Naomi Meredith  00:00

What should a third grade STEM curriculum look like? In this episode, I am sharing with you an overview of what the year can look like, a breakdown of a sample week, and, in my opinion, the top things that a third grader should walk out of STEM knowing. This is part four of a six part series where I am breaking down each grade level, and what it can look like with your STEM instruction. Whether you are a STEM teacher, a classroom teacher who is implementing STEM, or even a grade level specialist, you will find some useful information in this episode when it comes to implementing STEM with your third graders. 

Naomi Meredith  00:51

If you haven’t already had a chance, go back and listen to the first three episodes in this series. In those episodes, I am talking about Kindergarten, first, and second grade when it comes to teaching STEM with those grade levels. And even if you don’t teach those grade levels, it is still useful information to hear the broad range of grade levels. So this can help with your long term planning, especially if you’re jumping into a STEM space. If you’re thinking, “Oh, where should my students be at,” and they’re not quite where you think they should be, you might need to start them off at a level that is a little bit lower than what you might typically be used to, and then build them up throughout the years. So definitely worth your time. I also understand how hard it can be planning for multiple grade levels. I’ve done it and I’m doing it. And I want to help you out and ease that stress. I wish that past Naomi had this opportunity. But I am hosting this for you, and that is a free live masterclass that is going on on May 9. And if you’re listening to this live in 2023, I will be giving you the tips and tricks on how you can plan out your year long plan and help you feel confident going into the summer. Again, this is 100% free this class and I don’t want you to miss out on it. There will be a replay of the recording. So you can still grab that and if you’re listening after May 9. Again, you can catch the replay. So you can grab that at Naomimeredith.com/maytraining, M-A-Y training all one word, no spaces. And it will also be linked in the show notes for you. 

Naomi Meredith  02:54

When I started my teaching journey, I started teaching second grade for two years at a title one school. Around the time my second year of teaching second grade, I was going to move and I actually needed to find a school that was a bit closer to where I was moving. So I ended up applying to a few districts and some possibilities. And I ended up getting an interview at a school for Kindergarten, which I was super excited about. I’ve said this a few times, I’ve always wanted to be a Kindergarten teacher. So I applied and I got an interview. Well, when I was talking to one of my second grade teammates, she actually mentioned, “Oh my gosh, I think one of my friends actually works at this school.” So I already had the interview. But funny enough, it she was right. She had a friend from her master’s program who was working at this school. And I guess my teammate had talked a lot about me to this friend. So she texted her said that had an interview coming up and to put in a good word. And funny enough, that friend that masters friend did put in a good word for me even without knowing me. She had heard a lot of good things about me, which was pretty amazing. And so I already had a good word coming into this interview. When I walked into this interview, I look across the table, somebody different in the interview, I said, Oh my gosh, hey friend, and it was somebody from my master’s program, who was across the table. So I already had two connections at the school. Granted, I had the interview but I had two connections after the fact. And I interviewed and instead of getting this set Kindergarten job, they offered me third grade, and I almost didn’t take it. I thought they’re gonna be too old for me. But I ended up loving the teaching third grade so much I ended up doing it for four years. And when you think about that friend, that connection I never knew. She is actually a really good friend of mine to this day, Becca McMillan who was on the podcast in Episode 40. So you can go back and listen to that. And so we’ve become lifelong friends ever since then. And we knew each other without knowing each other, which is pretty fun. So besides Kindergarten, I love third grade. And so I can still say that teaching third grade for four years, and also teaching third in my K through five for five years. So definitely, again, they have another special place in my heart, it’s the best age. And let’s get into how I break down their curriculum gear. 

