only that, but inside this community, we will have monthly live zoom calls, where you can see each other’s faces, and I will be in their hosting. We, of course, will chat about the books, the themes, and the topics and get to know each other that way. So think of it like your virtual happy hour. I know that it’s hard to meet up with teachers, but this will be a really fun time where we can chat and interact together. And, of course, there are prizes throughout the month. I love giving away presents and prizes. So there are some fun incentives, especially if you are among the first 50 people to join the membership. I have the prizes sitting at my back table you can see behind me in the video version of this, but I have some fun things I will be sending in the mail if you’re a part of the first 50 who sign up. So it’s a really great community. It’ll constantly be growing and is just a great way for you to jump in and read a book together and have a guide that can guide your thinking and help you think about ways that you can grow in your STEM practice. Even when I was getting my masters in STEM leadership, that was something that I wish I had was more books to read. We had a lot of articles but not a lot of books. But just more of a real authentic community. Yes, I had to comment on people’s posts, but I just wanted to have a community to chat with people and to connect and have these nerdy conversations about elementary STEM. So I thought I just wanted to create my own bookshelf. Have a membership and create my own community where people really want to be there. The cool thing is it’s only nine bucks a month. So cheaper than what two coffees that you’re already going to get on your way to work. My days are Mondays and Fridays. I like to start my week with little coffee treats, but super cheap, and you can jump on in and then, again, build up that STEM teacher community that you have been hoping for. You can have a safe space to build and bounce ideas off of one another. So if you are listening to this live, you can still get in on the waitlist, and that is Naomimeredith.com/bookclubwaitlist. If you’re listening to this after April 1, so April 1 is when it opens, definitely jump in on that, and you can join in on this membership at Naomimeredith.com/stemteacherbookshelf. 


Naomi Meredith  03:00

The second way to build your STEM online community is to try jumping in on social media. Now if you’re not a huge social media person, that’s totally okay. You don’t have to be posting all the time and doing all the things, but there are so many cool opportunities out there for you to connect with other teachers. So again, if you don’t have other people who are in your district, maybe consider reaching out to other people on social media and see if you guys could connect that way. I do have a free Facebook community that you can jump in on. It’s called the elementary STEM coach community, where you can connect with other teachers. I know that there are a ton of other Facebook groups that you can join that I am a part of as well. It’s really awesome to hear from other people who have the same problems that I have faced, or the same successes, or just interesting questions I might not have ever thought of. So this is a really great way to connect. Maybe you’ve been doing this for a while, maybe you are a classroom teacher, or maybe you are going to be a STEM teacher this upcoming school year, so you definitely want to have some sort of community. You can also reach out to people on Instagram. My Instagram is @NaomiMeredith_, and I’m very active over there. I love it. I love chatting with teachers in my Instagram stories, my DMs, and my comments. You can reach out to me and other STEM teachers as well. Again, what I really love about Instagram, you don’t have to be a huge poster yourself. But there are people who do post and share things that they’re doing in their classroom. It’s almost like having an interactive Pinterest board. So it’s really fun to meet teachers that way. I’ve met a lot of teachers there, and a lot of them have actually been guests on this podcast because of Instagram, which is so awesome. So it just makes the whole world a lot smaller. Likewise, in other areas that are not as active, you can definitely check out Twitter. I know Twitter is a huge thing when it comes to STEM in tech, especially a lot of those ad tech companies. They’re really active, usually on Twitter. Maybe even think about YouTube, or there are some YouTubers that you enjoy watching. You can comment and interact with them there. I do have a YouTube channel, and these podcast episodes are slowly being posted there. My channel also has helpful video tutorials to help you out in your classroom. So you could just check that out. It’s Naomi Meredith_, the same handle as my Instagram, @NaomiMeredith_. So social media is so awesome, though it can be, of course, detrimental to our students. That’s a whole other conversation. But when it comes to building up your teacher connections, it is an awesome place to go. 


Naomi Meredith  10:53

As a recap, here are the three ways that you can build your STEM online community. The first is building a virtual PLC. Next is to connect on social media and choose the platform that works best for you or try one you haven’t tried before. And finally, join in on this brand new STEM teacher bookshelf membership that is made for you to connect, read and chat together every single day and meet live every month. Thank you so much again for being here. I am so happy with how this podcast has been going and just being able to connect with all of you and build my own network and also create something for you and other future things to help you feel successful and not alone. I totally understand where you are coming from, and that is why exactly why I am doing what I am doing to help you feel confident in your role and to be able to navigate this STEM space, not feeling alone but feeling excited and invigorated in a super fun role. I am definitely here to support you. So again, thank you so much for being here. Wherever you are listening and whenever you are listening, I am so proud of you and excited for you. I hope that I get to see you inside the STEM teacher bookshelf membership.

STEM online community

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

stem professional development books 2023

9 STEM Professional Development Books 2023 List [ep.73]

by Naomi Meredith

9 STEM Professional Development Books 2023 List [ep.73]

stem professional development books 2023

Check out the full episode on 9 STEM Professional Development Books 2023:  

 

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Listen to the episode here on YouTube:

Episode Summary

Have you wondered what STEM professional development books you should read as a teacher? For this episode, I’ve curated a list of nine STEM professional development books for 2023 that you should have on your STEM teacher bookshelf. The books I share in this episode will support your growth in STEM as an elementary teacher and provide you with a lot of value and inspiration. 

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 9 STEM professional development books 2023 list that will be read in the book club
  • An overview of each book
  • A brief explanation as to why we’re reading them in this particular order

Resources Mentioned:

Some items are linked to my Amazon Affiliate account. When you purchase through my link, there is no added cost to you, but I receive a small commission in return.

