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k-2 STEM planning

3 Hacks for K-2 STEM Planning [ep. 53]

3 Hacks for K-2 STEM Planning [ep.53]

Check out the full episode on 3 Hacks for K-2 STEM Planning:  

 

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Episode Summary

Are you struggling with how to structure your STEM time for grades K-2? Well, these little friends in our STEM space can often have a lot of energy, but they also have a ton of creativity that they can bring into this environment. 

In today’s episode, I am sharing with you three hacks for K-2 STEM planning to help you make the most of your time with these little ones.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 3 hacks for K-2 STEM planning
  • Examples of the types of materials I use with K-2
  • Examples of how I structure my time with K-2

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

Are you struggling with how to structure your STEM time for K-2? Well, these little friends in our STEM space can often have a lot of energy. They also have a ton of creativity that they can bring into this environment. Planning for K-2 is often one of my most favorite grade levels to plan for. I am going to be sharing with you three hacks to make the most of these lessons for these little ones. 


Naomi Meredith  00:40

I know that I have been starting these episodes with some announcements and things to keep your eye out for, but this time, my special announcement is going to come at the end. So make sure you listen through all the way and not miss out on this special thing. I am so excited and have been working behind the scenes for a while on this for you, so make sure to check that out, you definitely don’t want to miss it. I’ve mentioned this before in past episodes, but when I was in college, I was really thinking about getting my degree in early childhood education. I’ve always loved children. I’ve been around children my whole life as the oldest of five, and babysitting all the kids in the neighborhood. I am just so used to being around little kids. So I was really close to getting my degree in early childhood education. I was working at a preschool at the time, but ultimately, I went with elementary education. I’m so glad that I did. But I still have a special warm spot in my heart for those younger students. Before I became a K through five STEM teacher, I taught second grade for two years, and then third grade for four years. All those student teaching experiences, those were also in the primary space. So I definitely have a love for this, and I can always see that potential of what those littles are able to do. I feel like they have even more creativity sometimes than the older students. So let me share with you three hacks that I use to manage these little guys in my classroom, and really go forward with the planning. So I think you’re really going to enjoy this one because I know a lot of you struggle with younger kids. There is no shame in that whatsoever. I think that this is going to really help you out with your planning. So let’s jump in. 


Naomi Meredith  02:58

One of the biggest game changers that has been for me with my younger students is how I structure my week. The way that I plan for my little ones, mainly K and first, but sometimes second grade, at the beginning of the year, is a lot different than how I plan for my third through fifth graders. This is super, super important. I was planning the same way for everybody, but then I realized that wasn’t working out. So let me let you take a behind the scenes of how I actually structure my week when I’m making my plans for my younger students. Now, I see my same students, so I have K through five, and I see my same six classes for five days in a row. So you can modify this schedule that I’m going to explain to whatever works best for you. I know a lot of you actually see different kids every single day, which is a lot. But this structure can definitely work out for you as well. So I will switch up the order. So what I’m going to talk about in a second, I might not always start with the same thing on the day one. It really just depends on what’s happening in the school, and with breaks and everything. But here is how I actually plan a unit for my younger students. So in general for all of my classes, I plan with a unit in mind. So there is a progression of learning for all of my students. If you want to take a peek at this, I actually have my FREE K through five STEM year long plan that you can access for free. It’ll be linked in the show notes or you can find it at Naomimeredith.com/year long plan. So I have this same theme. So if I’m doing 3D printing, everyone is doing 3D printing. If I am doing LEGO Education building kits, everyone is doing that. So that way you can actually see that progression of learning and it actually makes the planning a whole lot easier. So start with that. Of course you’re integrating the standards, so there are past episodes that I have as well to help you with the actual planning. So I’m just talking more about the structure of my week. So I have my overall theme, I have the standards that I want to attack, and then I have a special structure for these little ones. 


Naomi Meredith  05:17

For two or three days, depending on the project, I will do a mini Engineering Design Process project with the kids. I will go through all of the steps with the students, but it won’t stretch out for the full five days. We know that with the little ones their stamina is not as great as those bigger kids. In some ways, the bigger kids don’t have great stamina either when it comes to work time, but they can dive in deeper, and they have a lot more when it comes to their projects. So my projects for the younger kids still follow along the Engineering Design Process. But we will go through all of the steps a lot quicker. There is no rulebook that says you have to do a different thing every single day. I like to do that, but it doesn’t really always work out for the younger students. So we will go through the process really fast. Sometimes even the creation of the project is one day and that is plenty. So here’s how I go. Let’s say I’m starting off my week with this mini project. So day one would be to explore the question to gather research and to do a plan. Sometimes if we have enough time, depending on the class, I might even have them gather their materials, and hold on to that. So then the next day, day two of the project, we can jump right into the building, and they’re usually fine with one day of building. Then if we extend it one more day, day three, then students who still need to finish can finish their projects. This also gives them the opportunity to share, which often in my class is taking a picture or a video of their work and sharing that through Seesaw. 


Naomi Meredith  07:00

So they’re happy with this structure, and sometimes it’s even two days. So we might not get to the final share piece. By day two, they’re pretty much done with their projects, and then they can even take them home. So we don’t need a whole lot of time. It does take some careful planning and having all of those resources and things ready to go. But once you have it, and you have a project that works, it’s so nice, and you get it done a lot quicker. So let’s say our project in a five day week, is three days. Then the next two days, I like to do STEM stations that are still going along with that overall theme and standards. So let’s say for my project, let’s say for first grade, the beginning of the week, we were working on the 3D printing project, which is about animal babies and their adults and the traits that they have on their bodies that make them similar and different. So that would be that main standard. There’s one in the NGSS I can’t think of it off the top of my head, but that’s the 3D printing project that we do, not counting the printing time. Obviously, that takes more time, but the creation and the digital platform, we get that done. Then the next two days would be STEM stations that are related to that standard. So I like to plan my stations with the four letters of STEM, so science, technology, engineering and math station. So they will go through two stations a day. So that makes for and then we will even start off with a video that is related to the content. So it really is great where kids aren’t rushing through all four stations, but they can actually take their time, and it gives me time to explain them. 


Naomi Meredith  08:37

The second day I’m even able to re-explain them. There’s always those kids who say I already know, and I’m like, well, there’s kids in here who might have forgot, or they just showed up today. So I will do two days of STEM stations. Now if it’s a weird week, I might do one day and then there’s two stations, so then they can flip flop. So that doesn’t happen very often. But that’s just another structure that you can do as well. What’s also really great about STEM stations is that you’re not always doing whole group instruction all the time, for every single day with the little kids that can get really exhausting. They are way more independent than you think. Think about what they’re doing in their regular classrooms. More than likely they are doing station rotations with their teachers because they don’t teach in front of them all day every day. Maybe some do. But most of the time, they’re doing stations as well. So take what they’re doing in their regular classroom and put it into yours, it will work and the kids are really good at it. So be very clear with your expectations, and you’re going to have just like a sigh of relief. The kids love STEM stations, they asked for them all the time, and when we’re not doing them they actually get a little bit sad. So again, take some careful planning, but it is a lifesaver. So that would be five days. So if I did three days with a mini project, and then two days with STEM stations that would take up five days. However, I like to have a backup plan just in case if the project goes a lot faster, or if I need a sub plan in a pinch. So I always plan on the side a STEM and stories lesson that is related to the content. Again, it could be a fiction or nonfiction book, and they have a quick one day challenge that they can go through using Makerspace materials or even reusable things like blocks, LEGO bricks, or whatever you have. So it’s always good to have this on the side. Again, if you plan this all out, you can use it year after year, obviously, with some modifications, but then you are really creating things, a structure that kids are getting used to and looking forward to. 


