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What Should a Word Wall Look Like in a STEM Classroom? [Back to School STEM Tips Series] [ep.201]

What Should a Word Wall Look Like in a STEM Classroom? [Back to School STEM Tips Series] [ep.201]

Check out the full episode on what should a word wall look like in a STEM classroom:  

 

 

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Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube here:

Coming soon!

Episode Summary

As you are setting up your STEM classroom, what are things you can decorate with but still connect with what you are teaching? A word wall, or vocabulary wall, can be a great asset to your units to help students make connections across content themes. I’ll be sharing practical ways you can set up a word wall that you can use throughout the school year and with all grade levels, K-5.

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

(0:00) Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom (0:06) teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s (0:12) degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back (0:16) more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

When you are setting up your STEM (0:22) classroom for back to school, have you thought about adding in a word wall? If so, where are (0:29) you going to put it? And if you haven’t, how does this even connect to your STEM classroom? And should (0:34) you even have one? Let’s chat about it. With anything that I have set up in my classroom spaces, (0:41) whether it is my STEM trailer that I am putting together or my K-5 STEM classroom, I am very (0:48) purposeful about the things that I hang up on my wall. Yes, I like things to look cute and cohesive (0:55) and go together.

But also, I always want to make sure, are the things that I’m hanging up, (1:00) are they purposeful or helpful for students? Can this be something that is a good teaching point (1:06) for them? And every single thing that I’ve hung up has a dual purpose. So of course, like I said, (1:12) it might look cute, but also there is a purpose behind it. One thing that can be really helpful (1:18) in your classroom is having your own type of word wall.

And you can do this a couple of ways. One (1:25) way you could do this is you can have an alphabet that you hang up all year long, and each letter (1:31) on the alphabet has a different STEM connection. For example, Y could be for YouTube, S could be (1:38) for file, like a digital file, and so on.

And it helps kids think about the world in a different (1:44) way and with the alphabet. I have a few different options and different colors of this you could (1:49) print and hang up in your space. That’s super easy.

It has a really cute update. So I’m excited to (1:56) choose what color scheme I want to hang up in my STEM trailer. So stay tuned for that.

And another (2:02) way that I have done this as well is you have the alphabet, you hang this up, but also leave space (2:08) underneath each letter. And this is something that you can add to all year long, or you could (2:16) just do this for every unit. Now when you’re teaching K through 5 STEM, that’s six different (2:22) classes, some of you even teach pre-K in there, and all the way up to eighth grade.

So it really (2:28) depends on how you want to do this. Like I said, you could change it out every unit. And if you’re (2:32) teaching in cohesive themes, there is going to be some overlap with how you’re going to use this (2:37) alphabet slash word wall.

So for every unit, you probably have some key vocabulary and concepts (2:44) that you want kids to know about. For example, if you’re teaching your second graders about erosion, (2:50) you probably want the kids to know what the word erosion means while they are creating an invention (2:56) that will help slow down or stop erosion. So with all of those units that go together, (3:02) you can print out that vocabulary that is content specific for that unit.

And then you can add that (3:10) to your word wall. So it makes it very interactive if you are changing it out where the alphabet (3:16) letters can always stay there. But then you are changing out the words.

And you might say, well, (3:22) all of the words are going to be mixed up. Do I have to change it out for have a separate word (3:27) wall for every single grade? You could. But like I said, if you’re teaching in units, everything can (3:33) kind of go together.

And the kids can actually start seeing those connections. So what’s really (3:37) cool when I have done this is the kids will see the words and the vocabulary where has the pictures, (3:43) the word and the definition with them, which all of my lessons that are in my K-5 STEM year-long (3:50) plan, any of those by separately or in the plan, I have all the vocabulary out there for you. So (3:56) you could print them at various sizes.

But what’s really cool when you have all of these words (4:01) hanging up for the unit, the kids might remember what they learned the past year and get really (4:07) excited about it. Like, oh, yeah, I remember that. And that can actually help me with this project.

(4:12) Or even kids who haven’t seen those projects where they weren’t there the year before or (4:17) they are younger, they might get excited and ask more questions. Oh, what does this word mean? (4:21) So having that interactive word wall with your alphabet can really build those connections (4:29) and also help them see that content in a different way. So you might be teaching those (4:35) same standards they’re learning in class, but you are giving it that STEM twist.

So as you are (4:41) setting up your classroom, think about how you can integrate a STEM alphabet and quite possibly (4:48) make it a word wall. And that could be a really cool thing to add into your instruction and (4:53) continue to build up that science vocabulary for your students. If you’re interested in the alphabet (4:59) that I use and hang up in my STEM spaces, you can grab that in my TPT shop, Teachers Pay Teachers (5:05) shop, Naomi Meredith, and you can print the color options I have for you.

Or there’s a version where (5:10) you can just print your own color version to make it match your classroom theme. Thank you so much (5:16) for listening to today’s episode of the elementary STEM coach podcast. I would love to connect with (5:21) you over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, or send me an email to elementary STEM coach (5:27) podcast at gmail.com. Also, make sure to check out my website, Naomi Meredith.com to see all (5:33) the show notes from today’s episode and shop my K through five STEM resources.

Any questions you (5:38) have needs for resources or ideas for episodes, get in touch. I’ll talk to you soon.

Watch this video to see how I set up my vocabulary wall:

Grab the STEM Alphabet featured in the video here

 

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. She has over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate.

She offers a variety of resources 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!

How Do You Teach Your Students What STEM Means? [Back to School STEM Tips Series] [ep.200]

How Do You Teach Your Students What STEM Means? [Back to School STEM Tips Series] [ep.200]

Check out the full episode on how do you teach your students what STEM means:  

 

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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

Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube here:

Episode Summary

If you were to ask your students what the word “STEM” actually means, could they answer you correctly? And if they do know that “STEM” represents Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, do they know what THAT means?

In this episode, I’ll be sharing practical and easy ways you can explain what STEM means to your students that doesn’t take a lot of time, but will still build a foundation for all your STEM lessons to come!

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

(0:00) How do you teach your students what the word STEM actually means? In this podcast episode, (0:06) I’m going to give you some tips and lesson ideas of how you can do this with your students and (0:12) it doesn’t have to take a whole lot of time. In the end, hopefully your students understand (0:17) that STEM is an actual subject and not just the stem on a plant. When I first stepped into my (0:25) K through five STEM role at the school I was teaching at, I had just left the regular classroom.

(0:32) So I taught second grade for two years, third grade for four years. And then I was at a brand (0:38) new to me school with no curriculum. I didn’t know any of the students.

I didn’t know any of (0:44) the teachers. Likewise, they didn’t really have a STEM class. They called it technology.

(0:51) So for everybody in the building, this was new to them. Maybe you’re in a similar position or (0:58) they’ve had STEM before, but you just want to make sure all the kids have an understanding what STEM (1:02) actually means. So here’s what I did.

And also what I still continue to do in my STEM after (1:09) school clubs, because again, a lot of these schools that I teach my clubs at, they don’t have STEM. (1:15) And so I just want to make sure the kids understand what we are doing and how this all connects (1:20) together. So the first and easiest way to get started with this is how do you present this (1:27) in your classroom? I had up on my big whiteboard, there’s a big whiteboard wall, just big cut out (1:34) letters that said S-T-E-M, STEM.

And what I did is underneath those, I created these posters (1:42) that actually show examples of what that word means. So for example, and if you’re watching (1:49) the video, you could see this, but there is a circle that has the word science in it. And then (1:55) there’s different pictures that represent science.

So there’s a balance, there’s the sun, an x-ray, (2:02) weather, animals, just different examples that kids would probably know and understand what science (2:09) is. I did this for every single letter. So there’s one for technology so they can see those examples, (2:16) one for engineering.

If you teach STEAM, I have one for art as well. (2:21) But showing that visual of what those letters mean in STEM, just having it up all year long (2:28) was extremely helpful. Not only did I refer to these at back to school, but I actually referred (2:34) to them all year long.

It’s okay if you don’t go super in depth right now. If you’re continually (2:40) referring to this and what STEM means and how it connects to the learning, then you’re set up (2:47) already. Then I created some slides that I would put on my screen and the kids could see it as (2:53) soon as they walked into the room and sat down at our group meeting area.

Each slide represents, (2:59) again, each letter of STEM. So there is a slide that goes along for science, technology, (3:04) engineering, and math. And there are empty circles that you can fill in.

I’ve also done this with (3:10) kids where they can actually fill out these pages or slides that I’m talking about where they could (3:15) fill them out digitally, or they could draw their responses. But if you want to even save some time, (3:21) I fill them out myself with my own examples. So back to that science example for that science (3:27) slide.

There are different things about science that I love and enjoy in my real life. On my (3:34) science slides, I have butterflies, I have rocks and minerals, I have space, and I have sea lions, (3:41) which I tell kids are like wet puppies of the ocean. They’re one of my favorite animals.

(3:45) So these things are on the slide. There’s visual representations of them. I even have a picture (3:51) of me.

I said, these are my favorite things. And just as a quick warm up before we get into (3:56) anything that day, I share with the kids something like this. Oh my goodness, everybody, these are (4:01) all the things about science that I enjoy.

And in STEM, in this class, S stands for science. (4:09) And these are all of my favorite things that I love about science. Thumbs up if you enjoy (4:15) butterflies.

Oh my goodness, we have some friends in here like the same thing. I like butterflies (4:21) because I think they’re beautiful. They’re so important to our earth and they help with (4:26) pollination.

And then I keep going through each of those things and explaining really quick, (4:31) takes about five minutes. And they really like those connections. And it’s a fun way, (4:36) especially when you see a lot of kids, you see all the kids in the school.

It’s a fun way to (4:41) share those real world things and help them see that you’re a real person too. And the last way (4:47) I like to share about what STEM actually means is showing a quick video clip of actual definition (4:54) of the word STEM. And in fact, I know it’s really hard to find these videos that are quick (5:01) and are appropriate for elementary age students.

So I just went ahead and created some for you. (5:07) They’re there for free all over on my YouTube channel, Naomi Meredith. And there is a video (5:13) that gives you an overview in a couple minutes of what STEM is.

And then if you want to go again, (5:19) in depth of every letter, the same day, multiple days, there is a video that goes along with (5:25) every letter. And there is one for art. And I do mention STEAM in the STEM video.

So if you think, (5:32) oh, you only have STEM, I have STEAM as well in all of these resources that I’m talking about. (5:37) So again, being explicit about what STEM is can be really helpful. You can do other activities (5:43) about it if you want.

But if you’re just looking for a quick introduction and making it meaningful (5:48) for kids before you do any of the other back to school stuff, those are my top tips for helping (5:54) you get started. If you’re interested in any of those resources, those printables, those posters, (6:00) those slides, you can grab them in the show notes for this episode. You can check this out in my (6:06) TPT shop, Teachers Pay Teachers shop, Naomi Meredith, and those are all there ready to go.

(6:11) If you have some other strategies of how to introduce the word STEM to your students, (6:15) let me know. Send me a DM my way on Instagram at Naomi Meredith or put them in the comments. (6:21) If you’re watching the YouTube version, I would love to hear your ideas.

Overview of how I teach kids what STEM means:

What slides do I use when I teach the word STEM?

I need kid-friendly videos that teach kids what STEM means!

 

What is STEM?

What is Science?

What is Technology?

What is Engineering?

What is Art?

Coming soon!

What is Math?

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. She has over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate.

She offers a variety of resources 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!

Exploring 3D Modeling & Design with SelfCAD: Guest Interview with Kara Houston [ep.198]

Exploring 3D Modeling & Design with SelfCAD: Guest Interview with Kara Houston [ep.198]

Check out the full episode on modeling and design with SelfCAD:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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

Episode Summary

We are back at it with some fun interviews this summer! I took a little break from interviewing, but missed it, and I had so much fun with who I talked with for today’s interview. 

I chatted with Kara Houston, who is a proud member of SelfCAD. If you haven’t heard of SelfCAD before, it is a cloud-based CAD modeling (or computer-aided design) that allows students to model, sculpt, slice, and print online. You might know this most for 3D printing as you get started, but they have other forms of creation inside the platform that you should check out. 

Kara is passionate about what she does, and she loves that through her job, she can have a part in the future of STEM by bringing their ideas to life. 

