Home » Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Category: Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Lessons for Starting A STEAM Program with K-4 STEAM Teachers from Ladue School District [ep. 217]

Lessons for Starting A STEAM Program with K-4 STEAM Teachers from Ladue School District [ep. 217]

lessons-for-starting-a-steam-program

Check out the full episode on lessons for starting a STEAM program:  

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

In this episode, I’m joined by four elementary STEAM teachers who worked together to build a brand-new K–4 STEAM program across their district: Kristina Lodes, Jenny Bradley, Miranda Berry, and Mary Linneman. 

We’re chatting about what that process actually looked like—from defining their roles and creating a curriculum to working with a budget, using materials they already had, and figuring out how to fit robotics, coding, engineering, makerspace, 3D printing, and more into a meaningful learning experience for students.

You’ll also hear about some of the biggest successes they’ve had along the way, including STEM Survival Camp, 3D printing, digital portfolios, and their district-wide STEAM Fest and Recycled Runway. Most importantly, they share how collaboration, having a strong starting point, and being willing to adapt lessons for their own students helped make an overwhelming process feel much more manageable.

Whether you’re brand new to teaching STEM or STEAM, helping build a program from scratch, or looking for ways to strengthen the program you already have, this conversation is packed with real-life ideas and encouragement you can use in your own STEM 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.

 

 

Meet Kristina Lodes

Kristina Lodes is an experienced Missouri educator with 22 years dedicated to driving innovation and student success in the classroom. She spent 16 years as a 3rd, 4th, and 5th-grade classroom teacher in the Francis Howell School District, serving 9 of those years as an Instructional Technology Lead. She later joined the Ladue School District as a Technology Specialist and Digital Learning Coach, supporting educators and students with meaningful tech integration.

Kristina holds a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education alongside a STEM Certificate. Now in her second year as a STEAM Specialist in Ladue, she teaches K–4 STEAM, empowering young learners through hands-on inquiry, creative design, and problem-solving.

Connect with Kristina on Instagram: @Spoedesteam

 

Meet Jenny Bradley 

Jenny is an experienced educator with over 15 years in education. She is currently in her second year as an elementary STEAM teacher. Her background includes a decade of foundational experience as a 4th-grade teacher and 3 years as a digital learning coach, supported by a Master’s degree in Educational Technology. Throughout her coaching and teaching roles, Jenny has dedicated herself to supporting teachers and students in using technology in meaningful ways to enhance instruction and boost engagement, while actively guiding students and staff on their digital citizenship journey to use technology safely, ethically, and responsibly.

She is passionate about providing hands-on opportunities for students to build, create, and innovate. Her goal is to foster a nonjudgmental learning atmosphere where students can safely experience failure, build perseverance, problem-solve through challenges, and fearlessly try new things.

Connect with Jenny on Instagram: @reed_steam_lab

 

Meet Miranda Berry 

Miranda Berry is a passionate and energetic educator with 11 years of experience, now serving as a STEAM Specialist in the Ladue School District. She spent 8 years as a Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd-grade classroom teacher in Ladue before transitioning into her current role. Miranda holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education, along with a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education with an emphasis in Reading. Now in her second year leading a dynamic STEAM program, she thrives on sparking student curiosity, pushing creative boundaries, and guiding young learners down exciting new paths to discover just how capable they really are! When she’s not in the classroom, you can find her enjoying time with her dog and cat, Sadie and Blu, traveling with her husband, Dallas, or on the field coaching high school girls’ lacrosse!

Connect with Miranda on Instagram: @ob_steamlab

 

Meet Mary Linneman

Mary Linneman is a passionate Missouri educator with over a decade of dedication to fostering curiosity and academic growth in the classroom. She spent the first 9 years of her career as a 3rd-grade teacher at Conway Elementary in the Ladue School District, cultivating a vibrant, engaging learning environment for her students.

Mary holds a Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction for Elementary Education. Building on her extensive classroom experience, she helped pioneer Ladue’s new STEAM program, working collaboratively to design and launch the district’s K–4 STEAM curriculum from the ground up. Now in her second year as Conway Elementary’s STEAM teacher, Mary is dedicated to inspiring young minds through creative problem-solving, hands-on exploration, and innovative design.

Connect with Mary on Instagram: @conwaysteamlab

 

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.

 

All right, so thank you everyone for being here today. This is a really, really special episode and when I’m creating lessons, I always know that the lessons work for my students with trial and error. They’ve been taught a lot of times and I post it in my shop.

 

I post about it on social media, but I don’t always hear how it’s going with your own students. And I know you guys are using them to say, thank you, whatever, but I don’t always hear all the details. And so this episode is really special because especially if you’re watching the video version, there’s a lot of us here on this interview.

 

So I’m going to have everybody introduce themselves and we’ll get into about STEM lessons and how things that I’ve created are being used in other classrooms. So I’ll call on each of you and you guys can introduce yourselves really quick. All right, how about Jenny? You want to go first? Hi, my name is Jenny Bradley.

 

This is my 15th year in education, second year as an elementary STEAM teacher. Prior to teaching STEAM, I taught fourth grade for 10 years. And then I was a digital learning coach for three years, supporting staff and students in integrating and using technology and meaningful ways in their classroom to enhance instruction, increase engagement for students.

 

And now I’m in the STEAM position, which was really exciting. Awesome. Thank you.

 

Mary, do you want to go? Sure. Yes. I’m Mary Linneman and I teach STEAM at Conway Elementary in Ladue School District, which is in Missouri.

 

We’re all in the same district. And this is, yeah, also my second year teaching STEAM. The program started last year.

 

And then prior to that, I was teaching third grade at the same school for nine years. So it’s been a great transition. Awesome.

 

Miranda? Yeah, I’m Miranda Berry. And as I mentioned, I’m also a STEAM specialist here at O’Bottom Elementary in Ladue. And I have been in education for 11 years.

 

The last two years, counting this year, was in STEAM. And I really have that primary focus. So I’ve taught kindergarten, I’ve taught first grade, and I’ve taught second grade.

 

And so really that primary focus. And then, yeah, we have just been having so much fun with the STEAM program. But yeah, it’s a little bit about me.

 

All right, Christina? Hi, I’m Christina Lotus. This is my 22nd year in education. I started in Francis Howell at Central Elementary and was a classroom teacher for 16 years, teaching third, fourth, and fifth grade.

 

Then I came over to Ladue and was in kind of a coaching role, digital learning coach, for about four years. And then this is my second year teaching STEAM at Spady Elementary. I love.

 

So if any of you listening, you’re like, oh my gosh, I’m just getting into STEAM or STEM. Everyone has a background in education and teaching. So that plays a really big role in what you’re doing.

 

And these ladies know each other. So they’re not just random teachers that just popped in on this interview. They all know each other.

 

And Jenny reached out about what, we’ll get into it as well. But so what, like, how do you guys know each other? So does someone want to explain that? Sure. Yeah.

 

So we’re all in the same district. So our district has four elementary schools, and they are all K-4. And so we’re all just at the elementary schools.