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

A question I often get asked is what STEM professional development books should I be reading as a teacher? For this episode, I’ve curated a list of professional development books that you should have on your STEM teacher bookshelf. I’ll be sharing a variety of books that will help support your growth in STEM as an elementary teacher and provide you with a lot of value and inspiration. So stick around for a great curation of books for 2023.


Naomi Meredith  01:01

If you follow me on Instagram @NaomiMeredith_, you can probably tell that I am an avid reader. This is a hobby that I have always enjoyed ever since I was a kid. I’ve always enjoyed long walks in the aisles of the library and the bookstore. And still do. I know that it’s hard to read during the school year, but I definitely encourage you to make that a habit in your life, whether it’s for fun, professional development, or a little bit of both. Because there’s so much value to it, of course, all of the learning, but it really is relaxing as well. In fact, I have a transition activity for myself that I’ve set up for when I come home to really make it a point to add reading every single day, especially if you’ve been teaching all day. It’s just super high energy, and it’s so loud. I realized for myself that I needed to create a moment where I could just relax and decompress for a moment and not do anything else. So what I do when I get home after I walk little Fredrick, my dog, outside and give him some dinner, then I make myself a cup of coffee. Depending on the day, it might have caffeine, or it might be decaf. Then I will just sit and read with a nice candle and my little sitting room. I know that this isn’t possible for everybody. But think about how you can just make it a habit. This is, again, something I really try to do every single day. And I always feel so much better. Then I feel very energized after the 20-30 minutes that I sit down and read. Then I can get on with the rest of the night. Whether it’s creating podcasts like this one, cooking dinner, or just continuing to relax for the rest of the night. Another recommendation is to check out audiobooks if they’re available for the book you want to read. That’s another great way to listen to books on the go. Especially if you’re already here listening to the audio, this podcast, you already like audio things. And so audiobooks are another great option as well. All of these books that I am going to be mentioning, you actually don’t have to be alone in reading them. All of these books for 2023 are going to be inside my newest membership, the STEM teacher bookshelf, and it’s only $9 a month. So pretty, pretty cheap. And not only do you get a private community of teachers who are just like you, who are excited about STEM and innovation in their classrooms or at home, but you will also get a curated guide written by me to help guide your thinking and prompt some discussion. It’s to keep track of all of your ideas, bookmarks that are related to the book, some classroom items that relate to the book, shareable quotes that you can put on social media, a monthly live video call in the group and also opportunities to even save on your membership, such as some fun giveaways for the next month’s book. And even when you’re sharing on social media in certain ways, you actually have the opportunity to win the books as well. So if you are the first 50 teachers to sign up, I have a special exclusive present for you as an OG. So that will open up on April 1, 2023. And if you’re listening before then definitely get on the waitlist because you might get access to join earlier than that. So get on the waitlist at Naomimeredith.com/bookclubwaitlist. And if you’re listening after April 1, 2023, you can just jump in on this membership. It’s open all year. So you can jump in at Naomimeredith.com/stemteacherbookshelf, and of course, it will all be linked in the show notes. Now on to this awesome book list that I have made for you that you definitely want to put on your STEM teacher bookshelf. 


Naomi Meredith  04:50

The first book is A Young Innovators Guide to STEM, written by Gitanjali Rao. Now all of these books that I’m going to be mentioning have super long titles, so I’m just going to be reading the first part, not the whole entire thing. So just keep that in mind. The first time I heard about Gitanjali was actually at the InnEdCO conference in 2021, and she was one of the keynote speakers. At the time, she was actually still in high school, which was pretty amazing for me to witness. I’ve never been a keynote speaker at the time of this recording, and so seeing a high school student who was not only a keynote speaker but who was absolutely amazing and inspiring and so good at it, I knew I had to get my hands on her book. And it is definitely worth it. It is such an inspiring book to spark creativity in your kids or in your students and breaks down how she sees the innovation process, which is very similar to the Engineering Design Process, or really any process that you’ve used in your classroom. And if you don’t have a process of how you have students attack projects, this is a great segue into that. It’s very positive and very encouraging. And it’s really cool to see her perspective on this topic since she’s not officially a teacher, I guess, with teaching credentials, but she does visit schools and work with younger students all the time. So it’s really cool to see that and how it’s portrayed in her book. I actually listened to the audio version first of this book, which I highly recommend. And so for this time of year, it’s just very invigorating, it’s very encouraging, and actually just puts you in a good mood when you’re listening or reading it. So highly recommend it. I might even say I highly recommend all of these books because I did a lot of research about the books I wanted on this list anyway. So when I say highly recommend, I really do mean that about all of them on this list for 2023. 


Naomi Meredith  05:44

The next book is called A Limitless Mind by Jo BoAler. And okay, I will say not all of the authors I have seen or met in real life, but I have seen and met Jo Boaler. It was back when I was a third-grade teacher. There was an opportunity at my school where we got to apply and get a scholarship, I would say, to go see Jo Boaler at Stanford and attend one of her math workshops. I was really thinking about how you can creatively solve math problems. In hindsight, this is probably a breadcrumb as to my getting into K through five STEM because I love this kind of stuff. But it was really cool. And I have a picture of us somewhere, if I find it, I’ll post it in the show notes, but I actually have a picture standing with her and other teammates who got to go, and with her book, Mathematical Mindsets. I also recommend this book as well. It discusses mindset when it comes to math problems and, again, that creative thinking, so definitely go ahead and read that one. It’s not on this book list. But I have it on a previous book list. And it’s a great selection. As any teacher who teaches anything that involves math, or just a growth mindset, in general, I definitely recommend this book as well. But this book, The Limitless Mind, really talks about the potential we have as humans when it comes to learning and a growth mindset. And there are a lot of case studies and stories to support this. And also research that isn’t talked about very often in our education space. So it definitely is a must-read. Again, I listened to the audio version of this first. And so that was really cool to hear her explain these topics. But also, the book is really easy to read and just has a different spin and just, again, really good information when it comes to mindset and then how we can apply that to not only math problems but any type of STEM subject. 