This episode will help give you ideas on various ways you can start implementing 3D modeling in your classroom! 

Resources Mentioned:

Watch the video version of this interview here:

 

Episode Transcript: 

(0:00) Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom (0:06) teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching (0:11) and a master’s degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year (0:15) to help you gain back more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

(0:20) We are back at it with some fun interviews for the summer, and I am so excited for you to hear (0:27) from the fun guests that I have lined up for you. I took a little break from interviewing, (0:32) and I definitely missed it, and so it was so much fun talking with the guest that I’m going to be (0:38) introducing you to. She was so sweet, so warm, and so passionate about what she does, and she was (0:44) such a fun guest.

I chatted with Kara Houston, who is a proud member at the company, Selfcad. (0:52) If you haven’t heard of Selfcad before, they specialize in their cloud-based software for (0:56) CAD modeling or computer-aided design. You might know this best in your elementary STEM experience (1:03) for a platform that does 3D modeling, but they also specialize in other ways that you can create (1:09) inside of this platform, along with the 3D modeling.

So definitely check them out because (1:14) we talk about it within this episode, but poke around on their website. Try it with your students (1:19) because there’s a lot of different ways that students can create that are really important (1:24) for them to learn, and things that they’re probably already wondering about trying for (1:28) themselves. Kara is so passionate about what she does.

You can see it in her face if you’re (1:34) watching the video version. You can hear it in her voice and help others bring their ideas to life. (1:39) I am so excited for you to listen to this interview and get you excited to teach 3D (1:46) modeling to your students.

This is something both Kara and I are passionate about ourselves, (1:50) so we had a lot of fun chatting because we know how powerful that this type of creating can be (1:56) with kids. Even if you’re not an expert, none of us are born knowing how to do this. I wasn’t either, (2:02) but I do mention this in this episode that 3D modeling is actually one of my most favorite (2:07) things to teach.

I even have my 3D printers running right now. Maybe you hear it in the (2:12) background, but I think you’re really going to enjoy this interview. Soak it all in and (2:17) take some notes because there’s some good gems inside of here.

Well, thank you so much, Kara, (2:22) for being here today. I’m so excited to chat with you. Before I hit record, I was telling you I (2:28) haven’t done interviews in a little bit.

I just took a little break from interviews. No one’s (2:33) really asked where the interviews have gone, but I think they’re really excited for this. (2:38) This will come out this summer, so teachers will have a bit more time to listen in and (2:43) learn new things.

Thanks so much for being here. That’s awesome. Yeah, I am so happy to be here, (2:50) and I love that.

There’s always good to have some ideas in the summer to keep us all going. (2:55) Yes, I agree. It’s so good to just dive on in and have that mental space where (3:03) you feel like you can learn new things because the school year can get super, super busy.

(3:09) Right, yeah. Before we jump so deep into what we’re talking about today, (3:16) how did you get into 3D printing and interested in 3D printing? How did that interest start for you? (3:25) Okay, so for me, I’m a mom first, like probably a lot of your listeners. I was just juggling (3:32) motherhood and my other careers, and a friend of mine said, hey, this company needs some help.

(3:37) Would you like to? And as soon as I started getting involved with SelfCAD, I was so interested (3:41) just for their mission to give kids, empower kids with these tools and help young girls have access (3:49) to tools that they might not have been introduced to before. I took my daughter, I think the first (3:53) week I worked there, I took her to a STEM event where she met astronauts and engineers and (3:58) scientists, and I just thought this is so powerful. This is really cool.

It’s so cool. Did you have a (4:05) 3D printer before? How do you ever like played around with them yourself? Or was that kind of (4:11) just something you just like their mission? You’re like, let’s jump on in and learn as we go. (4:16) Yeah, I did not even have a 3D printer at that point.

I was just very, very interested in their (4:23) mission. And every person that I’ve worked with was so passionate. They were beyond the moon.

And (4:28) so that was really easy to just glide right in. And then I went from part time to full time to, (4:33) you know, working with nonprofits, and it just grew. And it was really beautiful.

(4:37) That’s really cool. What does your daughter think about like 3D printing? Like now that you have (4:42) like, firsthand experience and like had no more behind the scenes? Like what does she think about (4:47) all of it? (4:49) So interested. She’s so inspired.

She likes to create things like earrings, jewelry, (4:54) things like that. Definitely the fashion caught her eye. And yeah, she’s, she’s really inspired.

(5:00) I love how you say the fashion part. So I got 3D printer. Well, okay, so I had them in my classroom.

(5:06) And there’s some other podcast episodes I have about 3D printers. And then so for my I started a (5:12) new after school club, a 3D printing club. And I was long term subbing at the time and the school (5:18) didn’t have a 3D printer.

They still don’t. So I use mine for it. And I had the printer in the (5:24) classroom.

And I also was like, you know what, I should make some jewelry. And it was around (5:29) Valentine’s Day. So I designed these little candy hearts for earrings that I made them for my (5:35) friends.

And my girlfriends like loved them. And they was like wearing them to school and everything. (5:40) So it’s pretty cool.

Like I know, I like obviously 3D printings for everybody. But (5:45) I like how you connected. Like, I mean, it is a way to create jewelry and fashion.

And there’s (5:51) lots of ways to get girls excited. But that’s just a really cool example. I’m glad that you brought (5:56) that up.

Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes when I talk to junior hires, they also are using this (6:02) stuff in like sneaker design. So you’ll see people light up their ideas like, oh, I would love to (6:06) design a sneaker, you know.

So I mean, it’s just really cool the different industries that are (6:11) they’re using and incorporating and really relying on the 3D spatial design modeling process. (6:17) Yeah, I agree with them with that. So kind of going more into you mentioned a little bit, (6:23) but why do you think it is important for certain students to learn how to create 3D designs, (6:30) whether it gets printed or not? Or you’re just doing all the modeling on the computer? Like, (6:34) why is that important? Well, you think I think kids are naturally curious and creative.

So this (6:41) is real, just like putting the tools in their hands for what’s already going on in their mind. (6:46) I want to create something, but also giving them when they’re really young, that spatial (6:50) awareness. So really, how else can you understand a concept of a sphere, (6:54) as opposed to just a circle until you’re looking at it and you’re rotating it.

So when they’re (6:59) really young, they might not have to do a strict curriculum, but getting playful and getting to (7:04) see the shapes like enlarged or shrieking is just it’s really magical to see kids interact with it. (7:12) I agree. It does bring your geometry to life when I’m teaching 3D modeling.

And the kids are (7:19) actually way more adaptable when they see it than we think. It’s not as overwhelming. I think for (7:24) adults, we’re like, oh, it’s super overwhelming.

I don’t understand it. But it’s just like (7:29) building with blocks. And when I would teach it, I have these foam blocks that I will squish down (7:35) and kind of show them how things stack in the real world.

And so saying, oh, here’s what you (7:40) can do in a platform, same type of concept. It’s almost like using digital clay or digital blocks, (7:47) like you can’t physically touch it with your hands. But the kids grasp onto it really, (7:52) really quickly.

Would you say the same thing from what you’ve seen? (7:56) Yeah, absolutely. And they just light up getting to create stuff. It’s really (8:01) cool way to design something.

And then we also see when they get older, then reverse engineer. (8:06) So these middle schoolers can bring in a picture of an object, we can upload it, (8:11) and then we can play around with like critical thinking. Or how could we improve this object? (8:16) Or what if we change the texture? And then they, you know, their little creator minds, (8:21) innovators come out.

I love seeing that. You mentioned it a little bit, but is it the (8:26) same platform that you use with all kids like K through eight? Or is there like different variations (8:32) of what you have the kids design in? Who I work with is self CAD. And we are definitely (8:38) professional grade, but designed to ride with the student all the way from third grade.

Really, (8:43) we like to start out third grade. We talked about kindergarten, and there’s definitely stuff to do (8:47) younger too. But when we’re really implementing a full on program, I’d say third grade all the (8:51) way up until their career.

And so getting them to have the same software instead of jumping around (8:58) Tinkercad, AutoCAD, you know, this is like they can grow a portfolio. So that’s why I’m really (9:02) passionate about it. I saw that they saw the need, there’s something that this gap needs to be (9:08) filled.

Like what can carry kids through? What can they grow it? So our company has a lot of (9:13) interactive tutorials. So they can, you know, right off the bat, just not fail, I like to say, (9:19) because they’re gonna walk you through it. And you’re gonna have all this knowledge, like, (9:24) and it’ll walk you through step by step.

That’s really helpful, too, because I think it’s hard (9:29) from a teacher, or if you’re a parent wanting to do this with your kids, like understanding (9:35) what platform to choose. And there’s so many options out there. And especially when you’re (9:40) teaching STEM, just across the board, you typically might not have as much experience yourself.

So (9:46) there’s probably a lot of teachers and parents out there who might be even be on the fence starting (9:51) this. And we know that it’s really beneficial. Are there any careers? Like, do you have any (9:57) career connections when it comes to like this modeling and creating online? Because we know (10:03) it’s important for kids, they’re excited.

This platform especially can carry on with them. But (10:09) connecting into what careers there might be? Have you seen anything with that? (10:13) Yes. And I love to talk about that, too, because we’re seeing it being used in way more than just (10:18) architecture.

But we’re seeing like the CAD software being used in designing, like I mentioned (10:24) earlier, the sneakers or fashion. It’s in health sciences. So when we talk about you want to see (10:29) the spine, and how can we put a stint in the spine? Or how can we work on the heart and the actual (10:35) shape of the heart is pretty intricate when you get into like the 3D world inside of the heart (10:40) and the arteries.

So when you talk about health sciences, that’s really so you might want to go (10:44) into a form of medicine, but it might be using like the software and using to create some type (10:52) of problem like solving a problem. So there’s different ways to be in medical field or in (10:57) fashion. That’s not necessarily what they might have been told.

So that is what I love connecting (11:02) those dots you I really think of this type of software self CAD as a life skill. You can call (11:08) for your own life if you want to redesign your bedroom. Like, okay, I’m gonna redesign.

What would (11:13) this chair look like? Like that? No, I agree. And it’s like, there it’s thinking about, okay, well, (11:20) how can I create that space or create that model where you can’t always do that with cardboard? (11:27) You can you can start that but it does give more options. And I think when you design digitally (11:32) like that, it’s so much easier to make mistakes and fix them because it’s endless.

And that was (11:41) something that is especially with my 3d printing club kids where I see them every week. They would (11:47) get frustrated at first and just knowing, hey, this is on an unlimited space. So if you mess up, (11:54) we can try it again or think about it in a different way.

Or when I would give them feedback (11:59) on their designs, we can easily go back and fix it. Or sometimes I would even and not everything (12:05) like you would print but the things that I would print, sometimes I would print them with mistakes (12:10) because I wanted them to see what had happened and why it didn’t work. So there are just like (12:16) those opportunities where, like STEM in general, there’s so many avenues and things to try.

But it (12:22) is with that 3d modeling, like it has a lot of different options that you can’t do in other (12:29) types of projects. And some kids will really, really connect with that in ways that like you (12:34) said, with the health sciences and the engineering or the fashion where you might not always have (12:39) those materials or ways to do that with other types of things. Yes, I love that.

I love what (12:46) you said that that club you have sounds so cool. Like when you think about, okay, you got to build (12:50) something each time you use materials, it costs money. But when you’re just, you know, and self (12:57) CAD is a cloud based.

So you know, you’ve got all kinds of options to just save and have all (13:02) build up a whole portfolio. Yeah, that’s super helpful. Because I even like parents will, (13:07) because I it sounds like with self CAD, you can 3d print, but you can also just do other types (13:12) of modeling.

Are there templates to use? You said there’s tutorials, but are there things that, (13:18) oh, you could try this avenue or try this template? Are there things that make it really stand out? (13:25) There is a whole library of tutorials and templates and lesson plans. And then whenever (13:30) we do work with the school, we actually we free training for the teachers and things like that. (13:35) So there, there’s monthly challenges, I believe they also do some kids get excited to participate (13:40) in those.

It’s just it’s being part of this whole community of people. So yeah, there’s a lot. (13:46) That’s really cool.