 

And the STEAM program was started in our district last year. So I mean, before we had the STEAM class, teachers were just encouraged to do it in their classrooms, to integrate it into their lessons. And that was challenging, of course, for all of the things that are already on classroom teachers plates.

 

And so then we started the STEAM program, and we all got hired at our respective buildings. And then we just started working really closely together. And some of us worked closely together before this.

 

I know Jenny and Christina had a similar role before the STEAM position, if you guys wanted to mention that. Yeah. So Christina and I were digital learning coaches here in Lidu School District prior to teaching STEAM.

 

So we collaborated and worked closely together often. For some of those years, Christina was between two buildings. I was between the other two buildings.

 

But we would still plan and work together and talk about different strategies for supporting our staffs, for supporting our students. We also planned STEAM days across all four of our elementary buildings. So planning different makerspace and robotics challenges for our students to participate in, and a really fun, just full day of STEAM.

 

Awesome. This is like not the main focus of this podcast, but having people to collaborate, especially since most STEM or STEAM teachers are the only ones in their buildings, finding people to collaborate is such a blessing if you’re in the same district, because those district initiatives you can chat about together. But there are people who are teaching these programs might be in a smaller school.

 

So even reaching across districts can be really helpful. But having a team can really make it a lot easier, especially if you’re so used to being a classroom teacher back in the day, you have a team, you’re used to that collaboration, it can really definitely make a difference. But that’s a side note, because we’re going to actually get into building up your STEM program, which the collaboration is a part of that.

 

And thinking about this, since it is a newer thing in your district, which I’m so excited, that’s actually great to hear that your district is excited about STEM and STEAM and sees the value in it, because I hear the opposite, but a lot of programs get cut. So it’s great that this is getting started. But thinking of that, what struggles were you finding when building up your STEAM program in your district? Because it was so new, you have all these different backgrounds, but knowing you’re in this role, what were those struggles you’re finding when building them up? Christina? Yeah, when we reflect back, they can kind of fit into like three categories.

 

So we’ll kind of go through those. Role definition was one, content creation, and then budget. I’ll kind of hit on those three.

 

So as Jenny kind of expanded on, we had come from like a digital learning coach position. We also had instructional coaches. And as we evolved as a district, and kind of were going a different direction and wanted to have a STEAM specialist that were more, we focused more on like our time with students, you know, so support directly with students.

 

So we were transitioning from more of a position that supported teachers to more interaction with students. So we wanted to have a smooth transition with that. So we kind of like listed out all the things that we did and thought about what made the most sense to keep as a STEAM specialist role.

 

And so we decided to focus on like our student broadcasts and supporting teachers with technology integration. And then of course our STEAM lessons with our specials rotation. Then we kind of looked at all of the other things that were on there and collaborated with our district administration, our admin assistants, and our content leads, and kind of redistributed everything so that every area was still supported.

 

And once we got to that point, that was awesome. And then we’re like, okay, let’s focus on our content. What are we going to teach with STEAM? And wow, that really became overwhelming very fast.

 

We started kind of looking over all these programs that were developed, but none of them really matched our vision. And a lot of them had a high price tag. So to kind of like commit to a program that was ready to go with all that money, we were looking for something that had a good mix of like robotics, makerspace challenges, student creativity, just open-ended projects, some coding, some 3D printing.

 

We kind of wanted all of that. We also wanted to tie in some science concepts, but we didn’t want that to be the base of our foundation. We wanted to support what teachers were already doing, not replacing it and give students a chance to dive deeper into some of these areas.

 

So not to jump too far ahead, Naomi, but your resource pack was kind of like, yes, this is what we’re looking for. So that was when we found that, that took a huge weight off and we knew we could use, we have used a lot of your lessons as like, you know, not just a starting point, but we’ve adapted several of those and it just really took the pressure off. So then, you know, we have the budget.

 

We were also navigating first starting out. We didn’t really know where the money would be coming from or how much we would have. So we kind of took a conservative approach.

 

We were very lucky to have a lot of resources already that we wanted to utilize so that we didn’t have to buy all new. And a lot of your lessons kind of tied into a lot stuff we already had to. So looking back, you know, we had those huge hurdles, but we’re kind of at a place now where we’re continuing to develop.

 

We think we’re creating something that’s sustainable and just really excited about what we have. Yeah. I’d like to make sure that’s so exciting.

 

I, because what you’re saying, like, well, it’s overwhelming. There’s all this stuff we have to teach. Like it’s not just building, it’s robotics, it’s coding, it’s 3D printing.

 

It’s all of this stuff that you have to fit in. And you also don’t see the same kids every single day. So how can you have that high level learning and everything that you touched upon, but still make it meaningful? And that was exactly my thoughts when I had my space because I had a brand new classroom and zero curriculum.

 

So I had a background in as a classroom teacher, and I know exactly where you’re coming from. You’re like, I didn’t have a budget to buy curriculums. They’re like, here you go.

 

Good luck. I’m like, well, don’t tempt me with a good time. I will figure it out.

 

So that’s really great that, and I’m so glad that my lessons could help you. And we’ll get more into that, like help you find what you were needing based on the materials that you already have and then grow from there. And maybe, I don’t know if you guys have seen this too, based on having your kids for a couple of years now, adapting those lessons based on their skillset also comes into play.

 

Like, oh, the first year we really had to work on some basics. Next year, highlight those basics. But now we can get deeper into those projects and see that progression of learning, which is definitely what I was envisioning when I’m creating things.

 

Like, okay, this is where they’re starting, but here’s how it will grow throughout the years and they can practice those skills. So that’s so exciting to hear. I was like, oh my gosh, you guys.

 

So you mentioned it a little bit, Christina, but Jenny, how did you find my resources and decide that it would be a great fit for you and what you were looking for? Christina mentioned it a little bit, but I think there’s more onto that side. Yeah. So like Christina said, we were pretty overwhelmed.

 

We found out that our district was developing the STEAM program. I think it was maybe end of March. It was sometime in spring.

 

And so this would have been like two springs ago. And we were like, okay, we have to come up with an entire scope and sequence and curriculum, kindergarten through fourth grade by the time we start next school year. And so, again, we’re very fortunate to work in a district that provides us with a lot of resources, a lot of support.

 

So they gave us full days of curriculum writing and planning at the end of that school year and a few days over the summer to meet just the four of us so we could really dig in and develop our curriculum. So in the midst of feeling overwhelmed that spring, I was like, there has to be some resources out there. We’re not the first ones to create a STEAM program at the elementary level.

 

So I started doing a little bit of research online and I have listened to some educational podcasts before and that were really helpful, especially going into a digital learning coach position. And I found your podcast and I was like, oh, this sounds great. I started scrolling through the names of your episodes.

 

And I think it was the first episode was like, I’m a new STEAM teacher. Oh my gosh, it’s speaking to me. So I started listening to it and I was like, okay, this is already helping me to take a deep breath, calm down a little bit.

 

We can do this. And I shared it with our team and I was like, okay, you guys got to listen to Naomi’s podcast. I think it’ll really help give us a starting point and just to help us feel less overwhelmed.

