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lessons for LEGO bricks

What are lessons for LEGO bricks I can teach? [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.153]

by Naomi Meredith

What are lessons for LEGO bricks I can teach? [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.153]

lessons for LEGO bricks

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Episode Summary

Wondering what lessons for LEGO bricks you can implement in your classroom? What LEGO kits are the best for the grade levels you teach? What are the best strategies for managing behaviors during these lessons? I’m answering these questions and more in today’s episode! This is part two of the LEGO episodes, so make sure you go and listen to part one if you haven’t already.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Behavior management strategies to use when implementing lessons for LEGO bricks
  • Examples of these behavior management strategies in action
  • The types of lessons for LEGO bricks you should implement and the LEGO education kits you should use for each lesson

Resources Mentioned:

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Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

What are some lessons that you can use when teaching with LEGO bricks? What types of LEGO education kits should you buy? And what do you do when it comes to behavior management? This is part 2 of our LEGO episodes, and we are gonna be answering all those questions in today's episode. In the last episode, I shared with you all of the systems to set up in your classroom when it comes to using LEGO bricks. It was so funny when I was planning this episode, the systems episode, I was talking so much that I needed to break it up into 2 parts. I really didn't wanna overwhelm you with information, and part of it is because I haven't done LEGO episodes before.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:29]:

So I wanna make sure you get all of the information so that it makes sense and is exactly what you are looking for. So, thanks for hanging out with me for this part 2. I will say I did record part 1 and part 2 back to back, but in your time, you are getting it weeks apart. So thank you for being patient and ready for part 2. Alright. So behavior management is really important when you are teaching with LEGO bricks. When I was working for the LEGO After School Club, this was so important to me because I had seen it in my own classroom, and the person that I was working for actually didn't think behavior management was that important. It wasn't a priority.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:19]:

It was a very interesting conversation. Also, I was working for someone who had never taught before, but behavior management really is a big part of having kids be successful when using LEGO bricks. Think about your classroom setting. Not every kid likes to build with LEGO bricks. They don't. There are some kids who might not have ever built with LEGO bricks before. You need to have some systems in place and some rules in place so that it can go smoothly. There are also kids who are so obsessed with LEGO bricks that they are going to want to dominate the entire build, and they will also have a hard time collaborating.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:03]:

I learned this all the hard way, but I learned very quickly that having specific roles in their group is actually a game changer when you are using LEGO bricks. I was watching someone when I was in this LEGO after-school club who did not have roles, and it was absolute chaos. There were some kids who would just sit there and not do anything, and then there were kids who were dominating the whole time. And it brought me back to when I first used, like, LEGO Education Kids in my classroom. I had the same situation happen. But I don't want that to happen to you. So, how do you give kids roles when they're building with LEGO bricks? I like to group students in groups of 2 or 3. No more than that.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:47]:

If it's a group of 4, it just is too much, and there isn't enough for kids to do. So I will group them in groups of 2 or 3, and they have 3 specific roles. And you have a builder, a finder, and a director. And very self explanatory, but the builder will build the build. The finder is going to find the pieces. So when you look at a LEGO build that has directions, it will show you what pieces you need and how many. So they are in charge of finding the pieces. And then the director is in charge of the building directions.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:25]:

And in the last episode, I talked about how I would like to assign the builds using a digital platform like Seesaw. Or maybe you are using a LEGO Education Kit that already has an app, and the directions switch every 1 to 2 pages. They can decide in their group. There are some groups that will switch every single page because they need explicit directions. But then there are other groups who they're more laid back, and they're okay with switching every 2 pages, or some groups might even just keep their same roles for the entire day, and everybody is okay. It's really important to have these roles. Most groups need them. Some really, really need them.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:17]:

Some specific kids really need those explicit rules, and they might even move spots. I have seen that before. It's actually really cute. Not very efficient, but they actually might move spots when it's their turn to do their job. This helps so much. There is less fighting. It does help even out the experience, And I tell them nobody is a master builder in here. We are all learning how to collaborate and do our best job.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:46]:

So it's okay if you've built a lot of LEGOs, but you're not gonna build the whole thing by yourself. That's not what we do here. So these jobs are really, really helpful. If you are getting into a LEGO build, that is actually along with just robotics and how I do coding, which we'll talk about in other episodes as well. I do have that planned, but as I record, things grow and change, but that isn't my plan in this series. When they get to the coding part, if that is something your LEGO education kits use, there is a driver, a navigator, and a robot Wrangler. This is called paired programming. So you can actually talk about this with your kids.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:34]:

But the driver is the one who is going to be driving the actual device, the computer, and putting the code up on the screen. It doesn't mean they have to know how to code. Everybody can help and be involved and talk about the code. They're just the ones touching the computer. The navigator checks the code to make sure that everything is where it should be and everything's connected before they press play. The robot wrangler is in charge of the robot, and they have to make sure the robot is set up before the code is going. And then they have to go get the robot if it ends up somewhere if it's a moving robot. If you do have robots that roll, some of the builds might do that.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:18]:

I recommend having the robot on the floor. Do not put them on the tables. Sometimes the kids will make them go really fast. They'll fall off. Their build goes everywhere. There are pieces all over the floor. They're crying. They're yelling.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:30]:

They're screaming. Put the robot on the floor. Back to the building piece, I didn't mention this, but there will be times when kids can't find a piece. The newer the kits, the fewer problems you have. The more kids you have using kits, the more pieces go missing. So I do put these roles in place where if you can't find a piece, what are you going to do? I give them those strategies of what to do when you can't find a piece. And you might think, oh, I don't need to do this. You do.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:01]:

Because they're gonna ask you the same thing. I can't find it. So let me tell you what I tell them and then something about that. Here are the strategies I tell kids if they cannot find a piece. 1st is to look in the big part of the bin. If you haven't seen a LEGO education kit before, they come in these big bins, and there's usually some sort of tray on top that can be removed and actually placed inside of the lid so it doesn't slide around. But there's a bottom part, and sometimes some pieces end up down there. So kids need to look.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:37]:

Did you check in the big part of the bin? The next one is to ask another group. Sometimes, another group might accidentally have their piece. They might just have one extra, and so they need to ask another group politely. The other groups can say yes. The other groups can say no, but they are allowed to ask, not take. Also, another strategy if they can't find a piece is to check the spare parts shelf. And in the last episode, I talked to you all about the spare parts shelf and how I get that all organized. If the kids try all three strategies, all 3, they have to try all 3, and they still can't find the piece, they have to problem-solve and use a related piece that can complete the task.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:25]:

I would give kids this example when I was remodeling my townhome. I use this example a lot. But when I was remodeling my townhome, and if I tried all these strategies, then I still couldn't do something. I had to figure it out. I couldn't go whine to my parents and say, figure it out for me. And I also would tell the kids, do you see on here do any of these say, go whine at Miss Meredith and tell her you can't find a piece? And they're all, no. I'm like, exactly. So it doesn't say go tell Miss Meredith I can't find it.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:57]:

I probably can't find it either. If you did all these things as a group and you still can't find it, I probably can't find it. And that really helps too with their independence. I didn't have kids following me around the class like a baby duck. I said I'm not your mommy. You're not my baby ducks, that they weren't following me and telling me they can't find a piece. Sometimes when I was talking with them, I might know where one is. But overall, kids knew not to ask me where a piece was, I probably couldn't find it.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:27]:

When you're building with the LEGO bricks, and let's say you do have the opportunity for kids to continue their builds day after day, What I would have them do is write their names on a sticky note, put the sticky note on the top of their lid, put their build on top of it, and then any extra pieces go inside. And then I had some shelves in my classroom where they could put all their builds. It will look a little bit messy, but whatever. It all worked out okay. When I had my LEGO after-school clubs, kids actually had to take apart their builds every single day because I was taking the kits to a new school every day. And so they did have to deconstruct. I did not give them roles in that. They just had to all help out and make sure everything was where it needed to go.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:12]:

When we had the big Duplo blocks, and I did mention this in the last episode, they had to take apart their builds because they were quick challenges and more creative challenges. They did have to take them apart and then sort them by color. One thing you can add in, if you wanna do this once a week or if you have different kids every day, is I would have the kids I did this in my LEGO after-school club because they got really good at building because they're doing it every week. I actually had the kids check a color. So in LEGO Education Kits, the newer kits are sorted by color, and so each day had a different color that they were responsible for. So my Monday group had to go through the blues and make sure all the blues were there to check all the numbers, put back any extras, and make sure they got the spares that they were missing. Tuesday was responsible for the black pieces. Wednesday was responsible for the green.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:10]:

So that was a really great way to make sure the inventory was pretty good in the kits, and overall, they had most of the pieces. So I wasn't sitting at home and going through them. So that's a great strategy. You can do that once a month, or maybe if you have kids, like, maybe you're not using LEGO education kits, then maybe you have some kids who come in from recess and help you organize throughout the week. Again, so you're not doing it, and kids actually are really fast at it and enjoy the process. Alright. In terms of lessons, what kinds of lessons should you use and what kits to buy? So these are gonna gonna go back and forth. If you are thinking about LEGO Education Kits specifically, you can actually get started on their website, you can see the different types of kits they have available, and you can actually browse through the lessons that are already there.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:03]:

There's not a whole time, but there is enough where it will give you questions to think about. There are videos to show them in action. Some of the kits have related science activities that can go with them, and then you can also again find those PDF versions of the builds in case you need to print any or use them to assign digitally like I did in Seesaw. I'm gonna go through the different types of kits that I used, and I ended up using the lessons that went with these kits. I didn't really create my own when it came to, like, LEGO education kits because there were some already good ones out there. And so when it comes to my k through fives time year-long plan, when you see LEGO Education Kits on there, those are not things that I've made up myself. Out of all the things, coding and LEGO Education Kits are the units that I didn't create from scratch because there are already resources out there that were really good. In kindergarten, I had the opportunity to get the STEAM Park Express Kits, and I sorted all the pieces by color, so I talked more about that in part one of this little LEGO episode saga.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:18]:

And I had this sorted by color, and every day was a different challenge. And you can kinda see on the LEGO Education website where they're building a different part of the amusement park. And you talk about different things with simple machines and force and motion. And what's really cute about this, it's more exploratory for your youngest students. There is a picture where kids can replicate what's on the picture. So if it's an amusement park ride, kids can try to find the pieces to build that. There aren't step by step directions. It's more exploratory.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:50]:

Or kids can design their own ride that is related. A lot of kids actually really wanted to build what's on the screen as a starting place, and then they would add on, which was really, really cool. I did, by the end of my 5 years, have enough LEGO education kits where every single grade level had a different kit. I did use older kits, which was really awesome, but you may or may not have that opportunity. So I have heard of people using LEGO kits throughout the year, and so maybe everybody is doing robotics, with different types of robots, but maybe 5th grade is using the LEGO Education Kit. And then maybe you're moving on to 3D printing, and then 4th grade is using a kit. So if you don't have enough, but you wanna still plan thematically, plan thematically, but sometimes one group might be off by a unit just based on the materials that you have. In 1st grade, I used the discontinued LEGO WeDo 1.0 kits.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:50]:

And if you see these before, there's a lot of yellow and red bricks. The actual build plugs into a computer with a USB cord, and then you have to download the software on the device. The software actually still worked. There were a lot of blocks on our computers at my school, so I couldn't go and download them on all the devices, but the builds were actually still really good. In 2nd grade, I did a simple machine kit. Those are also discontinued, and they actually moved by using simple machines. So there wasn't any coding involved. This kit was actually really good, and I love the connections with simple machines.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:29]:

We would talk about a different simple machine every day. So this one is a really fun one, and they started adding on and creating other things while they were building. So I wish they still had that kit because I really liked that one. In 3rd grade, we did the LEGO WeDo 2.0, which has the popular Milo, the science rover. That's usually one of the first builds that you do. There are a lot of blue and green pieces, and it's that skinny blue case. What's really interesting is LEGO actually took away the app, and then people got upset, and then they put the app back. But as far as I have read, the app is going to be discontinued completely front in August 2024.