And even if like, let’s say, they wanted to a teacher wanted to focus on the (13:52) 3d printing side, could they still get into self CAD even if they don’t have 3d printers, (13:57) because I think a lot of teachers get wary of that they say, Oh, this is what I hear, (14:04) at least from teachers, I don’t have money for a 3d printer, my school can’t afford it. (14:08) We have too many kids, our printers broke, I can’t do the design. And I tell them they still can (14:18) would you guys say the same thing? Yes, you said so much there.

So they totally can design I mean, (14:25) part of I mean, a big part of our programs is the design and the design process. So you don’t (14:30) have to have a printer in the room, you can do these lessons, you want to show the layers of (14:34) the earth for these kids, and just have them look at it and design it and they can label it on there. (14:39) And they don’t ever have to print it.

But just getting to be able to conceptualize the space of (14:45) that is really, is really interesting for them and more hands on than just okay, here’s a picture (14:50) and I’m labeling a picture of paper, they’re actually moving it around and then labeling it. (14:56) So no, they do not definitely don’t need to actually print it. And I understand the concern (15:01) with it taking time.

But I do like to say that of course, kids like to print it. So (15:05) and the thing about the thing that self ads really trying to do is to help schools. So we (15:11) actually help schools apply for grants and technology grants.

I like to say it’s never (15:16) a closed door. If you still want a 3d printer, we are going to find a way that’s called we (15:21) actually donate them ourselves. Or we we help apply, we help the school apply for a tech grant.

(15:27) And of course, there’s a lot of great grants out there for STEM initiatives. So that’s something (15:33) if they’re a title in schools all over the place, we are working with them and we are trying so I (15:37) hope that they will reach out to us if they are if there’s somebody that wants a 3d printer but (15:41) can’t because if the desire is there, I’m ready to meet you halfway. Yeah, and that’s I agree with (15:46) STEM.

Typically, it’s a great space with those great opportunities. And you don’t have to be a (15:52) STEM teacher to apply for those like at all. Like I know a lot of programs, at least in my friends (15:58) in the area that are getting caught.

But that is an opportunity where after school programs, (16:03) there’s those options, you are a classroom teacher, and wanting to implement this. Parents, (16:10) maybe there’s options with that, too. You never know.

But I agree with you. Because (16:15) I, in my opinion, I mean, I have two printers going on right now. I don’t know if you can hear (16:19) them.

I have one of like right going right here. I’m actually making key chains. Yeah, my club.

(16:28) But a lot of it, honestly, is it can be the management when you’re an elementary teacher, (16:32) because I mean, you have your kids, you can teach them how to manage. But that’s a whole other thing. (16:37) Like you said, you can do all of the designing and the printing parts.

Great. But you can, (16:43) the kids are still going to be able to do all of the skills and keep practicing. And (16:47) it sounds like self CAD, like you even said it can grow with them.

So there’s endless (16:52) types of projects to do. Endless. It’s just wild.

And the tutorials that we have are so cool. (17:00) They’re so interactive. It’s just not like, you know, when I when I was in school, how things (17:05) you just click to the next page, but everything here is like highlighted where you go next.

(17:09) It’s just set up for you to succeed. They’re going to help you succeed. And then I do want (17:13) to say when they get to middle school, they can do industry based certifications.

And we love that (17:19) like a virtual badge and helps encourage them and give them the confidence to keep going. You know, (17:25) what are some of the industry badges that they can get? There’s two, it’s a professional one (17:31) and an actual self CAD one that they get once they’re reached. I believe it’s eighth grade.

(17:36) Oh, that’s cool. Very cool. Yeah.

We love we love to share that with educators because (17:41) yeah, that’s just another thing in their pocket. Another thing they can share when they go on to (17:46) whatever they go on to if they’re continuing education or they’re going right into a field. (17:50) Yeah.

I feel like coding, especially 3D design and even video editing, like all the (17:56) video behind the scenes are skills that can be under, I don’t know, under built up sometimes in (18:04) the elementary space, but they’re so needed because we see middle school and high schoolers (18:08) doing like elementary kids can do this too. I’ve done it. I’ve done all of the above with them (18:12) and I can confirm it can be done and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Absolutely. So speaking of those (18:21) projects, you talked about the badges, but are there, and you’ve popped in some really fun (18:25) projects. So thinking about those grade level bands, so like that elementary band, you said (18:30) mostly third through fifth, and then maybe it’s middle school and high school.

Are there certain (18:35) projects that stand out to you inside of the platform or even just ones that you’ve seen that (18:40) are really cool that have been done? So when, well, I do want to say when you’re talking (18:46) kinder to second, one thing that they really have loved doing is creating a cookie cutter. (18:51) So they get their 2D shape and then you’re, you know, expanding it to make the 3D cookie cutter, (18:56) and then they get to do a cookie cutter. So I think that’s cute.

It’s so fun. Of course you (19:00) could do it at one of the holidays. I love to see that one.

And then when we see, you know, (19:08) when kids get into science and they’re labeling the parts of the flower, that’s a really cool one (19:12) that they can do all the different, the petals and the in and out. Kids, like, I know you did (19:18) the, you were saying the key chains. All the kids love to do their name key chains.

It just is so (19:23) personal for them. And then they have a souvenir of their, you know, their name. We’ve seen high (19:30) school kids create, or middle schoolers do these pencil toppers, and then they have to, you know, (19:35) pencil stands.

And then we try to really get the engineering brain going where it’s like (19:40) problem solving. So that’s like the reverse engineering of getting an object and how can (19:45) you make it better? Or this one didn’t work, so what’s the next step? How long does it typically (19:49) take for projects to be created by kids? Are they usually semester long, or have they been like (19:55) really quick, like a couple day activities? There is all different types, but definitely I think a (20:01) lot of them are shorter. A couple days and they’ve created something, or they’ve labeled something.

(20:06) The teacher can also create something, and then the kids draw on it, or color it, or change it, (20:12) or it can go the other way that the kids actually have full range. Hey, can you create a set from (20:16) this time in history? So I mean, curricular engagement, you know, we’re seeing it in math, (20:22) and in science, and in biology, and it, you know, so yeah, they can actually build a set, (20:26) or a mixed reality of something. Yeah, cool.

It kind of reminds me, and I know it’s still around (20:32) with like augmented reality stuff, like I know the goggles are like, you still have them, (20:39) it’s, they get expensive to have in schools, but I just like remember doing some of that AR stuff (20:43) with students, and like they could touch it, and play with it, but it’s almost, it’s like (20:49) the same thing, but without the goggles, and they’re creating those things that maybe could (20:54) even be in augmented reality, that AR stuff. Yes, absolutely. So when we write STEM grants, (21:01) we include the AR, the VR goggles, and we do include curriculum for that kind of stuff, too.

So (21:08) kids can take a, an area, and they can add like, almost like a video game, like fruits, (21:14) or different things into the space. Yeah, making it really, it’s really fun stuff, animation. (21:19) Cool.

Oh, that’s so cool. So you could do that all in self CAD, and then use it with the goggles? (21:25) Yes. That’s awesome.

I mean, so yeah, any school out there that wants to apply for a STEM grant, (21:33) like, please contact us, because we love to see, or the summer camps. Let me think of, (21:37) there’s afterschool programs, there’s the summer camps, and you, like you said, you do not have to (21:42) be a STEM teacher. We do like you to be an established school.

Also, you don’t have to (21:46) have funding, like you can be any type of teacher that has the interest, that the interest is there, (21:51) and there’s two teachers to do the summer camp, or to do the afterschool, then we’re there. We’re (21:56) ready to train you, and we’re ready to, you know, go forward with that. And you know, you’re seeing (22:00) lots of cool, like you mentioned, there’s, there’s STEM for girls clubs, there’s coding clubs, (22:04) there’s robotics clubs, all these cool clubs are starting to get built, and then we want to give (22:07) them, you know, the curriculum to do more things.

What else can we do now, you know? I agree, and (22:13) it’s a great way with clubs. I’ve always said this about clubs. If you don’t know how to do (22:18) the thing, if you don’t know anything about 3D modeling, it’s actually great to do in a club, (22:24) because you only have a handful of kids, 25 kids, and they’re pretty forgiving.

For the most part, (22:30) those kids actually want to be there, and they’re super into it, so they’re going to find things (22:34) that you never even had thought about you’d be teaching. And I knew about 3D design to do my 3D (22:41) painting club, but my kids are so passionate and intense about it, that I’ve actually had to plan (22:47) more projects, because they’re actually pretty quick at stuff, and then I’m actually going to do (22:52) like a more advanced one next school year, but it’s pretty a great, great way if you’re a teacher and (22:59) want to get into this, or let’s say you’re a classroom teacher, and you want to be a STEM (23:04) teacher, run a STEM 3D modeling club, have that in your belt, and then you’ll just feel more confident (23:11) if you do become a STEM teacher, teaching more kids, because it’s, it’s one of my most favorite (23:17) things to teach. It’s like low-key one of my most favorite things.

It’s actually really clean. (23:23) I like that. It’s very clean, but it’s, I like how the kids are creating with technology and making (23:33) it meaningful, and really using it in a constructive way, and not just sitting there passively watching (23:38) videos or whatever.

Like you said, the tutorials are interactive, but they’re creating in meaningful (23:44) ways that could lead into who knows what for their jobs. Yeah, and it’s giving them the confidence to (23:50) also create stuff for their own. Like what ideas do you have? How do you want to make this shape, (23:55) or how do you want to, you know, change something in your world? It’s so giving them like, here, (23:59) you have power.

You’re, you have this whole world to create something, you know, and I, it’s really (24:03) cool for them, but I love that you’re doing that. I love after-school clubs. I’m like, (24:07) you join as many as you want to because, you know, it’s like access to things that you’re (24:12) passionate about.

It is. It is so, it’s fun. It’s really fun.

It’s a really cool way to interact (24:20) with kids that’s like academic, but not entirely, and they just see another side of kids. It’s (24:25) really, really sweet. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I can tell you really love what you do. I just said it (24:32) like oozes from you, and I love it. Thank you.

I must, I think that should have been my middle name, (24:39) but it wasn’t really a thing when I was little, so anything else you want to share if teachers (24:45) are on the fence about getting stutter, anything else that they should know, anything you want to (24:50) share with them? I would say definitely just, if you’re even on the fence, just check out (24:55) selfcad.com and just take a look. Just play, and I think you’ll be, I think you’ll right off the bat (25:00) be intrigued, but I also, I don’t want anyone to be discouraged. I don’t care if you’re Title I. (25:04) I don’t care if you’re rural.

We’re working with like some places in Africa where they don’t have (25:08) internet, where they’re going to use the internet. They’re downloading our stuff, and then they’re (25:12) taking it back home, and so I mean there should be a closed door, and if you probably have students (25:17) that are interested, so yeah, and the tutorials are going to be there. The training is there.

(25:23) Support is there. It’s not like, here’s a CAD software. I mean, what I hear from teachers, (25:27) unfortunately, is like, we have a 3D printer, but I’m not sure what to do, or we don’t have, (25:33) they don’t have the guidance of the tools that they need to be able to empower the students, (25:37) so it’s not really fair.

They have the printer, but a lot of them don’t have the printer, too, (25:41) but like I said, there’s no reason that you can’t do this. It is for everyone. It’s professional (25:45) grade, but it is like, it’s just made to help you learn and make, help you create.

(25:52) I 100% agree with that. Like, don’t let the 3D printer you have on be a paperweight. (26:01) Like, kids, if you say 3D printing, all the kids are going to want to do it.

(26:04) I promise you, 1,000%. I’ve taught hundreds and hundreds of kids, and all of them, when they hear (26:12) the word 3D printer, they get so excited. Yeah.

I mean, think about, I mean, for me, (26:18) when I was growing up, I would have loved to see my stuff brought to life, and that’s why you get, (26:23) kids do love getting involved in those ones where they are in charge of making something, (26:27) you know, not just like being told what to make, but they’re getting to get their hearts out there. (26:33) Well, I am so excited about this platform, and I’m excited to dive in myself, since I am (26:38) continuing my 3D printing and 3D modeling journey. I did get approved for, to do two more clubs, (26:46) so like a 1.0, 2.0, so I’m really excited to play around with this with my students, (26:51) because I know that they want an extra challenge, and I’m excited.

I like learning new platforms (26:56) and seeing what’s out there, and this is definitely one that I’m going to explore (27:01) and add to my own STEM toolbox, so I am so glad that you popped in today and told us all about (27:07) it. So important for us to hear about all of these cool tools that are helpful for kids. (27:13) Thank you so much for having me.