Naomi Meredith  08:46

The next book is Invent to Learn, and it’s the second edition. So if you have the first edition, get the upgraded one. And this is written by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary S Stager. This is a must-read for any STEM teacher, and it is very supportive of this word that we hear about the maker movement and just having kids be able to create and make things to demonstrate their learning and find creative solutions to problems. This book is really great. As I said, for anybody interested in STEM, if you haven’t been teaching STEM per se, or just STEM topics in your classroom for a while, this still is a good mastery because it builds that foundation for things you probably used to do and don’t do anymore. But were really good and also even give you ideas for how you could push your students in different ways, especially if you’ve been doing this for a while. You might notice that your students need more of a challenge with certain topics. So this is just a good refresher to really spark your interest and brainstorm some new ideas. Of course, if you are new to teaching STEM, definitely get on this book. It is a bit longer, which is why this will be read during the summertime because then you can really soak in the information and write down all of those ideas that you really want to do with your students or try out. Or maybe you want to write a grant about these topics, which I do have some episodes coming up about grant writing specifically. So this is a really great book for anybody interested in elementary STEM. And again, perfect for the summertime so you can dive in deeper. 


Naomi Meredith  10:29

The next book that I recommend is Makerspaces in School, and this is written by Lacy Brejcha, and I’m so sorry if I pronounced that wrong. I love the structure of this book. And it’s a great pairing with the one I talked about, Invent to Learn, because Invent to Learn has all these great ideas, it does have some systems and processes, but the Makerspaces in School really thinks about your whole year and how to set up this Makerspace. Or just hands-on creative space in your building, or even in your classroom, and how it will all connect together and give you some lesson plan ideas of how to set up those systems and routines in your classroom. If you are a listener of this podcast, or if you’re in any of my programs, or any of my lessons, or even if you have my FREE year-long plan, naomimeredith.com/yearlongplan, this is like the perfect book if you like all of those things. This is a must-read because it really connects with my philosophy and how and why I do certain things. And I actually just read this book for the first time. So I didn’t read this when I first got started. But it feels like I could have written it because there are a lot of things that really aligned with my philosophy when it comes to STEM in the elementary space. So again, this is a really great connection, and we have it for this summertime. So then you have all these cool ideas and then really think through the year and be systematic about what you’re doing. And not just randomly doing projects just because they sound cool, but having a purposeful reason as to why you are doing that. 


Naomi Meredith  12:01

The next book is a lifelong Kindergarten, and this is written by Mitchel Resnick, who is one of the co-founders of the coding platform Scratch. I listened to the audiobook of this in 2020, when I’m pretty sure this is when we went back to school, and part of my role as a K through five STEM teacher full time is I’m also our full-time technology support person. So there’s no other person in my building. That is my job. And during that time was when we had classes going in and out of remote. There wasn’t a great system setup in our district yet when it came to checking out devices to students and that whole process. So I was unloading carts and rebuilding them and then unloading them and rebuilding them all the time. So I listened to this audiobook during that time, and I really love it. Because you all know that I love kindergarten, they are I think they are the most creative age. And they are the funniest, so cute. Yes, they are a handful, but there is this thing about kindergarteners where they have this curiosity and want to learn about the world around them. And oftentimes in schools, we aren’t keeping that curiosity in students. And then long term, it has some detrimental effects. And then, really, we get kids who aren’t interested in STEM when they grow up or even in those older years. And you have heard about me talking about this on the episode about why our fifth graders might be bored in your class. And so this is a great connection to that. And really, really great insight, especially as somebody who’s not a specific teacher but also works with students and does a lot of work in education. The perspective of this book is really good and also great for this time of year in August since we are really trying to promote that growth mindset and promote that critical thinking and creativity and get that base at the beginning of the year. So the timing of this book is awesome. 


Naomi Meredith  13:59

The next book is a shorter one, and it is called Play Like a Pirate and is written by Quinn Rollins. This isn’t written by David Burgess or Dave Burgess, who writes Teach Like a Pirate, which I also did see him speak in person at the InnEdCO conference in the summer of 2022. But he does have a publishing company, and so a lot of the books that he has in his publishing company look really, really awesome. So I’m excited to check more of them out. A lot of these actually are from that company, a lot of innovation, and just like that type of teaching and just making the change in education that we want to see. And so this is a shorter book, and it’s really good, especially if you are a classroom teacher who’s implementing innovative topics and STEM in your classroom. Or also, if you are a co-teacher, a lot of us are going more into that role where you are supporting STEM in the classrooms, but maybe the kids don’t rotate with you at a certain time. And so this book has those really great ideas and all of those cross-curricular connections and how to take your learning to have more of a hands-on and creative approach. So maybe you’re not always just taking all that content out, maybe you just need to reformat it in a way that works better for your students where they are more engaged. So the same content, but just shifting the way that it’s being taught. So this is a short book, but a really good one for making those cross-curricular connections. 