Naomi Meredith [00:17:25]:

You are able to connect your We Dos to Scratch. So that's really awesome where you have that option where you can do that type of block based coding, and it is a little more challenging in a good way. The coding is very, very simple for the WeDo 2 point o's, but the kits are awesome. There are limited challenges. So if you do need more challenges, I did write, different versions of kinds of builds that you can use with LEGO WeDo 2.0. I have in my membership the STEM teacher bookshelf as a bonus. All of the builds, and there are some others I need to add, but different bonus builds that you can use with WeDo 2.0, and also some easier challenges for your younger students and some harder challenges for your older students. So, I'll link that in the show notes.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:12]:

It's a bonus, $9 a month. If you don't wanna do all the reading in the book bookshelf but just join for the LEGO WeDo challenges, that's a great option. In 4th grade, I had the BricQ Motion Prime. There are 2 different BricQ Kits. I had the older one. This one was really cool because it was about force and motion when it comes to sports. And it was a lot of winter sports, not all winter sports, but it was super cool because, again, these fields didn't move with coding. They moved with different types of motion in sports.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:46]:

And there are some cool little experiments to try with all of them that are on their website. For the younger kids, I have had friends in my district when I worked there who have this kit, but it's the BridQ Essential Kit, Motion Essential, And that kit is really awesome, too. Again, they move by different sports, so different than the older kids, and a lot of fun there. So those 2 kits are cheaper because there aren't any electronics for that. There's not they're not considered robotics because there isn't any coding involved, but it is fun to mix it up. And, if you're looking for a place to start for kits, those are great because you might be able to afford those a lot easier. For my 5th graders and for my LEGO after-school club, I use the LEGO spike essential kits, which come in those big yellow buckets, and coding is involved. I did more challenging projects with my 5th graders, but when I did this as a LEGO after-school club, K-5 could definitely do the challenges.


Naomi Meredith [00:19:49]:

If you pick more of the simple challenges, even for the older kids, it works great. You can just do one-day challenges. If you really only have different kids every day, you can build, take apart, build, take apart every day. If you have older students, like 6, 7, and 8, the LEGO SPIKE Prime Kits are really great for that one. There are more of the LEGO Technic pieces and more complicated coding, which is really great. Also, LEGO SPIKE Essential has more icon block coding and more of the traditional, like scratch coding, and you can switch between the 2. I do know with the other kit, it's a little more complicated in a good way. So if you're trying to decide between which kit is which, the spike essential is for elementary, and the spike prime is for the older, like, beyond elementary. Now if you are somebody like, I cannot afford LEGO education kits, that is something that's not going to be happening, That is okay.


Naomi Meredith [00:20:50]:

You can still use those mixed bricks. That is definitely a possibility. And a big thing I like to tell teachers is when you are planning with mixed bricks of LEGOs, you actually plan it just like a makerspace lesson. Your medium is just LEGO bricks and not recycled materials. So think about that when you're planning your lessons. Lessons. You can definitely do very similar things. You can also think about stem and stories lessons where you are building to solve the problem that is related to the book.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:24]:

I have a bunch of lessons for you to get started separate from my k through 5 STEM year-long plan, but different lessons that you can use to get started, and those are actually really great for sub plans. Also, if you wanna do a stem station with lit mix LEGO bricks, I have some engineer inspiration boards that are thematic for different holidays throughout the year or different months, and kids can see those items, choose what they wanna build, and build how they wanna represent it with the LEGO bricks. So that's a great challenge to keep the building purposeful. It's not exactly a free build, but they have a small challenge they have to solve and then represent it with their bricks. Along with that, you can also try some task cards, and that is a new line that I'm coming up with. I have a really fun one that I did that really connects well with my STEM career quest podcast for kids, and it's all about insects and spiders because my first guest interview was with entomologists, scientists who study bugs, and each of the task cards is how to build and represent something. One of my favorite ones, because I had just learned about this, is an insect hotel where it is actually a safe place for natural insects in your garden or backyard to have a home, and it's to help really help pollinators and really help the life cycle of bugs. So students can learn more about an insect hotel and how to build that.


Naomi Meredith [00:22:52]:

But that's just one of 20 challenges that are in those cards. So LEGOs are a great way to build these small challenges, but also they can take them apart at the end. They could take a picture in Seesaw. But just a really great way to have those reusable items if LEGO education kits are not a possibility, or maybe they are, and you just want to use those in a different way. In this episode, we talked about behavior management when it comes to using LEGO bricks in your classroom and different types of kits and lessons that you can focus on. If you haven't already, go and check out part 1 where I talk more about the systems and routines in relation to LEGO bricks in your classroom. But I appreciate you being here on this journey. If you love the jobs that I was talking about and hear you're like, oh my gosh.


Naomi Meredith [00:23:47]:

Those are amazing. They are amazing. Let me tell you. They're a game changer. I have all of those roles inside of my STEM teacher 101 course, where I talk about different jobs and why they're important when working on STEM projects, not just LEGO bricks, but those posters are in there for you. They're actually not in my shop at the time of this recording, but they're in there for you. They're ready to go, kid friendly color and black and white, and you can use them when you use LEGO bricks in your classroom. Thank you so much for being here, and I will see you in the next episode.

lessons for LEGO bricks

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning 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!

mechanical engineer

Machines & Problem-Solving: Behind the Scenes with Sr. Mechanical Engineer Tiffani Teachey [ep.8]

by Naomi Meredith

Machines & Problem-Solving: Behind the Scenes with Sr. Mechanical Engineer Tiffani Teachey [ep.8]

mechanical engineer

Check out the full episode on Machines & Problem-Solving: Behind the Scenes with Sr. Mechanical Engineer Tiffani Teachey

Embed YouTube video here

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Episode Summary

Questies, we are back for another amazing STEM career adventure! Before we embark on this new adventure, I have a question for you: have you ever had your microwave or another appliance stop working suddenly? I’ve had that to me and it was so frustrating because I couldn’t get the microwave door to close. I decided to investigate to see if I could figure out how the microwave works. I decided to take it apart and fix it! 

Just like I investigated to see how the microwave works, there are STEM careers that involve analyzing machinery and understanding how things move to make entire machines work. Who does this kind of work? Mechanical engineers! In today’s episode, we are taken behind the scenes of what it’s like to be a Sr. Mechanical Engineer with Tiffani Teachey. This episode is filled with so many fun and exciting facts about Sr. Mechanical Engineers that I know you’re going to enjoy. Don't forget to join our STEM Career Quest Club so you can learn even more about what it’s like to be a Sr. Mechanical Engineer.

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

Want more ways to enhance your podcast listening experience? 

Click HERE to join our STEM Career Quest Club!

Inside, you get access to 

  • a private community of other STEM Career Quest listeners
  • comprehension guides for each episode
  • teaching slides for each episode, where it is broken up into chunks so you can listen in smaller segments
  • related STEM activities you can complete with simple materials
  • one monthly virtual STEM field trip

And more!

 

Meet Tiffani Teachey:

Tiffani Teachey is a Sr. Mechanical Engineer, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) advocate, TEDx international speaker, and international best-selling author of the children's book What Can I Be? STEM Careers from A to Z, the STEM Crew Kids Adventures series, and three transformative books on women's empowerment and entrepreneurship. She is the host of the Read It Right Radio Show on WDRBmedia

and also host of the Engineering Management Institute (EMI) Women in Engineering Podcast. She is the founder of STEM Crew Magazine. Tiffani is the owner of Thrive Edge Publishing and the owner and publishing consultant of Inspired Authors Publishing. She helps underrepresented industry and business leaders publish children's books about their field to inspire children to choose the same path.

Tiffani holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, as well as a Master of Science degree in Engineering Management, both from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is a Leadership Studies Ph.D. student at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

As an engineer with over 19 years of experience, Tiffani is very interested in getting young people interested in STEM careers. She was born and raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and enjoys traveling and being a youth mentor.

Connect with Tiffani: 

See a Sr. Mechanical Engineer in Action:

mechanical engineer

 

 

 

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

Connect with the Host, Naomi Meredith:

More About The STEM Career Quest Podcast

Have you ever found yourself asking this question… “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Maybe you already have an answer to that, maybe you don’t.

Both are ok!

Welcome to the “STEM Career Quest” podcast! A show made for kids like you to help you build your dreams, or even find new ones, in science, technology, engineering and math. Each week, hear captivating stories and interviews to explore the exciting world of STEM. Oh! And grown-ups and teachers, you can listen too!

We’ll talk to experts in STEM who are passionate about what they do in the real-world and how they make a positive impact in their careers. Created and hosted by K-5 STEM Coach, Naomi Meredith, this show will spark your imagination and passions.

Join us each week on our quest to explore the possibilities of careers in STEM, one episode at a time.

teach kids with LEGOS

What Systems Do You Need When You Teach Kids with LEGOS? [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.152]

by Naomi Meredith

What Systems Do You Need When You Teach Kids with LEGOS? [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.152]

teach kids with LEGOS

Check out the full episode on What Systems Do You Need When You Teach Kids with LEGOS?:  

 

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

Episode Summary

Tired of your students having a free for all when using the LEGO bricks in your classroom? If so, today’s episode is for you. In this episode, I’m sharing systems and routines you can put in place when it’s time to teach kids with LEGOS in your STEM classroom. This episode is part one of a two part series on LEGO bricks. Make sure you check out next week’s episode to hear part two!

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Systems and routines to use to teach kids with LEGOS
  • Why systems and routines are need when teaching kids with LEGOS
  • Tips for managing and organizing the different types of LEGOS

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 [00:00:00]:

When you are using LEGO bricks in your classroom, is it a free for all, or do you have systems in place to keep it controlled chaos? In this episode, I am going to be sharing with you the systems and routines that I like to use when using LEGO bricks in a STEM space. I am so excited about this episode, all about LEGO bricks, that this is going to be broken up into 2 parts. In this first part of this 2 part series, I am going to be talking about the systems to put in place, whether you are using LEGO education kits or mixed buckets of bricks in your classroom. In the second episode of this 2 part series, we are going to be then talking about the behavior management strategies and also the different types of lessons and kits that you can use.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:31]:

I have to admit something. When I was looking through all of my episodes and working on this series, I realized I don't have a dedicated LEGO brick lesson. We are over 150 episodes in, and I haven't done a whole episode about LEGO. And I am so sorry about that. In my opinion, teaching with LEGO bricks is one of the easiest things to teach STEM, especially if you have LEGO Education Kits. They're pretty self-explanatory in terms of all the other STEM kits or things you might use, and I think that might be why I didn't record an episode yet or I didn't get a whole lot of questions about LEGO bricks yet, but I have gotten some questions. So, I apologize for not recording this sooner, but here we are. It's going to be okay. I had a lot of fun planning this episode for you, looking through my camera roll, and getting ideas.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:38]:

When I taught with LEGO Education Kits, I actually saved them towards the end of the school year and during state testing time. There are a couple of reasons for this. 1st, in my role, when I was a k through 5 STEM teacher, yes, I was a STEM teacher, but I was also our school technology point person and also did some co-teaching off and on during the years. When it was state testing time, I actually got pulled for a big chunk of those weeks to support teachers when it came to technology needs and also makeup testing. For about 2 to 3 weeks, I actually had to have a substitute in my classroom full-time so I could support our administration during this time. So, in turn, I would save my LEGO education lessons during state testing because I knew this was something that a substitute could do, and with my systems and routines, it would actually work really, really well. Side note: my substitute that I had would actually say how organized I was, and I met his wife at an education conference. She is a teacher in our district, and she was saying, oh, yeah.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:00]:

My husband substituted for this STEM teacher. She was super, super organized. He loved being there, and we came to the conclusion. It was actually my classroom. He was talking about me and the wife hadn't ever met before. So it was such a small world, so funny, and good to know that he had a good experience in my classroom because of the systems and routines that I am going to talk to you about. I do know that LEGO education kits can be really expensive, and I'm gonna talk about the different kits that I have used. Some are retired, some are current, and it is a really good investment staple STEM products that I absolutely love because they can be used over and over again.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:49]:

And I will say LEGO Education Kits, for the most part, have great longevity you can get a lot of use out of them. If you don't have the funds or you know you won't ever have the funds and you only have mixed LEGO bricks, that is okay. I'm also going to be talking about that in this episode. Likewise, I am gonna talk about some LEGO Education Kits that use Duplo blocks, those bigger blocks, because I did get to try that out with my kindergarten classes. So, if you do teach pre-k or kindergarten, I have some good options for you, too. I also recently did a short-term contract where I was teaching LEGO Education Kits in after-school programs for our company, and I started to train some people as well in how to use these kits with students with people who had never taught children before. I will say the systems that I used in my k through 5 STEM classroom are the same ones that I used in an after-school program. So maybe that's you.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:56]:

Maybe you have the chance to do LEGO with an after school program. These tips and tricks are gonna work in all these situations. Alright. So, let's get into those systems when you are using LEGO bricks in your classroom. Side note: I keep saying LEGO bricks because, for a short time, I was a LEGO ambassador, and they did say that LEGO, you usually don't say LEGO by itself. You add on something. There was a reason for it. There was a name for it too.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:29]:

And it's actually not LEGOs. It's LEGO like fish is 1 fish or mini fish. LEGO is 1 brick or mini brick. But they did say you have to add something at the end, so it's LEGO bricks. So, I might say LEGO Education Kits are LEGO bricks. If I mess up, I'm so sorry, but there's a reason why I'm saying it like that. So, first of all, you are sharing the actual builds with students. And if you are buying a kit, you will often get the paper versions of the builds.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:02]:

For me, I didn't like the clutter. I didn't like how the books were flimsy paper. So whenever I would get brand new kits in my class, I actually recycled all of them. I know that you can use them offline, but they just really bothered me and the pages would tear, and I just didn't like storing them. What I did instead is I actually grabbed the PDF version of the build, which all of them can be found for free, open access on the LEGO Education website. I would download all of those and make them seesaw activities that I could share with students. If I wanted them to build something specific on one day, I could have it scheduled to go out on certain days, or I had all of them available for students, and they could pick and choose what they wanted to build. What was really cool was when students were finished with their build, they could take a picture or take a video of their work because they couldn't take their builds home, of course, and so they could take it home by taking a picture or taking a video.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:09]:

Also, with some of the builds, there was a paired science activity, which is on their website, and I'm gonna talk more about that in the lesson plans. But that is how I would streamline the builds, and so this is actually part of their roles, which I'm also gonna talk about. But so that you know, that was just something I really like to set up. Some of the LEGO Education Kits actually have an app that goes with them. It depends on the kit that you're purchasing and the building directions are already in the app. So, depending on the kit you have, check it out. It was really helpful. And again, when I had a substitute, I did this for all of my students from first through 5th grade.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:50]:

All of the building directions were in Seesaw. And what I actually did is when kids would sign into Seesaw if we had to use the iPads because they couldn't use their laptops because they were used for testing. I had all of the QR codes to their Seesaw class up on the whiteboard. I had them organized by grade level, so they were there for the week. The substitute knew they were going to be there, and it was all set up. I also had a section in my classroom that was for LEGO spare parts. And for the LEGO Education Kits, certain parts repeat and are used for all of the kits, and a lot of the newer kits actually come with spare parts already. So I had a section that was the spare parts shelf, and all of the spare parts were organized by exactly what piece they were.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:41]:

I did have some students help me out with this at the end of the school year, all of the years, but we had them organized in these little containers that are for crafting items or small beads. And it was really nice because they're see-through on both sides. You can see what piece you need. And if they were found on the ground, kids could quickly organize them. I know it sounds really tedious. I don't do this for my mixed LEGO bricks, but it was really helpful because if they were missing a piece, they could easily find it and then get back to work. I will link the exact little containers that I got in the show notes. They were easy to store.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:20]:

I did have to show kids how to open them. You open the latch-up. I would say, what would happen if you open it the other way? And they're all, oh, no. It would fall. I'm like, exactly. So make sure you open it the right way. None of them actually fell because they remembered my face and what I would tell them when we were introducing the kits. If you do need to buy other parts that aren't found in the extras that LEGO supplies you, or maybe you have an older kit. You need a specific piece, all of the LEGO Education Kits either in the kit or you can look online, every LEGO brick has a specific part number.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:59]:

You can go on to the website Brickowl, and you can actually purchase individual pieces that you are missing in bulk. So they are really cheap. They're, like, a few cents. You wanna try to purchase from 1 seller because you do have to pay for shipping per person you buy from. It is a legit website. It doesn't look super fancy, but it actually is legit because sometimes I had to go in and purchase things for my classroom or my LEGO after-school club, so that's a great resource as well. If you are using a LEGO education kit that uses the big Duplo blocks, the big ones. They come in these ginormous boxes, and when they get delivered to your school, everyone's like, what did you buy? I'm like, they're just a few kits of big LEGO bricks.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:49]:

What I ended up doing to help streamline how kids would use them. For my youngest learners, I had my green fabric cube boxes that I was obsessed with. I use it for so many different things, including mini green screens, so that's why they were green. When we weren't recording on a green screen, I actually had them all against a wall. I had about 20 of them, and I sorted all of the kits by color. Again, this sounds tedious at first, but it was really helpful because, at the end of class, students would take apart their builds and sort them back in the colors, which is actually a great skill for our youngest kids anyway. There also are some pretty pieces like little kitty cats in the kit that I had or little flowers that I sorted into ziplock bags and kept to the side, and they were only allowed to use those when the build required it. I also did that for my kids for my LEGO after-school clubs because kids get distracted by them. And, yes, I am all about creativity and expressing yourself, but kids get distracted, and they actually are the most stolen pieces.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:59]:

So I just keep them to the side. They are pulled out when needed, and then we have to put them back at the end of class. If you only have mixed LEGO bricks in your classroom, they are just all mixed up. They're basic pieces. You can order these off Amazon. They often will come in these big giant buckets that look like a giant LEGO. I would keep them in that giant LEGO because they're actually super cute, and they're pretty sturdy and easy for kids to carry. When kids were putting these big buckets away, I made them slide them on the floor because if they were feeling brave and wanted to carry the bucket by themselves, that usually didn't go well.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:41]:

And I swear I would have somebody spill a bucket of those LEGOs on the floor once a week. So I recommend having a broom and a dustpan, sweep up those LEGO bricks, and dump them in. If there are other things in there, oh, well, it's a way quicker way to clean them up. Likewise, it is a lot easier having the mixed buckets of LEGOs on the floor. And depending on your tables, it might be hard for kids to reach across and share. I had tile floor, I drew with a chalk marker different little LEGO bricks on the floor, and those were spread out around the room. And so those are the places that they had to put those mixed buckets of LEGOs. Toward the end of my last year, I got a small grant from our PTO.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:33]:

I was able to purchase some big baseplates. Those are the big ones that kids can build on. Some baseplates that were sticky and hung them up on my wall to have a LEGO wall. For my preference, I actually made the base plates match the color of the wall. So, I had a green wall and a blue wall that were used for recording. The reason why I matched them is so that if somebody were to use that wall for a green screen or blue screen, it wouldn't take away the space of the wall. It could still be an area they could record in front of, and it actually blended in a lot better. But you can make it whatever style you want.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:13]:

That was just a preference for me. The plates on the wall ended up being a part of a stem station or a free building choice at the end of the year. I didn't use them that often, but they were pretty cool to have. Now that you have all of those systems put in place tune in to the second part of this 2 part series. I'm gonna be talking about the behavior management tips that work really well and also the different types of lessons and kits that you can purchase for your classroom. I know you wanted it all in 1. I did, too, but I really wanna make sure that I am not overwhelming you with ideas and also helping you be set up for success. So I will see you in the next episode where we will be talking about those two things.

teach kids with LEGOS

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning 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!

airline pilot in training

Jet Setting Engineer: Behind the Scenes as an Airline Pilot in Training with Miruna Camelia Iordan [ep.7]

by Naomi Meredith

Jet Setting Engineer: Behind the Scenes as an Airline Pilot in Training with Miruna Camelia Iordan [ep.7]

airline pilot in training

Check out the full episode on Jet Setting Engineer: Behind the Scenes as an Airline Pilot in Training with Miruna Camelia  Iordan

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Episode Summary

Welcome to another adventure on the STEM Career Quest Podcast, my Questies! I want to know: have you ever been on an airplane? It’s such a fun and exciting way to travel across the world! Did you know that the people who fly airplanes have to do lots of training and practice before they can start flying airplanes? 

Today, we are learning all about what it takes to become an airline pilot in training from our special guest Miruna Camelia Iordan. Miruna takes us behind the scenes of what it’s like to be an airline pilot in training, what led her to choose this amazing STEM career, and so much more! This episode is filled with so many fun and exciting facts about airline pilots that I know you’re going to enjoy. Don't forget to join our STEM Career Quest Club so you can learn even more about what it’s like to be an airline pilot in training.

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

Want more ways to enhance your podcast listening experience? 

Click HERE to join our STEM Career Quest Club!

Inside, you get access to 

  • a private community of other STEM Career Quest listeners
  • comprehension guides for each episode
  • teaching slides for each episode, where it is broken up into chunks so you can listen in smaller segments
  • related STEM activities you can complete with simple materials
  • one monthly virtual STEM field trip

And more!

 

Meet Miruna Camelia Iordan:

Miruna is a flygirl and aerospace engineer. She lives and breathes aviation! She is currently a student pilot at the Technical University of Vilnius. She is also working part-time as an AMP (aircraft maintenance program) engineer at Avion Express (a commercial airline), where she keeps records of the company's aircraft technical maintenance. She is passionate about aviation and willing to use her knowledge and skills to purposefully contribute to this sector, be it as an engineer or as a pilot.

Connect with Miruna: 

See an Airline Pilot in Training in Action:

airline pilot in training

airline pilot in training

airline pilot in training

airline pilot in training

airline pilot in training

airline pilot in training

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

Connect with the Host, Naomi Meredith:

More About The STEM Career Quest Podcast

Have you ever found yourself asking this question… “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Maybe you already have an answer to that, maybe you don’t.

Both are ok!

Welcome to the “STEM Career Quest” podcast! A show made for kids like you to help you build your dreams, or even find new ones, in science, technology, engineering and math. Each week, hear captivating stories and interviews to explore the exciting world of STEM. Oh! And grown-ups and teachers, you can listen too!

We’ll talk to experts in STEM who are passionate about what they do in the real-world and how they make a positive impact in their careers. Created and hosted by K-5 STEM Coach, Naomi Meredith, this show will spark your imagination and passions.

Join us each week on our quest to explore the possibilities of careers in STEM, one episode at a time.

3d printing be used in school

How Can 3D Printing Be Used in School? [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.151]

by Naomi Meredith

How Can 3D Printing Be Used in Schools? [STEM Project & Behavior Management  Series] [ep.151]

3d printing be used in school

Check out the full episode on How Can 3D Printing Be Used in Schools? [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series]:  

 

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 the best way 3D printing can be used in schools? It can be overwhelming thinking about all that goes into planning and implementing a 3D print lesson. In today’s episode, I’m breaking down how 3D printing can be implemented in your STEM classroom. I share the best systems to set up for 3D printing, how to manage behaviors, 3D printing lessons, and so much more.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Ways 3D printing can be used in schools
  • Systems to set up for 3D printing
  • Tips and strategies for behavior management
  • 3D printing lesson ideas

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

You got a new set of 3D printers, but you're not quite sure how to get started. Who is managing all of these 3D prints? What should students make? How many kids should work on a project? We are going to be answering all of those questions and more in today's episode. If you are listening to this episode about 3D printers and you are about to turn it off because you do not have 3D printers, don't shut off this episode. You can still do 3D print projects without a 3D printer.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:08]:

I am going to explain that, but bear with me. It this episode is still for you whether or not you still have a printer. All of the creating of 3D prints is still exactly the same whether or not you have 3D printers, and that's gonna make sense in a little bit. When I first got my 3D printers when I was a k through 5 STEM teacher, they were delivered literally a week before the COVID shutdown. I was so excited opening up these 3D printers. I had an older one in my classroom that didn't work. It wouldn't even read current 3D print files, and you would try to put the files on a flash drive. They couldn't even convert to the right file format.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:55]:

The printer was loud. The extruder, the part that the plastic comes out of wouldn't even work. And it was older, and it was good at its time, but it didn't work for me anymore. So, I got those 3D printers delivered. They're the MakerBot Sketch Classroom, and I'm not sponsored by MakerBot, but I really love these 3D printers for an elementary space because they was literally take them out of the box and you are ready to go. So I got these 3D printers delivered right before the COVID shutdown and didn't know that was going to be the thing. And so when we were told to go home and we weren't going to come back, I actually brought the 3D printers home with me. And, no, I didn't keep them.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:42]:

I brought them back, but I had purchased these 3D printers and didn't have any experience with 3D printing. And I thought, well, this might be a great time to learn. Students can still create a project. I can print it and deliver it, which is something that I did end up doing. And then I also was working with a few of the parents in my school community who were in health care, and we were 3D printing some ear savers. So they're pretty cool. It was a print file that was sent to me that where you put it on the back of your head and then your mask, loops would loop over the back, and then, it would really help for people who are wearing a mask all day. So I learned really quickly how to use these 3D printers and how to use the software during this time because, well, we had time, and I actually created a bunch of video tutorials for the platform that I like to use for students called Tinkercad.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:40]:

And those tutorials are still available up on my YouTube channel. They are still relevant and really helpful, and I'm also gonna explain how I actually use those when I teach 3D print lessons. From there, I have printed thousands of prints and have learned the tips and tricks of when it comes to teaching these lessons with students and making sure that the prints are successful. And this is from nobody training me by myself. And I'm all about being efficient and doing things that would work best. So, I'm gonna talk about in this episode the systems you wanna set up for your 3D printing, some behavior management tricks, and some ideas for some lessons. When it comes to the systems for your 3D printing, you wanna get started on your 3D print lessons pretty early on, most likely in the second semester. And the reason for that is, by now, the students are used to your classroom and your teaching style and all of that, and, also, it's gonna take you a long time to print.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:46]:

The biggest thing and the biggest headache, I would say, which it's not that bad, if you don't have if you don't have assistance, horrible. But the biggest thing is managing all the prints and staying on top of it. And I learned that very quickly because I wanted everybody to 3D print. I don't think it should be until the older grades where students are 3D printing. I think they should be designing and developing those skills as soon as kindergarten. And so what I did is while I pad the 3D printers at school, so when we actually did this in class, I realized there were a bunch of common questions that students would ask me. They would ask me, what is printing right now? Whose class are you printing? How long is this going to take? When are you gonna print my class? So I came up with some posters in a system and process that will not only help answer the students' questions when they're looking at the 3D printers, but also help me stay on track of whose projects were done and all of that. And so I actually have these all for free for you.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:53]:

You can print them out. There are pictures to show you how I use them in my classroom, and I kept my printers out in a space where students could look at the project's printing because it's really important too to nourish that curiosity and have kids get excited about what 3D printing is and how this is another type of printer that we can have to create things in a 3D world. What's really cool too, if you're intimidated about 3D printing, it's really not as hard as you think. And I had it in my head, this misconception, that 3D printing is overly complicated. And all it really is and I took a class in with a bunch of kids about 3D printing, because I wanted to hear other adults teach kids about it. But they said it's just like a hot glue gun extruding that plastic, and it's just going in layers and layers and layers, like icing a cake. And so what it's doing is when you create that file, when you create that 3D image on the computer, the program will slice it. You might have heard of that.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:59]:

It's gonna cut it up into layers. So when the printer reads that file, it's reading those layers and going in that pattern. That's all it's doing. It's not that complicated. And if you ever play around with a 3D pen, it's literally a hot glue gun, but it's a pen. And you wanna stack the layers on top of each other to make it a 3D shape. So when you create that 3D print station, put it in an area that kids can see so they can understand what is happening. Maybe they get to see their print in action, but I would write down the class names of who it is.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:35]:

I would say, who's this printing, what project they are working on. And so that would really help answer those questions. Of course, I would answer them too, but they learn soon enough that I had all that information right there for them. Also, create a space where you can put the finished 3D prints because you're just going to be staying on track of these for a long time. This was actually part of my morning routine for half of the year. Once I got settled in the day, I would line up all my prints for the day. And then throughout class, I would keep track of if it got finished, or the students would tell me it was finished because that is the hardest part about 3D printing is as a teacher staying on top of it, making sure things are printed, making sure whose print is who, and keeping it organized in your class. Once you have that little 3D print station set up, you wanna think about how do you want to save their prints.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:31]:

How are you going to collect their finished projects? The platform that I like to use with 2nd grade through 6th grade is called Tinkercad. It is a free software to use, completely free, and they have improved it over the years where there actually is a teacher component where you can set up a class a lot like Google Classroom and have all of your students print in one place. If you do have Google accounts and set it up that way, it's really cool because as students are designing with you over the years, they get to see all of the projects that they have created. You don't have to have Google accounts to get started, but it's a great asset if you do, and it's really easy to see all of their projects. So, thinking about how you want to collect those prints, I have my students name the file in a specific way. I have them name their files, so there's a way you can rename it just like a Google Doc or something like that, where I have students name the file with their first name, last initial, and then a dash or a slash and their teacher's name. Because when you are keeping track of all of these prints, they're all gonna kinda start looking the same over time. And so that's going to keep things really organized when you start downloading these print files that you know whose it is.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:56]:

My 3D printers actually would say on the screen the file name, so that was really nice as well. And then in the software that would take the files, so you download them off Tinkercad, you put it in the software that talks to your 3D printer so you don't print it directly from Tinkercad, so don't be worried. Oh, they create it. They're gonna send it to the printer. It doesn't work like that. Once I had it in the software that talks to my printers, I could even see the names of who printed. So if I forgot, oh, whose print is this, I could go back into that platform and double check. And then if I needed to reprint something, I knew whose it was.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:36]:

In terms of organizing the finished prints, I had little boxes on top of my 3D printers and had ziplock bags where I would just write the names of the student, had the bag on top of the printer, and when it was finished, I'd put it in the bag, and then I had a big bag for each classroom. So like I said, it's a lot of management for a teacher. My free 3D printing station setup is gonna help you a ton. For my younger students, I like to use it's free on the computer and a paid app on a tablet, but Doodle 3D Transform, where students actually draw their 3D print design. And the cool thing about this app is that when students are drawing on one side in 2D, simultaneously in real time, they see their design in 3D. So it's helping them understand, oh, this image I'm making on the computer is flat, but when it gets printed, it's going to have all of these elements. So it's a really good way to help students understand what is happening. I would typically use this with younger students, kindergarten and 1st grade, or even students who are older who need more support, this is a great option as well.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:49]:

The designing doesn't take as long. You don't need to create accounts. And so what I would do is when I'm introducing this platform, I would show the students how the platform works. We would make something for fun, try out all the buttons, and see how it goes. And then when we got to the designing, whether it was whole group, we did the designing for our project, or if I pulled small groups for this, then I would save their print file, the same system, first name, last initial, teacher name, and then I would airdrop it from the Ipads to my computer, or you could do something similar like email it to yourself just to get it off of that device. If you are a teacher who doesn't even have 3D printers, you don't even need to set up the 3D print station or set up those systems and processes, but you can actually still do all of the lessons. You would do everything exactly the same, and you would teach it as if you did have 3D printers. Maybe their print won't get designed.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:52]:

Maybe they have access to a 3D printer or the public library, or maybe you know you're gonna get a 3D printer later on, or maybe your district has one to borrow. I had that situation before before I got my new ones. And so you can still teach these lessons exactly the same. You don't have to have 3D printers to teach a 3D print lesson. And so if you feel like you're missing out, oh, we just can't do this, you still can. Everything's gonna stay the same. They just aren't gonna see what it looks like printed out. That's it.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:26]:

And that's all on you and the teacher anyway. I know some teachers maybe in middle school might have students manage this process, But to be honest, I was in my classroom all day, and the students would rotate every week. It was just easier if I did it and stayed on top of it. In terms of behavior management with your 3D printing, it might not get as crazy as a Makerspace lesson might be. I usually have students work by themselves or in a group of 2. I don't do bigger than that. And if they are in a group of 2, I have them collaborate on the same computer. I do know in Tinkercad, you can actually share a file and collaborate on the same file at the same time like a Google Doc, but I prefer that they actually are looking on the same screen so that they are interacting and talking about their project if they choose to work together.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:15]:

For 3D printing, I actually didn't mind students creating on their own. Yes, I know that means that there's a lot more prints to print, but I wanted all of my students to have the experience of designing. It's a little bit with Makerspace because you can pass the objects around, someone might be gathering materials, someone might be doing some research, So it just is different with the material sense. But with 3D printing, I wanted students to figure out, okay, here's how you zoom in and out. Here's how you add new pieces. And especially since I had students 3D printing from kindergarten, I wanted them to grow in their skills year after year. So that's why I didn't mind them designing on their own, but they would collaborate and talk to each other and help each other out because they were using the same platform. Also, sometimes I had students who actually collaborated in the planning process of what their project was, and they were creating the same exact thing on their own devices, but they were talking to each other.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:19]:

So they had the same invention, but they created it on their own so they could both learn the Tinkercad, and so I would start my 1st day of building that background knowledge and gathering information and planning their designs a lot like you would with a Makerspace lesson. The next day, I would have students finish up those plans, and then the last 10 minutes, we would set up their accounts in Tinkercad for 2nd through 5th grade. This would take a little bit of a while because they had to click through some options, add in the teacher code, which also is a really important skill with technology is reading the prompts. What is the computer asking me? Can we follow directions in order? And so we would get them all connected, and then the last little bit, I would show them some things about the platform and how it works like an overview. Now thinking about your position, you probably teach a lot of classes in the day, and that can get really tiring on you teaching those same basics over and over and over again. And so I recommend screen recording yourself and playing your video of you showing those things. That's what I did. I already have the videos.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:36]:

You can show mine. That's fine. We will embed the playlist for you in the show notes. But it was so funny. I would show these videos. It's me talking. It's the whole thing. I'm showing them exactly what I would show them in person, just because I knew I was gonna show this to, what, 5 classes, 4 classes for a month.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:59]:

It's the same thing over and over again, and I wouldn't miss anything. And they were absolutely quiet, and they're super engaged. So a nice little hack. It's still me teaching. I'm just making sure I don't miss anything. Then on days 3 through 5, so I had students 5 days in a row. They had the time to work on their projects, but in the beginning, we would still do a little bit of background knowledge, so building upon why we're doing the project. And then also I'd show them another tutorial video.


Naomi Meredith [00:17:28]:

I did not expect my students to know everything about the 3D print platform, and they might still not know even at the end of the week. They might have figured out the things that I'm showing in the video before I even show it, and that's fine. I couldn't teach them everything in one day. So instead of and this is a growth mindset thing too. Instead of the kids coming up to me and whining, I don't know how to do blah blah blah, or I don't know how to stack a shape. I'm like, oh, well, this is a great opportunity to click around and try something. That will be our lesson tomorrow, but maybe you can figure it out before tomorrow. And some kids might even hear the conversation across the room and say, I already know how to do that.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:11]:

Let me show you. And so I would show I would teach that mini lesson just like you would as a classroom teacher. Some kids might know some of the things before you teach it, but it's okay for them to hear it in a different way. Throughout the week, I would show them or teach them little segments that would help their design. So by Friday, they were good to go and knew some basics about the platform. Before they could be finished, I did have students physically check with me their actual design. They could not be done with their design until we physically talked about it together. Now, you might say, oh my gosh.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:46]:

This is so exhausting. Why would you even do that? Well, if you don't do that, first of all, if they need to make changes, they're not going to understand why they need to make changes if you just go and do it by yourself. And so it's a good learning experience where, hey, you need to do this in your project so it will print. And in all of my 3D print lessons in my TPT shop, I actually have a checklist of what students have to do in their design to make sure, yes, you follow the project rules, but, also, are you actually completing your project in a way it's actually going to print? Because there are things in 3D printers you have to do in order for it to print or it's not gonna work. And so I would talk with every single kid 1 on 1. I would go to their computer. We would talk about their design, I would scroll through. I actually took a wireless mouse with me with the USB port.


Naomi Meredith [00:19:40]:

I'd plug it into their computer, I would scroll around on their computer, check out their design, look at it, make sure they followed the directions, and then, if they were good to go, great. They could close out and be done, or oops, you need to go fix this. Now some of you also might be thinking, this is a thing with 3D printing. Do I ever reprint prints? And it depends. If there was a student who I know was working and trying their best in class and there might be something in their design that didn't go as planned, the next time I see them or I might even catch them in their classroom, I might let them know, hey. This part of your 3D design didn't work. Can you fix this and I will reprint this for you? And I would just keep track of who it was and what class they're in, and then I would reprint it because I was printing for months, so it was no big deal. Still, sometimes, and you know, and you've seen this, you have some kids who are off task.


Naomi Meredith [00:20:38]:

They create something in their 3D print, and you've talked to them about it, they still use all of the random shape, it's it has nothing to do what you're working on, I might not even print it. And that really is a learning experience. We've talked about it. I had gave you a chance to fix it, and you still didn't follow directions. So when it comes to the day that I am passing out those 3D prints and they don't have something, that's their own fault. And that might sound a little bit harsh, but you can only do what you can do. And a few kids don't follow directions. It is what it is.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:15]:

You've tried. Like, this is a two way street, and so they will learn. Oh, well, next time if I want something printed, I better try. So that can definitely happen. Just kinda gauge the experience. For the most part, kids would know if they don't do what they're supposed to do, I'm not gonna print it. They learn that pretty fast about me. I am very a strict nice kind of teacher.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:37]:

I will give you lots of chances, but, also, you gotta do the work, and if you don't, that's your problem. So, but for the most part, everything worked out. Here and there, you also might have students who are absent. I'm, well, hey. Sorry. Hopefully, you're here next year. We're not gonna do this project. We have to move on, and that's how it goes.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:55]:

Now when it comes to lesson ideas, also a systems thing, a couple of questions. I would even have kids ask me this, or I've seen this in classrooms, which I don't understand, is would I print random designs? Oh, I found this really cool 3D print. Can you print it for me? No. I would not. I am not a free source 3D printer. I'm not gonna go print random things you found on the Internet just because you want a little plastic toy. I would say that is not my philosophy of a 3D printer. We are going to design what we print.


Naomi Meredith [00:22:27]:

This is another way of creating something just like you would in a makerspace project. We are creating our prototype through printing it. And so, no, I am not printing out random things that I find on the Internet. So along with that, what I what could kids print whatever they wanted? No. That's why I would physically check with what they have. And, honestly, it this was always a question for kids who are new in the building. Other kids are like, no. She's not gonna do that.