Naomi Meredith  10:47

The next hack, when it comes to my K-2 planning is having low prep materials. There are a lot of reasons for this. This goes with the many projects is STEM station, STEM and stories, all the things that you’re planning, you want some low prep materials, and here is why. First of all, less materials means there is less to clean up. That is the biggest thing, you always want the kids to clean up on time. Well, if you have a 5 million things out, they’re not going to be able to clean it up in time, it’s just not going to happen. You always have the stragglers, and then the ones who are always cleaning up the most. So that’s not going to happen. So less materials, less cleanup time. Sometimes with things like if the kids are going to cut, glue, and color, I won’t even get all the materials at once. I’ll have kids get the buckets of crayons, and then they’ll color. Then maybe five minutes later, they can get the scissors and then five minutes after that, get the glue. Then slowly, we’ll put the crayons back, they’ve slowly put those scissors back and slowly put the glue back. So it’s a gradual release of the materials and a gradual release of putting them back. So less materials, the better. Along with that, when it comes to you and your instruction, if you have 5 million things going on, then it’s going to be a lot harder to explain. Also when in turn, it’s going to be harder for kids to remember what they’re supposed to do. So having maybe a maximum of five different materials that they’re going to be using at the time, that is easy to remember. It can be repeatable. So keep that in mind when you’re using the different materials. Also, with these low prep materials, think about how you can reuse things. This can include Makerspace items, and even blocks, bricks and all of those things. Sometimes when I have kids build something, they might use the items from my Makerspace. But they aren’t using tape, scissors or glue, they just get to use those things to build their creation for a one day challenge. For example, in Kindergarten, we were talking about shade structures. We did a one day challenge where students were building shade structures in the classroom and using flashlights as the sun. We use some blocks to help them build, and then I also pulled out some things like coffee filters, cupcake liners, paper plates, that they could build within their design. But then they couldn’t cut them or glue them. So I integrated those materials. Then we also put those back. So using less materials, but also any creative way can be really helpful when you’re planning for your younger students. 


Naomi Meredith  13:26

And finally, you might think I’m a little bit crazy on this one. But with those K-2 students integrate more technology. Yes, I said it. Now in my role, I have taught K through five throughout the whole week. But I’ve also done a lot of co-teaching with the teachers in my building as well. Those little ones can do a lot more than you think. It takes a lot more explicit instruction and a lot of strategies and all of that. I have a blog post that I’ll link in the show notes where I actually talk about how I structured teaching technology, specifically integrating it in the classroom. So we’ll link that for you. But integrate more than you think. They are really, really fast learners with whatever you do, they’re really fast. So they will catch on, and they are even more eager to help out each other. So it’s really good to integrate the technology, they want to use it, they’re excited to use it. So use it more in your classroom. It doesn’t always have to be engineering and building challenges, you can integrate more technology. Here are some ways that you can do that. So think about how you can use the same tool over and over again like k one and two, but you change out the content. One way that I do this is I love the Bee Bots more. I upgraded to the Blue Bots. Same little guys or code and go mice. You know how I feel about those, but using those robots with different grade levels, but we changed out the content. So I had first grade first and we were learning about things that you can see during the day and during the night. So using the Bee Bots, they were coding to different pictures of things that can be seen during the day, during the night, and both. Sometimes you can see the moon during the day and the night. So they use the Bee Bots for that challenge. Then I actually had kids take out the cards for me, I had mats that have a clear cover sheet, or you can laminate whatever works best or whatever you have. Then I had different cards for Kindergarten, same robots, but they were coding to different shade structures or coding to the sun, because we were talking about the sun in the shade. So really ask them because first grade had some background knowledge of how to use the robots from Kindergarten. But the whole challenge was completely different, the content was different. They were also adding more components to their codes, they were doing more multi-step codes instead of one thing at a time. So it’s also really good to help them have that progression of learning. Along with that, for that progression of learning, think about technology tools that have multiple pathways, and ways that can differentiate or get harder and harder. Another tool that I love using with the primary students are the Osmos. If you haven’t seen Osmos, these are super cool. These are specific for iPads or Kindles. When you purchase these, just make sure that you get the version that is applicable to the device you have. There are different versions, they have the same components, but it just fits the device and works with the device in the way that it should. So what’s really cool is you have your tablet, and there is an attachment that goes over the camera, the front facing camera. What it does is this attachment has a mirror, and it’s reading the manipulatives that come with the kit that the kids are using on the table. So with the corresponding app, let’s say it’s a numbers app where they have to combine dots to create the number on the screen, they have the little manipulatives. What it’s going to do is let’s say there’s a five, they have to get on the screen, they’re going to use the little chips, the little manipulatives on the table, they’re going to make a five, so add up all the dots. Then the attachment is going to read what they make with their hands and then send it back to the application. Then it’s going to self correct. So it’s going to let them know if it’s right or wrong. What’s awesome is these apps have so many different ways to differentiate. The kits are a little bit pricey, but they’re really sturdy, and there are many levels. So I can do the numbers game K-2, because there’s a lot of different things in math that they can learn. What’s also great too is yes, you can start them off at the same level. But once you get to know your kids more and their needs, you can differentiate for them within the app. So there’s some really cool ones, the ones off the top of my head, there’s a tangrams app, which is great for spatial awareness and problem solving. There’s a numbers app, which helps them with those different progressions of math learning. So counting with dots, I’m doing the subitizing. I’m probably saying those wrong, but you know what I’m talking about. So have the different progression of learning with math, and then it also moves into that numerical form. There’s also a coding kit and the coding one actually has three separate apps, which is super cool. I’ve been playing around with that one for the younger kids. There’s different ways to code with that. So definitely think about tools that have these differentiation options. Back to those Blue Bots, I upgraded to those specifically, because the kids can code without a screen. But then with the older kids, my second graders, they can actually code the robot using the tablet. So think about those multi-use tools and ways that you can use a progression of learning with that technology. Another thing for technology is thinking about tools that you can repeatedly use over and over again. Bonus points if this is a tool that they’re already using in your classroom. The one that I am thinking of that you guys probably know what I’m going to say is Seesaw. They get a lot of free publicity on here because I love them. I used it all the time when I was a classroom teacher and I use Seesaw K through five because it works for everybody. There’s great differentiation options for all learners. Anyway, the students in some classes use Seesaw as a way to show their learning with their homeroom teacher. So I might as well use it in STEM because the skills I might show them might be a little bit different than what their teachers are showing them. They might be learning things in their classroom that I don’t know yet. So vice versa, they’re using a tool that is repeatable, that they are familiar with, and then they can showcase their learning, of course and STEM. You’re going to do things that are different and that’s okay that is kind of the whole point of it also, but think about those tools that you can use over and over again. Maybe it is Google tools. If you have to for the littles you can definitely do that. I prefer Seesaw, but there are very similar things. Also, Epic Books is another great one when it comes to research. So think about those tools they might be familiar with, and then give it that STEM twist, because kids can definitely be successful with that. They’re just using it in a different way to showcase their learning. 


Naomi Meredith  20:18

As a recap, here are the three hacks for planning for your K-2 students that we talked about in this episode, and then we have the special announcement that I have for you. The first is to create a structure for your week. Next is think about having low prep materials. And finally, you might think I’m a little bit crazy on this one, but trust me, integrate more technology. Okay, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for, and I get so many questions about this. So I’m so excited to finally be sharing with you that the doors are finally open for my first ever live workshop, and it is a K-2 virtual planning workshop. So you get to spend two hours with me live and with some other STEM teachers around the world. We’re going to tackle that planning for K-2. I shared with you some great hacks, but we’re actually going to plan out a unit for one of the grade levels. I’m going to show you exactly how I plan for my students and give you the tools to be successful. You probably feel so confident and so good about planning for your older students, but when it comes to the little ones, it can definitely be overwhelming. But I’m going to be here for you where we can tackle this together. During those two hours, we’re going to plan some STEM stations, or mini projects and a STEM and stories that you can directly take back to your classroom, that is also standard space and encourages creativity and engagement with your students. Now, if you aren’t able to attend live, or if you are listening to this way off in the future, don’t worry, it will all be recorded. So you definitely can get access, rewatch it, and work at your own pace. The benefit of joining us live is you can ask me questions in real-time, and I can answer you. You can also interact with the other teachers who are going to be there. So I’m so excited about this live virtual workshop. It’s awesome. It’s a two-hour commitment, you get a certificate of completion when you’re finished, and then you get a whole bunch to take back in your classroom. So it’s very actionable. The key is workshop. So it’s not a sit and get kind of thing. It’s something that you definitely can benefit from. Don’t feel overwhelmed anymore. I’m here for you, I hear you. So this is definitely created for you to be successful so that you have this unit planned. But then, you can also apply this same model and strategy to all the other units for the rest of the school year. So this is definitely going to build that base for you. So all of this is going to be linked in the show notes for you to join in, whether it’s live or access the recorded version. I would love to have you be there. And definitely jump on and get your hands on this. The doors are open, and I can’t wait to see you there.