Naomi Meredith  02:54

Like I mentioned before, in the past episodes, I like to plan my year for K through five and thematic units. And I think of it in themes when it comes to the actual topic, and also the tool that they are going to work on. So I do a mixture of both. So you’ll hear very similar things. If you’re listening to this whole series and how everything connects together. This is a great series to binge listen to, because everything’s gonna make a lot of sense. But if you’re listening to this in isolation, that’s okay too. But that’s just how everything is plans and goes together. So when it comes to the overall year for third grade, I like to start off my year for K through five with my STEM survival camp unit, and you can hear all about STEM survival camp in episode four. So for third grade, their challenge is the game from the land. So they have to create a game to keep them entertained while they are out camping. Or if they’re isolated by themselves in the wilderness for more long amount of time, they are creating a game from the land, and they are gathering materials from the outside and also using some of the items that I have in my classroom, to design their game and what the rules of that game are. This is a great introduction to the Engineering Design Process and how that works and getting them used to that or refreshing their memory. So this is a great one for my third graders, and they get super proud of their games, and they love testing and sharing by playing each other’s games. Then we move into September when we talk about digital citizenship. Again, this is a topic that should be taught throughout the year. But how I zoned in on it and STEM is that I take those Common Sense Media lessons. And then when it’s in third grade moving into that Google Interland be internet awesome lesson plans, and how students are diving even deeper when it comes to private and personal information. With second grade that is also the topic that I talked about at more of a basic level. But we’ve dive in a little bit deeper when it comes to third grade. And we read different stories watch different videos, one of my favorites being #Goldilocks, a cautionary tale. And it’s a version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears which I know in third grade, you talk a lot about fractured fairy tales, and different versions of things where Goldilocks goes into these houses and does all of these bad things and documents her journey. So again, we talked about that private and personal information. And I have a project for them with this STEM twist, where they are creating game pieces that show their private and personal information, the private information, they don’t actually write it out, I have it listed for them. And then we do some coding unplugged with this game. on from there is my maker month for K through five. And we talk about different type of earth systems. So we do some Makerspace things in our STEM survival camp with a little more guidance. But this one is more open ended with more materials in my classroom. This lesson is pretty fun. And I realized when I was planning my year long plan, I do my lessons with water than I thought I did. So having some plastic buckets on hand are very helpful for all of your grade levels. And we talk about severe weather in this unit for third grade specifically about flooding. So I touch on all of the different types of severe weather, but we zone in on more on flooding, and they have a little house that they have to protect, and they are creating an invention that will help slow down the flooding or even better stop it from hitting the house. So we talk about different flooding inventions that are out there to give them some ideas. And then students take their ideas and run with it to create their invention that that actually will be tested with water. I did this unit a bit differently. The last time I taught it and for some reason I was the person pouring the water and I don’t know why I put myself through the trouble of that. And I took this as an opportunity to actually teach students how to measure liquids, which is a math standard. So I gathered a bunch of measuring cups, I enlisted the grade level teachers and I taught them how to measure and we documented how much water would hit the house. So when you get this lesson if you already have this lesson in mind, make sure to redownload it because I added that update with the measurement and it is so much better and how they can keep track of that. After that, Novemember, we move into our sensational space. And that is all about video and audio production. This is a topic I have actually become very interested in teaching kids, and how they can share their information. And the students love it too, because we all know they want to be on camera and YouTube stars hashtag, it’s only for me, I’m the cold teacher with the YouTube. Just kidding, I’m not that cool. But we talk about video and audio production. And with third grade, we do some more of that green screen. So I talked about was second grade, we did a green screen project, I use a different app for students. So again, taking that same concept, I talked about this a lot, taking that same concept or taking that same tool, but using it in a different way, whether it’s a more, whether it’s a more sophisticated tool, or you are doing different content, or both. So in this situation, it’s both. So we talk about worldwide weather reports and they are researching a place that they want to explore in the world, we write a whole script about it and how it changes throughout the seasons, what to expect with the weather. And then they record their green screen. And they do the editing on their own. I like to use Wii video. But there’s other great platforms out there. And the cool thing with third grade is instead of having one or two backgrounds throughout the whole time, they are developing the skills where they can add multiple backgrounds throughout their video. After that in December is the Hour of Code and computer science month. Again, this is something you can do at any time, it is really good at this time of year. And I do more of exploratory of different types of coding languages. So in third grade, if you know as a third grader, they most can read. And they are learning how to use reading as an informative tool. So they’re not necessarily learning how