Naomi Meredith  15:25

The next one is Master the Media by Julie Smith, and the timing of when we’ll read this book in October is perfect because Digital Citizenship Week is in October. Now as educators, not just as STEM teachers, but as educators, we need to be teaching our students media literacy and digital citizenship as we have students interact with technology in all sorts of ways. There are a lot of ways in which media literacy and digital citizenship will pop up, and we need our students to be proficient in them. You often hear where they say, oh, kids are so good at technology, they’re digital natives, kind of. I kind of disagree with that a little bit. Yes, students can learn quickly how to use technology, but I will say there is a huge difference when it comes to using technology for academic purposes and then using it as a passive tool, like playing video games and looking at social media. I will say I will get a lot of frustration from students when they actually have to think through all of the steps, even when it comes to logging into a platform and spelling their own names correctly. So it isn’t really automatic, they learn pretty quickly. But it is a lot of critical thinking when it comes to how you get into a platform. What do you do when a problem arises? What could you try? If that doesn’t work? What could you try next? So again, goes through that media literacy, that computational thinking which we’ll talk about in the next book, but this has some really great points in there that we really need to be thinking about, as all educators really in general, it’s not just your role as a STEM teacher. But it just really great points in this book, again, a short one, but very, very timely, especially when it relates to digital citizenship week. 


Naomi Meredith  17:15

For November, the book for the month, again, is a short but sweet book called Code Breaker written by Brian Aspinall. It’s right before Computer Science Week, an hour of code, which is in December. But we know that December gets really crazy, it pops up really quickly and so reading this book beforehand is a great connection to when we typically teach this in our classrooms. But again, you could teach this at any time. And this book is really cool because it gives them coding project examples that can really extend how you teach coding in your classroom instead of just throwing them on the computer and saying good luck with the Hour of Code website, which I do have a whole episode about the Hour of Code and different ways you can teach that. And then this has just some really cool ideas as well to help you think about computational thinking in a different way, which isn’t just coding, but really thinking through a problem and all of those steps. And again, different ways that you can think about coding and how to teach that to your students. So I like the actionable ideas in there and just the creativity when it comes to coding. 


Naomi Meredith  18:18

And finally, to wrap up the year 2023, the final book on this list is The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros. This is a really awesome audiobook. When I was listening to it, I got actual chills. And a lot of times, I have to play back certain parts and then write down a quote because I really, really liked it. Or I would pause the book and then go back into the physical book and highlight it. There are a lot of great things. It’s a great way to end the year and that first semester because we’re tired. You’re like, oh my gosh, we have another semester, but my kids are understanding things. How can I keep this momentum going ending in winter and then beginning that next semester? So this is a really excellent read. There are so many good points. It’s gonna be like preaching to the choir. If you’re listening to this podcast, you will like this book. It’s really reaffirming and really connects well to that Limitless Mind that we will be reading in May, but just it brings it all together and just keeps you encouraged and motivated and helps us push education for it and the change that we want to see and the students that we want to prepare for our world. 


Naomi Meredith  19:31

As a recap, here are the nine books that I am recommending for 2023 that you should have on your STEM teacher bookshelf. First, we have A Young Innovator’s Guide to STEM, written by Gitanjali Rao. Next is a Limitless Mind by Jo Boaler. Next, we have Invent to Learn by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary S. Stager. Then, we have Makerspaces in School by Lacy Brejcha. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Lacy, if I pronounced your name wrong. Then we have Lifelong Kindergarten by Mitchel Resnick. Then in September, we have Play Like a Pirate by Quinn Rollins.  Then we have Master the Media by Julie Smith. Next is Code Breaker by Brian Aspinall. Wrapping up the year, we have The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros. Definitely jump in on these books, and grab the audiobooks, if you can. I have three versions of the book. So if there’s a Kindle, I get the Kindle one. If there’s an audio, I get the audio and then the paperback book. I have all the versions, so they’re making a lot of money off of me. But you don’t have to read all of these books alone, I am here to support you. I want to give you this space where you can collaborate with like-minded teachers. Again, it’s only $9 a month. So definitely a great space for you to talk about these books, but also to talk about the topics that come up in these books. And if you don’t feel like reading the books at the same time we’re all reading them, you can still join in on the conversations because these conversations are things that we should be talking about. You don’t have to feel like an island. That is the whole point of this book club and really any book club, you want to have that community, and the book is just a gateway into these awesome conversations. So you can jump in if it is before April 1, get on the waitlist so you can get in the club, and have an exclusive thing I will send you in the mail for the first 50 people. So get on the waitlist at Naomimeredith.com/bookclubwaitlist. If you’re listening to this after April 1, 2023, the club is open. And you can jump in at Naomimeredith.com/stemteacherbookshelf. I hope you love these book recommendations as much as I do, and I can’t wait to see you in our book club.

stem professional development books 2023

stem professional development books 2023

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

hands-on strategies for early childhood education

Hands-On Strategies for Early Childhood Education with Marcia Nicole [ep.72]

by Naomi Meredith

Hands-On Strategies for Early Childhood Education with Marcia Nicole [ep.72]

hands-on strategies for early childhood education

Check out the full episode on Hands-On Strategies for Early Childhood Education with Marcia Nicole:  

 

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Episode Summary

I have received many DMs and emails about the challenges of teaching younger children STEM. You asked, and I’m delivering. In today’s episode, I interview Marcia Nicole, who is a highly experienced early childhood educator. Marcia shares many fun and easy to implement hands-on strategies for early childhood education.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Marcia’s teaching background and how she supports early childhood educators
  • Tips for planning hands-on activities for young children
  • Recommendations for tools to use for activities with young children
  • Classroom and behavior management tips for working with early childhood

Meet Marcia Nicole:

Marcia Nicole is a highly experienced early childhood educator with over 20 years in the field. Holding a degree and Master’s in early childhood studies, she brings a unique blend of skills and knowledge to the classroom. Marcia is also the founder of Ispyr to Educate, a community dedicated to professional development and support for early childhood professionals. Marcia is well known for her passion for nurturing the growth and development of young children and providing them with a safe and inviting learning environment.