 

Even getting into like your classroom management episodes, your makerspace episodes of how to utilize tools from your podcast. After listening to a few episodes, I continued researching and looking through some of your resources on Teachers Pay Teachers. And like Christina said, a lot of your material already aligned so well with the resources that we have in our district.

 

I think it was your year at a glance or your scope and sequence that I found. And I was looking through it month by month for each grade level. And I was like, okay, you mentioned Sphero Bolts, you mentioned Lego Robotics, you mentioned all these resources that we have access to.

 

And I was like, I think this can really help give us a good starting place without feeling so overwhelmed. One other thing that we were kind of getting stuck on was at this point in the planning, do we need to make sure that we’re aligning with our NGSS science standards or certain math standards, things like that. And I saw that you already had a lot of that connected on your year at a glance.

 

So we’re so appreciative of your resources for really helping to take some of that pressure off and giving us a starting point for developing this program in our district. I’m so glad. You’re welcome.

 

Yeah. And it’s hard too, because every district has different things they’re looking for, the time you have with kids. And yes, you mentioned the standards.

 

It actually kind of helps keep your program good. You’re like, hey, I actually teach standards, you guys. It’s not just a free for all in here.

 

But yeah, when I’ve created everything, it’s so hard creating it, but at the same time, I know other people are feeling the same way as me. I knew that from the beginning. I knew that, but I don’t want to just keep this to myself.

 

If this is going to help somebody else and their students, because it is a lot and it’s overwhelming, but it’s also really fun. If I can help someone else, I’m going to do the work regardless. I had to, you guys do too.

 

But no, that’s exactly why sharing all this, I’m here, I’m with you, I get it, I’m doing it, I understand. And it’s so exciting that it did take that pressure off and you can connect the things that you guys have a vision for, but also have a good starting point to keep moving forward for sure. Also, side note, Jenny, I love seeing my engineering design process poster in the background.

 

That’s so exciting, seeing that hang up like, oh, I know that poster. I know it. So along with that, Miranda, could you tell us some of the successes of your program? And I’m sure you guys chatted about this before, you might see similar things.

 

And what do you love most about it? So tell us all. Yeah, so I mean, we could probably do one episode just on like the successes truly of like, what has come from this last year, because we’ve had so many wins over the last year when this program started. And just like, as they’ve said, just developing it, we felt like we caught like momentum and like we were feeling good about it.

 

And so some of the units specifically that you created that really stuck out to us and that we enjoyed, and the kids really enjoyed and just really took off was the STEM survival camp, which was elite, you know, like the kids loved it, especially the timing of it, like the fall season right about now, and kids are camping, we have, I feel like a lot of kids that enjoy outdoors and enjoy the camp. And so that was a hit. We also love the 3D printing unit, which I’m speaking for myself, I have zero clue how to 3D print.

 

I think I can speak for a lot of us. And so that was amazing. And I like you said, you’re going through it together, like as newbies.

 

And so and a lot of kids were as well. And then your digital citizenship unit, which we take pride in here at Ladue. We want kids to, you know, be safe digital citizens when they’re online and using technology.

 

And then your Maker Month and our systems unit. And so with that STEAM survival, I still have, I brought them, I brought them down, some projects that kids kept. Oh my gosh, look at that little, it’s a, for those of you listening, it’s a shelter.

 

Oh wait, no, that’s Protect the Food. Protect the Food challenge. Yes.

 

And so the kids that maybe didn’t want to take it home, or I was like, please let me keep some to showcase like all the amazing work. But yeah, so that was really good. And I, like I said, I feel like it really tied into a lot of students’ interest in the camping background.

 

And even just like with the Protect the Food and Cross the Bridge and then the Game from the Land. I mean, we could have probably spent a month or two on Game from the Land, girls. I think we talk about it all the time.

 

Like we plan so far in advance for the kids, just because we want them to go deep with it and not just surface level with a lot of those things. So they loved it. And they were just incredibly proud with things that they created.

 

And then your 3D printing series was a lifesaver because I had no idea. I feel like it was very new in our world. And thankfully a lot of kids were starting to dabble in it too.

 

So they actually taught us, which is amazing. And they know a lot of things that maybe we didn’t. And so it was just so fun.

 

And by the end of the unit, we also explored Tinkercad and that is the app that we use to design and like have, especially the older grades, second, third and fourth, they really got to just explore. And we kind of just said, have fun and figure things out. And so they got to design some things and then they eventually printed those things.

 

And then kindergarten and first, we learned about that Tinkercad process. We actually dabbled in Keynote because I feel like they’re very similar in a sense of creating and just more age appropriate for that piece. And then they also got to take home a key chain that was 3D printed and design.

 

And so they loved it. I mean, they just the idea of something being 3D printed and they get to keep it and it is their own. So that was really cool.

 

Gosh, I could go on, but there’s Seesaw. Oh my gosh, Seesaw. So we still use Seesaw to this day.

 

We just really appreciate the connections in every single lesson and every single unit, every grade had a Seesaw connection where they could use it to reflect or use it to upload their work or whatever, maybe or collaborate with other classmates. I think it was also cool for us as teachers to just go through the journals and see what they were creating if we weren’t able to see them that day. Because we have used Seesaw in our district before during COVID.

 

So there’s some strong feelings there about Seesaw, but we’re really hoping that with us using it with all K through 4 students that teachers will receive the value again. And there’s so many amazing updates since COVID and the dashboard is so easy to access. And so we’re really excited to continue to explore that and just have a way for kids to have a digital portfolio online, kind of like a cloud, iCloud based system where they can always keep their things and parents essentially will be able to see those things across their tenure at Ulbonnum.

 

And then I feel like our main finale, so one of our big successes here at WODU was last spring and really it started like last fall, ladies, I believe. Our Director of Technology, Dr. Patricia Brown, had this vision and she’s very much woven in with the STEAM world as well, like with us. She loves technology, loves integration, loves integrating it.

 

She was a Technology Director here, or Technology Coordinator at Ulbonnum. So I kind of worked alongside of her years and years ago, but she wanted to put on this STEAM Fest night. And so we started collaborating very early on.

 

She gathered a lot of students and staff members that really also saw the value in this work. And so we created a STEAM Fest night. It was back in April.

 

And so some of the things that happened was it was just for one night, which I feel like, again, it could be across a week in reality, just because of how much content was in there. But we had it for one evening and our entire community, WODU community, and really outside of WODU, it wasn’t really like if you didn’t go to WODU, you couldn’t go. Like everyone was invited to come, friends, family.

 

If you’re at your friend’s house that night, you could come with them. And so it was jam-packed with just STEAM. I mean, it just like oozed STEAM everywhere you went.

 

And so we had different zones, and there were six zones. And some of those zones entailed AI and digital intelligence, the maker zone, which me and Christina led, that was really fun, like the building and designing. We had the computational thinking zone, which is more like logic and game power, the exploration zone, scientific discovery, creative arts zone, and then a future pathway zone.

 

And what was still very unique is that we also had outside vendors that correlated to this field or any of those fields that could come in and just share the knowledge and share their career fields of like, this is possible. This is what you are very interested in. Like, this is what it can look like in the real world.