 

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!

stem teacher do

What Does a K-6 STEM Teacher Do? with Kristin Kinner [ep.52]

What Does a K-6 STEM Teacher Do? with Kristin Kinner [ep.52]

Check out the full episode on What Does a K-6 STEM Teacher Do? with Kristin Kinner:  

 

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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

Episode Summary

In today’s episode, I interview Kristin Kenner, who is a K-6th grade STEM teacher who taught in a regular classroom for over 25 years. I know many of you will relate to Kristin’s experience since many of you were also in the classroom before your STEM role. Kristin and I were talking over the summer before her role in STEM, and she was super nervous and asking for advice.

I knew that the experience she already had would be so helpful in her STEM role. In this episode, Kristin shares her journey as a classroom teacher turned STEM teacher, how she’s received grants to purchase materials for her STEM classroom, lessons from my TpT shop that Kristin has implemented in her classroom, and much more!

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Kristin’s journey as a first-year STEM teacher
  • How she used grants to fund materials for her STEM classroom
  • Her process for getting approved for grants
  • STEM lessons from Naomi’s TpT shop that Kristin’s students enjoy

Meet Kristin Kinner:

Kristin Kinner is an elementary STEM teacher in her first year in STEM. She has taught for over 25 years in first, second, and fourth grades and has been a learning specialist and reading specialist in K-12. She currently inspires over 725 students to follow their passions in K-6 STEM. Kristin loves meeting and collaborating with other innovative educators and exploring new learning with her students.

Connect with Kristin:

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

In today’s episode, I am interviewing Kristin Kinner who is a K through five STEM teacher who taught in the regular classroom for over 25 years. I thought her experience was super relatable to many of you who are listening. Most of you were also in the classroom before this role, and I thought that this would be a perfect fit for a guest on this show. Kristin and I have connected over the years through different ways and platforms. More recently, the InnEdCO Conference, which is a local conference in Colorado that is all about innovation. So definitely recommend it if you want to take a trip to Colorado or you live in the area. It’s a really awesome conference. We were talking over the summer before her role in STEM, and she was super nervous and asking for advice. I knew that her experience that she already had would be so helpful in her STEM role, and you’re going to hear the passion in her voice. She loves teaching K through six STEM, and I’m sure a lot of you can relate to her story. Before teaching in K through six STEM she taught in first, second, and fourth grades, and was also a learning specialist and reading specialist in Kindergarten. She teaches over 725 students, which is a lot of kids. Kristin loves meeting and collaborating with other innovative educators and exploring new learning with her students. I am so excited for you to listen to this interview. She is so much fun, and I can’t wait for you to listen. 


Naomi Meredith  02:04

All right, Kristin. Well, thank you so much for being here today. I was so excited you said yes to me. We were emailing back and forth and like, “Hey, do you want to be on the podcast?” So I’m so glad you said yes to me because I think your experience and your background and teaching is super valuable. I think that your story of where you’ve been in education and how you got to STEM can really resonate with a lot of teachers here on the podcast. Because like me, and I’m pretty sure like you, we just kind of got thrown into it with a passion that we had. So if you wouldn’t mind telling us more about yourself and your teaching background and how you became a STEM teacher.


Kristin Kinner  02:41

Well, Hi, Naomi. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast. As you know, I’m an elementary to STEM teacher. This is my first year in STEM. I’ve taught for over 25 years in first, second, and fourth grades mostly. I’ve been a learning specialist and a reading specialist, so I have a background in special education. Currently I inspire over 725 students to follow their passion in STEM. I love meeting and collaborating with other innovative educators and just exploring new learning with my students.


Naomi Meredith  03:16

You have a lot of kids? 


Kristin Kinner  03:18

Yes. 


Naomi Meredith  03:20

Wait, did you say sixth grade you have or is it just K through five?


Kristin Kinner  03:24

It’s K through six, and then we have a discovery program at my school, which has four self contained GT classrooms. So I have those classes as well. So I teach teach eight classes a day. 


Naomi Meredith  03:40

Wait, how does your schedule work with eight classes? I thought six was a lot. I have six. How does your schedule work?


Kristin Kinner  03:47

So I start in the morning and I teach sixth, fifth and fourth. Then I have lunch and we have two buildings. So then I take my stuff over to the primary building and I teach K-3. Then I teach the discovery class at the very end. Yeah, it’s busy.


Naomi Meredith  04:06

Do you have two separate classrooms then, or are you teaching in their classrooms?


Kristin Kinner  04:11

I do. I have two separate rooms. I have an innovative lab at the intermediate building and I have a STEM lab that’s particularly primary in a primary building.


Naomi Meredith  04:22

I did not know this. I need to go visit your school. I did not know you did that. That’s a lot.


Kristin Kinner  04:33

It’s a lot of fun though. And it keeps me moving and motivated.


Naomi Meredith  04:37

So what has been your favorite part about teaching STEM? Because you you have so much background in teaching and you’re, I mean, I don’t know when you can retire by but you could be like “Hey, see ya,” but now look at you. You’re in STEM. So what have been your favorite parts about it so far?


Kristin Kinner  04:52

I really love robotics. So we’re doing a lot of robotics right now. Bee bots are being used with Kindergarten and first grade. Then I’ve got Dash robots for second, third and fourth. Then we’re going to get into using the Vex Go Systems with fifth and sixth grade as the year progresses. Yeah, so it should be fun.


Naomi Meredith  05:16

Yeah. Have you even opened up those Vex Go Sustems? Yeah, I haven’t used those, but I’ve heard really good things about them.


Kristin Kinner  05:22

I have opened them up. I haven’t done a lot with them. I’m gonna do some exploring over Christmas break to see what we can find.


Naomi Meredith  05:34

Yeah, cuz are those the kits where they actually build the robot? Or am I thinking of something else?


Kristin Kinner  05:39

Yeah, they will actually build the robot. Yes.


Naomi Meredith  05:44

That is so cool. Wow. So you have that many classes a day. So you love robotics? Has there been anything that like surprised you? Because I know coming from the classroom is a lot. You and I were talking at the InnEdCO conference, and you’re so sweet. Like, I’m so nervous. I don’t know where it to start. I’m like, “Well, you’ve been a teacher for a long time. I think it’ll be okay.” But has there been anything that has surprised you where you’re like, “Whoa, I did not expect this?”


Kristin Kinner  06:16

No, I think the hardest thing is going from teaching primary for so long to working with some of the older students. But a lot of the things that we’ve done, I tried to plan something that kind of fits with each grade level. So sixth grade, we use the global goals. They created PSAs to kind of talk about what they might do to work toward a global goal. Fifth grade, we have hydroponic gardens. So they are doing a whole hydroponic gardening unit, that’s just for their grade. With fourth grade, I’m working with otter cares and doing Project HEART, which is a service or a philanthropy unit. So they’re going to be creating some service projects that we carry out through STEM, just to keep some things going for each of them.


Naomi Meredith  07:08

Yeah, so how often do you see the kids then? Because those sound like really big projects? I haven’t heard of global goal or otter cares. Do you do these projects in five days? Or is this something that would carry on for multiple rotations? How does that work with your timing?


Kristin Kinner  07:26

So I see each class for a full week, Monday through Friday, and we have a four week rotation. So we have four classes on each grade level. So I repeat my lessons four times with sixth grade, the global goals, or the 2030 sustainable goals. So like, no poverty, free freshwater, those kinds of things. All people have proper nutrition. They worked on researching, and that took, like, a week. Then the second week was putting together what they wanted to put on their public service announcement. Some of them did Google Slides, because they were familiar with that. But once we introduced the green screen and actually recording using iPads, they were able to record. A lot of them recorded, and had and made videos and stuff.