Connect with Marcia:

Resources Mentioned:

Some items are linked to my Amazon Affiliate account. When you purchase through my link, there is no added cost to you, but I receive a small commission in return.

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

Teaching the younger students in STEM it can be quite a challenge. I have this based on my experience teaching K through five STEM and also based on the feedback that you guys give me all the time in my emails and in my Instagram DMs. That’s why I brought in special guest, Marcia Nicole, to give us tips and tricks when it comes to teaching students who are pre K and early elementary age. Marcia Nicole is a highly experienced early childhood educator with over 20 years in the field. Holding a degree and master’s in Early Childhood Studies, she brings a unique blend of skills and knowledge to the classroom. Marcia is also the founder of Ispyr to Educate, a community dedicated to professional development and support for early childhood professionals. Marcia is well known for her passion for nurturing the growth and development of young children and providing them with a safe and inviting learning environment. You are really going to enjoy this interview and I can’t wait for you to listen. So make sure you write down all of these awesome tips that she gives us when it comes to hands on learning and teaching STEM to our early childhood students. 


Naomi Meredith  01:17

Well, Marcia, thank you so much for being here. We were chatting so much before and so I finally hit record and caught all this goodness on recording. Because you’re a very special guest with your experience with children, it will be so helpful with the STEM teachers out there and you don’t teach STEM per se. But what you do in early childhood, I think will be super, super impactful. I get asked all the time, what do I do with the little ones? I’m out of ideas. How do I manage them? I’ve given some tips on other episodes but I think that your specific background will be really powerful for people, because you have all those tips and tricks, and you’ve been with the littles and all of that. So if you wouldn’t mind introducing yourself, your teaching background, and then how you help early childhood educators.


Marcia Nicole  02:41

Well, it’s a pleasure to be here. I’m so excited. I’ve been an early childhood educator for over 20 years in the field. I love the little ones. I’ve also had a variety of roles from being an early childhood educator to an assistant position to a manager of a childcare facility. In the last couple years, I’ve become a designated early childhood educator here in Ontario, Canada, within the Kindergarten program. So I’ve done that for over a decade, which I absolutely loved. That’s what I knew and that’s where my passion was. I also have a degree in early childhood, a master’s in early childhood and obtaining my Bachelors of education right now. I just absolutely love the early years. So from pre K to about two is definitely in my zone. 


Naomi Meredith  03:29

I love the little ones too. I actually worked at a preschool daycare in college, and I almost went into early childhood. I was really split between that and elementary. So I totally can relate. I love the little ones too. I do. So I think like I said, Your background is super important because we, especially with the younger kids, and there are a lot of teachers who listen who do teach pre K STEM, and so when it comes to planning hands-on activities for those little ones, what are some things that we should keep in mind? I know sometimes we can get stuck on ideas.


04:08

Some of the things that I reflect on when I’m considering developing activities is making sure that it’s age appropriate. Sometimes we think, you know, as educators, we forget that they’re littles like we need to consider that they have smaller fingers, and they need bigger things instead of finer motor things. So that is one of the things making sure it is age appropriate. What do you want them to learn? The learning objectives, right? It obviously has to be fun, but there should be some learning outcomes. So what are we what do we want the children to take away from this experience? And of course, first and foremost, their little ones. So safety first. Yeah, we’ve got to make sure that we’re using safety products, that we read labels on paints and things because yes, some of them will put them in their mouth. We forget about that, like we put out all these paints and things but we have to make sure that we’re reading the label just in case they get ingested that we’re okay, so safety first there. And the engagement level. How engaging is it? I know it’s hard as educators, sometimes we forget that we have to put on that kid hat sometimes, right? Will this be fun to three year old to a five year old? Will this be fun? Just because we thought about it doesn’t mean it’s fun for us. Remember, things like splashing in water, or the basic things like baking soda and vinegar is huge for this age group. Right? So we want to make sure that it’s age appropriate and engaging for them. For sure.


Naomi Meredith  05:37

Oh, my gosh, I love that so much. Do you have some other specific tools that you love for their tiny hands? Like different things you’ve used maybe in stations or anything like that?


05:47

Absolutely. I love eyedroppers, everything to use that fine motor grip. I do eyedroppers in ice cube trays with colored water, and they get to fill it. I’ve even freezed the water and colored the water. Then there’s letters at the bottom of the ice cube tray that they get to reveal after they’ve melted through the ice. We’ve also used Ziploc bags that I’ve actually put like gel, again, you can make it or sometimes I use jello, and they can push the letters but it’s a sensory thing. Yeah, so then they can use that fine motor as well. I love things like that. Oh, tongs. Yeah, I love the miniture tongs. Those are awesome too. Tongs and pom poms. Those are definitely fine motor grip things. And my last thing is cotton balls. And I’ll tell you because when we give them a writing utensil, sometimes they tend to get the grip wrong. But if you put the cotton ball in the palm of their hand, it helps with the grip. It doesn’t make the wrist as tired. So yeah, those are just some of the fine motor tricks that I came along with along the way.