 

And so it was a huge hit. And I feel like the timing wasn’t just a coincidence. I feel like this was like a buildup of we want to create this program.

 

And then we have done it for the past year. And then almost like an exclamation mark with STEAM Fest. And it was our first year doing it.

 

And it was just so fun. And yeah, it was a huge hit. And we still talk about it to this day.

 

And we are currently in the planning for STEAM Fest 2 in April of this spring. And so we’re very excited to continue that work and just spread the wealth of all things STEAM. And so those are some successes.

 

I feel like we could talk about it way more. But those are just some of the fun like successes and wins of this year. Like we had way more wins than we had, you know, necessarily failures.

 

But even in those failures, there come wins. And so yeah, it’s been it’s been fun. A lot of wins.

 

Yeah, you guys are done a lot in two years. Sorry to interrupt, but I feel like Christina and Miranda have to share their STEAM Fashion Runway show that appeared at STEAM Fest. Because yeah, this was Christina’s baby.

 

This was her idea. Yeah. I’ve always loved the idea of just making things with recycled materials.

 

And like even as kids, my sister and I were bored one day. And we’re like, let’s make some outfits out of, you know, this cardboard and stuff. And we did a whole little fashion show thing.

 

And then we brought it to our cousins. We had a yearly tradition where we met at a cabin. And my aunt was always like, no screens, no TVs.

 

So at least one of the days we’d have this. We called it a trash fashion show at the time. But I rebranded it to the Recycled Runway to bring to Ladue.

 

And so we had any students, some students could sign up ahead of time saying that they’d make their outfits at home. We had a stage set up. We had music.

 

We announced them. They got to strut across the stage wearing their creation. We also had a room, a makerspace area at STEAM Fest where students could come in and make their outfits there on the fly.

 

And they got to be a part of the show too. Of course, every year one of something you come away with ideas of how you want to do it differently the next year. So we’re looking forward to bringing it back.

 

And that was so fun to see that come big picture there. So you are going to do the runway again? Yeah. Okay, good.

 

Recycled Runway. I mean, we were on a high, literally. And there was just so many kids that, like Christina mentioned, they could come and do it there.

 

Or they could plan a month or so in advance. And there were so many kids that developed and created their costume there. And we thought, oh my gosh, is it going to be enough time? Plenty of time.

 

And so it was just, yeah, it was a hit. Thanks to Christina’s wonderful idea. They’re going to start making their costumes now.

 

You guys are planning the event. They’re at home making their costumes. So you’re going to have like over the years, like all these, like you’ll see the progression of the costume that they’ll look forward to.

 

That’s so cute. I’m going to come. It’s in on April at the STEAM Showcase.

 

It’s amazing. And it sounds like your guys’ district, like because they are starting this program, it just sounds like they’re very supportive. And I can feel your energy off of the screen.

 

And you all are excited about it. Also, you wanting to do this podcast is like a big deal. It’s scary to do a podcast.

 

I don’t know. Maybe I’m not. I’m not too scary.

 

But I just love how your guys’ leadership, and that can be a huge impact in what you’re doing, is they know, okay, we’re starting from scratch. And we trust you as teachers to make those decisions and build this program. And you guys are working together.

 

You’re trusting each other. And the kids can feel it too. And it just, it’s a really cool trickle effect.

 

And I can just tell that you guys are like in a dream environment. And you are all in different schools. But you’re really trying to have like these really meaningful experiences for kids and using your skills in meaningful ways.

 

And in turn, these amazing outcomes. And kids are excited about what you’re doing. Like kids love STEM anyway.

 

But it’s scary for them too to be in a creative space and trying those hard things they’ve never tried before. For sure, they haven’t done STEM Survival Camp because I made that up. So like all these different experiences, and you’re providing these spaces that they’re excited about it.

 

And they want to try new things. And they can’t wait for the next year. So I really like, it’s so awesome to hear that.

 

And like having that STEAM showcase is such a great way to celebrate all the work that you guys are doing. Because I mean, you’re doing it for the kids. We know we’re as teachers, we’re doing it for the kids, but also a space that they can celebrate the creativity and the hard work and they can look forward to it.

 

So I love that’s like a tradition, becoming a tradition in your district. To finish this off, Mary, if there are teachers on the fence about investing in my resources, what would you say to them? Well, it’s clearly worked out so well for us. I mean, like I think Christina and Jenny said at the beginning, when we were in those beginning stages of creating our own curriculum, it was so overwhelming, so stressful.

 

I’m just like, where do we start? You know, we had different outlines that we were kind of drafting and we didn’t know which one would be best if one was better than the other. And we were looking at all these options online. And so finding your bundle on Teachers Pay Teachers, and then when we got that, we just felt like it was a huge weight off our shoulders.

 

I mean, it was just, we were ready to just dive into it. There was, it’s like just hundreds of things in there that we could look through and kind of pick out. And I mean, the lessons that you create, they are just like ready to go.

 

You can pretty much teach them how it is if you have the materials. But we spent a lot of time kind of adapting them, making them our own, kind of creating our own slides and our own seesaws to go with them, just like using what you had started. And so we, yeah, we’ve gotten into a really great groove with planning those.

 

And we just liked how there was choices for the different grade levels for every unit. I think it was the, yeah, the digital STEM planner that you created that was, that kind of had, every month had a different theme, and then each theme had lessons for each grade. And so we just kind of looked through to think, you know, which one will be best for year one last year.

 

And now, now that we’re in year two, we’re kind of picking different ones to cycle in there. So it’s, you know, different things that they’re getting. And the kids just love it.

 

I mean, they just eat it up. Like every day, they’re so excited to see what we’re doing. You know, they get, they get most excited about the flashy things like the robotics and they, they always come into STEAM class.

 

You know, I always have kids that come in, are we doing robotics today or 3D printing? It’s like, no, we’re going to do something. And then they just get so excited about whatever it is that we’re doing. And so, yeah, I just think that we have the best job.

 

lessons-for-starting-a-steam-program

 

 

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!

Kicking off the School Year with STEM Survival Camp with Bre Smith [ep. 212]

Kicking off the School Year with STEM Survival Camp with Bre Smith [ep. 212]

Check out the full episode on kicking off the school year with STEM Survival Camp:  

 

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

How do you authentically teach students how to use the Engineering Design Process in K-5? I’m chatting with K-5 STEAM teacher, Bre Smith and how she uses STEM Survival Camp to kick off the school year with her classes, and has even made it a tradition to start the Back to School Season.

Meet Bre:

Hi, I’m Bre Smith, the STEAM teacher in Colorado. I work with all of our K–5 students to spark curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving through hands-on, minds-on learning. A few years ago, I designed and launched our STEAM program, aligning it with NGSS standards and making sure every student has opportunities to explore science, technology, engineering, art, and math in meaningful ways.

I believe kids learn best when they’re building, experimenting, and reflecting, so I focus on creating challenges that inspire them to think critically, collaborate, and bring their imaginations to life. My favorite moments are when students surprise themselves by realizing they can do something they didn’t think was possible.

Outside of school, I’m a mom of three, and you’ll often find me cheering on the sidelines at their games, spending time outdoors, and traveling.