Naomi Meredith  08:22

So is this more like project based learning? Or do you use the Engineering Design Process or kind of both? Because that’s super interesting. I haven’t talked to anybody who’s done long term projects like this, that I’m so curious how you set that all up.


Kristin Kinner  08:38

I can share it with you. It was just basically I had like a doc that they filled in, and I shared through Google Classroom. That kind of was the framework for what I wanted them to find out, and for what I wanted them to share in their public service announcement, and they just went from there. They’re on my website, so you can see what some of the kids did.


Naomi Meredith  09:04

Oh, yeah, we’ll definitely have to link that. That is super interesting. It’s funny you say that. I’m with you on having a harder time with the older kids. I mean, I think your lessons are really good. But a lot of people are the opposite of you. A lot of people struggle with the little kids more than the older kids. So are there any strategies you would say for the little kids that people should try? Because a lot of people I get have a lot of questions about little kids.


Kristin Kinner  09:30

I tried to connect the younger ones to stories. So a lot of the k one might be more just build oriented and creating that way. This week, we did your lesson on 10 on the sled, so they had to decide what they wanted to build for their sleds and came up with some really cute ideas. Those books are like kind of the vehicle to launch a lot of my lessons. First, second, and third, we did Tacky the Penguin. It was Tacky in the Winter Games. So they had to do a direct drawing of the penguin. Then they had some clothing that they had to either design or there was a copy page they could color them in. But I took it a step further with the second and third graders. They had to create a coding path for Dash Robot to dress Tacky, say to put the pieces all around the coding mat and collect them using the robot. So kind of integrating a few different things.


Naomi Meredith  10:40

 Oh, that’s a great way to start. I know I’ve talked about this in past episodes, like if you can integrate books, that is the best way to get started, or are just busy times of year engaging younger students, and even for sub plans. I don’t know if you’ve left books for subs, that’s something I definitely have done. It’s super, like everybody loves reading. But a lot of us in elementary love reading books anyway, we have a lot of our favorites. So you might as well integrate that. Do you ever do like STEM stations with the little kids or other types of projects?


Kristin Kinner  11:15

Yes, I do. I have some trays that are set up just for that purpose. So I have like six different trays. So when projects are finished, there’s different things that they can go to. If I’m ever out, I usually leave STEM stations for a set, because the directions are there on the card, and the materials are ready to go. So I just put them on the table and read the directions and have the kids go like four to a table. Then you rotate after 15 minutes, and it keeps it easy for the sub and it keeps the kids engaged.


Naomi Meredith  11:51

Yeah, what types of things are on the trays? I’m trying to visualize these trays, I’m so curious.


Kristin Kinner  11:58

One is just a whole collection of pipe cleaners. They have to make a net to collect a ball, which is like a paper ball. One, I have Legos set up in this large tray that my daughter made. She’s a student at CU. I put LEGO platforms in there. They’re building a whole hockey station in there. So kids can work on it continually. Then others can add to it. One of them is using Keva blocks to build a bridge. So there’s different supplies. I just take out the container and put them on tables and explain what’s what. Tthen they’re easy to pack up to.


Naomi Meredith  12:39

Oh, yeah, I love that organization. I’m thinking too like, what about the space, but you said you had two buildings you go to? So that’s nice too where you have, oh, here’s more of the primary supplies in the secondary because having those, you need a lot of stuff. I feel like for the little kids, I don’t know, that’s something that I have found. When I came into my classroom, I didn’t have any of that building stuff. So I asked classroom teachers if they have any extra math manipulatives. I used most of my budget that year on just simple building supplies that you mentioned. But I know that you had to gather, well, I mean, you had to gather a lot of supplies for two rooms. How did you get all the supplies for your classroom? Because that’s a lot of stuff you need.


Kristin Kinner  13:21

So I was very lucky to step into a well equipped, innovative lab and that was at the intermediate building. So fourth, fifth and sixth. We had a lot of tools for the students to learn and a lot of the consumables. I just set up another room in the primary building, which was a little more challenging, but I write a lot of grants and get a lot of funding from different companies. So all robotics last year, we’re funded through different brands. Yeah.


Naomi Meredith  13:53

Wait, so do you write directly to the companies? This isn’t Donors Choose? How do you do this? This is amazing.


Kristin Kinner  14:00

So there are some companies like one grant I got was through Toshiba America. It was $1,000, and I received funding for six Dash robots, and some other supplies for the robotics like chargers and stuff, so I can charge six of them at a time. Yeah. Then this year, I got a grant through Westera, and they funded the lights for my hydroponic gardens. Because like a true engineer, designer, I had gardens, but I didn’t have grow lights. So I was like, Oh, they’re not growing. I had to come up with a way to problem solve and come up with lights because nothing was growing. This whole project was flopping. So I wrote a grant and Westera and my principal both bought a set of lights for our gardens. So now they’re growing like there’s no tomorrow.


Naomi Meredith  15:01

Oh yeah, well, this is like kind of off topic, but it’s similar. So when my family moved out of Colorado, like you take stuff to Goodwill, so my mom’s like, take all this stuff to Goodwill. I’m like, okay, so she loaded all this stuff in my trunk. While I’m unloading it, all the people at Goodwill were laughing at me. Then I realized she put a bunch of grow lights and growing things in my trunk. So I really set somebody up for their home garden, whatever that may be like in Colorado, you guys can connect the dots. But yeah, you definitely need the lights for sure. Growing herbs, like legit herbs, my mom, like grew herbs on my counter, like, that’s it not illegal. But um, yeah, that’s a good point. So how did you find these grants? I’ve never heard of this. I’m thinking of Darrell. Darrell, if you’re listening, you’ve asked me about grants. So you need to listen to this part. How did you find these?


Kristin Kinner  15:53

I searched for educational grants, we can search by state. I found Toshiba that way. That was actually the second grant that I’d gotten from Toshiba. I’d got one a few years back. It was mostly for a collaboration station just for like furniture, and some other games and tools in my first grade class probably about six or seven years ago. I still have the table. But yeah, it’s just a nice way, especially if you need some of those, like, the Keva blocks. I have zoob tubes and extra Legos, if you need any of that stuff. Just a small grant, aside from Donors Choose, they will fund a few different things.


Naomi Meredith  16:35

Oh, yeah, that’s great advice because I know that can be really inhibiting in our position, like you have found where you need stuff. I mean, you can definitely teach them with having cardboard, and a Makerspace. But I feel like Makerspace is just one unit, which if that’s all you can afford, it’s better than nothing to be honest. But we really want to provide these experiences for kids and buying high quality materials that are going to last more than one time. So having the Bee Bots or Blue Bots are definitely worth your investment. More so than those Code and Go Mice do the same thing. They’re not very good. But that is so smart. I did not know you could do that. That’s really helpful for people. If you guys don’t know where to get started, I have a free guide for just a spreadsheet of different things that you can buy with different budgets. So that can help with your pricing and has a lot of the stuff that you mentioned Kristin with all of those really hands on materials, because you need you need all that cool stuff. I mean, it really helps like their imaginations and thinking of the world in new ways. So you said that the 10 on the sled was super fun with your kids? Has there been anything else of mine that you’ve used in your classroom that you’ve seen success with your kids?


Kristin Kinner  17:53

I’ve used a lot of your resources. 


Naomi Meredith  17:56

Oh, okay. I did not know this. 


Kristin Kinner  17:58

I did. Your marble maze, and the kids went bananas. They loved it. One kid made a really tiny one that was probably like four inches by four inches. They use cocktail straws around the edge. We even made marbles out of pieces of clay with one of the groups.


Naomi Meredith  18:18

Oh, yeah.


Kristin Kinner  18:21

Yeah, they did some amazing things. We did your spider pulley in October and they got to keep the spider ring.


Naomi Meredith  18:30

Oh, look at you go. I don’t. I take them back. I think I said that on my episode too. I’m like, I don’t let them keep them. Well, you are the nice STEM teacher, and I’m like give them back.