Naomi Meredith  06:59

Well, I love that. Okay, so speaking of that scissors, I have found kids cutting with scissors has been really, really hard for a lot of my kindergarteners. Do you have a trick for that? Do you use the cotton ball? Or do you use something else because that’s been a really a big struggle for kids.


Marcia Nicole  07:16

It is a big struggle. But cotton ball works the best. We started with playdough but the playdough squishes. And then they wanted to play with it and it was a distraction. So yes, the cotton ball works really well there. And cute little sayings like thumb to the ceiling, finger to the floor, open close, things like that, to engage them. Sometimes I even had scissors that didn’t have holes, they only have the ones. They’re just the band in between them. And they can open and close and we just practice the squeezing. And that’s where like clothes pins, and all of those things came in, in the sensory bin like all of those are part of my classroom just so they have practice without knowing that they’re practicing those skills.


Naomi Meredith  07:59

I love that I honestly, okay, I need to look up these scissors. I’m writing all of this down, scissors with no holes, because I have actually some students I have in mind too. I definitely need to do this with them. But like thinking about this sensory, that is such a great idea. Because they might be doing it in their classroom, I’m not quite sure. But in STEM, you could definitely integrate it. If you’re learning about a science concept. You could let’s say you’re learning about space, you have different things about space in the sensory bin. And then they could be get grabbing them with the tongs like a finding game. And that would be an awesome station for them and also working on those fine motor skills that you’re talking about.


Marcia Nicole  08:41

Yes. So we did. We were working on clouds. And in our sensory bin one day, we had just that a bunch of cotton balls, and they were clouds. And they had to pick them up with the tongs. And then we had shaving cream clouds, move them and feel them and yes, I know some of the some of the teachers are like this is dirty, but it was the learning that happened. They tried to stack the clouds, they tried to and they realized why does it keep falling over? They had questions like why couldn’t the foam stay up high? It kept falling over. Yeah, and those were all inquiry questions. We kept going so what can we put in it? Then they went for sticks. Sticks because they’re trying to get their shaving cream to stand up. Did that work? So there was lots of cause and effect and problem solving happening.


Naomi Meredith  09:28

Oh my gosh, I love that. I know I would totally do like shaving cream in my classroom. And that’s interesting too. Like I actually did clay and playdough with my fourth graders and I know we’re talking about early childhood but I made it too sticky and I found out a lot of their sensory needs during that like some like the stickiness of how I messed up. It was too sticky but some did it and so it is important to have just like thinking about different types of things that are in your classroom because we don’t always know what experience they have at home even. Yes. So that’s super, I’m so glad that you mentioned that. Are there any other like project ideas? Or when you’re teaching with your early childhood kids, are there certain like management techniques that you use with the younger students that work really well? I know it can get a little crazy if you don’t have a plan, or some sort of plan in mind.


Marcia Nicole  10:28

With working with the young ones, there’s always going to be those good days and there’s those rougher days. And for me, it’s always about creating those clear expectations from the beginning, like having those clear expectations, and constantly being consistent with those expectations. Making sure the students understand that learning is fun and exciting but it’s also a routine. And there’s also things that we have to do and follow and have follow through with it. Also, be positive, as much as it might not be a positive moment for you as the educator, they’re still learning, right? So we want to make sure that it’s a positive moment, and that we’re giving them plenty of encouragement to keep going even when they’re frustrated, or when they feel like they can’t do it, and have proactive strategies. So know your students. You’re going to know when that noise level is going up, when they’re a little bit off that day, when you’re just needed a little bit more, be flexible in whatever you have planned. Pause, take a mind break, maybe some deep breathing exercises, maybe my favorite, I love movement breaks. Yeah, so we stop and we just break out into a quick little dance. Or maybe it’s okay, we need to sit and do a calming moment. So knowing those levels that when you get there to have those proactive strategies, so before it gets too far, you’re like, Okay, we’re just going to all do this right now. And then they won’t even know it’s just kind of sometimes my teacher does this, and they will continue with it. And it helps them refocus. Yeah, that 30 seconds, that minute, helps them regain that focus in what they were doing. And off we go. But my biggest thing is building those relationships with your students. Yeah, they know when they can talk to you and trust you and tell you how they’re feeling. For me, it’s always articulate how you’re feeling. Tell me how you’re feeling, what’s happening in your body, and help them give them the language give them something to be successful. When you build that relationship with your students, they have that open communication, they build that bond with you, that limits your behavior management in your classroom, right from the beginning.


Naomi Meredith  12:43

100%. And it’s hard to remember that with the younger students. It can be frustrating, doing hands-on things, and being creative is actually really vulnerable for anybody. And so sometimes, I like to remember this with older kids with the younger ones, too, they are excited to do stuff, you can get a lot of buy in. But it is scary when things don’t work the first time. And so I like how you set the language to give them. What kinds of language do you give them, sentence frames? Or how do you phrase that with them?