This was really cool. It’s so fun. (27:17) Good.

Thank you. Well, thank you so much, and I can’t, I’m so glad that we have this connection. (27:22) Yes, me too.

You feel free to reach out anytime with anything. (27:26) And if other teachers want to reach out to you, where can they find you? (27:29) So selfguide.com, or they can find me on LinkedIn. I’m always happy to connect on (27:33) LinkedIn, Kara Houston.

And please check out selfguide.com. I think you’re going to just fall (27:38) in love. Well, thank you so much again, Kara, for coming in, and can’t wait to hear how teachers are (27:45) using this in their classrooms. My pleasure.

This is really fun. I loved connecting. This was cool.

(27:51) Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. (27:56) I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, (28:01) or send me an email to elementarystemcoachpodcast at gmail.com. Also make sure to check out my (28:07) website, Naomi Meredith.com to see all the show notes from today’s episode and shop my K-5 STEM (28:13) resources. Any questions you have, needs for resources or ideas for episodes, get in touch.

(28:18) I’ll talk to you soon.

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. She has over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate.

She offers a variety of resources 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!

Easy Behavior Management Systems for Makerspace Success [Back to School STEM Tips Series] [ep.197]

Easy Behavior Management Systems for Makerspace Success [Back to School STEM Tips Series] [ep.197]

Check out the full episode on easy behavior management systems for Makerspace:  

 

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Episode Summary

If the thought of managing behavior during STEM or Makerspace time makes you nervous—especially with all the back-to-school excitement—this mini-episode is for you. 

Yes, STEM can get loud, but that doesn’t mean it has to feel chaotic. In this clip from Episode 150, I’m breaking down how I kept things structured, even during open-ended building time. From how I grouped students to how I managed supplies like tape and glue, these practical tips can help you feel more confident heading into the new school year.

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Episode Transcript: 

(0:00) Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom (0:06) teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s (0:12) degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back (0:16) more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

If the thought of managing behavior (0:23) during STEM or Makerspace time makes you nervous, especially with all the back-to-school excitement (0:30) or the excitement that comes with brand new projects, this mini episode is for you. Yes, (0:37) STEM can get loud, but that doesn’t mean it has to feel chaotic. In this clip from episode 150, (0:46) I’m breaking down how I kept things structured even during open-ended building times.

I also (0:52) talk about how I group students a little bit and how I like to manage supplies like tape and glue, (0:59) which are very popular items in a Makerspace. I know that these practical tips will help you feel (1:05) more confident heading into the new school year or whenever you start your Makerspace. And these (1:11) are things that I have done year after year and continue to do.

And I think that you will (1:17) appreciate these tips. So you have an idea of how to organize your Makerspace. What about the (1:23) behavior management? Do you feel like your kids are getting a little too wild because they are (1:30) creating? It might get loud.

All of these lessons, the kids are going to get loud. I can’t tell you (1:36) that they’re not going to be loud because they are. That’s how it goes.

I got so used to it, (1:42) it is what it is. But being loud is different than not doing what you’re supposed to do. So (1:48) make sure you understand the difference with that and what’s happening in your class.

(1:54) When it comes to the behavior management, it also is about the way your lesson is formatted (2:01) and the systems and routines of that structure. When students would come in for my lessons, (2:07) and this is true for all of my lessons, and even when I teach after-school clubs, (2:12) I do not let kids get the supplies right away. That is not happening.

I am going to help them (2:18) with that transition time and teach them that mini lesson that is involved with the engineering (2:23) design process. Keep it really short, have that background knowledge, tell them anything they (2:29) need to know about supplies, and most of the time is work time. Also make sure you are leaving time (2:34) at the end to clean up.

A Makerspace project might take longer to clean up than a robotics lesson. (2:41) Keep that in mind. I would give kids about 10 minutes.

I would try 10 minutes to start, (2:48) and depending on the class, some classes could clean up in five. So play around with that time. (2:53) It might change with the class.

That is the overall structure of the lesson, but let’s break (2:59) it down throughout the days. At the beginning of your Makerspace lesson, you probably want kids to (3:07) be imagining different ideas and planning. If your kids are having a hard time planning and coming up (3:14) with ideas, especially if you have a newer program, you might need to give them more examples.

Those (3:21) examples can be things like things in real life, examples of pictures of things students have built (3:27) in the past. You might even have to build a few examples to get the ground running. (3:33) For Makerspace projects, I don’t typically teach students you have to do it this way, (3:39) step by step by step.

Now maybe for an after school program, that might be the case, (3:45) but in the classroom setting, I do have a challenge I want them to solve, but I’m not (3:50) going to show you step by step on how to do it. I might show them step by step in a mini lesson (3:55) on how to do a certain strategy. For example, with one of my STEM lessons, STEM Racecars in (4:03) STEMusement Park, there is a part in that project where students have to add a wheel and axle on (4:09) their car and allow it to move.

This is pretty tricky, and I would always get a ton of questions (4:16) on this strategy, so one of the days during the mini lesson, I just showed the kids how to do that. (4:21) It didn’t mean I was showing them how to build their car. I was just showing them that piece (4:27) of their car that everybody was going to need, and then the rest was up to them.

So those kinds (4:33) of strategies, just like if you’re teaching math, like we’re learning lots of strategies, (4:38) I would teach them those kinds of things as they would come up. It depends on the lesson, (4:43) and that was really helpful. When grouping students, this is up to you.

If you want students (4:49) to choose their groups, or you assign them for them. I did both. It actually depends on the class.

(4:57) Some groups do a great job choosing their partners, and some don’t. If you have classes that (5:03) get out of control really quick, you might need to keep them in groups of two. This is really rare.

(5:10) Some might need to be in just in groups of one. I’ve only had to do that a couple of times, (5:14) but it happens, and it is really sad, but at the same time, your job is also as the teacher to (5:21) keep kids safe and help them be successful, and if that’s where they’re at, that’s where they’re at. (5:25) I wouldn’t do more than four kids.

Three is my favorite because I feel like everybody can get (5:30) involved, but no more than four. It just gets too crazy, and at that point, you should just have (5:36) partnerships in any way. What’s also going to help them in that building process is really giving (5:42) students that time to plan.

This is going to help them in that creation. They may or may not (5:48) build everything exactly how they drew the picture, but this is going to help them get the ideas out (5:55) of their brain and have a starting point, and if you do add in maker space money, which again, (6:03) go back to episodes five and six. I explained that whole process, but if you use that system, (6:08) that’s also going to help students critically think more about what supplies they are using (6:13) and why they are using them.

The more you give specific tasks in these creative projects, (6:21) kids are going to stay on task a lot better. If there is a problem they are trying to solve, (6:27) that’s going to help a lot better, so if you are doing roller coasters and you are wanting them (6:32) to time how fast the marble goes through the track and keep track of the time, they’re going to be a (6:38) lot more motivated to do that project instead of just build a roller coaster, have a good time. (6:44) If you have those specific challenges they are trying to solve, that’s going to help (6:48) so much with behavior management, and that is going back to engagement.

Are they being engaged (6:54) in the project? Do they have a purpose? And so these things really blend together. You might (7:00) need to rethink the lessons you’re teaching. That sometimes can be a problem when it comes to the (7:05) behavior management.

For some specific supplies, I also have rules set in place. A big one is with (7:14) tape, and if you follow me on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, I talk about tape a lot (7:19) because I think it’s actually really funny, and it is a weird thing that STEM teachers (7:25) have in common. I’m very specific with tape.

Tape is not a free-for-all. You get one foot of tape, (7:32) I wrap it on a popsicle stick. I’ve also seen people put it on a ruler, and that is all the (7:37) tape you get.

And I do have part of the budget. You could buy unlimited tape, but it’s like more (7:42) than half of their budget. Most kids don’t actually buy that one.

And so I’m very specific about the (7:48) amount of tape. I am not very strict on glue sticks. They’re pretty cheap.

I am actually (7:54) trying to get more into glue sponges, and I’ve always seen it. I’ve never tried it, but I am (8:02) going to test out glue sponges with some makerspace clubs that I’m going to be running in my community. (8:08) And if you haven’t heard of glue sponges, I did ask my husband if he knew, but he teaches high (8:13) school Spanish.

He’s like, what are you talking about? So I don’t know. I just wanted to see if (8:17) all teachers knew. But a glue sponge is, you just have like a sandwich Ziploc container, (8:23) and you put a sponge in there, and you pour liquid glue on top.

And when kids are wanting to glue (8:31) pieces of paper and smaller things, you dab your paper on the sponge, and it gets it all sticky on (8:38) the back, and then you paste it where you want it. This is an older technique. I’ve never done it, (8:43) but I really want to try it because the one thing that really bothers me about glue sticks is the (8:48) kids won’t put the caps on.

And so I’m going to try it. I’m going to let you know. Follow me (8:53) on Instagram.

I’ll let you know what I think about them in a STEM space. But I actually don’t have (8:59) any limit on glue. I just, that wasn’t a battle I wanted to fight.

With hot glue guns, it depended (9:05) on the year if I wanted to use hot glue guns. I like to use the lower temperature hot glue guns. (9:13) One thing with that, sometimes they do get clogged over time, and it could be because you might have (9:18) the wrong glue sticks.

Some of the hot glue gun sticks are made for lower temperature. And so if (9:25) have a station for hot glue guns, I would use them second through fifth grade. Make sure that the (9:30) station is at waist height and they’re not on the ground because that can be a little bit of an issue.

(9:37) So I do have specific procedures in place for hot glue guns. I have some posters in my TBT shop you (9:44) can grab. I think it’s Kelly Hogan.

She actually has those in her classroom. She put them in frames, (9:49) which I thought was such a cute idea to hang up posters. So that is something I might do at a (9:55) maker space.

But again, it depends on my budget if I have enough money for the hot glue gun sticks. (10:02) And honestly, if I want to manage it or not. And it depends on the class.

Usually it’s just tape. (10:08) If I’m feeling nice, we’ll do hot glue guns. But it’s not very often that we did.

(10:12) When it comes to the projects, I make sure that their projects are smaller, that they can fit (10:18) in a grocery bag or a gallon size Ziploc bag. A few exceptions to some projects like rollercoasters, (10:25) those are going to be a little bit bigger. But I do make sure their projects are smaller because (10:29) they’re going to finish them a lot quicker.

When you have limited time, you want the projects to (10:34) be a little bit smaller. That’s definitely going to help. And then with that cleanup time, I have (10:39) seen teachers have specific jobs where you need to do certain things.

I don’t do that. Again, (10:45) I didn’t like managing all of that. So I would say, okay, here’s all the things you need to (10:51) do to get cleaned up.

When you’re cleaned up, you’re sitting at your clean table. (10:54) When everybody was sitting down, I would walk around, just make sure everything’s good to go (10:59) before they could line up. So it kind of maybe looked a little bit chaotic, but everybody is (11:04) putting things away.

Sometimes I would bribe them where whichever tables clean up first, (11:09) I’ll give you a prize or you get some sort of incentive. So that can really help too, (11:14) just to make sure everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to do. With those projects, (11:18) I would have them store them in those grocery bags or Ziploc bags.

And I had those big fabric (11:23) tubs and just binder clipped their teacher’s name on it. And they would put all of their plans and (11:29) their projects in that bucket. And then I had a shelf in my classroom.

If anything needed to stay (11:34) standing up, those could be sitting on the shelf. At the very, very, very end of the unit, (11:40) you can have students take a picture or take a video of their work. I loved using Seesaw for (11:45) this purpose.

So everybody gets to take it home. And then maybe one student can bring (11:50) the project home. And if nobody wanted to bring the project home, I would actually have them (11:55) destruct the project where any pieces that can be reused would actually go back in the makerspace (12:02) and have a new life.

I hope these tips help you with some common makerspace management systems (12:08) that definitely need to take place in the classroom. Whether you’ve started them, (12:13) or you had an idea, or you just need to start from scratch. If you want to grab the hot glue gun (12:18) safety posters that I mentioned, I’ll link those for you in the show notes, or you can find them (12:23) in my TPT shop, Naomi Meredith.

If you’re looking for more support when setting up your entire STEM (12:29) space, systems and routines, and how to plan lessons, check out my STEM Teacher 101 course. (12:35) You will get all of the lessons, resources and checklists and can finish everything at your own (12:40) pace. There’s even a private podcast feature, which I think you will love.