Kristin Kinner  18:40

That’s because I ordered a bag of about 500 of them. I’m not gonna get rid of these in just a year. What else did we do? Oh, I used your cardboard maker tree. We created a wish tree. We did a wish tree for all the specials teachers. We put little ornaments on them, and we asked for some donations like markers, glue sticks, masking tape and scotch tape because I do not have a lot of those at all.


Naomi Meredith  19:11

Yeah, I run out of masking tape like it’s water. Yeah, I ran into that so is such a cute idea. Have you gotten any donations? We are recording this in December. Have you gotten anything yet?


Kristin Kinner  19:23

I have I got some markers, and I think there’s a few more that’ll be coming in through the week. But just very excited.


Naomi Meredith  19:32

Oh I love that and you could definitely do that. You can make it like a palm tree I don’t know for summertime or if you have parent teacher conferences. What a cute idea on how to use that one. I didn’t even think of that.


Kristin Kinner  19:47

We did you’re all about me brick build. I did it with six during the first week of school and they loved that. They keep asking for more Legos and I think just picking the colors and giving them a little, you know, they could pick what they wanted. But I don’t know, it was kind of cool. It really worked out well. I used your Rube Goldberg lesson to show how matter travels through the ecosystem. 


Naomi Meredith  20:12

Oh, how did that one go? I’m always curious to see how that one goes in classrooms.


Kristin Kinner  20:17

So that was with fifth grade, and it was toward the beginning of the year. They kind of wanted to get it really involved with different animals. I was like, you only need three, have three, one to try to three. Like and if you want more than that, once you get to three, let’s add on. But they enjoyed that. We saw some videos about different Rube Goldberg systems. There are some cool ones out there and gave them some inspiration. Then they created some amazing things. Yeah, I use a lot of your stuff. 


Naomi Meredith  20:49

Oh, you’re so sweet. You sent me pictures of the posters. I didn’t know like, I don’t know. I’m like, Hey, I’m doing this in my own classroom. But the Rube Goldberg one is so fun. I don’t know if you showed this. But kids like that’s in Home Alone. I’m all Oh, yeah. Is it? Right? Yeah, like go watch it on Disney plus, like, it’s just a good movie. I’m like, also a little sad. He’s by himself. When we showed the part the part I could find on YouTube, where he was setting up the trap where it’s actually really dangerous if you rewatch it, but then we didn’t watch it actually go it like being launched, like hurting the robbers. I don’t know if we can show that at school. But he’s like pouring water on the steps. Then he has like, the fan with the feathers are like, Oh my gosh, but yeah, we were showing that when I did that with fifth grade, too. They were talking about him like, oh, yeah, let’s watch that part. So super fun. I don’t know if you had this happen. A lot of the kids didn’t know what a Rube Goldberg machine was. But they kind of knew the concept. Did you see that too? When you were teaching it.


Naomi Meredith  20:49

A little bit. But again, I shared videos to kind of say this is who Rube Goldberg was, this is why it was famous, and this is what we’re doing to try to find a difficult way to solve an easy problem was kind of how. 


Naomi Meredith  22:15

Yeah, totally. Again, it’s so fun. I have told kids like you should make them at home over break and send me videos. It’s a great at home activity on a cold day.


Kristin Kinner  22:30

It’s a good idea.


Naomi Meredith  22:32

Oh, yeah, I’m not patient enough for that. But I would love to see the kids videos.


Kristin Kinner  22:38

I would bet they do it too.


Naomi Meredith  22:40

Oh, yeah, I think so. So if there’s anyone else, I didn’t send you this question before so I’m getting you on the fly. But if there is a teacher, and who is thinking about a similar role as you, they’ve been teaching for a while, do you have any advice for them? Because I know you love your position. You’re just so sweet and modest about it. But I know you love it. 


Kristin Kinner  23:04

I do love it.


Naomi Meredith  23:05

Yeah, I know you. So what would you say to someone who is like you even six months ago, what would you say?


Kristin Kinner  23:13

I would say try them out in your classroom, like have your current kids pick a day, maybe it’s like, fun Friday, but pick a day and have like different challenges where the kids are trying them out because you know your audience and you can tell them, hey, I want you to test the sound I try. I want to try something new with you. I used to do that with my first graders all the time. Now I have all those first graders because they were in my class over the past five years. So now they’re in second through sixth. So I’ve got like robotics experts in the classroom, and I’ve got kids in every room that kind of know, what are some things that we did together. So they can now be the experts and lead others. That’s kind of what you want to do. You want to find what they’re good at, and you want them to feel like “Hey, I know this stuff.” So I’m gonna help you out and feel good about what they’re doing.


Naomi Meredith  24:08

I think that’s such good advice. I think that’s so good because it is a lot teaching all the kids in the school. But I know like some teachers who listen to this are interested in STEM who are a classroom teacher, they don’t know where to get started, or maybe they only teach a few grade levels. So I think that’s really good to hear because it can be a lot at first. Like it is, it’s a lot and even for me still starting new units it can be like super overwhelming sometimes but I think that’s really good just to jump in. You’re showing them to you have a growth mindset, and that’s like really important in STEM like you’re demonstrating what a growth mindset is because I think sometimes as teachers we don’t always do that. But I think that’s really good advice to give them. So you mentioned you had a website, are there any other? So how can teachers connect with you and get in touch if they have more questions?


Kristin Kinner  25:07

So I am on Twitter @kinnerswinners and I have a WordPress blog, but it’s been a while since I’ve added it’s called Innovationinfirst.wordpress.com. Then I’m trying to get better at Instagram, and that’s where I’m k_kinnerteaches


Naomi Meredith  25:34

Yeah, I think they’ll love that and definitely reach out. I think you have a lot of great nuggets that teachers can connect with and reach out to you and just fill up their STEM network. So I appreciate your time. Thank you for using my lessons. I had no idea that I never know I don’t know who gets the things all the time. So it’s just pretty cool, like hearing what you’re doing in your classroom and how you’re inspiring kids. I can’t wait to talk to you at the end of the school year and just like how it all worked out for you.


Kristin Kinner  26:06

Oh, you’re awesome. Yeah, your lessons are amazing. They’re pretty clear, pretty straightforward and really easy to follow. So that’s what I really liked about them.


Naomi Meredith  26:16

Good. Well, thank you. Well, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you.


Kristin Kinner  26:21

Anytime! I will see you soon.

 

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

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

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

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

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

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

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

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

teach growth mindset activities

How Do You Teach Growth Mindset Activities? [ep.51]

How Do You Teach Growth Mindset Activities? [ep.51]

Check out the full episode on How Do You Teach Growth Mindset Activities?:  

 

 

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Episode Summary

How do you teach growth mindset activities in STEM? In my opinion, a growth mindset is one of those soft skills that you should definitely be teaching in your STEM classroom.

In this episode, we’ll be going over strategies on how to teach growth mindset activities in your STEM space and how it can also be a natural fit into what you are already teaching.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn  3 ways to teach growth mindset activities in your STEM classroom:

  • Isolated lessons 
  • Embedded lessons
  • Model a growth mindset for your students

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

How do you teach growth mindset activities in STEM? A growth mindset is one of those big buzzwords in the education space. But in my opinion, a growth mindset is one of those soft skills that you should definitely be teaching and STEM. In this episode, we’ll be going over strategies of ways to teach a growth mindset in your STEM space and how it can also be a natural fit into what you are already teaching. 


Naomi Meredith  00:59

Before we get started, here are a couple of fun announcements for you. We are really close to launching the first virtual workshop for 2023. This is going to be a great time to learn and connect with other STEM teachers and meet with me, and I definitely don’t want you to miss out on this opportunity. So make sure to join the waitlist so you can be the first one to know when it’s open. You can grab that at Naomimeredith.com/workshopwaitlist. Also, we have been on the air with this podcast for almost six months now. I appreciate all of the reviews that have been shared. But I know it’s been a little bit of time, and you’ve been a longtime listener, maybe you haven’t said anything yet. So I would love for you to take a few moments to write a review, I would love to start reading those on the podcast and setting up a fun giveaway for those of you who write a review. So if you wouldn’t mind going into Apple podcasts, let me know how this podcast has been helpful for you. Then I’m going to think of something fun that you can earn in return if I read yours on an episode, so I definitely would appreciate it. Thank you so much. Let’s jump into this episode. 