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.

 

All right, well thank you Bree so much for being here today. I’m so excited to have you as a guest because we’ve connected in lots of different ways and we met at a conference I think in Colorado at an ENCO in Breckenridge and you were in one of my sessions and then a few years later I still currently teach right now a STEM club at your school and I like walked in your class like a few weeks ago. I’m like oh my gosh like you’re teaching my whole STEM survival camp unit and the kids are telling me about it and you kind of had it decorated with tents and you have the fire and I had to tell kids in my club to get out of the tent like that’s Miss Smith tent like get out of there so I was like oh my gosh I would love to hear how it goes in your class because it’s one of those things that as you know being a STEM teacher you’re the only one in your building teaching it and so you don’t always know how things are going or like what other people are doing so I’m like cannot wait to talk to you about this because I wanted to ask you more before we start recording we’re like no we need to get this on audio but yes before we do that yeah if you wouldn’t mind telling us more about you and what you teach and also a little snapshot about your schedule um how often you see kids all right well my name is Brie Smith and I teach kindergarten through fifth grade and I teach STEAM so we have the A for Art at Redstone Elementary in Highlands Ranch Colorado this is my fourth year currently that we’re in in this role prior to that I was an intermediate teacher mostly in fifth grade I did that for six years and then I stayed home with my kids for eight years and so I came back to teaching right before COVID it was the worst time to come back so I was teaching part-time computer science and the school shut down and they were the kids were spending their entire day on the screens and I it didn’t feel right with me to give them more digital assignments and so I started giving them STEAM challenges at home with materials that they had around the house and they loved it and so that’s kind of when it clicked for me how important those skills are the creativity the problem solving the resilience it was things that they were naturally during using during those STEAM challenges so after that crazy year I set out to build a full STEAM program at my school so I proposed the idea to my principal and vice principal and they were so supportive and on board so then I presented to staff and then PTO and everyone was on board and so I wrote a couple grants to get it funded and now here we are so it’s grown into something so much bigger than I have ever imagined and it’s so fun to see how it’s impacting the students so I see kids on a weekly rotation every third week so we have PE music and then STEAM and then my classes are 45 minutes long and I see six classes a day so kindergarten through fifth each day so that’s about me and my schedule okay I had no idea you kind of like created your position I did I had no idea that’s like a whole other podcast because that’s a whole other thing we could talk about that another time because like that’s pretty cool because you were already hired as computer science like that was your title and then yeah let’s switch it up right and the timing worked out well because our art teacher who was the third rotation she was retiring and so and that’s when I saw you at in EDCO that was like I just got in that position I was like trying to get prepared for that first year so yeah and it’s it’s a lot it’s like I have a brand new position you’re creating this whole program right and it’s like all new to you because you have teaching experience which is so helpful but it is a whole other world in STEM and I don’t remember what I presented about I was it STEM survival camp no it wasn’t I think it was just kind of like the logistics and stuff which is so important and like your favorite my favorite quote of yours is like how we’re like the fun aunt planning a birthday party six times a day because that’s literally how it feels like the energy level is like you have to just be excited every class but I will say after my second year teaching STEAM I gave all my general like classroom supplies away and I don’t I don’t think I’m ever going back to the gen ed class so that’s yeah you’re committed you are committed yeah and her room is so cute you’re gonna have to send me some pictures I love it’s just so warm and cozy and like you can tell there’s just so much creativity in there it’s so she’s like this cute rainbow she painted on a pegboard and then like all like she I really like you have um like all the reusable blocks and stuff but then you have them color-coded for what types of projects they can be used for like you have like really cool things going on in your classroom and um you can tell like the kids love it in there and create and have such a fun time um so it’s so fun like going in there everyone’s like oh I like walk around like oh look at all this fun stuff but that’s what I saw I’m like oh my gosh it’s STEM survival camp so what made you decide um to do some survival camp because I did mine like the same time like back to school-ish time um so what made you decide to teach it and when do you teach it so like how do you um set that up because you do see kids for the whole week every the same kids every single day for a week which I did so yeah how did you decide to do that and then like how do you how did you set it up for your kids okay well I mean we live in Colorado so I feel like it’s a natural fit um but I love camping and like honestly my favorite shows are alone and naked and afraid and all that stuff so it just like totally fit my personality um and I’ve been teaching it every year since I started the program and I just love it um and so when I teach it so I usually have the first round of kids we go over the rules and expectations and the routines um but then after that our first unit is survival STEAM um and I do it first through fifth grade um and I tried my kindergarten but when it’s so early in the year I realized they’re just learning how to be students um and I take the outside to collect materials and yeah learn from experience so um so now I just do first through fifth grade um and I chose to teach STEAM survival at that time for a couple reasons the first is they are so engaged um and so you mentioned I set up my classroom so I have this big like I got off Amazon it’s this big like kind of fabric that has the mountains in the background and then I have a clay collapsible tent and then I have a little campfire that I illuminate with a flashlight and I turn the lights off and then I invite the kids in for their first day and they’re like oh it’s STEAM survival so all the kids that have been here in the past get so excited and all the new kids are like wait what why is there a campfire why is there a tent um and the first graders they get so excited because this is their first they’ve heard about it but this is their first round doing it so for me it’s engagement from the beginning um but then also it sets up skills that are really important for the rest of the year um so I really hit planning hard um during this unit and I use your rubric for the four star plan um and so we really dive in and go slow as we’re planning for STEAM survival um and I just have a quick story so I was explaining to the kids like you need to have these were fifth graders you need to have two different views of your shelter um and maybe a bird’s eye view so I just like threw that out there and then a girl came up to me she had finished her plan and she had drawn her shelter but had a bird flying over it because she didn’t understand what a bird’s eye view was and I was like see this is why it’s so good that we’re going slow so we can go fast and so we stopped and explained like oh a bird’s eye view is when you’re like you know flying like a bird and you like look down you know so that whole thing but it was just really good to like know that yeah we got to slow down and do this at the beginning so we have success later in the year um and then the teamwork skills that come with STEAM survival are huge and that’s a great way to start off and so we talk about how to work in a team we talk about what to do if someone isn’t helping on your team um I have like three steps that they go through we talk about the difference between being a leader and being bossy and so we go through that so it just really sets up the collaboration skills um and then overall the general just engineering skills like how do you manage supplies I only give out like 12 inches of tape so how are you gonna use it um managing your time like the kids that are making the game from the land they get so into it and they just want to build these elaborate things I’m like you guys only have a day like we do one build day um I’m like so you gotta like manage your time wisely um and then also like how to test and improve and all that so all those things come with the same survival and they just really set up my class for a year of success when we do it at the very beginning I love hearing that so much because I saw the same thing when I started doing it I started teaching it well probably not too long before you because um I created it in 2020 so we were going back in the fall because um I was also watching a lot alone I’ve camped a lot I have a lot of experience camping I just don’t do it a lot as a grown-up um but I can um I can do it I have a I have a stun trailer so I can do it um I was the same way but I the I created it because we actually couldn’t share supplies and um we I was like well let’s bring the kids out as much as possible and so that’s why I create I’m like I’m gonna do it for one year and I have the same reaction as your kids like we have to do it every year and so they are like so excited and um I keep doing it and I taught a few of them in my STEM camps now just for one day so I really just hit hard on the creation but I love how you focused in on the planning but all the skills that come with it um I love that so much like hearing the progression and since you’ve done it every year like you said the kids are excited have you seen like their skills kind of just keep building off of each other a little bit oh yeah like um especially specifically with the planning like my fifth graders um they’re so good at it now and then also the biggest thing I’ve seen is the improvement in the resiliency um like when I first started they cried all the time and being an intermediate teacher I’m like we don’t cry like why are we crying you know and so I’ve really worked to build those skills and the STEAM survival is awesome because you know they’re building with sticks and tape and it doesn’t work they don’t stick you know and so they have to be resilient have to keep trying we’re gonna dump water on it we’re gonna blow it over that’s okay you know and so we talk it’s more about the process not your final product but you can really see the skills are finally building after like in my fourth year I’m like yes all that hard work I’ve done for three years is really paying off so I’m so glad you mentioned that I had the same same experience like kids like why why don’t we get all the tape we want like they would cry all the time like I’m all because you I mean when you think about it and how important STEM is and STEAM um and you’re in your fourth year but what the kids are typically doing most kids from what I’ve seen they’re not doing this kind of stuff as often as they should be at home and so when you’re building with and all the technology skills are important too that’s a whole other thing but um like the tangible like things you’ve never dealt with before like I don’t know how to do I’m like well everything new is hard at first how would you know I tell kids like you wouldn’t know I made this up like I made this whole thing out of my brain so you probably haven’t done it before because it’s made up so yeah it makes sense you don’t know what to do yeah but I love hearing like where you’re at with STEAM that you’re like seeing like oh my gosh like you’re building upon that and um all the skills are growing have you seen any other successes with it you’ve said so many amazing things like any other cool successes yeah so many so many but um one of them was that um there’s a lot of students even living in Colorado that don’t like to go outside and um so and they’re not comfortable they love to be on their screens you know and so um the way I set it up is like Monday is building background knowledge Tuesday is planning Wednesday is going outside to get the materials Thursday’s building and Friday is um test and share so on Wednesday we go outside and collect materials and so um the way our school is set up is like our we have a big property but then just behind our property is like a walking trail and there’s a big field so that’s where we go to get um our materials and I I’m close enough I have a walkie you know so I can still get a hold of people but um so in the years past I would have kids that just stayed on the sidewalk with me they would not venture into the field they were afraid about they were afraid of snakes they were afraid of bugs they were afraid of grasshoppers um