Marcia Nicole  13:17

Again, it’s age appropriate. So if they’re like, really young, it’s the one words or a couple sentences. Do you need a minute? Is this something I can help you with? Is this something you want to work out on your own? Is there something I can help you with? But you definitely want to start promoting that intrinsic motivation. So how can they do things intrinsically? So tell me what you need for me to do for you? Right? So they’re like, oh, okay, yeah. So it gives them that pause. And then we’re also scaffolding that part of self reflection, right? So we want them to be able to, is this something I need to be upset about right now? Is this something I can think about and work through? And I know, as they get older, it progresses, right? So you want to give them those tools? So do you need a minute? Would you like to sit in a comic center, if they’re in Kindergarten, they are automatically going to know based on your classroom setup, where they can go if they need that space, if it’s a situation where they need you, then they’re going to know to come to you if it’s not, but they’re still upset. Maybe it’s a classmate, maybe it’s a peer that they can go through and say, I need help with this, or I’m not feeling good about this. Right? So if you’re giving them those tools in those languages, or those environments, or places they can go when they need that also limits that behavior management.


Naomi Meredith  14:37

Have you seen with that, too, like that helps with their independence? I know there’s a certain level of independence when they’re little but do you feel like the little kids can be more independent than we think that we let them be?


Marcia Nicole  14:50

Absolutely. I am 100% that teacher that will be like, Oh, you’re going to do this on your own and they’re getting frustrated and we’re going to work through those emotions. But I know you can do it. And I want to see you do it. So yes, it takes me forever to go outside. Yeah, we are always the last ones to get outside. But when they get outside, they’re happy, I put on my jacket on by myself or I wrote my name today without any help. Or I was able to build the block tower and it never fell over. Yeah. Right. So those are the things that you just have to yes, it definitely helps with that independence piece.


Naomi Meredith  15:30

I had a little guy. It was funny. He wanted help tying his shoes. Like, no, I’m not. I’m not doing that right now. Can you ask a friend? And then okay, this was like a twist of the story. He knew how to tie his shoes. Oh, no, no, wait, what just happened? You just take off your shoes like, oh, I just like it when grownups do it for me, because it’s so much faster. That’s how you’re going to get faster. So they are a little tricky. 


Marcia Nicole  16:01

Sometimes get sneaky, too. They will. Sometimes they will say that they can’t do something and they know they can they just want to go outside faster. Yeah.


Naomi Meredith  16:11

Oh, it’s time to clean up. Oh, no, I can’t do that. Like, oh, yes, we can. Yes, we can.


Marcia Nicole  16:18

My favorite is it’s time to clean up. Oh, I need to go to the bathroom. Oh, yeah, they go and they hide. They don’t have to clean.


Naomi Meredith  16:27

Yeah, clean up, I usually have to take like 10 minutes to clean up and modeling. Do you feel like you model a lot of behavior? Like physically showing them how to do things if it’s hard? 


Marcia Nicole  16:38

Yeah, and I show them. But I also get their peers to show them because sometimes the peers showing them that they’re doing it, it’s their size, it’s their peer, it’s the same person sitting next to them helps a lot more than an adult in a room. And then it took me a while to learn that. But for sure, the lots of modeling, and let’s do this together. It’s never just me doing anything. So let’s do this together. And that gives them ownership that teachers not going to do it all on my own. She’s not going to leave me on my own either. So then they feel like they’re supported, even if they do need help.


Naomi Meredith  17:13

Yeah, that’s good. Like this can work for literally in a classroom. It’s a lot but I mean, this is how we can get them to do bigger things. And they’re very capable, when they’re younger. When it comes to like their the teaching style to I know it’s a little bit different for STEM teacher because you only have them for, I don’t know, 45 minutes, maybe every day in a row or once a week. So are there certain strategies, teachers should try like whole group stations, like what are some things that you’ve seen work really well or mixing it up?


Marcia Nicole  17:47

I like to mix it up. And it again, it comes from your group of students, you’re going to know there’s going to be some years that you get students that love the free flow method. And that works for them. And they can have a whole bunch of centers, and they can free flow with very minimal conflict, or they’re really good at conflict resolution. So they don’t really need a lot of intervention. And that works that year. And then there’s another year where it needs to be a little bit more structured, where you need to have that whole group. And then you need to have specific centers and then rotate the students through the centers, which that is getting less and less likely because they tend to adapt more quickly. Now I find that, yes, they might have that initial fight back. But when you set those, it’s all about those foundational, that foundational beginning, when you set those parameters, then they realize that that’s the expectation. And if they’re clear and consistent, it will help the classroom flow.


Naomi Meredith  18:40

For sure. Yeah, I absolutely agree. And that can be hard. Transitioning from a classroom teacher to like teaching all the kids in the school. That was hard for me. Just like understanding Oh, my room actually has routines also. So like I also even though they’re with me for a short amount of time, so I totally agree with that. Because they need that consistency. Even though it’s a fun space. I feel like yeah, like, the more fun it is the more parameters you need sometimes. Exactly. Yes. Have you ever had something like go totally wrong? You’re like, Oh, I thought I had all of the parameters in place. Oh, that did not work.


Marcia Nicole  19:21

I believe we were building a spaceship. We were building a rocket because we were going to space and I thought I thought of everything I thought of absolutely everything. Until I didn’t actually realize that the paint was waterbase and it went completely through the cardboard. And they cry. Cry. Like I literally spent the next night driving around for another box just so I could make it up to my students because they cried. They worked so hard painting and carrying and it just all crumbled. The next day we came in and it was all wet because it was water basically soaked through the cardboard. There were some sad little learners that day. We rebuilt it. We talked about it. And I liked that it was a good learning thing for both them and myself. Because we talked about it. We talked about what happened, and why didn’t it work? And it became just the whole thing. And then we talked, do we want to continue? Do we want to make it again? Are we all done? And they’re like, no, we want to do it again. We want to try it again. So then I drove around looking for this huge box. And then I purchased the right paint. And then we were able to continue but yes, that was it went terribly wrong.