Naomi Meredith  02:21

If you’re a classroom teacher before jumping into your K through five STEM room like me, a growth mindset is probably not a new concept. I know I have been talking about this for years, especially when I was teaching third grade. We really focused on it, especially during the back-to-school time. Now you and your STEM room are probably really thinking about a growth mindset and how important it is to teach in your lessons. What I have found really interesting in the STEM space is that the growth mindset is really tested in different ways compared to the regular classroom, especially when kids are doing things that are hands-on and creative. I feel like it can be such a vulnerable situation when you’re being creative. Because you just really hope that your ideas work. When they don’t, it’s really hard to really persevere through them. This is a life skill for a lot of adults as well. So how do you teach this concept of a growth mindset in your STEM space when you typically only see kids for a short amount of time? Well, I have some different strategies for you, where we’re really going to talk about how you can isolate these lessons, but also how you can embed them in your practice because, most likely, the classroom teachers are talking about it as well. You might need to attack the growth mindset in a different way. But also make it actionable and meaningful for the short amount of time you have with kids. So let’s jump in. 


Naomi Meredith  03:56

When teaching a growth mindset, you can really focus on having isolated lessons. What I mean by this is you are teaching a growth mindset skill, and you are isolating it. That is what your whole lesson is about. These are really great to sprinkle in throughout the school year during back-to-school after long breaks. Because, of course, a growth mindset is going to change as kids are getting older. Also, it depends on the type of project that they are going to be doing. So having isolated lessons can be very helpful. This can also help build that community in your classroom. Since you don’t see them typically every day, this is a great chance to get to know the kids in a different way and really set up those expectations and processes when they’re in your classroom. One way you can have an isolated lesson is to have a STEM and stories lesson. There are a variety of books out there. You can do this in a couple of ways. Maybe we start off with a book where the character is demonstrating or not demonstrating a growth mindset and a variety of situations. Or maybe you have a story that is one of your favorites, but the related activity is demonstrating a growth mindset. For example, one book that I absolutely love where a character is demonstrating a growth mindset is After the Fall by Dan Santat. This book is so cute where the main character Humpty Dumpty, well, it’s after he fell off the wall, and he’s really trying to decide if he should get back up on that wall again. So I’m not going to give away the ending. But this is a great book to use in your classroom. Now maybe you have a fun STEM story, maybe it’s about building things that you would like to read to your students. But then the related activity is where students have to practice a growth mindset skill, I recommend listening to my first guest interview that I actually had on this podcast with my friend Jen Sevy, where she talked about engineering design sprints, which not only are you practicing the Engineering Design Process, but all of these challenges tested kids’ ways of how to demonstrate a growth mindset. So this can be a great opportunity as well. 


Naomi Meredith  06:17

Another way that you can have an isolated growth mindset activity in your classroom is to have a specific growth mindset skill that students are going to be focusing on, and the lesson is directly related to it. So very similar to the STEM and stories, but this time, you might not have a book. One of the ways that I do this is a growth mindset I have in my classroom is that we are creators with technology, not just consumers. So we will talk about what that means to be a creator, maybe if we are working on something with 3D printing, we’re not just going to be looking in the library of 3D prints and printing off random things. But we are really practicing creating something out of nothing and being proud of the work that we are doing. So this is really helping students understand what that growth mindset means and how it’s going to be used in our lesson. Another growth mindset that I like to use in my classroom is that we are problem solvers, not problem makers. A way that I could connect this lesson with my students is by teaching them various specific ways of how they can troubleshoot most types of technology. I have some fun posters that are visual that you can hang up in your classroom, where it lists out these typical troubleshooting steps or have them individualized as well. Some of those things might be turning the device on and off, exiting out of tabs, restarting the device, those types of things that we really want students to be problem-solving with, this is a great opportunity to connect it with a growth mindset. 


Naomi Meredith  07:58

Now that you have those core lessons in place, those are things that I do mainly at the beginning of the year or when I am starting something brand new with students. But most of the time I do this second method, and it is embedding the growth mindset strategies, really when you’re embedding them and that they are naturally taking place in your classroom. This is where I feel like it’s the most authentic, and students really are understanding what it means to have a growth mindset in various situations. Think about how you can have a growth mindset as a core system in your classroom. For example, I use the system to ask three before me, you might have this happen, especially when it’s something new. And it even depends on the class that you have. Some are needier than others. But I really try to push students to ask three before me, I am more of the guide in the classroom. And I’m there to really handle the tough situations and facilitate the learning. But the kids in STEM are really quick learners, and more than likely, they’re very excited to help. This not only helps the students who are needing the help, but it’s also helping them advocate for themselves and use their words to learn how to speak with their peers and how to communicate the problems that they are having. But it’s also a great experience for the students who are helping with the troubleshooting. Because you’ve probably seen this, it’s oftentimes the kids who surprise you who have the knowledge and who are happy to help where they might not always have that role back in their regular classroom. Ask three before me is such a simple strategy, but it is so effective and still helpful in the STEM space and connecting it to a growth mindset. 


Naomi Meredith  09:44

Along with that, when I have students help each other, I tell them that they need to be the YouTube tutorial. So we talked about when I am helping other teachers with things, I typically am not the one who is typing in all of this stuff or plugging all of it in all of the time. But I really tried to have the teacher do it with me with my guidance because I’m not always going to be there in their classroom. It’s also a great experience for the teacher to learn how to do that. Likewise, we want our students to be able to problem solve and be able to do things. So when I have kids help each other, especially when it comes to technical issues, I have them talk through that issue and help the student who’s having problems instead of going in and typing it in and fixing it all by themselves. This is helping again with that problem-solving. And again, having that growth mindset when it comes to problems with their project or technology. Another way that you can embed a growth mindset in your classroom is you can have a specific growth mindset theme for your unit, I have various specific growth mindset sayings that I use in my classroom, I’ll link a blog post that I wrote about this in detail in the show notes, I definitely recommend for you to check that out, because I have examples of how I teach every single one in my classroom. You can even print these up and hang them in your room. So when you are planning out your lessons, think about the type of growth mindset that you want students to demonstrate in their learning. I shared with you the example of 3D printing and how they are creators with technology and not just consumers. But think about the growth mindset you want them to demonstrate. And you can refer to this every single day throughout the week, or however long you have the kids, and really talk about what that means to demonstrate that growth mindset skill, you can go even further and have matching notes to send home and send a positive note home with the child where they could share with their family and how they demonstrated growth mindset. This is also really great, too, if you read this out loud in the class and talk about what that strategy was. Because this can also encourage students to really try that growth mindset skill. 


Naomi Meredith  12:00

Just like anything, a growth mindset can be really challenging, especially for a lot of kids and especially when they are trying new things in your classroom. It’s not all going to come naturally. And that’s okay. I will tell my students I wasn’t born knowing all of these STEM things. I wasn’t born knowing every single lesson I’ve had, I’ve had a growth mindset planning them. So when it comes to learning these things, in turn, we need to have a growth mindset. So these little notes home can really be encouraging for the kids. And also think about the growth mindset in a different way. From there, students also need role models in their lives. And that is a great opportunity for you to be modeling a growth mindset. So the third way to demonstrate and teach a growth mindset in your classroom I gave the example where I didn’t know what I was teaching. And I’m always constantly learning. But I tell my students that all the time, when we were doing podcasting with the fifth grade, they were creating a podcast about light pollution, again, a topic I also didn’t know about. And that’s a lesson in my shop as well. But we were talking about podcasting. And I was actually sharing with my students’ parts of my podcast as one of the examples. And how I’ve had a growth mindset to learn all the things to get this launched and to continue to have it going. So it was really cool for the students to see that they’re doing something that I do in my real life and how I’m able to connect with other teachers and people who are supportive of STEM education. So it was really neat for them to see that they were doing something that was real and that I have been through the process. And I am helping them through that. It’s it was very hard for them. But I was helping them through that based on the experiences that I had. So any way that you can tie in your own experiences and how you demonstrate a growth mindset. People love stories, kids love stories. So this is also a great way to connect with each other and be that model for them. Also, continue your learning as an educator, it’s so easy to be overwhelmed by just school in general, I completely get it. But if you’re able to read or listen to different professional development books, there are so many great ones out there that tie in with a growth mindset. This is going to keep opening up your mind and develop new ideas and not get stuck in your way. I read a lot, and I listened to a lot because I always want to make sure that I am up to date and really doing the best for my students, for your students, and for you as a teacher. 