For being a podcast (12:47) listener, you can get $30 off my signature STEM Teacher 101 course using this code podcast BFF, (12:55) all one word, no spaces, podcast BFF. And if you’re enjoying these bite sized episodes, (13:01) let me know. I’d love to keep creating quick wins that help support you in your STEM classroom and (13:07) help you get going on your way.

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the (13:12) elementary STEM coach podcast. I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi (13:17) Meredith underscore, or send me an email to elementary STEM coach podcast at gmail.com. (13:23) Also make sure to check out my website, Naomi Meredith.com to see all the show notes from (13:28) today’s episode and shop my K through five STEM resources. Any questions you have, (13:32) needs for resources or ideas for episodes, get in touch.

I’ll talk to you soon.

 

Check out all of my supplies organized in this video classroom tour:

 

 

How I store students’ supplies and projects between classes

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. She has over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate.

She offers a variety of resources 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!

Simple Supply Organization Tips for Your STEM Classroom [Back to School STEM Tips Series] [ep.196]

Simple Supply Organization Tips for Your STEM Classroom [Back to School STEM Tips Series] [ep.196]

Check out the full episode on Simple Supply Organization Tips for Your STEM Classroom:  

 

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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

Episode Summary

If you’re in back-to-school mode and starting to set up your classroom, this quick tip will help you think through how to organize your Makerspace or STEM supplies for the year.

In this mini-episode is a clip from Episode 150, and I’m sharing how I set up my supplies to stay organized all year long—without constantly resetting things for every lesson. Whether you have a full Makerspace or just a few bins of supplies, these simple strategies can help make your space more functional and your students more independent.

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]:

Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

If you’re in back-to-school mode and starting to set up your classroom, this quick tip will help you think through how to organize your makerspace or STEM supplies for the year. This mini episode is a clip from episode 150, and I’m sharing how I set up my supplies to stay organized all year long without constantly resetting things for every lesson. Whether you have a full makerspace or just a few bins of supplies, these simple strategies can help make your space more functional and your students more independent.

Let’s jump in. 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 at all times. Now, I was really lucky the furniture in my room had wheels.

I could move them around if needed. I typically didn’t, but I kept all of my supplies out. Everything was labeled with pictures and with words to not only help students who are 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 match. 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 of the classroom. Those were there all of the time, and students knew that they could grab those as needed.

All of my markers were color-coded in drawers, in those paper drawers. If you know what I’m talking about, they’re the three stacked drawers, and you pull them out. I organized them by color because I thought it looked really nice.

It was easier to clean up, and we didn’t use markers all the time. I actually had the same markers for five years, and they were ready to go for probably another five. Markers weren’t used very often in my classroom.

With crayons, I tried a lot of different things. I tried individual supply boxes. I tried those supply caddies where you can have crayons and all sorts of things in one.

I tried big buckets. So what I ended up finding that worked best is 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, but I used 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 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.

Kids were throwing trash in there, and so if I kept 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 really did make cleanup a lot easier when everything was separated, so think about those staple items.

That was really helpful, and students actually told me how they liked it was organized. I asked them, and they said they really liked it, and 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, and yes, we have projects everywhere, but I’m a very organized person. I’m not very clean.

I’m very organized. 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, so if you need more pipe cleaners, maybe just that grade level helps you with pipe cleaners.

If you are needing more thin cardboard, I pretty much almost always use thin cardboard. I didn’t use big boxes of cardboard, but if you need thin cardboard, the Teacher’s Lounge is a treasure trove of thin cardboard. I put in a donation box in the Teacher’s Lounge.

I wrote a note on there, hey, any thin cardboard from your meals, put them in this box, and it would be full by the end of the week, and so if I was 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. I hope these tips help you rethink how to store your supplies, whether you’re running a full makerspace or just want a more student-friendly system.

If you want to grab the labels I mentioned or see a few pictures of my setup, I’ve linked those resources for you in the show notes. If you’re looking for more support when setting up your entire STEM space, systems and routines, and how to plan lessons, check out my STEM Teacher 101 course. You will get all of the lessons, resources, and checklists and can finish everything at your own pace.

There’s even a private podcast feature, which I think you will love. For being a podcast listener, you can get $30 off my signature STEM Teacher 101 course using this code PODCASTBFF. All one word, no spaces, PODCASTBFF.

And if you’re enjoying these bite-sized episodes, let me know. I’d love to keep creating quick wins that help support you in your STEM classroom and help you get going on your way. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast.

I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, or send me an email to elementarystemcoachpodcast at gmail.com. Also, make sure to check out my website, Naomi Meredith.com to see all the show notes from today’s episode and shop my K-5 STEM resources. Any questions you have, needs for resources, or ideas for episodes, get in touch. I’ll talk to you soon.

 

Check out all of my supplies organized in this video classroom tour:

 

How to Create Labels for your Makerspace Supplies

How to Store Crayons in your STEM Classroom

How I store students’ supplies and projects inbetween classes

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. She has over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate.

She offers a variety of resources 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!

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

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

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:

 

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. She has over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate.

She offers a variety of resources 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!

Tips for Having a Long-Term Sub in Elementary STEM [ep.191]

Tips for Having a Long-Term Sub in Elementary STEM [ep.191]

Check out the full episode about long-term sub in elementary STEM:

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform. Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast

Listen and turn on the captions on YouTube here:

 

Episode Summary

 

Episode Summary

Are you planning on having a long-term sub soon in your elementary STEM space? I recently completed long-term subbing for 4 months in K-5 STEM, and have a lot of insight as to what you should (and shouldn’t do) while you are prepping to be away.

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

Are you planning on having a long-term sub soon in your elementary STEM space? I recently completed a long-term subbing for four months in K-5 STEM and have a lot of insight as to what you should and shouldn’t do while you are prepping to be away. Thank you so much for being here. It feels so good to be back.

I took a bit of a spring break from the podcast after subbing to refocus and recharge. I had quite a few trips also during this time and maybe you did too, so it was good to take a little break, but also it feels really good to be back. I am currently at one of my friends’ house right now watching her dogs and if you hear any crying, they’re not used to having a podcast being recorded and I have one dog in the lap and one in the other room because they’re being silly little girls, so if you hear dogs crying, that’s why.

Like I said in the intro, I long-term sub for one of my friends who teaches K-5 STEM from mid-October to mid-February. Basically every month had a major holiday, so that was a lot of fun and it was actually really cool. I was really surprised that how much I really enjoyed the school and the students during this time and enjoyed it so much.

I actually started two of my STEM after school clubs at their school, so that’s really cool being back every week where I get to see a lot of the kids and a ton of the kids will come and pop in to say hi. Everyone at the school is super, super kind and helpful. Even the times I come in for my club every week, everyone is just so great, so I was really lucky taking this on and helping a friend out and I had a really great experience, so I think my insight is going to help you out a ton if this is something you’re preparing for, whether you just know you’re going to be gone for a while or maybe this is something that you think is going to happen soon for you.

So here are my tips and tricks for prepping for a long-term sub. A lot of this might even sound like back to school-ish, and in a way it is. This could even be helpful if you have a student teacher because this is going to help you think through some things that you kind of automatically already do as a teacher, but you really need to spell it out for somebody else.

So first of all is setting up those basic systems behind the scenes, and if you’ve been listening for a while, I am all about the systems and routines, and with everything that I do, whether it’s creating stuff, but especially in the classroom, those systems are gold, and there are certain things that probably still need to happen when you are gone. So feel free to invite your sub to come in and watch. If this is a planned, you know you’re going to be gone at a certain, about at a certain time, have them come in and watch.

I was friends with the person that I subbed for, so it all worked out. We taught in the same district, but, and I had popped into her school here and there, but depending on who you have or if you kind of know, inviting them to come and watch is going to be really helpful. Also, you know during back to school when you get all of that paperwork, and it’s your school schedule, and a map of the school, and who to call, instead of stuffing those in a drawer, this is what I would do.

I actually put them in a binder and use this as my reference tool when needed, but this is also my sub binder. Also included in there, I just had all of my schedules, even for early release days, and also for delayed starts, all in this binder, and then I also wrote out like a basic daily outline that was generic, along with like the basic classroom rules, and those systems and routines. So, not only is this actually really helpful for when you have a long-term sub, but also any other day you have a sub as well.

This next resource was really helpful for me when I was long-term subbing, is having class lists with pictures. Now, this also probably depends on what attendance system that you have, but I would hope for you that this is an option. I used this a ton when I was getting to know the kids, and here and there, there actually were some mistakes, which was pretty crazy.

I actually wrote on these class lists sometimes. I would write down their nicknames, so if you can do that ahead of time, it’s helpful, but not necessary. I figured it out, and then I tried my best to keep them updated when students were leaving, and coming, and going.

This is me as the sub, so again, try if you can print this out. That’s really, really helpful. If not, things change.

Your teammates could probably do it, too. Also, depending on what your school allows or doesn’t allow, adding in any of those need-to-know notes about specific students, whether it is a certain plan they’re on, or something that the teacher needs to keep in mind. Also, double-check on your school what you can and can’t leave for a sub in this instance, but I started writing down a couple things as needed, just so I could remember, or things would kind of change when I talked to classroom teachers when they dropped their students off, too.

Also, in this finder or that list that you make, make sure to include any before and after school duties that you may have. I had actually hit my duties. She typically had afternoons, but because I was starting my after-school STEM club business and running to do clubs after subbing, I actually had to switch to morning duty every day, and that was quite the adventure.

Having car loop duty every day for about four months in the coldest months in Colorado, and I think this is payback for me never having morning duties my entire career teaching. I have a funny video that I’ll post in the show notes. It’s an ode to Mr. Rogers and all of the gear I had to wear every day to stay warm out there for 20-plus minutes, and greet children in the morning.

So, if I didn’t have enough coffee, I was definitely wide awake after doing that. All right. Next, when it comes to that preparation, is thinking about behavior management.

If you possibly have a behavior system, if you don’t, maybe start one. Teach this to your sub, and I hope it’s not anything overcomplicated. If you need an idea or you just don’t have anything at all, check out episode 179, and I have a behavior management system that I actually use when I pop in and sub.

However, you can use it in a regular classroom. You don’t have to be a sub to use what I’m mentioning in this video. If you can, have your long-term sub still implement the behavior management system that you already have in place, because this is definitely going to help with consistency in two ways.

Not only are the kids going to know what to expect when they have the sub, that transition is going to be really easy, but when you come back, they already are used to having those things in place, and they’re not relearning a whole lot. Of course, there’s little things here and there I probably do different than that teacher, but she had some things in place that I just continued to keep up, and they’re still doing once she’s been back. Depending on who you have subbing, this is also a good question or chat to have with your sub beforehand, is talking about behavior management.

Some of your long-term subs might not have ever taught in a specials class before, meaning they haven’t taught multiple classes a day. Maybe they’ve only been a classroom teacher in their career, so I highly recommend having that conversation. Maybe it’s a little bit awkward.

Maybe it’s just something they never even thought of. That is a huge, huge thing. Behavior management in general with teaching, but especially as a sub, the kids do act different, and they were trying to get away with things with me, and I let it be known.

I taught this as a class. This is what I did. I was the STEM teacher in my school not long ago, so I had to build up those relationships and that clout really, really fast so that we could have a good and successful time together, and it was.

It was really good, and finally, I’m sure you’re thinking about this probably first besides those other things I mentioned are the lesson plans. What am I going to do when I am gone for this long? I know that I am in a unique position where I was a unique long-term STEM sub where this is what I taught. Like I said, I still teach it in my community.

I’m still very active in elementary STEM, just not necessarily in my own school building all day, so there wasn’t a whole lot that teacher I subbed for that she had to prep really. However, this isn’t always the case, and so this question I asked her is what do you want to teach before and after you leave? This was a really good conversation to have, and you can still do this with who you have subbing because they actually might have some experience, and that’s probably why you’re picking them if you have a choice of things that maybe they could teach that when you are gone. Really, I was so lucky because my teacher, I really made sure for her to not stress, I have this covered.

This really helped know the things that she really wanted to do, and then I would just fill in the holes as we went. If this is really stressful, consider meeting monthly leading up to when you’re gone so then you guys can map out some things together, but here’s what we were thinking. There was actually a weird situation where I’m not going to even get into it.