afraid of ticks I mean I’m allergic you know and so but every year less and less kids have been staying back with me on the sidewalk they have been yeah being brave and going out there and it’s like it’s feeling more comfortable to them um and so I just think that’s a huge success because I mean we live in such a beautiful state like get out and enjoy it so um and I do have to say and I had texted you but we every year we see a snake and we did see one this year and um it’s kind of like the highlight the class was like it was third graders like we saw the snake because it’s like a big deal to see a snake but we also talk about snake safety I mean living in Colorado I had a snake living in my front yard so it’s like it’s part of um our world and it’s their habitat and so we talk about snake safety um and so they will tell me oh I was hiking over summer and I saw a snake and I did exactly what you told me to so yeah so that was yeah so that’s a little fun thing um and then with that just over the summer when they go camping um they tell me how they built the real life thing so they’re like oh I built a real life shelter that I could fit in me and my brother would hang out in there or um you know one kid was like I did a bear hang um um when we were up in in the woods and so it just it’s just so cool to see it like bark something like translate um and then probably my most favorite one is um comes from the sewing of backpack and I have to say I was like that was my least popular like and I think teachers are scared about sewing and I’m so excited to hear what your experience I was terrified so I think I did it for two years and I didn’t do that one and then I was like okay I gotta do it and so I chose a class size that at the time one was small I think there was like maybe 20 kids in that in that um grade level for each class and then um I all and they were they’re pretty competent you know so like I knew that they could handle it um because you know every year or every grade they’re like yeah these guys are really with it and or these guys need more support you know so I knew that this class was the one to try it on and so we did it and I learned a lot but I loved it so much I was actually really surprised how much I loved it and they turned out so great and I have to tell you the kids loved it and I had one I had one um fifth grader yeah I think it was last year um she was kind of like it was hard for her to make friends and she was kind of introverted um and she loved the sewing unit so much she went and had her mom take her to like Hobby Lobby and she was sewing all these things and bringing it back and all the other girls were like oh my gosh that’s so cool and so it was like a bridge for her to have friends through the sewing unit so yeah and then um I have like a like I’m obsessed with sloths I have a bunch of stuff yeah you are I did notice that actually like I think she likes sloths oh yeah I do I love them but um so the the girls would go home and sew my sloth stuffies like different items and stuff because they love the sewing so much so that is probably my most favorite when and it came from the unit that I was most terrified to teach yeah and I I was shocked too by the sewing because like I it’s based off of the show alone so everything that you do and I alone is maybe not so much for kids I always like what are your parents discretion um but everything in there and I’m like the sewing um a lot of them use sewing in different ways like they might not necessarily be sewing their backpack however so many of them are sewing up a hole in their shirt like they’re out in the wilderness they can’t fix it some of them are sewing their shelter it’s actually a good skill it’s a great skill for life simple simple basic mending hand stitches I had a lot of kids I don’t know if you had kids say this but um with their boy scout or girl scout patches they’re like I can sew my patches now oh no one’s ever told me that that’s yeah I had quite a few kids like I can sew my patches now I’m like that’s awesome and I have videos in there too like uh so anyone who’s like I don’t know how to sew it’s literally like two three basic stitches the videos were like essential because I am not a sewer and that’s kind of what intimidated me but we like I learned with the kids and so we would play it and we would just like practice it and then once they got it they got it you know and now now I’m like almost a pro yeah like I know all these stitches I’m also not a sewer I did work at Build-A-Bear in college and the bears already have the string on there and you have to pull the strings and then you tie a knot but when you pull them sometimes the string would come out so I actually learned a different stitch that’s not in those videos but um yeah it is an interesting one and I think some teachers avoid it but it’s actually not that bad that one takes the longest but it’s also really fun and like you said a life skill yeah and they’re just so proud of it like they like would carry it around with them and just and they were just so proud so yeah and you don’t need sewing machines that’s what I like too because I always wanted them in my class but I never had them and so hand stitching it is it’s perfect I love it yeah um so anything else about the lessons or any tips or tricks or if a teacher was on the fence um with this because I know there are six lessons and I like how you even said I tried it with kinder just wasn’t the right time for them so even if someone started it in mid-year they might be ready I saw that too with some kinders too I would maybe do one day with kinder and then we’re doing some other stuff but right right um but any like a teacher’s like I’m not a camper I don’t know like what what would you say to them well first to start with some tips and tricks um if you can I just really encourage you to go outside it is such a fun engaging thing for the kids and it’s really a good behavior incentive because it’s the beginning of the year right we’re doing the plans and everything and I’m like you must have your plan done and it must be a four-star plan and you must follow all my other rules if you want to go outside and so being it that it’s midweek on Wednesday I mean I’ve never had to you know stick anyone in the office while we go outside so just going outside and just being you know with nature and um we’ve seen so many besides the snakes we’ve seen some really cool um like praying mantises you know it’s just it’s just fun you know kids love to be outside so that is one I would highly recommend obviously it’s all dependent on the weather but that’s why I do it at the beginning of the year because it’s nice um and then bringing all that nature back in gets very very messy yes I’m sure you noticed that when you came you’re like oh my god I stopped giving them bags I’m like because they’re just putting scoops of dirt I’m like no you got to carry it with your hands well that’s and I said don’t put in your pocket you don’t make baskets out of your shirt it’s like the only your two hands and so I got um tidy tubs so they’re like little trash cans that I put on each of the different table groups and so I and I had to explicitly teach them sweep your nature crumbs into the tidy tub and then they would leave it so I’m like carry your tidy tub to the trash can but that’s really helped um with the mess because I tell them I’m like you guys it looks like nature threw up in our room like we got to clean it up um I’m sure the cleaning crew like hates my classroom but um so it is very messy but it is worth it um and then just a couple of the actual units um the fishing pole one that one I really had to learn um by trial and error so my first year I did it with first graders I we went and got our sticks and I gave them the tape and I said okay just make your fishing pole and they did not have the skills and so um one thing could not tie the string to the paper clip and then like they were trying to tape it but their spatial skills weren’t quite there so instead of going into like taping a long pole they were doing it like doubled and so it wasn’t very long so I have learned that we have to go step by step with that so we get our supplies and then on Thursday under the document camera um I explain and model everything and so I start by their tape I give them about eight inches and I just hang it from their tables um and so each kid has their own tape and then they each have their own scissors and so I always start with okay first you need to measure the tape the tape should be about as long as your finger and then you cut it from the bottom because they would try to cut it from the top cut it from the and then you lay it sticky side up and then I create the image like oh we’re going to put two siblings we’re going to tuck them into bed so one head goes here the other head goes there their feet are sticking out and then we tuck them in tuck them in with the tape and so but you have like I had to be so explicit step by step and then there are some kids who just catch on and I’m like okay go you know but most of the kids stay with me and we connect three sticks so it’s um so it’s doing that twice and then um I say if you can tie tie your hook on but otherwise we tape it we tape everything sometimes I have to go around and just like reinforce the tape but the fact that they were able to do it by themselves they were so they’re so proud I mean it might be like droopy but they did it you know so I’ll go around and just kind of reinforce with duct tape or stronger tape but so that is like a tip for the first grade yeah yeah yeah and and then now they know how to measure tape that they had to use tape like it’s a huge skill um but again it sets us up for the rest of the year so and we’re doing bioluminescent animals now which is when they ever like they got the tape down like you don’t go slow to go fast so so um for crossing the river I originally say you don’t get any new supplies like you just get what you get in your basket that’s all the tape you get use it wisely um but then when they’re testing I bring in a bucket of water and when they test everything gets wet and so at the end of our first build day so that’s Thursday um I say okay I’ll give you new tape tomorrow because everything’s wet yeah um and so then on Friday they get like I don’t know 15 minutes to finish building and get ready to show and then they can have new tape um because it was just a soggy mess but they have to test like yes I know I did the same thing but it’s like good how you say it later so they’re not like counting on it I know you’re like okay now I’ll give you some now you can’t and then the other one was just the the sewing like just don’t be afraid of it and then um I tried like getting the um kids safe did not work so I I agree I had the same experience yeah yeah yeah and it’s like you know if they can handle a hot glue gun and they know how to be safe it’s just another tool so I just go over how to be safe with it and um that we haven’t had any issues um and then I the thicker thread is important because it just kids will just like pull it through yes um so that is helpful and then um I also got fabric squares that are already cut because I was just getting huge sheets and then having to cut it for all three classes and it took me forever so I just get the fabric squares off Amazon but then also like the kids love to bring in their own fabric which I was really surprised about but they want they want a certain pattern so they will take their parents to like Hobby Lobby Walmart and get their own fabric so um I’ve only had to buy out of the years one um one like group of fabric squares off Amazon everything else has been through donation so oh cool that’s cool yeah I love that wow and then um if a teacher is on the fence I just it’s just one of those units where the kids just light up and they’re just so excited and engaged because it feels real and it feels a little adventurous I mean think of the adventure they get in their life at school every day it’s pretty boring but this is exciting and adventurous um and it’s just so fun to get to see them problem solve and think critically and collaborate with each other um and then it really brings out strengths in kids that you might not normally see um in a church like doing traditional STEAM challenges or just the traditional classroom um that I had a quiet kid he was a fifth grader and he just kind of was in the back of everything just went along but then for STEAM survival he had so much background knowledge and he stepped up and I was just blown away and I I told him I’m like it is so cool to see this side of you he’s like I love it I just love it and like oh that’s cool I know but it like I wouldn’t have seen it if I didn’t do some survival um so it’s hands-on it’s messy it’s super creative but it’s the kind of learning that they’re going to be talking about um for years to come you know and like I’ve had parents come and say oh I was showing like a bear got into you know my grandma’s house and so I was showing my kid a video of the ring you know but it’s because it’s real life in Colorado but yeah but they’re just they’re talking about it at home with their parents they remember it um and it’s just as fun for me as it is for them so I just encourage everyone to give it a shot.