Naomi Meredith [00:22:52]:

But our lessons were so purposeful that the kids are really excited about what they were creating, and all of the lessons were tied to standards and building to solve the problem. So I do have some lessons when it comes to 3D printing to help you get started. I do have an episode more about 3D printing, a few of that I'll link in the show notes. And also all of the 3D printing lessons, there is a free playlist that you can grab. But in terms of the lessons, they're all connected to standards that are appropriate for their grade levels and help solving those issues and problems. So in kindergarten, they create a key chain to help take care of the earth. 1st grade, we talk about animal traits, their babies and their adults, how they are similar and different. In 2nd grade, they create a custom birdhouse, and this helps them learn the cuss the shapes in Tinkercad and how it works.


Naomi Meredith [00:23:40]:

In 3rd grade, we talk about life cycles, and they have to create a model of the life cycle of a living thing. In 4th grade, they create a hollow design. It is empty on the inside, and they create a nightlight that actually will sit on top of a lit up circuit that they make outside of 3D printing. And in 5th grade, they have to create an invention that will help protect Earth's resources. If you're looking for a shorter challenge or something, like, oh, I don't have as much time, the birdhouse challenge is a really good one to get started. It is the quickest project because it doesn't take as much detail because it is more of a starter project. So if you're a little bit short on time, definitely check that one out. As a recap, we talked about the ways in 3D printing to set up your systems, how to manage behavior during this time, and then also some lesson ideas.


Naomi Meredith [00:24:36]:

Don't forget, everything is linked for you in the show notes, and you can also get a free podcast playlist where I have all of the 3D printing lessons organized and all of the episodes in my podcast organized in topics. So if you want to learn more about specific things, that is completely free for you. It's the same exact show you're hearing here, but organized into those categories so to help target what you need. You can find that in the show notes, or you can head on over to namie meredith.com/podcast playlist.

3D Printing Video Tutorial Playlist:

Free Podcast Playlist with other episodes about 3D Printing:


3d printing be used in school

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning 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!

aerospace engineer

Sky-High Engineering: Behind the Scenes with Aerospace Engineer & Deep Space and Missile Senior Manager at Lockheed Martin, Scott Shepherd [ep.6]

by Naomi Meredith

Sky-High Engineering: Behind the Scenes with Aerospace Engineer & Deep Space and Missle Senior Manager at Lockheed Martin, Scott Shepherd [ep.6]

aerospace engineer

Check out the full episode on Sky-High Engineering: Behind the Scenes with Aerospace Engineer & Deep Space and Missle Senior Manager at Lockheed Martin, Scott Shephers  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Episode Summary

All right, my Questies! We are continuing our adventure in outer space! Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be part of a team that builds a spacecraft that they get to send into outer space? That would be so cool to do! Did you know that there are people who collaborate to plan, design, and build spacecrafts? Aerospace engineers get to do this for their STEM career!

Today, we’re hearing from Scott Shepherd, who is an aerospace engineer with the role of a  Deep Space and Missile Senior Manager. Scott takes us on a journey showing us what it’s like to be an aerospace engineer who works on deep space projects, what led him to choose this STEM career, and so much more! This episode is filled with so many fun and exciting facts about aerospace engineers that I know you’re going to enjoy. Don't forget to join our STEM Career Quest Club so you can learn even more about what it’s like to be an aerospace engineer.

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Want more ways to enhance your podcast listening experience? 

Click HERE to join our STEM Career Quest Club!

Inside, you get access to 

  • a private community of other STEM Career Quest listeners
  • comprehension guides for each episode
  • teaching slides for each episode, where it is broken up into chunks so you can listen in smaller segments
  • related STEM activities you can complete with simple materials
  • one monthly virtual STEM field trip

And more!

aerospace engineer

 

Meet Scott Shepherd:

Scott was born in a suburb of Chicago but moved out to Colorado when he was 10. Always interested in space, he went to college for Mechanical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and started working at Lockheed Martin Space while still going to school. He stared by working on a Mars Orbiter, Odyssey, that is still flying around Mars today. He spent many years designing gimbals and mechanisms for satellites, then moved to operating satellites after they are launched into space. He is now a senior manager overseeing several teams that operate spacecraft and missiles. Some of the missions he gets to work with are the Hubble Space Telescope, Osiris-Rex, Lucy, Juno, and several military satellite and missile programs.

 

See an Aerospace Engineer & Deep Space and Missile Senior Manager in Action:

aerospace engineer
Mounting solar arrays to the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft.

Gif of the OSIRIS-Rex TAG getting a sample from the asteroid Bennu. The sample was recently returned to Earth and is being studied by scientists. Some of the samples are on display at the Smithsonian and University of Arizona.

aerospace engineer
Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrometer (IUVS) is a spectrometer designed to measure and map characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Mars. The IUVS was designed and is operated by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

aerospace engineer

aerospace engineer
Deployment of science equipment on Mars from the InSight Lander.

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

Connect with the Host, Naomi Meredith:

More About The STEM Career Quest Podcast

Have you ever found yourself asking this question… “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Maybe you already have an answer to that, maybe you don’t.

Both are ok!

Welcome to the “STEM Career Quest” podcast! A show made for kids like you to help you build your dreams, or even find new ones, in science, technology, engineering and math. Each week, hear captivating stories and interviews to explore the exciting world of STEM. Oh! And grown-ups and teachers, you can listen too!

We’ll talk to experts in STEM who are passionate about what they do in the real-world and how they make a positive impact in their careers. Created and hosted by K-5 STEM Coach, Naomi Meredith, this show will spark your imagination and passions.

Join us each week on our quest to explore the possibilities of careers in STEM, one episode at a time.

makerspace ideas for elementary

Makespace Ideas for Elementary [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.150]

by Naomi Meredith

Makerspace Ideas for Elementary [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.150]

makerspace ideas for elementary

Check out the full episode on Makerspace Ideas for Elementary:  

 

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 wanting to implement a Makerspace in your classroom but aren’t sure where to begin? From figuring out what types of systems to set up to creating routines and behavior management, it can be a lot trying to figure out how to get started. In today’s episode, I’m breaking down Makerspace ideas for elementary classrooms, including setting up systems and routines, behavior management, and lesson ideas.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Systems for setting up your Makerspace
  • Behavior management for a Makerspace
  • Makerspace lesson ideas for elementary

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

You are excited about getting started with your Makerspace projects, but how do you really begin? What types of systems, routines, behavior management, and meaningful lessons should you try? We are going to answer all of those questions about Makerspace in today's episode. The first time I did a Makerspace lesson in my K-5 STEM classroom, I was so excited. I had all of the supplies set up. Everything was labeled with pictures and words.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:09]:

All of the markers and crayons were sorted by color. I felt extremely prepared and so excited about what we were going to work on together. With my schedule, I had 5th grade first in the day, which was great. Okay. Cool. I have the oldest kids, so I can always test those things out. And if it messes up, then the older kids can just go along with it with me. We did our projects, and at the end of the 45 minutes, I was out of supplies.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:42]:

It was an absolute free-for-all. My behavior management was fine, but when it came to the actual supplies, I didn't think through that step. I thought that in a Makerspace, kids could do whatever they wanted. They get as much supplies as they want. They can make these ginormous projects, and it would be fine. Well, I didn't even know where to put their projects. There was nowhere to put them. I was looking at what they were creating.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:09]:

They were never going to be done. It was way too open-ended. And so I really had to modify things for the rest of the week because, like I said, I was pretty much out of everything, especially tape. And so, through my really bad experience, I have figured it out and how it went for the next few years in my STEM classroom and also transitioning into the STEM programs that I teach out in my community. Even though you are having kids be creative, you still have to have rules in place, and it is not limiting their creativity whatsoever. In fact, when things are really open-ended, that can be really overwhelming for kids and adults. You know how it feels when you walk into a craft store and see all of the supplies everywhere, and you are getting 5,000,000,000 ideas on types of projects that you should start? It kinda feels like that. If you give free rein to all of your Makerspace supplies, your kids might be getting too many ideas and might not even finish the project you want them to do.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:27]:

So it's okay to narrow it down, and I'm gonna share with you those tips and tricks in your Makerspace that are really going to streamline things and help you be successful. The 3 big things that we are going to be talking about in today's episode and also in this little mini-series I have planned for you are the systems to do with these types of projects. So today, we're talking about Makerspace, but there are other things we're going to be talking about, so systems. Then we're gonna be talking about behavior management, and this is also going to help with that motivation piece as well. And then, at the end, I'm gonna give you some lesson plan ideas. When it comes to the systems in your Makerspace, I have a whole method to the madness now. If you scroll back to episodes 5 and 6 of this podcast, I talk about exactly how I set up my Makerspace and the whole system that I use in terms of managing. I'm gonna mention that here, but I highly encourage you to go back and check those episodes.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:34]:

I also have a free podcast playlist where all of my episodes that relate to Makerspace are chunked together, so you don't have to pick and choose. I know 56 are right next to each other, but that will be linked in the show notes. The whole podcast playlist, you can get that for free. And all of the other playlists where I have categorized all the episodes in my podcast where you can focus on specific topics. When it comes to the specific materials that you are setting up, I actually kept my Makerspace supplies set up year-round. And this was really helpful because if there were times I needed specific materials for certain projects, maybe they were Makerspace, maybe they weren't. I knew where they were at all times. Now I was really lucky the furniture in my room had wheels. I can move them around if needed.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:29]:

I typically didn't, but I kept all of my supplies out. Everything was labeled with pictures and words to help not only students who were pre-readers but all students. It's really awesome having everything labeled with pictures and words because you can find exactly where everything goes, and it helps the students be really independent. I already created these labels for you, and there's an editable slide you can create your own that matches. So, again, that will also be linked in the show notes. All these resources that I'm talking about will be linked for you to make it nice and easy. I also kept my staple supplies that are in high demand and are needed for all grade levels, my scissors, my crayons, my markers, and even a spot for pencils, all in one location in the classroom. Those were there all of the time, and students knew that they could grab those as needed.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:29]:

All of my markers were color-coded in the paper drawers. If you know what I'm talking about, they're the 3 stacked drawers you pull out. I organized them by color because it looked really nice. It was easier to clean up, and we didn't use markers all the time. I had the same markers for 5 years, and they were ready to go for another 5. Markers weren't used very often in my classroom. With crayons, I tried a lot of different things. I tried individual supply boxes.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:04]:

I tried those supply caddies where you can have crayons and all sorts of things in one. I tried big buckets. So what I found that worked best was that I had small metal buckets that were for crayons. They had the little handle. Those are in Dollar Tree spots all the time. You might even get some for gifts. I know I get those for little gifts all the time. People give those to me with cool things in them.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:31]:

But I use those for crayons, and they were the perfect size because the crayons could stand up nicely, the kids could grab and go, put them at their table, and so it made the sharing a lot easier, and they looked really cute, too. Scissors and glue sticks were in their own bigger plastic buckets, just some plastic buckets that I had when I first started teaching, actually, and then I kept pencils in separate buckets as well. Now you might be thinking, why did you keep this all separate? Okay. So, I did put them all together before. I had the crayons, the pencils, the scissors. They kept getting mixed up. And when I used them with the younger kids, they were so excited that they had scissors and glue sticks all to themselves. And it became a distraction tool, and it really wasn't organized.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:17]:

Kids were throwing trash in there. And so if I catch everything separated for certain projects, especially for the younger students again, if they only needed crayons, I could pull out just the crayons. If we only needed scissors, I could pick out just the scissors. It made cleanup a lot easier when everything was separated. So, think about those staple items that were really helpful, and students actually told me how they liked how organized it was. I asked them, and they said they really liked it. The kids would tell me all the time how organized I was, and that's saying a lot in a STEM classroom where things are happening in projects all the time. Yes, we have projects everywhere, but I'm a very organized person. I'm not very clean, I'm very organized.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:10]:

There is a difference. If you have your Makerspace set up all year, it doesn't mean you are doing Makerspace projects all year. However, I do recommend keeping stock of items year-round. Maybe you ask certain grade levels to help you collect items for a project that is coming up with their grade. You could send out an email to just that grade level. If you need more pipe cleaners, that grade level may help you with pipe cleaners. If you need more thin cardboard, I always use thin cardboard. I didn't use big boxes of cardboard.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:46]:

I'm gonna tell you why in a little bit. But if you need thin cardboard, the teachers' lounge is a treasure trove of thin cardboard. I put in a donation box in the teacher's lounge. I wrote a note: Hey, if you have any thin cardboard from your meals, put them in this box, and it will be full by the end of the week. And so if I were good on the cardboard, I would take the box away. If I was running low, I put the box back, and it was a really great way to collect cardboard that was going to get thrown away anyway. So you have an idea of how to organize your Makerspace. What about the behavior management? Do you feel like your kids are getting a little too wild because they are creating? It might get loud.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:31]:

In all of these lessons, the kids are gonna get loud. I can't tell you that they're not gonna be loud because they are. That's how it goes. I got so used to it. It is what it is. But being loud is different than not doing what you're supposed to do. So make sure there you understand the difference between that and what's happening in your class. When it comes to behavior management, it is about the way your lesson is formatted and the systems and routines of that structure.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:04]:

When students come in for my lessons, and this is true for all of my lessons, and even when I teach after-school clubs, I do not let kids get the supplies right away. That is not happening. I am going to help them with that transition time and teach them mini-lessons that are involved with the engineering design process. Keep it really short, have that background knowledge, tell them anything they need to know about supplies, and most of the time, it is work time. Also, make sure you are leaving time at the end to clean up. A Makerspace project might take longer to clean up than a robotics lesson. Keep that in mind. I would give kids about 10 minutes.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:44]:

I would try 10 minutes to start. And depending That is the overall structure of the lesson, but let's break it down throughout the days. At the beginning of your Makerspace lesson, you probably want kids to imagine different ideas and planning. If your kids are having a hard time planning and coming up with ideas, especially if you have a newer program, you might need to give them more examples. Those examples can be things like things in real life, examples of pictures of things students have built in the past. You might even have to build a few examples to get the ground running. For Makerspace projects, I don't typically teach students you have to do the it this way step by step. Now for an after school program, that might be the case.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:44]:

But in the classroom setting, I do have a challenge I want them to solve, but I'm not gonna show you step by step on how to do it. I might show them step by step in a mini-lesson on how to do a certain strategy. For example, with one of my stem lessons, STEM race cars and STEM amusement park, there is a part in that project where students have to add a wheel and axle on their car and allow it to move. This is pretty tricky, and I would always get a ton of questions on this strategy. So, one of the days during the mini lesson, I just showed the kids how to do that. It didn't mean I was showing them how to build their car. I was just showing them that piece of their car that everybody was going to need, and then the rest was up to them. So those kinds of strategies, just like if you're teaching math, like, we're learning lots of strategies, I would teach them those kinds of things as they would come up.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:40]:

It depends on the lesson, and that was really helpful. When grouping students, this is up to you if you want students to choose their groups or if you assign them for them. I did both. It actually depends on the class. Some groups do a great job choosing their partners, and some don't. If you have classes that get out of control really quick, you might need to keep them in groups of 2. This is really rare. Some might need to be in just in groups of 1.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:11]:

I only had to do that a couple of times, but it happens. And it is really sad, but at the same time, your job is also as the teacher to keep kids safe and help them be successful. And if that's where they're at, that's where they're at. I wanna do more than 4 kids. 3 is my favorite because I feel like everybody can get involved, but no more than 4. It just gets too crazy, and at that point, you should just have, partnerships in anyway. What's also going to help them in that building process is really giving students that time to plan. This is gonna help them in that creation.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:46]:

They may or may not build everything exactly how they drew the picture, but this is going to help them get the ideas out of their brain and have a starting point. And if you do add in Makerspace money, which, again, go back to episodes 5 and 6, I explained that whole process. But if you use that system, that's also going to help students critically think more about what supplies they are using and why they are using them. The more you give specific tasks in these creative projects, kids are gonna stay on task a lot better. If there is a problem they are trying to solve, that's going to help a lot better. So if you are doing roller coasters and you want to time how fast the marble goes through the track and keep track of the time, they're gonna be a lot more motivated to do that project instead of just build a roller coaster, have a good time. If you have those specific challenges they are trying to solve, that's gonna help so much with behavior management, and that is going back to engagement. Are they being engaged in the project? Are they do they have a purpose? And so these things really blend together.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:58]:

You might need to rethink the lessons you're teaching. That sometimes can be a problem when it comes to the behavior management. For some specific supplies, I also have rules set in place. A big one is with tape. And if you follow me on Instagram at Naomi Meredith, underscore, I talk about tape a lot because I think it's actually really funny, and it is a weird thing that STEM teachers have in common. I'm very specific with tape. Tape is not a free-for-all. You get one foot of tape.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:31]:

I wrap it on a popsicle stick. I've also seen people put it on a ruler, and that is all the tape you get. And I do have part of the budget you could buy unlimited tape, but it's, like, more than half of their budget. Most kids don't actually buy that one. And so I'm very specific about the amount of tape. I am not very strict on glue sticks. They're pretty cheap. I am actually trying to get more into glue sponges, and I've always seen it.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:59]:

I've never tried it, but I am actually going to test out glue sponges with some Makerspace clubs that I'm gonna be running in my community. And if you haven't heard of glue sponges, I did ask my husband if he knew, but he teaches high school Spanish. He's like, what are you talking about? So I don't know. I just wanted to see if all teachers knew. But a glue sponge is you just have, like, a sandwich ziplock container, and you put a sponge in there, and you pour liquid glue on top. And when kids are wanting to glue pieces of paper and smaller things, you dab your paper on the sponge, and it gets it all sticky on the back, and then you paste it where you want it. This is an older technique. I've never done it, but I really wanna try it because the one thing that really bothers me about glue sticks is the kids won't put the caps on.


Naomi Meredith [00:17:48]:

And so I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna let you know. Follow me on Instagram. I'll let you know what I think about them in a STEM space, but, I actually don't have any limit on glue. I just didn't that wasn't a battle I wanted to fight. With hot glue guns, depended on the year if I wanted to use hot glue guns. I like to use the lower temperature hot glue guns. One thing with that, sometimes they do get clogged over time, and it could be because you might have the wrong glue sticks.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:19]:

Some of the hot glue gun sticks are made for lower temperature. And so if you have a station for hot glue guns, I would use them 2nd through 5th grade. Make sure that the station is at waist height and they're not on the ground because that can be a little bit of an issue. So I do have specific procedures in place for hot glue guns. I have some posters in my TBT shop you can grab. I think it's Kelly Hogan. She actually has those in her classroom. She put them in frames, which I thought was such a cute idea to hang up posters.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:51]:

So, that is something I might do at a Makerspace, but, again, it depends on my budget, if I have enough money for the hot glue gun sticks, and, honestly, if I want to manage it or not, and it depends on the class. Usually, it's just tape. If I'm feeling nice, we'll do hot glue guns, but it's not very often that we did. When it comes to the projects, I make sure that their projects are smaller, that they can fit in a grocery bag or a gallon size ziplock bag. A few exceptions to some projects like roller coasters, those are gonna be a little bit bigger. But I do make sure their projects are smaller because they're gonna finish them a lot quicker. When you have limited time, you want the projects to be a little bit smaller, that's definitely going to help. And then with that cleanup time, I have seen teachers have specific jobs where you need to do certain things.


Naomi Meredith [00:19:43]:

I don't do that. Again, I didn't like managing all of that, so I would say, okay. Here's all the things you need to do to get cleaned up. When you're cleaned up, you're sitting at your clean table. When everybody was sitting down, I would walk around just to make sure everything's good to go before they could line up. So it kinda maybe looked a little bit chaotic, but everybody is putting things away. Sometimes I would bribe them where whichever table's clean up first, I'll give you a prize, or you get some sort of incentive. So that can really help too just to make sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to do.


Naomi Meredith [00:20:16]:

With those projects, I would have them store them in those grocery bags or Ziploc bags, and I had those big fabric tubs and just binder clips their teacher's name on it, and they would put all of their plans and their projects in that bucket. Then, I had a shelf in my classroom if anything needed to stand up. Those could be sitting on the shelf. At the very, very, very end of the unit, you can have students take a picture or take a video of their work. I loved using Seesaw for this purpose. So everybody gets to take it home, And then maybe one student can bring the project home, and if nobody wanted to bring the project home, I would actually have them destruct the project where any pieces that can be reused would actually go back in the Makerspace and have a new life. If you're wondering about what kinds of lessons you should be teaching, then I have some ideas for you, and they are all standards aligned and things that my students have absolutely loved. I'm just gonna give you a snapshot of all of these, and most of them have a podcast episode where I go more into depth about every single lesson I teach for all the grades.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:22]:

So make sure to check that out, and, again, I have that playlist for you where those lessons are in there as well. One of the most fan favorites from my students and also a lot of you out there have actually written to me and say that yours you and your students really loved it is STEM survival camp. And so all of the challenges utilize things in nature and a little bit of Makerspace supplies to help solve different situations as if they were surviving in the wilderness and what inventions they could create to help solve their problems. So this one is super fun. This one's really great for the beginning of the school year and also the end of the school year or any summer camps that you have coming up. I'm actually gonna be teaching some summer camps coming up here in my community, and STEM survival camp is one of the units that I'm actually gonna be teaching. And so that one is a really fun one. If you listen to episode 4, I tell you all about it.


Naomi Meredith [00:22:21]:

Another hidden treasure, which this one is really fun too, and I feel like it's a little bit more unknown of my lessons. But once you do them, you're gonna be obsessed. And this one is Earth's engineers. So students are taking on different roles, different types of engineers, and different building challenges to help take care of the earth or understand earth's processes. One of the most popular ones is the Rube Goldberg ecosystems where they have to show the chain reaction in that ecosystem. And that one was really, really fun, and it was cool that kids got to learn what a Rube Goldberg machine was. If you wanna hear more about that lesson, go check out episode 135. Another unit that was so funny, I actually stood this at the end of a school year and tested it out the last month of school, and most teachers wouldn't do that, but I was crazy enough and I wanted to try it.


Naomi Meredith [00:23:16]:

And this is another theme called STEMMusement Park, and each grade level has a different challenge and a different part of the amusement park, and they are learning about different forces and motion that go along with their science standards. Now you could actually combine all their projects and have a science night, and they're showcasing all of their lessons. We didn't do that. I thought that would be really cool, but they are all different park designers and have to design that certain section. So that one's a really fun one. And if you don't have a lot of time for these types of challenges, but you still want to implement Makerspace, I do have some one day challenges that work really well. If you have one day with the kids, you need something a little bit more guided and you wanna make those connections, or maybe you're doing STEM after school clubs, these are actually the units that I'm gonna be teaching coming up. And I have more add some changes.


Naomi Meredith [00:24:23]:

And, there are some things I know I want to put in these lessons, but these have all the one day challenges. I have all the supplies listed out and a little bit more guided, but still really fun. As a recap, we talked about those things to help you in your maker space where you can get all the things up and running. We talked about what to do for your systems, ways to handle behavior management, and a snapshot of different lessons that you can teach. As a reminder, I have free podcast playlist where my whole entire podcast is organized into categories. So if you wanna learn specifically about Makerspace and these lessons that I talked about, there is a whole playlist where everything is sorted for you. And it's super cool because once you get the link, then it actually works just like a podcast. So it will pop into your podcast player.


Naomi Meredith [00:25:18]:

And anytime I update that playlist and, sort more episodes, it will pop up at automatically for you. So they're not secret episodes. It's everything in my show, but, again, it's organized into categories, and I even created a spreadsheet where I put all of the timestamps of all the episodes. So if you need to keep track of professional development hours, all of this can count. And so I track that all for you, so you're welcome to make a copy and figure out the time you need. Thank you for being here and hanging out with me, and I'm so excited for this series where we're gonna talk about those systems, behavior, and lesson ideas for different topics in STEM. So make sure you join me in the next episode, where we're going to be talking about 3D printing.

makerspace ideas for elementary

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning 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!

spacecraft systems engineer

Blast Off with Engineering: Behind the Scenes with Spacecraft Systems Engineer at Lockheed Martin, Jessica Kennedy [ep.5]

by Naomi Meredith

Blast Off with Engineering: Behind the Scenes with Spacecraft Systems Engineer at  Lockheed Martin, Jessica Kennedy [ep.5]

spacecraft systems engineer

Check out the full episode on Blast Off with Engineering: Behind the Scenes with Spacecraft Systems Engineer at Lockheed Martin, Jessica Kennedy  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Episode Summary

Hey, my little Questies! We are continuing our adventure in outer space, but this time with a twist. Did you know that the GPS app your parents use on their phones to get directions telling them where to go works because of special satellites in outer space? That’s right! There are satellites in outer space that orbit Earth to send signals to GPS devices so we can know how to go anywhere in the world. These satellites are built by a team of people who work together to test and code them and eventually send them into space. So, who does this much needed STEM career? 

In today’s episode, we will hear from Jessica Kennedy, a spacecraft systems engineer at Lockheed Martin. Jessica takes us on a journey through what it’s like to be a spacecraft systems engineer, the coolest part of her STEM career, and so much more. This episode is full of so many fun and exciting facts that I know Questies like you will enjoy! Don't forget to join our STEM Career Quest Club so you can learn even more about what it’s like to be a spacecraft systems engineer.

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

Want more ways to enhance your podcast listening experience? 