to read, they’re reading to learn. And so there’s coding languages that you can use can be more sophisticated, and still using that block coding, but there might be more words involved. And then they can just keep upping their skills from there. So I like to give them a choice board when it comes to their coding. After that we entered January and we talk about the Winter Games, the Olympics and how those are all above the equator, which you can figure out the reason why behind that. And we do some research using Google Earth to learn more about the different Winter Games and where they were held. And then students code their robot to travel to the different locations on the map. I use Ozobots. For this lesson, I know at the time of this recording, they’re hard to get your hands on, so you can modify with different lessons that would interest you. I do have an episode about winter robotics that I’ll link in the show notes that will explain more about this lesson, and just all of my winter robotics lessons in general. After that, we move into 3D printing for K through five. And this is one of my favorite 3D printing projects that I’ve done. And this was inspired by me traveling to museums and zoos and aquariums, which I love to do when I travel. We don’t have kids, but I still love traveling and seeing these types of things. And I get a lot of inspiration when I go I always am taking pictures like oh, this would be a really cool STEM lesson. So I noticed that museums and aquariums, there are a lot of displays and ways to learn about the animals in the exhibit. And a lot of times those can be helpful for people who can’t see as Well. And they might need more of that textile way of learning that more hands on learning, which is great for anybody hands on learning, we know has a lot of great implications. So for this 3D printing project, students are designing a model of a living thing after their research. And they design that and that’s printed out on a platform that can teach others about that living thing. Next, I will do some LEGO education kits and I used to do this at the end of the year. But I talked about this before I like to switch it up during testing season. I would say LEGO education kits are the easiest lesson to teach out of any of the STEM lessons because they are very guided. And so it also gives students a break in a sense, yes, there is creativity. There’s a lot of great things. But as a teacher, you don’t have to pull in as much. There’s a lot of great resources already out there. For my third graders I use the LEGO education kits we do to point out I don’t know if you can still get your hands on those. Those are like kind of like the OGs of LEGO education kits that a lot of us might have. Where students are building the science rover Milo the science rover, excellent kit. Love this kit. It’s still awesome and my third graders are obsessed about it. So if you have these don’t get rid of them. They are super, super awesome. I love them. Now if you’re looking to buy things that are brand new, I’ve mentioned the LEGO spike essential kit is excellent as well it can work first through fifth grade. And so if you need a different option to replace them what I talked about recommend that kit After that, if you have time, you can get into stop motion animation, which is really fun. Third graders really grasp this concept, where you take a ton of different pictures that have tiny, tiny movements. And in third grade, we talk about paleontologist, and how finding fossils and where they’re located can really help you tell the story of that fossils. So that’s what they will do with their stop motion animation, do some research about different fossils that have been found. And then they’re taking on the role as a paleontologist, and telling the story of what probably happened to that fossil based on its location and the type of fossils. Finally, we end the year with STEM-musement Park where we talk about force in motion in all of the grade levels. And third grade is talking about transportation in the park and how that can be done through the use of maglev trains. And so not all transportation is maglev. But we talked about how magnets are another form of clean energy that can be used. And it could be really cool if more trains use that. And so they design a theme park and then how the Maglev Train will travel in their park to get to different destinations. So if you’ve been listening to this series, you can see that the projects are a bit more sophisticated when it comes to their STEM skills. And you’re really thinking about that, too. If you have been a classroom teacher before, that’s just kind of how it goes in third grade, they are more simple at the beginning of the year. But as the year progresses, things are getting more and more sophisticated. And third graders will do almost anything you say it’s a really fun grade, and teaching their STEM projects are really fun. So let’s talk about what the structure of the week can look like. Now, if you really want to zone in on the planning and really see my whole process when it comes to planning with the Engineering Design Process, you can jump in on my pre-recorded workshop for third through fifth, I plan very similarly for all of those grade levels. And you can grab that at Naomimeredith.com/secondaryworkshop that will be linked in the show notes. And I give you all the planning templates, too. And the reasoning behind the way that I do things and give you some ideas. Now there were teachers on this live call, we talked a lot about video and audio production, which is an awesome skill for students to have. So you can hear that conversation when you go in on that workshop. And actually, I’m going to talk about an example here. So we can all connect together. I will say with my third graders, of course, it’s different for everybody the things that I do with my third graders now, and definitely my older kids now is way different than what I did with them when I first started. And so I’m definitely doing the things I always envisioned to do with my third graders. Now, you might have to take a step back, like I said, and do things that are more simple. But if you keep it up and build those systems and processes and have a structure for learning, that is just really inclusive of building up their skills, you can do these hard things with them, trust me, it will work. 