Naomi Meredith  14:41

Some of my favorites when it comes to a growth mindset is, of course, Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck. Highly recommend starting there. Joe Boeler has a couple of books, and she has a new one. She has a new one called Limitless Mind and then also not too old but another one of my favorites, Mathematically Calm Mindset. Also, if you’re a business owner, if you just need a change with your books, I love the book, Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo. It’s not necessarily a STEM education book. But if you want to change it up, she has some good tidbits in there. So continue your professional development, if you can join a type of book club, that’s a great way where you can discuss with other teachers and connect. You can just continue to be encouraged and energized by each other. In turn, that will really apply to what you’re doing in your own classroom when talking about your professional development. Another way you can continue that is maybe even considering getting a STEM certificate or even a Master’s in STEM Education. I did not have either of these things when I got into my role. I teach in Colorado, and that wasn’t something that was required. You just have to have your degree in elementary education, which I do. But during COVID, I really thought this would be a great time for me to get a STEM certificate in conjunction with my STEM Masters. I learned so much, and I was really thinking about different topics I had never heard about before. That’s actually where the light pollution podcast lesson came from. Because that was something I had to research in one of my classes. So this is also, again, it’s a lot of work. But also you really open up your mind, gives you a growth mindset of new things. It’s just always great to be learning new things. If you’re interested in me doing a podcast episode more about my STEM certificate and Master’s, I am happy to do that. Just let me know. You can send me a DM or email me and let me know if that’s something that you would be interested in. Or you can even write a comment below if you’re watching the video version. If starting your master’s isn’t something that you have the time for yet, or the funds, or you’re still deciding if you want to stay in STEM, I have a course, STEM teacher 101, that you can do at your own pace. There are professional development credits that you can earn through that if you need something for recertification. So I am here to support you and all the ways of course with this podcast, we are here listening. But really, being that role model for your students and demonstrating a growth mindset is super important. We can tell kids one thing growth mindset, blah, blah, blah, but you really understand it even more if you are demonstrating a growth mindset and you are willing to try new things. Kids can tell if you have a growth mindset or not. And they’re gonna feed off that energy either way. So if you’re not showing it or you’re not doing it in your own life, then why are you even teaching it?


Naomi Meredith  17:40

It’s just kind of a little hypocritical, in my opinion. So just a lot of different ways for you to continue to learn and grow. There are so many cool things happening in STEM education and things coming up. So definitely look into at least one of those ways. As a recap, here are some ways to teach growth mindset activities in your STEM classroom. First, you can have isolated lessons, and then it really moves into those embedded lessons. And finally, figure out how you can model a growth mindset and really be the change and example for your students. Growth Mindset. Well, it’s always a work in progress, but it’s super important for our kids and how they can demonstrate this not only in our STEM classrooms but beyond our classroom walls.

 

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

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

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

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

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

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

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

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

stem in the real world

Space, NASA & STEM in the Real World with Aaron Shepard [ep.50]

Space, NASA & STEM in the Real World with Aaron Shepard [ep.50]

Check out the full episode on Space, NASA & STEM in the Real World with Aaron Shepard:  

 

 

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Episode Summary

I can’t believe we have made it to the 50th episode! We have a special guest on today’s episode to celebrate this special occasion.

Today I am chatting with Aaron Shepard, a software engineer at NASA Goddard. We had an awesome discussion about his journey and career, his passion for STEM, STEM in the real world, and how to get kids involved in STEM.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • About Aaron Shepard’s role at NASA
  • How he went from pursuing a career in medicine to becoming a software engineer for NASA
  • His passion for STEM and how he gets kids interested in STEM

Meet Aaron Shepard:

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

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

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

Connect with Aaron:

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

I can’t believe that we have made it to the 50th episode of the elementary STEM coach podcast. When I first launched this podcast in July of 2022, I had no idea how this would make such a big impact in the elementary STEM community. Not only am I able to help teachers like you with your elementary STEM journey, but I’ve also been able to make some awesome connections with a lot of you and other people who are supportive of STEM education. Thank you so much for being here in this journey. And I look forward to even more episodes of this podcast, and how it grows from here. In turn, I have a special guest to celebrate this 50th episode. We have today, Aaron shepherd who is a software engineer at NASA Goddard. And we had an awesome discussion about his journey and to his career, his passion for STEM and also how to get kids involved. Aaron at first fell in love with science while watching astronauts blast off in the space shuttle, he dreamed of one day building cool technology while floating in a lab in space. later down the road after briefly attending medical school, Aaron decided to chase his childhood dream of working in the space industry. He graduated from Clemson University in 2022, and has since joined the flight dynamics team at NASA Goddard. Aaron currently develops orbital tracking procedures for the Roman Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in 2026. This is such a fun episode, and I know that you’re going to enjoy it. We had a great time chatting. And again, thank you so much for being here. 


Naomi Meredith  02:16

All right, Aaron, well, thank you so much for being here today. I’m so excited to chat with you. I have met your wife through some fun business connections and that she was telling me what you do with kids. And I was like, “Okay, I have to have your husband, Aaron here on this podcast.” I didn’t have you tell me too much before we started recording, because I want to hear it as it comes. I’m so excited to chat with you today. I know the other teachers and the STEM community are going to learn a lot from you. So if you wouldn’t mind introducing yourself, your journey to NASA and then what inspired you with the role that you have?


Aaron Shepard  02:56

Okay, yes, thank you so much for having me on. My name is Aaron and I am currently working as a software engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. In particular, I am on the flight dynamics team for the Roman Space Telescope, which is supposed to be the successor to the Hubble and will hopefully launch, fingers crossed, in 2026. My job is to make sure that it doesn’t get lost in space on the way out. Yeah, if it gets lost, it’s like junk. Yeah, it’s kind of kind of my fault if it gets lost. Well, yeah, my journey to NASA has been quite an interesting one. I grew up like every other kid. I was like, “Oh, I want to go to space. I want to be an astronaut. I want to make all the cool stuff that we send out to Mars and Pluto or wherever.” I guess where my story gets interesting is that I grew up in the early 2000s. That was right around the time when they cancelled the shuttle program. So when they cancelled the shuttle program, I kind of bought into all the hype. Everybody in the room was like, Oh, they’re canceling the shuttle program. There’s not going to be a NASA like space is not the industry. It’s not going to exist in 5 to 10 years. I remember when that announcement came out in school, because like I was just like staring at the tile like, “Oh my god, what am I going to do with my life?” 


Naomi Meredith  04:21

Oh, no.


Aaron Shepard  04:24

So I kind of lived a whole another life before like space and NASA. I have a lot of doctors in my family. So I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna go do that.” So I graduated, went to college, did my MCAT, got into med school, and then I remember like, literally being in med school, like in a class, and I was like, not paying attention at all. I was watching one of the announcements. The European Space Agency had just landed on a comet. They were sending back like pictures and videos. I was like, I want to do that with my life. So needless to say, that was a sort of a very long, very introspective journey dropped out of med school. That was fun to explain to my parents. My mom was like, “What!?” Don’t worry about I got it. I’m gonna take care of it. It’s all good. I dropped out of med school, went back, did another degree in engineering. I was in school for six years. Then while I was in school, I just, I got really lucky. I had people to help me. I had people that believed in me. So I started. I worked at NASA for three summers while I was a student. Then after I graduated, about six months after I graduated, no, not even six months after I graduated. I graduated in May, and then I got my job in like mid-June. So that’s great. Yeah. I didn’t, I did not think that it was going to work out the way it did. But that’s the journey. I guess that it was one of those things that was meant to be, so now I’m living the dream and doing what five year old me wanted to do.