Naomi Meredith  20:34

Oh, yeah, that could definitely happened. I have seen it all the time. But I liked the way you talk to your students. They’re young, but you talk to them very respectfully. Like they’re not babies. I can tell though. That’s how you talk to them. Like, you’re sweet but firm. They’re little humans and you’re like, Okay, as a learning experience, it’s okay, everybody does right rocket ship went in the ocean that day, I guess it didn’t make exactly nine. Okay, but that’s a great, that’s a great real life lesson of growth mindset right there and you have a shared experience. Remember that time that ship did push through, and now we’re gonna do something a new one, or you could just, that’s great. Let’s actually go. Are there any other advice or tips you had a lot at the beginning, but just in general, when it comes to teaching the littles, just things that just work really well, in general. I know that’s very broad, but anything you can share when it comes to the littles.


Marcia Nicole  21:42

I don’t want educators to be afraid to branch out of their comfort zone. And I know, I love Kindergarten, but and I love classroom settings, but like building materials, they’re little, but they can handle it. So they don’t always have to be blocks. Like, let’s try to bring in some real life materials. Let’s get some wood and some nails, let’s get some PVC pipes, let’s get some real life materials and expose them to real things that they’re going to see. And let them explore it engage in that learning. And I know some of us educators don’t like to do science experiments. But it doesn’t always have to be a science experiment. Like for me, I love to cook with my kiddos. All that was all STEM for me. Cuz I think that we’ve got to measure we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to see what happens. And we talked about it along the way. So I thought, you know, try to incorporate that. But also, it’s okay to have that part of your classroom open all the time, a little bit of vinegar and baking soda, and let them if they want to go there everyday to see that reaction. That is an interest, pique that interest, make sure they have access to it. And I love it only because my little guy became an instinct, coder. Oh, loved coding. Oh, my goodness. He loves coding, love apps. It doesn’t help that dad is a game designer. Yeah, he loves coding. He loves putting things together and making things move. And we’ve did basic things at first, like we started with dominoes, dominoes. And then he used to use his LEGO man and walk along the dots. That’s smart. And he just had to make it to his LEGO house. Like we did it very basic, but he loved it. And so don’t think that you have to do these really big things when it comes to coding. Keep it simple, like a little LEGO guy, maybe it’s a block, or maybe it’s the guy, they made it in the playdough center, and they’re walking him all up. How does he get from this block area to that block area? How are we going to make a path? What areas arrows, can we draw, just have all those kinds of conversations. Again, we’re preparing them with the language and don’t think they’re going to need it. They’re going to need it when they get older. So having that for them and my favorite, explore nature as much as you possibly can explore outside and let them explore. And I know it’s difficult because we get oh, but it’s raining outside. I don’t know about you, but there’s only puddles out when it’s raining outside and I want to jump in a puddle. So and again, they have questions. Why would I jump in the puddle? There’s ripples on the water? Right? Can we do that on a sunny day we can. But on a sunny day, we can play with shadows. We can get on our chalk and we can draw our chalk shadows. Or we can draw how the sun moved throughout the day. At morning time outside the sun was here. Now at lunch. It’s here now after school. It’s here. All of that leads into that science and discovery. So yeah.


Naomi Meredith  24:43

I love that. I love that and I I have taken Kindergarten out during STEM. We were doing something where we were touring. Oh, I got these solar beads. So they only change in the sun. And so they created a little erm, and they had to create a shade structure to protect their worm because if it didn’t have shade, it would get a sunburn. And so, yeah, so and then the beads changed back. Well, they also wanted to see it changes color, like at first like, Okay, let it change color. Okay, now you know what happens then test your experiment, but it was so cool. Like you’re right, like even just nature can lend itself to so many discovery things out there. And just a new perspective, because then they moved their little bodies to Yeah, like, it’s a great four to five minutes is a long time. six and under, you definitely have time to go outside. You do? Oh, definitely. Well, anything else that I missed or anything else you want to share?


Marcia Nicole  25:49

Nope. I just really wanted to say that. I know they’re little. And I know sometimes it can be overwhelming. And yes, they can be exhausting, but try to have fun with them. They’re beautiful little learners. And they’re so happy that you’re there. And you’re they’re so happy that you that you’re really to teach them so even though when it gets tough. Just remember to have fun. Above all else, make sure you’re enjoying them and having a great time and learning with them.


Naomi Meredith  26:15

Oh, that’s so good. I love that. Well, I know people are gonna love, love, love this episode. But they’ll want to definitely hear from you because I know you have great tips on your podcast. So where can they find you and your podcast?


Marcia Nicole  26:30

Well, right now you can find me on email at edu at i spire.com. But most of all at Instagram at I aspire to educate DM me, I’m also on Twitter at I Spire to educate. And my podcast is called the inspiring EC podcast.


Naomi Meredith  26:48

Love that. Well, that’ll all be linked for everybody and definitely reach out because I know it can be challenging, but like she said, she had better words. I’m not going to restate it, just rewind it. Do call it rewind on a podcast. Is that still the word?


Marcia Nicole  27:04

Sure. Rewind. 


Naomi Meredith  27:08

Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. Some people might say, I don’t know what rewind means. But I know most of you listening now. But anyway, thank you so much, again for being here. And I just appreciate your energy and your passion. And I just know your classrooms a delightful place to be. And so I just thank you. I appreciate all your wisdom today.


Marcia Nicole  27:29

Thank you so much for having me. It was an extreme pleasure. I enjoyed every moment. Thank you so much.

hands-on strategies for early childhood education

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!