Naomi Meredith  02:54

So during the week, and this will be very similar for my third, fourth and fifth graders. So if you teach a little older, you could do the same thing. But I will see my kids all five days in a row for 45 minutes each. A lot of you actually see students once a week for 45 minutes. So you could still do this, it would just take you longer for the project. But who cares, it’s totally fine. I’m actually reading the book right now invent to learn the second edition, which is actually our book for June and the STEM teacher bookshelf membership. And I’m creating the guide for that right now. But it also talks about like for project, there’s no set timeline for things, we get stuck in our head as teachers, oh, we have to do a project in 45 minutes for five days. And it should be this long, it doesn’t matter. Like it could take all year, and that’s totally fine. So give yourself a break. When you hear me talk about these things. It’s the time that works best for you and your students. It doesn’t have to match up with mine. So during the week, I will propose things. So let’s say if I had five days, do whatever works best for you. But let’s say I have five days I will use the Engineering Design Process. And we will use the five days for this project. And sometimes we need to work on it after that when I see them a month later. So I will propose to them the question you can definitely develop the question with them. And I always like to phrase it as how can so we talk about the question and do some imagining and research and planning the first couple of days. So for this project, this is our green screen worldwide weather reports and how they’re reporting out on a place that they want to find in the world. This one it was a bit a little bit tricky because it was more open-ended. So we did do a mixture of using Epic Books as a research source. And then also some links to some other websites that had credible information of different places in the world throughout the year that I provided the links to them. They also had a script template to help them fill out and yes, they have a template, but all of their projects look the same and kids would scratch things out and add in their own things which is awesome. I know this sounds like too cookie cutter of a project. But I will say when it comes to video and audio production, you need to have some sort of script and kids will add their own creativity, for sure. But I’ve made the mistake of not doing any script at all. And the kids come up with some of the most random stuff. And that’s great, too, but also doesn’t answer the question. And so there is a lot of flexibility and creativity in this project. But that just gives them that structure so that they stay on topic, and get that practice to be on video and audio. I always give them the example of my podcast, I do you have some sort of script an outline, I have a lot of bullet points, I do pause. When I am recording this video and audio, I’m doing it simultaneously. So I’m looking at the camera the whole time. But this has taken years of practice when I first made videos long ago, like whenever I started, I wrote scripts, I still write scripts for a lot of videos I do and I record them in chunks. So it’s just a good skill for kids to have. And like anybody can make a video, but a high quality video and or audio is completely different. So there’s nothing wrong with writing a script, and then you just build off from there. When we are doing our green screens, it is hard to find places that are quiet. My classroom does have a blue and green wall, which is so beautiful. And technically, yeah, you can record videos. But when you have a class of 25 plus kids, you cannot record videos, they’re not going to be quiet, I’ve tried it, they won’t be quiet. So I did purchase some pop up green screens that are really great. And I will try to find more quiet places around the school kind of near my classroom. It’s not perfect that kids get frustrated, they want to be movie stars, like it’s the best we could do this. It’s a school, it’s going to be loud. But it is a lot better than just recording in the classroom. After the students record their videos, we go through some editing. And there’s always a couple kids who finished first, and they are great helpers. And they’re really into the editing. And then I just create some experts from there, we just learned together and we add all the things. So it’s a really fun and just very nice flow to the project. Everybody’s in different stages, but they are all able to produce something as they are collaborating together. 