Click HERE to join our STEM Career Quest Club!

Inside, you get access to 

  • a private community of other STEM Career Quest listeners
  • comprehension guides for each episode
  • teaching slides for each episode, where it is broken up into chunks so you can listen in smaller segments
  • related STEM activities you can complete with simple materials
  • one monthly virtual STEM field trip

And more!

spacecraft systems engineer

 

Meet Jessica Kennedy:

Hi there – I’m Jessica Kennedy; the mom of a first grader, preschooler, and 2 year old and I also get to work on Satellites! I’ve gotten to work on satellites that help the military, and GPS that your mom and dad use in their cars. My friends get to work on satellites that go to asteroids and Jupiter, as well as the Orion capsule that is going to take astronauts to do a moon fly-by next year and to land on the moon in December 2025. I’ve been able to build 3-D software fly-through models for the military, touch hardware on an test GPS spacecraft, be a manager of a systems engineering team, and work on proposals for future satellites.

I went to college at Nothern Arizona University and graduated with a degree in mathematics and one in psychology. I had an internship at Lockheed Martin and then decided to work there after I graduated. I started work and then got a Master's degree in Systems Engineering Mechatronics from the University of Denver that Lockheed Martin paid for. I've been working there for 16 years.

Connect with Jessica: 

See a Spacecraft Systems Engineer in Action:

spacecraft systems engineer

spacecraft systems engineer
A piece of spacecraft structure. The honeycomb pattern allows it to be strong while remaining light in weight (since that is an important consideration for launching it into space!)

spacecraft systems engineer

spacecraft systems engineer
Jessica Kennedy sharing about her role at Lockheed Martin at an elementary school STEM Career Day experience that the podcast host, Naomi Meredith, had put together.
spacecraft systems engineer
A piece of thermal blanket material (gold on the left), a scale model of MUOS (top) and an LEGO Orion Space Capsule (right)

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

Connect with the Host, Naomi Meredith:

More About The STEM Career Quest Podcast

Have you ever found yourself asking this question… “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Maybe you already have an answer to that, maybe you don’t.

Both are ok!

Welcome to the “STEM Career Quest” podcast! A show made for kids like you to help you build your dreams, or even find new ones, in science, technology, engineering and math. Each week, hear captivating stories and interviews to explore the exciting world of STEM. Oh! And grown-ups and teachers, you can listen too!

We’ll talk to experts in STEM who are passionate about what they do in the real-world and how they make a positive impact in their careers. Created and hosted by K-5 STEM Coach, Naomi Meredith, this show will spark your imagination and passions.

Join us each week on our quest to explore the possibilities of careers in STEM, one episode at a time.

video editing lessons for kids

Explore STEMsational Space: Audio & Video Editing Lessons for Kids [ep.149]

by Naomi Meredith

Explore STEMsational Space: Audio & Video Editing Lessons for Kids [ep.149]

video editing lessons for kids

Check out the full episode on Explore STEMsational Space: Audio & Video Editing Lessons for Kids  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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

Episode Summary

Is it hard to incorporate audio and video editing lessons for kids into your STEM classroom? It’s not! In fact, there are some ways to not only easily implement it into your classroom but also do it in a way that’s inexpensive. I’m showing you exactly how in today’s episode. We’re going behind the scenes of my STEMsational Space lesson that’s a fun and engaging way to teach your students audio and video production. Listen to learn tips and strategies for implementing this lesson in your classroom!

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Ways to integrate Earth and space science while creating audio and video editing lessons for kids in your STEM classroom
  • Origins of the STEMsational Space unit
  • Prep and materials needed for the STEMsational Space unit
  • Tips for setting up your classroom for recording audio and video

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

How can you easily integrate video and audio production in the classroom but with a STEM twist? In today's episode, I will be sharing with you ways that you can integrate Earth and space science while creating video and audio produced projects. Video production is an essential skill that I believe all students should be able to learn in various capacities, whether you have students presenting on camera, which creating video and audio produced projects are actually standard. So take a peek at your common core state standards because there are standards that talk about this when creating digital pieces, but it's not just the presentation skills. There is a lot of work behind the scenes when it comes to producing video and audio shows, and they're very, very similar in the way that you produce them.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:35]:

So, of course, when you are presenting on camera, you have to be animated, but literally everything behind the scenes is almost exactly the same. I'm talking about when it comes to researching a topic, being able to look at all those various resources and put it together in a way that makes sense for a script, which is so important for our students to know. Likewise, think about all the technology skills that go into creating a video or a podcast. It can be really, really simple, but then also it can get really complicated when you are layering different elements. Likewise, there are all of the editing skills that can go into that production as well to streamline the project and make it exciting and engaging for your audience. These are just a few of the skills that I can think of off the top of my head. And, really, when I was teaching these lessons to my students in the k to 5 STEM classroom, I was learning a lot as well when it came to my own videos and my own podcast because there were some things that I needed to work on as well. But in turn, I was also sharing skills with my students that I was using with my own shows, and that was really valuable.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:01]:

Of course, not all of our students are going to be podcasters or YouTubers, but they are important skills to have that you can use in any job. Even just with my teaching job, I used a lot of video skills. At the same time I was teaching this unit with video and audio, I actually started up our school-wide video news, which I have a bunch of episodes all about that and a workshop that you can jump on in on if you wanna learn more about it. But I was doing that at the same time when I was building up this unit for my regular classes, and there was a lot of overlap with those lessons. But just thinking about my job as a teacher, like I said, having those basic skills when it came to creating videos, and, of course, I learn more and more. I'm still learning more. But having those basic skills of being able to create video really helped my job. And since then, those skills are still really valuable and important for a lot of the different things that I'm creating for my own business and contract work that a lot of people don't have.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:12]:

So this is something that we really need to think about for our students. Yes. The technology is going to change, but having those basic skills that can be improved on, and, of course, you can always learn new technology as you get older, but video and audio aren't going away. Sure. AI could be something added to it, but this is something that we really need to think about for our students in the STEM space, and it definitely involves a ton of STEM skills. So thinking about that, what is the origin of this unit that I like to call STEMsational space? When I was planning this video and audio unit for my students, I was mapping out my entire K to 5 STEM year-long plan, which you can grab the entire scope and sequence for free. Just grab it at Naomimeredith.com/yearlongplan.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:05]:

It's also linked in the show notes. But when I was mapping out the year, there were a lot of standards when it came to Earth and space science. A lot of the standards involved explaining why things happen or how they work, and I thought some sort of digital piece could be really beneficial in explaining these topics because, obviously, we can't go into space in the classroom. I wish I were Miss Frizzle. But there are a ton of resources out there that students can use, so I wanted to merge the two together. Hence, I came up with the name STEMsational space. I mentioned this a little bit before, but creating video and audio is a STEM skill. And I think there's a lot of misconception when it comes to what STEM is, and there's always a huge focus on coding, robotics, and even Makerspace.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:57]:

But sometimes I think we're missing out on some of those other types of skills that some students will really connect with. When you see my year-long plan, I really try to provide a variety of experiences for my students because not every kid is going to like all of the things. And I get really frustrated when I hear about STEM programs that only do one thing, then call your class that one thing. Call it a coding class if you're gonna do just coding all year round. Don't call it STEM. There's more to it. So maybe think about renaming your programs. But that's why I thought it would be really cool to add this component.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:36]:

And when I talk about the prep work for this, it is way low prep on the materials. You're gonna absolutely love it. So, I'll talk about those materials in a second. Also, you're thinking, wait. Did you do this with kindergarten and 1st graders? I absolutely did. Kindergartners and 1st graders definitely want to make videos, and the process for that is not as complicated as, say, what a 5th grader did. But little kids can still make high-quality videos that work for their age. It is possible, and I wanted them to build up those skills at a young age.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:14]:

And I tell this to all the grades. It's different just taking a video for fun and snapping something that you are doing really quickly, sending it to your friends, or putting it on social media. When you're really creating informational videos, there is a lot more behind-the-scenes than when it comes to the time to record. The same is true on this podcast. You are hearing the finished and polished version of all of this, but it takes a lot of research and prep work behind the scenes, all of the editing with my podcast manager, and all of the video from me. There's a lot more that goes into before and after the show. So I really wanted students to see that process even at a young age where, yes, you see this beautiful thing, but there's a lot of things that go into it as well. Alright.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:05]:

So how do you even go about setting up a video and audio type of unit? Is it a lot of materials? Do I need a lot of expensive and shiny things? No. You don't. That was also a big part of it because I always am thinking about how I want to show my students things that, yes, these units are really well thought out by me, where they probably wouldn't play be planning these lessons at home. But when it comes to the actual tools that we're using, I wanted to keep it very, very simple so that they could replicate it at home. So here are the tools that I used and the purpose behind them. You don't have to use all of these. These are definitely suggestions. There could be even more updated things after the fact when this podcast comes out, but it really doesn't take as much as you think it does.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:57]:

When it comes to the actual devices, use what you already have. If you have iPads or tablets, great. If you have laptops or Chromebooks, awesome. Use what you have. I actually didn't have any laptops in my classroom. When they remodeled the space, they took out all the desktops, and it was totally fine. But it was actually a habit where I had students bring in their devices to STEM, so I wanted them to connect the learning from what we're doing in this physical space in the STEM classroom to their regular classroom. For our laptops or Chromebooks, we use the platform called WeVideo.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:33]:

And I'm not sponsored by WeVideo, but for both of my podcasts, the Elementary STEM Coach this one and the STEM Career Quest podcast. But it's an awesome platform, and it is made with students in mind. So, if you don't have any experience with video editing, it is very simple. It is very visual, where you drag and drop your video clips. If you wanna put any fun things on top of your videos, like text or images, or if you wanna edit the green screen, you are able to do that within WeVideo. There are ways to get started for free, so check that out. And then there are some options if you wanna buy a subscription for your classroom or even your school district. And maybe you had a subscription at your school district, and you never knew how to use it.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:31]:

I definitely recommend it, and they're always improving and making it better. So I love WeVideo. I'm obsessed. There is an app for the iPads as well, so I'm gonna talk about iPads in a second. So, really, really great. You can also do iMovie, which is very similar. That was where I actually first started doing computer editing with iMovie. The one thing I don't love, and maybe it's changed now, is that it takes up a lot of room on your hard drive.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:57]:

I do have a Mac, and I do have iMovie, but I switched to WeVideo because I wanted everything not on my hard drive and saved in a cloud. So, if anything were to happen to my computer, I wouldn't worry about where my video is. It wasn't on the hard drive. So 2 really great platforms. You might have heard of some other things. I know some people are playing around with Canva and trying different things with Canva. You can record in Canva. Canva for Education, at the time of this recording, is free for teachers, but you can try that as well.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:29]:

And I've also seen some people edit some green screen. So those are some three options to look into and get started. For iPads, most of these things are actually the same. When I did my video recording with younger students in kindergarten and 1st grade, we just used Seesaw. And the reason behind this is that it is a tool we are actually always using in STEM anyway. I wanted my students to get better at using Seesaw, not only in my classroom but in their classrooms as well when they were recording their own work at their level, of course. We know those little kinders and first graders. They have the cutest little things. They might tack forever and ever and ever, but I wanted them to get a little bit better in Seesaw as well.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:13]:

Also, WeVideo does work on iPads that I know of, and, also, iMovie has those capabilities as well. And then I also, for a green screen, used a green screen by Do Ink. It is a paid app, but it's an awesome, awesome app for younger students to really visualize how the green screen actually works. So if you invest in it now, you will have it for a very long time. There's also an animation aspect. So, if you wanna merge in some animations as well, that's really great. But I love that app so much, and I have it on my own personal devices because it just works really well for that visual green screen editing. So those are some really good things to look into and check out based on the devices that you have.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:04]:

For other physical items, these are definitely all optional. And if you do wanna spend a little bit of money or invest, try it out. The video recording can get really loud, and I definitely understand that. And one thing I did tell my students is it's not going to be the most perfect audio in the whole wide world. We're in school. There are lots of us, and there's no way we can all move around where it's the perfect rerecording space. I told them when I'm at home, I'm in a great environment, but sometimes my dog will bark, or there's an airplane that goes by. You guys will hear it.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:44]:

It is what it is. Sometimes my husband will come on and come home and start playing with the dog, and you might hear it. But I tell the kids, it is what it is. Like, it's totally fine. Like, you're not getting graded on, oh my gosh. I can't get the perfectest, quietest space ever, and that's okay. But I do really recommend spreading them out the best you can and using those fabric boxes, like, from IKEA or, like, those storage cubes, and lay them on their side. What I would have students do is put their script inside of the box and then put their heads in there.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:21]:

And if you have a microphone, great. If not, that's okay. Your devices have a microphone already built in. But they'll put their head inside of the box, and that would kind of help center that sound and block out any external noise the best that you can. It's kinda like your own little sound booth. If you wanted to make it even more fancy, you could add in some spongy layers as well to block out more noise. I would use my fabric cubes for a lot of different things all the time, and I love it because they can fold up and store really easily. So I did not do that with my cubes, but if you wanted to, sure, go for it.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:59]:

If you want to have microphones, like I said, you could invest in some external microphones or some external cameras. Just play external microphones or some external cameras. Just play around with different options, but you don't have to at all. When I did our school-wide video news, I just used the cameras on the laptops, and I love laptops actually for their cameras because the camera stays steady. The kids do not hold still when they are holding an iPad. It is not great. Even grown-ups have a whole hard time with this too. So, laptop cameras are perfect for the elementary space. I don't think you need to invest in anything fancy.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:36]:

Microphones are really handy. You can get those tiny microphones. Ours were hit or miss with our laptops, but I know it wasn't the microphones. It was actually the permissions and security that were on the devices, so that's why they didn't work. But those are options. If you had to pick between the 2, get microphones. If you do want to do green screens, I had these awesome pop-up green screens that I got for writing a grant, where it's on a tripod, and it has a t at the top. And then with the fabric, one side was blue, and one side was green.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:08]:

Both are really great. So I really loved having those, and then you can fold them up and store them when you are finished. During the whole video and audio unit, I had them up for, like, a month and a half. They were just sitting in the back of my room, and I even had one myself. I purchased one for my office, and I have it set up all the time because I'm a little lazy and don't feel like putting it away. It's actually really easy to put away, but I just leave it up all the time. So those are really, really awesome. I love them, but maybe you have a blue or green wall.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:38]:

I like the portable option, and I know there are some other options too that people have where I could move kids in the hallway if it was possible to record or in our library to try to spread them out. When we did our school-wide news, we did put them away at the end of class, so I showed kids that it was part of their responsibility to set up the tripod and also take it down. But, also, just something to keep in mind, you could use butcher paper or Dollar Tree green tablecloths if you really wanted to. Okay. So, I know I talked about the materials for a bit, but I know that's what people really worry about. Like, oh, I can't do it. I don't have anything fancy. It really wasn't that fancy, you guys.


Naomi Meredith [00:17:16]:

Like, I'm all about, like, let's use what we have. Let's keep it simple. If I don't have it, we don't have it. Maybe I'll write a grant. Maybe I won't. We're gonna use what we have. Okay? So, alright, what did they actually do in this STEMsational space unit? Kindergarten and 1st grade were very simple with our lessons, and I kinda I did about the same system and process for this. It took them about 1 to 2 days to create their videos, and then for the rest of the week, we did STEM stations.


Naomi Meredith [00:17:46]:

So I do have a whole workshop all about STEM stations if you wanna hear how I plan it. But in kindergarten, we talked about the sun and shade. Then, in 1st grade, we talked about day and night and the season. So, we did not do this video for the whole week. At the time of this recording, I didn't have the lessons in my TPT shop when it came to the actual video lessons. I do for STEM stations. But these were things that I actually beta-tested with my students, and it worked out great. In kindergarten, we talked about the sun and how it is important to Earth and how it brings us life, and, also, we also have to protect ourselves from the sun to stay safe.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:25]:

So we created our videos and our scripts about that. Then, in 1st grade, we talked about how the Earth orbits the sun and how it also determines how long the days are and the seasons. Students created props that were on popsicle sticks to help visually show their video, and then we also wrote the script together. Everybody's script was exactly the same because I wanted them to understand what a script was and how it is helpful for making their video. Then, in Seesaw, students took turns with the iPads and helped out their partner where they would read their script and then use the props to demonstrate what was happening. Their face could be on camera, or they could actually just hold the props in front. I show them both options because some kids are shy, so giving them options is okay. Both kinds of videos are a thing.


Naomi Meredith [00:19:21]:

But that was their video. And so so cute because they knew, oh, I messed up really bad. Let's try it again. And I said it's okay if you make mistakes, like, if you don't have to restart the whole thing. But it was really good for them to make a video that made sense and was on topic. In 2nd grade, we got into that green screen recording, and depending on the year, sometimes I would use the iPads and the Do Ink app. Once we got licenses for WeVideo, I actually switched to using WeVideo since I was able to use that, and I wanted students to have that experience. And 2nd graders were able to do it.


Naomi Meredith [00:20:00]:

So if you're worried about it, can a second grader use WeVideo? Yes. They were totally fine. Mind you, this is, like, more than halfway through the year, so they have more skills. But that's where I was at with those apps. For 2nd grade, they created a green screen video where they were telling us all about a natural disaster, what it is, where it typically happens, and how to stay safe. So I gave them all sorts of different research resources to pick their one natural disaster, and then they made that fun in informational video and had the pictures in their background changed based on when it happened in the script. In their script, there actually was a storyboard part where they would kinda sketch a picture of what they were looking for and how they would add that in their video. By the way, the lessons I'm talking about for 2nd through 5th grade are in my TPT shop, and so those will be linked in the show notes with all of the research resources, the scripts we used, and the whole process for that.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:02]:

In 3rd grade, we continued our work on the green screen because I wanted them to continue building up that skill and how to create that type of video, but they created a worldwide weather report. And it was a more not so much a meteorologist report, which most people do for their first green screen project, and that's a great project. Keep doing it. It's really relevant, and people still use that today. That's how weather videos are made. But I wanted it to be more like a travel video and more informational about what is the weather and climate in different locations in the world and what you need to pack when you go there at different times of the year. So when you actually have this lesson in your classroom, I will give you my examples of the video. And this one is really fun because I do like to travel, so I made a video that was really bad on purpose of me in Costa Rica, and so I talked about that.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:57]:

The picture in the background is actually from when I was there. And then I made a really good example of what it could be. So, it's more like a travel video and that information, and again, using those different research resources to help them create their script. There also are places for these older students, second and up, where they don't have to do the video by themselves. They actually determine who is saying what part, and I teach them too to create clips where you don't have to record the video all in one set. You can actually break it up into chunks and merge those together. And, yes, even 2nd graders are able to do this. So, actually, that's a better way to make a video.


Naomi Meredith [00:22:36]:

When I do this podcast, I do pause and do little chunks, or if I mess up, I say it again. So, it's the same kinda thing, I pitch that to my students. In 4th grade, we change the style of the video that they are creating. So we start with kindergarten and 1st grade, where they are using props, like physical props, to create their video. Then we have 2nd and third grade, where they are talking to the camera in front of the green screen. And then, in 4th grade, I wanted them to change it up where they're creating a video that has animations, pictures, and video clips and has audio on top of it. So their face isn't necessarily shown in this video, but I wanted them to learn these skills. So, when you think about this unit as a whole, there is a progression of learning in just the type of video that they are creating.


Naomi Meredith [00:23:27]:

There is a method to the madness when you see it as a whole picture. This was really interesting because we were talking about ways to take care of the Earth, but also really, in a bigger form, outside of the Earth. We talked about space junk or space trash and how we are not only polluting our Earth but also the orbit around it. So we learned all about that. So the kids were super interested in that. Then they created an informational video to teach others about what space junk is, why it is a problem, and what possible solutions are out there or their ideas on how to solve it. So this is really cool to help them show those researching tools, not only in how to research about the topic but also finding images that would relate to the topic to help explain and make it engaging for their audience. And moving into 5th grade, taking those skills that they have learned throughout the years, or if you're starting it off fresh, that's okay too. And 5th graders created a short, tiny podcast, only a few minutes long.


Naomi Meredith [00:24:29]:

It's not that long. However, they created a short podcast to take on the role of a citizen scientist to teach others about what light pollution is. What is light pollution? Why is it a problem? And what are some ways that you can help solve it? So similar questions to Space Junk, different topic. This one was really cool, too, how we were analyzing podcasts, and they created the style of podcast that they wanted. Then, they started learning how to overlay music and make that exciting and interesting as well. So you actually get to hear some of those examples when you grab this lesson and also the resources. And honestly, I didn't even know what light pollution was. And, like, you know what it is.


Naomi Meredith [00:25:12]:

We didn't think about it until I got my master's in STEM leadership. And this actually sparked a lot of this unit. While I was in this program, I had to create a lesson. So I actually created this lesson during my masters, and then, in turn, it helped inspire the whole sensational space. As a recap, here is what we chatted about in this episode to help you wrap around your mind when it comes to video and audio production and merging it in the STEM space. So, I shared with you all about the origin of Sensational space and where it all came from. Next, we talked about ways to set up this unit, specifically when it comes to video and audio production in your classroom. Then, I talked through the different types of lessons that you can do with your students.


Naomi Meredith [00:26:02]:

Everything that you need is linked in the show notes that you can find in my TPT shop, Naomi Meredith, where all the research is done for you and uses the whole engineering design process, and you get examples of those videos. If you are looking for more ways to learn about video and audio production and then get it into your school as a whole with news, I invite you to join my school-wide video news workshop. And then, over on my kid podcast, the STEM Career Quest podcast, we are going to have some guests coming up. So if you're listening to this episode live, who work in the space industry and space and flight industry, you can hear more about their amazing STEM jobs. Thank you so much for being here, and I'll see you in the next episode.

video editing lessons for kids

 

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Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning 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!

software engineer at NASA Goddard

Coding the Cosmos: Behind the Scenes with Software Engineer at NASA Goddard, Aaron Shepard [ep.4]

by Naomi Meredith

Coding the Cosmos: Behind the Scenes with Software Engineer at NASA Goddard, Aaron Shepard [ep.4]

software engineer at NASA Goddard

Check out the full episode on Coding the Cosmos: Behind the Scenes with Software Engineer at NASA Goddard, Aaron Shepard  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Episode Summary

Hey, my little Questies! Today’s STEM career quest takes us far, far away into outer space! Now I have a question for you: Did you know that just like Earth orbits or moves around the sun, there are telescopes that orbit Earth? These special telescopes require a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure they work correctly. It takes careful planning, communication, and coding, all done from Earth!

To tell us more about these amazing telescopes, we will hear from Aaron Shepard, a software engineer at NASA Goddard. Aaron uses his software engineering skills in computer science to build projects, solve problems, do coding, and so much more! This episode is full of so many fun facts that I know Questies like you will think are out of this world! Don't forget to join our STEM Career Quest Club so you can learn even more about what it’s like to be a software engineer at NASA Goddard.

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

Want more ways to enhance your podcast listening experience? 

Click HERE to join our STEM Career Quest Club!

Inside you get access to

  • a private community of other STEM Career Quest listeners
  • comprehension guides for each episode
  • teaching slides for each episode where it is broken up into chunks so you can listen in smaller segments
  • related STEM activities you can complete with with simple materials
  • one monthly virtual STEM field trip

And more!

software engineer at NASA Goddard

 

Meet Aaron Shephard:

Aaron Shepard first fell in love with science while watching astronauts blast off in the Space Shuttle. He dreamed of one day building cool technology while floating in a lab in space. Aaron was devastated to hear NASA announce the end of the Shuttle program during his freshman year of high school. Fearing that the space age was coming to an end, he decided to “grow up” and pursue a more realistic career.

After briefly attending medical school, Aaron decided to chase his childhood dream of working in the space industry. He graduated from Clemson University in 2022 and has since joined the Flight Dynamics team at NASA Goddard as a contractor (a.i. Solutions). Aaron currently develops orbital tracking procedures for the Roman Space Telescope which is scheduled to launch in 2026.

Since changing career paths, Aaron has become an active contributor in the aerospace and science outreach communities. As a lifelong advocate for diversity and inclusion in STEM fields, Aaron has worked with thousands of students through outreach initiatives and public speaking.

Connect with Aaron: 

See a Software Engineer at NASA Goddard in Action:

software engineer at NASA Goddard
NASA Goddard Software Engineer, Aaron Shepard, working with students in a STEM outreach program.

software engineer at NASA Goddard

software engineer at NASA Goddard

software engineer at NASA Goddard

software engineer at NASA Goddard

software engineer at NASA Goddard

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

Connect with the Host, Naomi Meredith:

More About The STEM Career Quest Podcast

Have you ever found yourself asking this question… “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Maybe you already have an answer to that, maybe you don’t.

Both are ok!

Welcome to the “STEM Career Quest” podcast! A show made for kids like you to help you build your dreams, or even find new ones, in science, technology, engineering and math. Each week, hear captivating stories and interviews to explore the exciting world of STEM. Oh! And grown-ups and teachers, you can listen too!

We’ll talk to experts in STEM who are passionate about what they do in the real-world and how they make a positive impact in their careers. Created and hosted by K-5 STEM Coach, Naomi Meredith, this show will spark your imagination and passions.

Join us each week on our quest to explore the possibilities of careers in STEM, one episode at a time.