However, if for some reason I wasn’t able to sub, what we were going to have a sub teach was do things with Hour of Code, the Lego education kits, because those are really plug and play. If you are new to STEM, anyone can teach those, and then do some STEM and stories, so that’s what we were thinking of. I did still implement a little bit of Hour of Code, but really what I ended up doing is I taught a lot of thematic lessons for my K-2, which a lot of them can be found in my monthly bundle.

It’s a huge bundle of things that apply to each month. I didn’t do as much as my project-based science lessons that I did when I taught K-5 STEM just because the background of the kids that I had were a bit different, and that was something I had to lead up to, so doing those monthly thematic lessons was really a lot of fun. Those were fun to teach because I hadn’t taught those in a while, and with my third through fifth graders, for a big chunk of the time, I used the Dash robots, and I did portions of the Wonder League robotics competition, and then there actually were specific things I had to teach per the teacher’s request towards the end, which I was made aware ahead of time.

So that’s what I mostly did, and so even if you break up your plans like that where you’re going to have the teacher teach the same thing for K-2, the same thing for 3-5 if possible, then that’s going to help cut down on the lesson planning. Overall, my best advice is for whatever reason why you need to be away from some time. I know it can be really, really stressful, but it will definitely be okay.

I was not the perfect sub. There’s probably things I did that probably annoyed the teacher I was subbing for, and maybe there’s a couple things I didn’t do correctly. However, I really wanted to make sure that she was relaxing using that time that she had off.

I really tried to not text her very much in terms of subbing. It was my goal as the sub because knowing being on the other side, I guess you could say in quotation marks, I know that it’s hard to find subs, and I wanted to do a good job for her and handle it on my own. I would problem solve, ask around on the building because I didn’t want her thinking about school, so it was like my way of giving back knowing how many great subs that I’ve had.

It was actually really cool being on that side, and I have popped in and subbed for her here and there, so that’s pretty fun to see the kids. Like I said, I do subs, but there’s been days she’s been gone, so I have been welcomed back. Are you hoping to get a long-term sub soon in your STEM space? What other questions do you have for me since I was in that position, and I do that daily subbing here and there? What do you want to know? Feel free to send me a DM on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, or if you’re watching or listening on YouTube, make sure to add it in the comments.

Thanks so much for hanging out with me, and excited for more episodes to come. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, or send me an email to elementarystemcoachpodcast at gmail.com. Also, make sure to check out my website, NaomiMeredith.com, to see all the show notes from today’s episode and shop my K-5 STEM resources.

Any questions you have, needs for resources, or ideas for episodes, get in touch. I’ll talk to you soon.

 

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner 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!

5 Earth Day STEM Activities to Try [ep.192]

5 Earth Day STEM Activities to Try [ep.192]

Check out the full episode about Earth Day STEM activities:

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform. Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast

Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube here:

Episode Summary

 

Episode Summary

Earth Day is April 22. It’s a good way to teach students ways to take care of the Earth. I’ll be sharing with you 5 STEM lessons that you can teach to celebrate this day or even lessons you can use year round.

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: 

Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

Earth Day is April 22nd and this is a great day or time of year to teach students ways that they can take care of their Earth. I will be sharing with you five STEM lessons that you can teach your students all about Earth Day, but there are also things that you can teach year round. When I was planning this episode and really when I plan any episode, I go through everything that I have recorded and also past blog posts to see what have I done or what haven’t I done and what would be a good episode.

I do have a blog post about Earth Day with some activities. Some I will be mentioning here, but there are some different ones, but I didn’t have a podcast. So I was really excited that I get to talk about these STEM activities for you.

So let’s jump into these lessons. They cover a broad range of grade levels and you can teach them all year long. The first one is an Earth Day Engineer Inspiration Board and this is a great STEM station for your youngest learners, particularly in pre-K through second grade.

I posted over on my Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore a snapshot on how to set up this station and I’ll also embed it in the show notes for this episode, but all you have to do is print out this board and it has nine different images that relate to ways that you can take care of the earth. It does say Earth Day on it, but it has those nine different ways visually displayed and labeled for students and you get to decide what materials you want at the station for students to build with. They can be reusable materials like Lego bricks, blocks, wooden planks, but it also could be recycled materials as well, like cardboard, egg cartons, those types of things.

All you have to do is put those things at a station, the board and the building materials and students can choose which item they would like to build. If you want to go deeper into this project, there’s also a planning sheet where students can thoughtfully plan and label their design, but definitely up to you. I love throwing in these Engineer Inspiration Boards when I do STEM stations or if I need a quick sub plan, whether I’m the sub or someone’s subbing for me because it’s super low prep and you just use what you have on hand.

So it’s a great talking point and you can get students building right away. The next STEM lesson is to have students build their own recycling plant and they can sort the different materials that come through into the correct categories. Now, I was very curious about how this lesson would go and I started it off by showing students how things get from your home all the way to a recycling plant and I found a really good video for this.

The kids really like this video and most likely they haven’t seen this in action. Maybe they’ve seen recycling get picked up at their home, but they just don’t know where it goes. So that was really cool to show those students what the behind the scenes is in this situation and then I had different items printed out for them and their goal is to create their own little sorting facility where the items can go through their recycling plant and then they can sort them in the correct categories.

This is also a great thing for kids to take home so they can talk to their families about recycling and how it relates to them and where they live. Bonus points to if you use actual recycled materials to build the recycling plants. That’s really fun as well.

The next two lessons involve 3D printing and if you don’t have a 3D printer, don’t skip ahead in this episode. I’ve said this before, but you can actually do 3D printing lessons without having a 3D printer. You can have students do all the research, the planning, and the design, but maybe their thing doesn’t get printed.

You just share it digitally and that is definitely okay. So like I said, you could do this whole lesson without the 3D printer. So I have two different lessons.

The first one is going to be better for your younger students and then the other one is going to be better for your older students, but you can mix and match how you need to. This one for the younger students is students are going to be creating a key chain to help remind them of ways to take care of the earth. So throughout the week or however much time you have, you’ll be teaching students different ways they can take care of the earth, whether it’s about composting, saving water, that recycling lesson, you can mix and match.

And then with the platform of your choice, I like to use Doodle 3D Transform. Students design that key chain and eventually when you get those printed, they could even color their key chain using paint markers to bring their key chain to life. When I did this project, I didn’t really think about having a hole already in their design, so I actually hole punched a hole in their 3D print just the way that they printed.

They were thin enough where I could use a jewelry maker hole punch and I was hammering these key chains and putting the key chain in, but you could be a little bit more smart about it where you tell students to add a hole or you check their designs and add a hole for them so it prints that way. The other 3D print lesson is to again teach students ways that they can take care of the earth at their level. You could use things in Epic Books, you could have a collection that you share with them, but this one is where they actually design an invention that will help take care of the earth.

So it’s not like I can recycle like the little kids, I can do this, I can do this. You’re taking it up a notch where students are actually creating the invention and I always tell kids with inventions, inventions can be something brand new that has never been thought of or it could be building off of something else. So this one’s really cool because there’s a lot of storytelling that goes behind their invention and they could create it with that 3D print.

You could also do it with Makerspace materials too. You could take this same lesson, but their medium is with Makerspace and they’re telling that story, what is the problem they’re trying to solve? What are the resources they’re trying to conserve? Are they trying to clean something up? So it goes into those different ways that you can take care of the earth, but in a deeper level. All of these lessons, by the way, you can find in my TBT shop, Naomi Meredith, and I have a ton of research that is already in there for these types of projects, these project-based learning types of things, where it’s already researched for you, has those graphic organizers, where it takes them on that path of ways that they can take care of the earth.

This next one is really interesting and it’s a type of pollution that kids might not have thought of, but in this next STEM lesson, students are creating a podcast that will teach others about what light pollution is and why it is harmful. This whole lesson actually stemmed from when I was getting my master’s in STEM leadership, and this was one of the topics that we could create a lesson about, and I was really, I actually didn’t know too much about light pollution, where it’s when you look out in the night sky, depending on where you live, and if you can see the stars or not, it’s the human light that is actually causing disruption in lots of different ways, whether it’s sleep, it’s in animals’ patterns and how they behave, all the, there’s different types of things light pollution plays into. So students will research about this lesser-known pollution and then create a podcast that’s a couple minutes long, they create the script to teach others about it in ways that you can help solve it.

Especially for your older students, if they’ve done lessons every year about taking care of the Earth, which is very important, mixing it up with a topic like this they might not know a lot about really does keep their engagement, and at the same time, you’re teaching them how to podcast. Now, I already shared with you the five lessons, but if you want a little bulletin board that you can hang up during this time or any time of year, this one was really fun for me to put together, but it’s a bulletin board and has a smiling Earth, and it says inventions that our Earth loves, and it’s different types of inventions that help take care of the Earth, like solar panels, wind turbines, even as simple as reusable water bottles. So there’s all these little hearts that surround the Earth that encourages kids to think about, oh, there’s inventions that are creating good and making our Earth happy.

Which of these lessons would you try in your classroom? Like I said, you can grab these in my TPT shop, Naomi Meredith, where everything is all ready to go for you, so you don’t have to think about the research or the things for you to talk about, and you can dive into helping students realize there are lots of ways out there that they can help take care of the Earth and even take action today. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith or send me an email to elementarystemcoachpodcast at gmail.com. Also, make sure to check out my website NaomiMeredith.com to see all the show notes from today’s episode and shop my K-5 STEM resources.

Any questions you have, needs for resources, or ideas for episodes, get in touch. I’ll talk to you soon.

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!

Easy Valentine’s Day STEM Activities to Try [ep.189]

Easy Valentine’s Day STEM Activities to Try [ep.189]

Check out the full episode about easy Valentine’s Day STEM activities:

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform. Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast

 

Episode Summary

Whether you are planning a classroom Valentine’s Day party or looking for some fun, themed lessons, you’re going to love this episode! There are a variety of activities in this episode that you can implement for Valentine’s Day that are low-prep, but highly engaging. You most likely have most of these materials already in your classroom!

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: 

Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

If you’re looking for some easy, low prep, Valentine’s Day STEM activities, you are in the right place. I have a collection of STEM activities that you can implement right now and you most likely already have the materials or you can grab them very, very quickly. So let’s jump in.

I know it’s been a little while since I’ve had a new episode, just a week or two. I was having some technical difficulties on my end. I record in Zoom and there were some things where they had to fix the video and you’re listening to the audio right now and you’re like, it doesn’t really matter, I’m listening.

But 99% of my episodes, I actually simultaneously record the video and end up using those clips in different ways. And I was having issue where it was super, super pixelated. I did everything that I could and then I actually had to message the support team and they had to fix some things for me.

So I’m really, really hoping that the quality of the video comes out a lot better because it was not looking good. So here we are. I am currently in the last week of my K through five STEM long-term subbing.

And I am recording this on Monday. The episode comes out on Tuesday because I wanted you to hear this in real time. And the things I’m gonna talk about, like I said in the intro, are very, very easy and things that you can implement very quickly because I did.

I planned them in the morning and I figured it out that afternoon. So it’s very simple. You can modify as needed and the kids will have a lot of fun.

Back to the subbing. If you’re wondering how that went, I do have an episode in the works, but in the meantime, feel free to email me or send me a DM on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore and ask me whatever questions I should answer on that episode because my experience was very unique. It was about four months and a little bit different than what a long-term STEM sub might be like.

And so I wanna hear what you wanna know and I will talk about it in a very near episode. Also, if you want some more February-themed STEM activities, I have some other episodes you can check out after this one. Make sure to go back and listen to episode 55 where I have five STEM activities for February.

Then also check out episode 58 where I have three Black History Month STEM activities for you to try. So those definitely go along with what I’m gonna be talking about today. The first STEM challenge that you can do that is Valentine’s Day-themed is this candy heart STEM basket challenge.

I went over to Target today and went and bought some of those sweetheart candies. You could use some plastic ones or you could even make some paper ones if you really wanted to try this in a different way or even 3D print some. But I have those little candy hearts and students are challenged with creating a basket that will hold as many hearts as possible.

To build the baskets, again, you can use anything else that you have on hand. I am going to use straws, masking tape, pipe cleaners, and pieces of cardboard. In fact, I’m gonna be teaching this this afternoon at my STEM Explorers Club.