 

I love it that’s like so crazy like like I said like I I knew I had fun teaching it and I’ve taught it even again recently outside with my trailer for two hours and we were in nature we actually tested the fishing poles oh in a pond oh my gosh so cool yes I’ve never done that like we have paper ones um that I do but we did it in a pond and a kid caught a fish job oh my gosh and a real fishing pole in the pond with his use his created one. That’s so funny she caught a fish a fishing pole a fishing pole but it is so crazy like I know how fun it is but like hearing I love how it’s like like a tradition in your program which is so cool like it’s like making me tear up because it’s like so like cool hearing that like how excited you are teaching you like have fun with it and things you probably add every year or kids are like oh my sibling did this one and I can’t wait to do it so that it’s like so cool to hear your whole experience and like yeah like when we have twins in the opposite classes they’re like I know what we’re you know they’re just so they’re like I know what we’re doing you know yeah they just come in and they’re ready to go it’s just so fun oh I love this it’s a fun it’s like one of my favorites to teach slash I’m like the most proud of but I’m so glad it’s like successful for you like I love it so much but it’s so fun um I’m sure other teachers love hearing about it and they probably have other questions like there’s other like good like nuggets that you said um but if teachers wanted to reach out to you what would be the best place for them to find you and we’ll put in the show notes yeah so I well I have a classroom Instagram and so you can actually I just posted a bunch of pictures because we just wrapped up that unit so um I have a bunch of pictures of um the fishing the kids fishing and all that stuff so um they can check it out on Instagram it’s it’s kind of a long one but it’s rse mile high steam um is my Instagram and you can just message me on there it’s probably the easiest way but I’m happy to answer any questions because like you I’m just so passionate about it and um it just it gives me so much joy to talk about and to teach it so yeah I teach a bunch of units and I always I line up the kids

 

 

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 to Implement What You Learned after a STEM Teacher Conference [ep.211]

How to Implement What You Learned after a STEM Teacher Conference [ep.211]

Check out the full episode on how to implement what you learned after a STEM teacher conference:  

 

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

Attending STEM teacher conferences can be such a blast, but also exhausting! You are gathering so much information within a few days, so how do you even implement it all? (Spoiler: you don’t!) I’ll be sharing my strategy on how I organize information I learn from these conferences in a meaningful way and actually use what I learned in the classroom.