Naomi Meredith  02:54

Finally, here are the three things in my opinion that I would say that a third grader should leave my STEM classroom knowing these are in no particular order. But these are things that I’ve seen in my students that I would hope for them. First is being able as a third grader to create more in depth plans. So taking from that K through two experience, they are drawing and labeling their plan. They’re being more thoughtful about the materials that they are using. As a third grader, I would want them to start getting more detailed with their plans by Yes, their drawing and labeling, but also explaining why they’re using certain parts. Why does is this going to work? Why is it going to be here. So being more thoughtful about that plan, and not just throwing something together, say, Hey, I made a plan. Good for me. So just being more thoughtful, I would really hope that for my third graders. The second thing that I would want a third grader to know after leaving my STEM classroom is having more stamina to their STEM projects. And this is in general with a third grader, they just any projects in general. So with my second graders, our projects last for maybe five, maybe three, not usually the full five days. But a third grader just based on the amount of work that we’re doing. It’s not more work, it’s just more sophisticated work is more tools, there’s more things to add more cool details, more awesome, fun things to try. And so I would hope that their stamina can increase to doing things at least five days, and really reiterating and developing their projects. So it’s just again, more sophisticated. And finally it goes back to that group work, I would hope for a third grader that they can work to in groups up to three to four, and also holding a role within their groups. I will assign specific roles when it comes to the projects that they are working on. And so being able to really hold that role in their group and being a good team member. This is just as good soft skill in general for any students, but third grade especially they are capable of this. And just being very explicit with that and giving them those opportunities and in a sense training on how to work together as a group when they’re holding a specific role. 

Naomi Meredith  02:54

As a recap, here are the three things that we talked about when it comes to planning your STEM year for third grade. First, we talked about the overview of the year and sample lessons you could teach and having a variety of those. Next we broke down the structure of the week and how you could go through the Engineering Design Process or whatever process you choose to go through an actual lesson. Then I gave you my top three things that I would have a third grader could walk away with when they are leaving my STEM classroom. Of course, this has a lot of information and a lot of things through trial and error. And I totally understand it’s a lot I’ve lived through it, I’m living through it. And so I invite you again to join my free live training, where I will break down the whole year of K through five, and how I actually plan this out. So make sure to not miss out on that that will be live on May 9, 2023. So you can jump in at Naomi meredith.com/maytraining, if you’re listening after the date, you can still watch the recording that will be available for you with the same link. So no problem at all. Or if you can’t join us live, you could definitely jump in on it there. Also, when it comes to your lesson plans, I have created everything. And there’s lots of updates coming in new lessons as Well. And so you can grab the entire year, you can see that with my free year long planned Naomimeredith.com/year long plan, you could see what I was talking about. But I have everything broken up, you could buy the whole K through five STEM plan, maybe you just need third through fifth grade, maybe you just need third grade. And so I have different options and bundles for you and my Teachers Pay teacher’s store so that you don’t have to come up with all these lessons. These are already tested with kids and kids love them. So you can implement those into your classroom right away. So you can not have to worry about other things. Maybe you just want to learn the tools, but you want to have the lesson prepared for you. Again,

Naomi Meredith  26:30

thank you so much for being here. I am so happy to support you. This is such a fun journey for me. And I can’t wait for all the future episodes. And all the feedback you’re giving me and the kind messages and lots of podcasts ideas. I’m not running out of ideas. I didn’t plan on doing two episodes a week for this long as you guys keep asking for really good content. So here we are, it’s still going. So make sure to check out the next two episodes of this series, where we’re going to talk about fourth grade, and then fifth grade. So thank you so much again, and I will see you then.