The kids are gonna build their baskets first and then I will give them the candy where they can see how many fit inside. I most likely will give them one piece of candy so that they can test to see if the candy will slide out, how big the holes are in their design. So this can be a quick one day STEM challenge or if you wanna go a little bit longer and really go through the engineering design process, you definitely could.

I do have a TPT product that goes through that whole process from the planning stages all the way to the share. So again, it could be a quick one day STEM challenge like I’m doing in 45 minutes or you could extend it for a couple of days. The next Valentine’s Day STEM activity is implementing an engineer inspiration board.

I have a variety of these engineer inspiration boards that are themed for every month and for every major holiday and super, super easy, again, to implement. I like to display the inspiration board. I’m using the Valentine’s Day themed one.

I like to display it on the board and it’s all these fun little things that relate to Valentine’s Day that are kid appropriate like chocolate, teddy bears, a Valentine, a mailbox and using the materials I put out, I usually will put out Lego bricks, different types of cubes. I’ve done pattern blocks before. Students create these images in a way that they think makes sense.

So it might seem, oh, that’s too simple. They’ll always do the same thing. They really don’t.

They do change it up all the time. My group last week actually made really cute hearts out of Lego bricks that I lined them up on the shelf. I need to take a picture before I put them away.

They are so cute and I actually showed the kids. I have a picture of myself from last year standing next to a giant Lego heart myself and they could not believe it. It was these big giant Lego bricks at this event I went to, super cool.

And so then the kids all started building them. So that was really, really fun. Depending on how the class goes, I might show this video at the end or at the beginning but I love the video by SciShow Kids where they show how they create glass candy hearts.

I don’t do this experiment with kids. It’s with hot sugar. They have to do some melting.

You could do this with your own children at home but it’s a really cool experiment for kids to watch and the candy actually looks pretty good. So again, a very, very easy thing to implement. If you don’t want to display the board on the screen, you could even print them out smaller and have this at a STEM station.

Speaking of STEM stations, here are four easy STEM stations. Again, that are Valentine’s themed that your kids will love. And in fact, my students love them so much.

I ended up having a choice day. So I did STEM stations for two days. They did, there’s four stations.

They did two each day. And then on the third day, because I see the same kids five days in a row, on the third day, they actually got to choose their two favorite stations. So they really, really enjoyed these and they were very easy to set up for kids to clean up, to implement.

I took video of me setting them up because they were that easy. When I do the two stations a day, I like to take their pictures when they’re at their second station and upload them to Seesaw. So on the next day, when we do the two other stations, I put their picture up on the screen and I say, if you see your face, you have to stand up and you’ll go to the next station.

And they never know what the picture’s gonna look like the day before. So you think it’s so funny when they see their own face. So that’s a fun way to keep track of your STEM stations in a less informal way.

I don’t know all their names. It’s actually been really, really helpful to do it this way. I like to plan my STEM stations with each letter of STEM.

So an S, science, T, technology, E, engineering, and M, math. There is some overlap with these STEM stations, but you can do them in any order. You could change what goes where, but this is like how I like to think through stations and make sure I have a balance of activities.

For the science station, some of you commented on my Instagram stories when I posted a video about this, but it was a ping pong roll. All you need for this station are Kiva style planks. So Kiva planks are a brand, but there are many other brands that are very similar.

Have those wooden planks, plastic straws that have not been touched, so clean brand new straws, and ping pong balls. I had pink ping pong balls that I drew hearts on and the kids were obsessed about that little detail. What kids are going to do is with those wooden planks, they are going to build a maze on the floor.

Then using the straw, they’re going to blow through the straw and try to move the ping pong ball through their maze. Now you might be thinking, oh my gosh, what do they do with the straw? How do you make sure they don’t keep it? Here was my little trick. At the end of the STEM station, when it was time to clean up, that station was the first station I went to and I said, hey, hold your straw in the air.

So all the kids hold their straw in the air. It was on the floor, they had to pick it up. They’re all holding the straw in the air.

And then I had a trash can right at their station that they had to all go. And I physically watched every single one of them throw their straw away before they cleaned up anything else. I also had six ping pong balls at that station.

They had to count and make sure all six were there before they rotated. So they couldn’t say, oh, I lost it. If they lost track of the ball, they have to go find it.

And I haven’t lost any since. So that is a good strategy to keep track of their materials. They really, really liked this station.

Someone also asked me, was there a lot of spit? There really wasn’t. They were very careful and understood. You didn’t have to blow very hard for the ping pong ball to roll.

So it was totally fine. It wasn’t gross. It was safe.

Everything was good to go. For the technology station, again, very, very easy. I found a website that was online tangrams.

There are quite a few options. I was trying to find more specifically Valentine’s Day. There are, I’ve seen online, different Valentine’s themed cards you could do for this, but I wanted some technology.

So the kids would scan the QR code. I taught them how to scan a QR code, kindergarten through second grade. And they scan that QR code that took them to the Tangrams website.

What I liked about it is that they could tap on the iPad to turn the shapes and then move them where they wanted. If they were a little bit close, then there was a solve button that they could click and it would show them what the answers were. So there was a couple like Valentine-y type shapes.

There was a swan, a heart, there was a boat. So you could make it Valentine-y themed. Kind of a close connection, not exact, but they really enjoyed it.

And most kids actually hadn’t done Tangrams before. And this was a good challenge for them for their spatial awareness and their focus and even some technology skills and not giving up when things are hard. So I definitely recommend adding in Tangrams, whether it’s the physical ones or a digital platform that is self-checking.

I also really have enjoyed using Tangrams that are on the Osmo app, which I know for a bit you couldn’t use the app, but then maybe it’s back. The classroom I’m in doesn’t have enough of that kit. So I couldn’t implement the Osmos for a STEM station.

So that’s why I use the iPads, which again, this was a website. So this is all linked in the show notes, by the way, everything that I’m talking about. So you could use this on a Chromebook and be just fine.

For the E for Engineering station, kind of similar but different to the ping pong ball one is the students were creating heart marble mazes. I had six Lego base plates at the station, six marbles and a bucket of mixed Lego bricks. And students were challenged to create a heart that a marble could roll through and have a clear start and finish.

This actually took a lot longer than they thought. And the kids came up with some really cool things in their mazes. Use some of those doors where the marble could roll through and then they would close the door so the marble couldn’t go backwards.

They would use the pieces in creative ways. They added little ramps. It was so cute to see all of their designs and a lot of fun.

I would say the hardest part about this station is the cleanup because they get very into their maze. They want to save their design. I do not have kids save their work very often, but I will let them take it home by taking a picture.

So there weren’t enough iPads to leave at the station for them to do this. So I would go to that station, take a picture real quick on my phone and seesaw and then just upload it to their profile. So that’s a really good strategy as well.

You have a lot less tears because they know their work is saved in some way and their family can see it. And the last Valentine’s STEM station that you can try is having Cuisinere Rod Hearts. I don’t know if I’m saying that name correctly.

This is the first time I have seen this math manipulative, which I had found in this teacher’s closet. And the Cuisinere, Cuisinere, I am so sorry. You might be yelling at the audio right now, like this is how you say it, Naomi.

I’m sorry, I don’t know. And I didn’t look it up before recording this. But you have those little manipulatives and they’re cool because they’re measured in centimeters.

So if you stack one of each kind in a whole row, it makes like a staircase and they’re all different colors, but depending on the size, they have a specific color. So it’s not random. So the one centimeter cubes are all a lighter white color.

So at this station, you probably guessed it. They are building hearts with these little rods. And then after they built their heart, they had to count and write how many of each color that they used.

If you wanted to add even more math to this to make it more advanced, you could have students even add up the measurements and create a total amount of their heart. So you could even challenge what is the greatest length of your heart that you could build. That’s not a great way of wording that, but you know what I’m saying.

So they build a heart and then they line up all of the rods and they could add up all the measurements. They don’t technically need a ruler. They could, if you don’t tell them the measurements, they could figure out what the measurement is, then build the heart.

Then they add up all of the measurements of the rods. That could actually take all day if you have plenty for all the kids. That would definitely be really good for your third, fourth, and fifth graders, as a matter of fact.

But for kindergarten through second grade, I had them just count and write how many of each color. And they really liked using these as a building tool. They said they had never seen these before.

And it was a good thing to add to your classroom. Like I said, it’s something I hadn’t seen before, but something I’m gonna be looking for either on Amazon or Facebook Marketplace, because this can actually be a really great building tool in your STEM space. I hope you enjoyed these easy to implement Valentine’s Day STEM stations.

These are things that I plan really quickly on a sticky note and the kids really, really love them. I did them all last week and I am implementing them again this week. So if you try any of these in your classroom, feel free to tag me on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore.

I would love to see how the kids love it. And for any materials that I’m talking about or specific lesson plans, those are linked in the show notes. So you don’t have to take copious notes.

Maybe you already did. And you’re like, oh man, I already did. But those are all linked in the show notes for you.

So you can try these fun STEM themed activities in your classroom. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, or send me an email to elementarystemcoachpodcast at gmail.com. Also, make sure to check out my website, naomimeredith.com to see all the show notes from today’s episode and shop my K-5 STEM resources.

Any questions you have, needs for resources, or ideas for episodes, get in touch. I’ll talk to you soon.

 

 

 

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!

Snow STEM Challenges: A Week of Lessons [ep.188]

Snow STEM Challenges: A Week of Lessons [ep.188]

snow-stem-challenges-1

Check out the full episode about snow STEM challenges:

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Episode Summary

It seems like January is the cold winter month where you are stuck inside, in many parts of the world, trying to keep your students entertained. Take this as a great opportunity to help students make connections to their environment and plan out STEM lessons that are connected to snow! In this episode, I’ll be sharing with you a variety of lessons you can do over the course of a week, or if you see classes once a week, that will take you the entire month. 

Snapshot of the week: 

  • Day 1: Winter-Themed All About Me Brick
  • Day 2: Igloos
  • Day 3 & 4: Snowy STEM Stations
  • Day 5: Sleds

Resources Mentioned:

Day 1: Winter-Themed All About Me Brick

Day 2: Igloos

Day 3 & 4: STEM Stations

 

  • Technology: Snowflake Geoboards

 

  • Engineering: Engineer Inspiration Boards

 

  • Math: Snowman Measurement or States of Matter

Day 5: Sleds

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: 

Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

It seems like January has the actual cold winter months and you are stuck inside and trying to keep your students entertained. This is a great opportunity to create STEM experiences for your students that actually connect to what is happening to the weather outside in a lot of places in the world in the winter. Not all, but a lot of you are listening.

This will really resonate with you. In this episode, I’m going to be sharing with you a variety of snow-themed lessons that you can use over the course of a week or if you only see students one day out of the week, you could actually do this the whole entire month. Before I jump in, I received a really sweet audio message from one of you and I want you to take a listen.

Hi, Naomi. My name’s Kathleen and I’m a teacher who just got back into teaching after an 18-year break of working in a STEM career, which was in the electrical industry part of the time as an electrician. Now I’m back in the classroom and I’m teaching homeschool kids as part of a school district program alternative learning environment and my kids are K-3, so five to nine years old.

I really appreciate your podcasts and I’ve subscribed through Audible and I’m just saying thank you so much for all that you’re doing and all of the ideas that you’re sharing and I love your energy. Thank you. Please keep it up.

Thank you so much. I love getting these audio messages. They pop up into my email and it’s always a very nice surprise.

You can also record an audio question or if you want to say thank you as well, you could do that at NaomiMeredith.com slash voice. You can do this off of your phone, off of a computer. It’s very user-friendly and you don’t need to set up anything fancy to record.

As stated in the title, this is a week’s worth of snow-themed lessons and I want to do more episodes like this one because there’s a variety of teachers who teach STEM who listen to this podcast. Some of you teach consecutive days where you see the same kids in a row, but a lot of you also teach one day a week and by the end of the week, you teach the whole entire school. So it’s really great to have a variety of lessons for this type of episode and I have more planned.

This is a very thematic type of episode, meaning it is all going to go into a theme. Of course, there are standards that are connected to it. So if you need some fun filler activities or you’re looking for some sub plan ideas or if you have a really weird week coming up, then these lessons work great.