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.

 

Hello and happy to be back here for the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. We are here for a fresh and new season, getting ready to get ready for that new school year. Whether you listen to me in real time over the summer, or you save these episodes for when you’re ready to think about back to school time, no worries at all.

 

We are in this together. And if you are watching the video version of this, I am sitting on the bed of my hotel room. I just got done this morning with the ISTE Conference 2026 in Orlando.

 

My shirt says vacation vibes. Those are the vibes I am bringing before I head on home tomorrow. I am definitely sleeping in because conferences, especially like ISTE or any of those teacher conferences can definitely be overwhelming.

 

During the whole experience, it’s amazing. It’s fantastic. You’re gathering all this information.

 

You’re running into people that you wanted to see or making new friends. But then you get back to the hotel room or even just at the end of the whole trip and don’t even know where to begin. Where do you even start with the information and the pictures that you took and the swag that you got and all of the flyers? What do you do for this information? And I know for me, because I have a backpack full of stuff that I want to start all of it.

 

I want to do it all. I want to do all the cool things that I saw. And realistically, it’s not going to be that way.

 

But I do have a strategy that I have done after almost every conference I have been to, big or small. And I’ve been involved with teacher conferences in so many different ways, whether I presented, whether I’m just an attendee for IFSTEA. I was running social media for the EdTech company that I’ve been doing their social media since the end of 2023.

 

And if you want to know who, check out my Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore. There are some hints and things on there for you. But I was doing that.

 

So I didn’t get the chance to attend sessions, but walk around, talk a lot to teachers, whether it’s wandering around the expo hall area, poster sessions, and all of that, or a lot of it was at the booth. And I guess I was filming things from time to time. But I was able to talk to teachers a lot more about the products, but really more so about teachers’ experiences.

 

And that was super, super amazing. Shout out to all the teachers who came and saw and found me or ran into me. That just absolutely blew my mind and made me tear up and made me cry in this hotel room, because I never know.

 

It was just really cool. It was really, really cool. Don’t make me tear up now.

 

Stop. Allergies. Anyway, but it was just like everybody has their unique stories, but there’s just a lot of common themes between things.

 

So again, ideas for podcast episodes. But thinking about, again, that information that you gathered, what do you do with it? So here’s what I have done. I’ve also been in charge of taking information back to my staff, and you might be one of those people too, or back to your admin.

 

What are you going to do with that information? So first of all, you have everything organized. And I have my stickiness here being organized, is thinking about, based on the conference and what you’ve learned, what are the things that you want to keep? So take out your year-long plan. Maybe you have it typed up.

 

Maybe it’s in your plan book. But take a peek at all of those things. Maybe highlight all the things you want to keep.

 

And honestly, you’re going to probably want to keep a lot more than you think. And that must make you feel good. There’s probably things you’ve seen at the conference, like, oh my gosh, this teacher does this as well.

 

Or, oh, this teacher and I use the same lesson. Like, that’s great. Like, we’re on the same page.

 

That probably makes you feel good. That happens, I feel, like, at a conference. You’re like, oh, okay.

 

Like, we’re doing the same thing. We’re in this together. I’m going to keep that lesson and move on from there.

 

And a lot of you who are listening teach more than one grade. So having a complete overhaul when you get back really is not sustainable. It’s not realistic.

 

And we’re going to get into what you can do. But really think about, oh, there’s a lot more things that I can keep. So that’s super great.

 

From there, there’s probably some things that you want to update. And so thinking about, okay, this lesson’s good. Standards are there.

 

The core concepts are there. But I can actually do this lesson a bit better based on some tools that I saw. So probably just having an update.

 

And the cool thing about all of my resources that are up in my TeachersPay Teacher Shop is anything that you purchase, you get forever updates as long as that product’s live and stuff up there. You also get access if it’s taken down. Anyway, it’s digital.

 

But the really cool thing is if I update it and put it in there, you get that. And I always post things that I have used with students, I’m currently using with students, or maybe I’ve re-taught it, and then I update it based on what I saw. So recently, I’ve had a lesson, Beagle the Unimaginary Friend, and super great story, cute STEM and Stories connection where I had it.

 

They’re learning about magnetism and creating their unimaginary friend, which goes along with the story, and how magnets, what things are magnetic and not. Still in that lesson, but I also added on a 3D printing component because since making that lesson, I have more skills and training and experience about 3D printing and how to do this with kids. And so I didn’t even get rid of all of that.

 

Even just updating the look is great. But I’ve added in that 3D printing component. And funny enough, I actually had a teacher come up and tell me at this conference, she did that part.

 

She has done that lesson with 3D printing. So just take a peek because you might have some of those lessons, maybe you haven’t taught in a little while, or maybe you’re like, eh, it was okay. Based on your conference experience, are there things that you can update? And you probably have a bunch.

 

So don’t do a whole overhaul. Start with one and then go from there. And finally, and I’m saying finally, for a reason, is thinking about the things you want to try new, do two or three things to start.

 

And the new could be just how you’re teaching it. I’m sure there’s so many ways, like a strategy that you have learned, something you want to try, that could be the new thing. But also, maybe it’s a new tool.

 

So again, kind of back to that update. I’m thinking more of something brand new you’ve never used before. Maybe your school’s purchasing it, maybe you’re borrowing it from another teacher.

 

But that could be that new thing that you focus on. Because I feel like if you’re doing 5 million things at once, and I’m going to a different conference for learning about things for myself. And I’m guilty of this, that I want to do all the new things.

 

But if I really am focusing on like two to three, get really good at it, and feel comfortable about it. If I can teach somebody else about it, then I’m like, all right, I feel good. It’s not even new anymore.

 

Then you can move on, look at your list of things you learned, and then try that. So I know you’re going to want to do all the things, everything you saw in the vendor hall, everything you saw, that is up and coming that you should be on top of it, focus on one to two things, it will be okay, you are doing your best. Even adding one thing is a big deal.

 

That’s what other jobs do that? Yes, they do. But I feel like teachers are trying new things all the time. You’re trying way more.

 

So give yourself some grace. Don’t feel like you have to do it all. And I would love to hear about your experience and what you’re actually trying.

 

So feel free to send any questions my way by way of email or on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore. And I am so excited to be back and 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 elementary STEM coach podcast at gmail.com. Also, make sure to check out my website, Naomi Meredith calm to see all the show notes from today’s episode 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 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!

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:  

 

 

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:

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.

 

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!

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:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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

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.

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: 

(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!