The ones that I’m going to be sharing, I am actually currently teaching right this second in my K-2 STEM classes in my long-term subposition right now. You could do this with any kids or adopt as needed, take and choose what you need, but everything’s going to be linked in the show notes. When you see the show notes for the episode, click on that link that goes to my website because I list out everything.

And a lot of times I’ll also add pictures and other videos that are related. So definitely check that out. And I’m going to be taking some videos and sharing them over on my social media platforms at Naomi Meredith underscore.

So follow one, if not all, and you could see even more behind the scenes as it relates to these snowy lessons that I will be sharing. You could teach these in any order. I personally mix them up for myself because I’m teaching this with K-2 because I am the sub and they’re probably not going to see these lessons again, maybe with the teacher.

I’ll share them with her, but they are new to me kids. I am new to them. And I typically teach different things for every grade level, but since I’ve never met them before and I’m not the regular teacher, I’m doing the same thing.

So I actually mix up the order to keep my interests and what I’m teaching exciting for me. And some of the things I will add and take away based on if we have a snow day or there’s some school event, a few of them, not all the classes can do just based on what we have going on that week. I always try to make sure the students do the STEM stations because I feel like the behaviors and the management is way better.

And the kids are a lot calmer in stations because they are in very structured and smaller groups. They tend to do a lot better. And often in the regular classrooms in K-2, they often do stations anyway.

So that’s a process they are used to. So I take upon that and then add that into my instructions. So if anything, I will almost always do the STEM stations because those always work out really well.

All right, so let’s get into it. On day one, I’ve been doing my All About Me brick build, the winter edition, and it is winter themed, not holiday specific. The questions are related to cold and snow.

So if you live in a place that doesn’t have that, especially during the winter time, it might be really hard for the kids to connect to. For example, some of the questions relate to warm, fuzzy socks, wishing for a snow day, or drinking hot cocoa. So if that’s not typical for your winter time, maybe don’t do this lesson.

All you need for this activity, it’s very easy, but you need to have a bunch of mixed Lego bricks and in buckets around the classroom. They give me at the table groups. And what you’re going to do is you are going to read the question displayed on the board, and then students are going to grab the Lego bricks that it’s asking to grab if it’s true about them.

For example, if the question is, grab five blue Lego bricks if you have ever been sledding. And the kids get all excited. They talk about it.

They grab their five blue Lego bricks, and they have them off to the side. If it’s not true about them, they just sit and wait for the next question. I try to write questions that are pretty general enough where students will be able to answer yes to most of them.

But just keep that in mind as well. You can have students wait to build with the Lego bricks that they collect, or they could build with the Lego bricks along the way. There is also a page where if you want to add a digital component, students can take a picture of their final design and add it to Seesaw.

And then there is a place for students to write a little bit more about what they created. On day two, you’re going to talk about something that you can build in the snow for fun, or even some people live in them, not as common, but they can, and you’re going to be talking about igloos. You can talk a lot about the engineering of igloos and how they stay warm.

And I also like to show this little video clip over on YouTube. Again, this is all linked in the show notes. But it’s a clip from an episode where Curious George builds an igloo.

There is a part two where Curious George wants to save the igloo and take it inside. So I actually show that at the end of class. If kids are doing a good job on this project, this one big project, if they clean up fast, I’ll show them part two.

Just a little thing about this. I thought second grade wouldn’t like this episode. They really did.

They actually did not mind it was Curious George. So if you’re doing this with K through two, it works really well. After we watch part one, where Curious George builds the igloo, and they actually talk about some strategies on how to build it, then students build their own little igloo.

I’ve done this a couple of ways, depending on what materials I have. I have used different types of bricks in my classroom. So I had wooden planks.

I had foam cubes. I had different foam blocks or unifix cubes. So I set out a variety for students to choose from where they could mix and match and build their igloo.

I also provide little small paper plates where they can actually build around that paper plate or use it as the top of their igloo depending on how they build it. Sometimes I will put out those little counting bears where they can have little characters inside of their igloos. They really enjoy that piece.

The classroom that I’m in right now doesn’t have as many building materials. So I pulled out the Lego bricks again. And that worked out just fine as well.

For day three and four. This is when we get into the snowy STEM station. And if you haven’t heard me talk about STEM stations before, I like to plan stations with each letter of the letter of STEM.

So a science, technology, engineering and math station. There is often a lot of overlap with these stations. And that is totally okay.

But for my brain, it really helps me make sure that I have a variety of tasks. And if I want to add technology, I try to mix it up where the kids have maybe half technology, half off screen activities, or at least one technology piece. Just so like I said, it’s a variety of things for kids to work on.

For keeping track of which stations the students are at, I’ve done this also a couple of ways. I do have some slides where I keep track of the students and what station they are at. I type out what station they are and their students’ names.

And I move the text box to which station they’re going to rotate through. It isn’t always in the order of the word STEM. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t, just depending on where I want them to go.

Right now with my long-term K-5 STEM subbing, I don’t know all of their names. I have sometimes gone around and just asked their names really quick. But it also, you know, it takes a while depending on what behaviors are happening.

So what I’ve been doing at their second, their number two station is I’ve been just going around taking a picture of them, have the group smile at me. And I have a class list with all of their pictures. So then I’ve been uploading that picture into Seesaw.

And then on the second day, when they rotate, because I only do two stations a day, two today, two tomorrow. On the second day, I actually have pulled up Seesaw and I told the kids, if you see your face, then you are going to stand up and then go to your next station. They actually really liked this way.

I just tried it. They thought it was so funny because they actually didn’t know what the picture looked like. And they were just giggling at what they looked like in their picture.

And then it was just another evidence of what we were doing in class. So that was actually a really great method. I’m going to keep doing that with these kids.

And it’s actually helped me learn a lot more of their names. Like I said, I do two stations a day. So two the first day, two the next, it doesn’t matter what order they go in.

If they’re absent, oh well, they just will do the stations they will do there that day. So the first day of stations, we start off with a video and I show them the SciShow Kids video, how a snowflake is formed. And then I go through and quickly teach the kids how to do the stations in detail.

I actually physically go to the station. I will show them what materials are there. I will show them an example of how to do it.

None of these are super complicated. Sometimes my stations are very teacher led. Sometimes they are not just depending on what I want them to do.

The more directions you have, the more complicated it’s going to be for kids and think about their level of independence. So if it’s going to take me forever to explain, probably not the best STEM station. At the Science Station, we did toothpick snowflakes.

You could add in modeling clay, you could add in those little cotton swabs, but students are going to build snowflakes that are symmetrical and lots of different designs. I have a little mat for the students to build on. And the cool thing too about stations, it doesn’t take a lot of prep after you do the first round of prep, and I don’t make a lot of copies.

So they have a little mat that I created that is in my TPT shop where they could build their snowflake on. Those are in page protectors. And I have a little bucket of Expo markers and erasers.

They’re just pieces of fabric they can erase with. And they can build their snowflakes using the toothpicks. You can add in Crayola modeling clay that doesn’t dry out to stick the toothpicks together.

Or like I said, you could use the cotton swabs, but they are building snowflakes at this station. You could add a technology piece where they take a picture of their design in Seesaw. That is up to you and the level of the technology use that you want to have.

The technology station is snowflake geoboards. I actually use technology at this station, but you could use real geoboards as well. What I did for the technology piece is I taught students how to scan a QR code that would take them to the geoboard website.

Now the geoboard website, it’s free to use. It works well on an iPad. It works well on computers.

I’ve done both ways. And I will link that in the show notes for you, the one that I recommend. There is an iPad app that is also free.

Again, I don’t have access to add apps to the student devices, but it doesn’t hurt to teach kids how to scan a QR code. That actually is a great skill of going into the camera role, even turning on the iPad, actually teach students how to do that. I am going to be creating a video on how I teach kids how to scan a QR code and they can do it independently.

And so they scan the QR code, it takes them to the geoboard website, and they build their snowflakes using that app. If you wanted to use real geoboards, much like the snowflake station, you could have students take a picture in Seesaw or any other application that you use of their snowflake design. For the e-engineering station, I have pulled up on my screen one of my engineer inspiration boards.

And the one that I chose for this station is all about ski resorts because a lot of the kids in this school have experience being at a ski resort or they know what it is because I live in Colorado. Most kids know what a ski resort is, but I have other themes as well. I have a January themed board.

I have all the months, February, March. I also have a Valentine’s Day board. Sometimes I’ve actually switched out the boards just based on when I see a class.

I will do that too. So you could do that as well. And the kids have Lego bricks or whatever building materials you want them to use.

And they built the items in their own creative way that are up on that board. If you don’t want to display the board digitally, you can even print out these boards in smaller sizes. They come in a full sheet size, half page and quarter page.

I’ve seen teachers actually print out all of them from the bundle, the quarter page, cut them, and then put them on a binder ring. That actually works really well where you have all of the themes ready to go. And for the math station, it is all about snowman height.

On day two of the stations, I actually played the video by SciShow Kids of how to build a snowman. Again, my students have a lot of experience building snowmen just based on where we live. But again, depending on where you live, they might need some more background knowledge.

And using Play-Doh, they are building different snowmen of different heights. So I have containers of Play-Doh for the kids to use. You could even create your own if you needed to.

There’s a lot of great salt dough recipes that are pretty inexpensive to make. But they have Play-Doh at that station. And I also have one inch Unifix cubes and a mat for the kids to build and write on.

And they have to build the snowman of different heights, maybe the tallest snowman, the shortest, or however they have to measure the height of their snowman and of how many cubes tall. You could put rulers at this station, depending on your student’s experience with measurements. I also recommend having trays.

They look like lunch trays or those crafting trays. There’s a lot of different options. I’ll link a few in the show notes for you.

If you’re using Play-Doh, just because over time it gets a little crumbly, you want to have kids to visually see. This is, I play on the tray. That’s what I say, we play on the tray.

And that’s really helpful too in cleanup because if there’s crumbs, they could take the big ball of Play-Doh, smash the little crumbs, and then they can dump out the rest. I show them how to do that. I also leave like a little broom and dustpan.

And I tell one kid if they want to sweep at the end while we’re waiting to clean up, there’s usually a kid who’s very excited to do this. So that’s a really great hack as well. If you want to go in a different direction of the states of matter for this station, you definitely can.

I have a mat where the kids will build the different stages of a snowman that go along with the states of matter. And I actually like to use the book, The Snowy Day for this, because in that book, there are a lot of different ways the states of matter appear. So instead of watching that video, you could even read that book.

It’s pretty quick. There’s a great animated one on YouTube. So you could take that station a couple different directions.

And if you need a fifth day of lessons, there’s been one week I’ve had the kids for five days in a row. This one is all about sled building. There is a great video on SciShow Kids all about the fastest sled and how it relates to friction.

So there’s some good science connections. And then I use Lego bricks for in class, but also for my STEM Explorers Club, my afterschool clubs that I host at different schools. We use popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, and masking tape to create a skier, a snowboarder, and a sled.

But we use Lego bricks in class. And I had big sheets of cardboard that were already cut. And students created their sled, skier, or snowboarder to go down the hill.

And one of challenges I pose to them is what happens when you make the cardboard really high, really steep, and really low? Does it change how your sled moves? And some kids naturally will start racing. So again, very low prep. They really like this one.

Don’t let the kids keep the cardboard. But if you pre-cut cardboard that you have big sheets, like the thicker cardboard, have a stack of those. And those work out great.

Or those trays from the day before, flip them over so there’s no ridges. And those could be your sled hills too. I hope this gives you some great ideas of snowy theme lessons that you can add into your STEM instruction.

Feel free to tag me on the socials if you try any or all of them in your classroom. I would love that. And of course, everything is linked in the show notes.

Make sure to click on the link that goes to my website because it’s more detailed, very specific on what I talked about and what order. So you don’t have to go searching or take very copious notes while you listen to me. Just sit and relax.

Listen to my wonderful voice. And the show notes have you covered. I hope you enjoyed this type of episode and planning on doing more of these week-long ideas to help you out.

So let me know if there’s a topic you want me to cover, and I will add it to my recording list. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the elementary STEM coach podcast. I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, or send me an email to elementary STEM coach podcast at gmail.com. Also make sure to check out my website, Naomi Meredith.com to see all the show notes from today’s episodes and shop my K through five STEM resources.

Any questions you have needs for resources or ideas for episodes, get in touch. I’ll talk to you soon.

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!