Naomi Meredith  05:58

I was just going to say like little Aaron would be so proud of you.


Aaron Shepard  06:04

Yeah, little Aaron. Little Aaron is looking at big Aaron, like, all right, you’re, you’re pretty cool. Yeah, it’s, honestly, to be a part of the space program, and to hopefully, be a part of something that goes up is one of, I think, the greatest honors in my professional life because not too many people can say that they’ve done that. So I’m really just, it’s, it’s not anything that I take for granted. Let’s put it like that.


Naomi Meredith  06:33

Oh, yeah, it’s so amazing like that. It’s just a lot of work and it’s a lot of collaboration. All your hard work has definitely paid off. It’s just a slow go to. It’s not that instant gratification to I mean, you said 2026. So all of this work, and you’re just hoping that it will work. Like that’s the ultimate STEM project right there. So I’m hoping and 2026 I’ll keep my eyes out for your guys’s project. I love space. I never wanted to be an astronaut but I’m very interested in space. I actually just finished a space unit with my K through five kids. So we talked about Earth and space and lots of different ways. Fourth grade, we’re talking about space junk, we were talking about light pollution in fifth grade. But I’m just so fascinated by it. We have a solar system hanging up and the kids are super into it. It’s just so cool. Like, who knows, maybe one of them or a few of them are little Aaron’s and they tell me they want to work for NASA or be an astronaut. I’m like, Hey, you can do anything. We need you. We need you. So I just I’m so excited to get into just more of what you do. So when it comes to NASA, what does a typical day look like for you?


Aaron Shepard  07:47

So what’s interesting is that I’m actually working remote. So the typical day looks like I wake up. Usually I try to be up around eight o’clock, and I try to clock in around 830 or nine. NASA is a very team oriented organization. So I’m in a lot of meetings. I would say, I have a meeting or two just about every day, Monday through Thursday. Then it just depends on what phase of the project we’re in. So I work again with software. So I could be writing new procedures, I could be debugging and troubleshooting old procedures, or, right now, we’re in a documentation phase. So I’m writing a document, I’m writing the documentation for all of the programs to explain, oh, this is how you run them. So that way anybody can look at them and be like, Oh, I just need to press this button and that button. What these programs will do is the idea is that they’ll pull in tracking data. Long story short, when we’re putting the telescope in the same place that James Webb is in. So at that Lagrangian point. That means we can see it from Earth constantly. We have something called the Deep Space Network. So we have stations in California, Spain, Japan and Australia. They’re all over the globe. At one point, any of those stations can see the telescope, because again, the globe is spinning. So what we’re doing is we’re looking at as the telescope is flying overhead of the station, it’s pinging where it is to get its location, and then we’re running programs to predict its orbit and where it might go and the next. We can do anything from three days to two years.


Naomi Meredith  09:40

Oh, oh, that’s a huge span.


Aaron Shepard  09:45

Yeah, so obviously, like as you go out further, it gets a little bit more inaccurate, but it’s just to give us an idea. One thing that I wrote that was really cool is when we launch it out, it’ll be within range of a network of tracking satellites that we have. So I wrote the procedure to tell the tracking satellites where to look, as the telescope launches out so that we can guess where it’s going to be. If something happens at launch, because of course, I’m gonna watch the launch, but if something happens within the first few days, I’m gonna be like, Oh.


Naomi Meredith  10:24

Like, well, it’s a team effort, guys. We’re team-oriented.


Aaron Shepard  10:28

Exactly, yeah. But again, my day can look like a bunch of different things, and then occasionally actually get to go up to visit the center for testing or for tours. I got to actually see the telescope being built in the cleanroom. That’s, like, really cool. It’s, it’s massive. It’s, yeah, it’s probably like 3045 feet tall. Like, it’s just, it’s big.


Naomi Meredith  10:52

Wow. That’s so cool. And like with your experience, too, like, would you say? Like, looking back as a kid? Did you have experiences? Do you think that helped you do what you do today? Like you, your adult life for sure. But you’re doing so much of collaborating, problem-solving and critical thinking in your daily life, do you think you had a lot of those experiences as a kid that helped you?


Aaron Shepard  11:17

Oh, yeah, from a soft skill perspective. So like collaborating and problem-solving? Definitely. I come from a really big family, so you got to learn how to say what you need. You got to learn how to work with other people and get along. Yeah,


Naomi Meredith  11:31

Yeah, I’m the oldest of five. So I totally get it.


Aaron Shepard  11:34

Yeah. So definitely that and then from just technical skills, like I was always, I was always a big nerd. So I was playing video games all the time, I was working on computers, it was, you know, building stuff, breaking stuff, all that. So I really think that, if anything, it just gives you a mindset of analytical problem-solving. Like I definitely, because I have broken so many things. I just understand the process of navigating problems. 


Naomi Meredith  12:02

Yeah, no, that’s good. I think you and it doesn’t always work the first time and I’m sure you see that in your job, like you have a lot of iteration and you’re going back and you have to make sure like, it’s so different doing anything like a program or whatever, but having to write it out explicitly for somebody else, I’m sure you see, oh, ooh, that’s not good. Or that will make sense to somebody else. So that’s so important to like, I see that with kids. And I think that’s so important, why we have STEM because kids will get frustrated. It doesn’t work the same, though first time, like, hey, it doesn’t always work the first time doesn’t even work the 20th time. And that’s how life goes. And they get sad that their project isn’t the perfect thing by Friday. And like, that’s how it goes. Let’s wag your hair. So definitely, when you mentioned those soft skills, I totally agree with you. That’s really what we’re teaching. You probably see that too when you work with kids, how important those soft skills are. So I’m so glad you mentioned that and you’re using it in your real job. So yes, yeah. So speaking of what you’ve done, your wife tells me you went to Jamaica recently. I don’t know how that all went down. I know it involves STEM. So what were you doing out in Jamaica?


Aaron Shepard  13:15

So I was part of a program called Passage. It’s a really, really cool program. It was started by one of my friends. And his mission is to fly different classrooms, supplies, and science supplies to various countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. So he was in the Bahamas. He was in Jamaica. I think he’s currently in Colombia right now. And then he goes to like Chile, Argentina. Whoa. And it’s a big thing. Like, the program is involved with local governments. So while we were there in Jamaica, we actually met and had like 45 minutes to an hour conversation with the minister, the Ministry of Education, like when I got to meet the Minister of Education. And we had an incredible conversation about how we could leverage modern technology to solidify Jamaica’s place as a tech hub in the Caribbean. We got to meet with the US Embassy, we got to meet with multiple universities, some high schools, I think, the aeronautical Institute of the West Indies, like it was a pretty cool experience.


Naomi Meredith  14:26

Oh, did you know you’re going to meet all these people when you went down there? Like oh, oh, hello. Oh, hello. Oh, okay. You’re high up there.


Aaron Shepard  14:35

Yeah, we knew I think everybody knew, but nobody realized how much gravity or weight this project would have.  On the Jamaica leg, these were real conversations. Like this was an Oh, like, that’s a really cool policy that we can implement later kind of thing. It wasn’t. At first it was at first it was pleasantries and you know, hi I’m so and so and this is so and so but as time went on like it, it really evolved and after we walked outside that meeting with the minister of education we were like this is a thing. And even now like the, the government of Colombia is like interested the Government of Colombia is promoting the project. And so this is this is gonna carry weight. And hopefully this idea for my friend will be something that propagates throughout the years. So I’m really excited to see what that is going to evolve into. And hopefully, I’m excited to continue being a part of it. Because, again, it was so much fun. We did meetings, we did workshops, I got to surround myself, I like to do a lot of robotics workshops with the kids and get them all like, excited and yellowing. And so it’s just such good energy. I really enjoyed that trip. And it’s part of for me, it’s why I do what I do. Like at the end of the day, I chose this for a reason. And it’s because it’s it’s to inspire and to plant trees whose shade I will probably never see, but that’s okay.


Naomi Meredith  16:16

How do the kids respond seeing these types of technologies? Is it often their first time or how do they react? Like what kind of robots do you do with that? And that’s a lot of questions I just asked you.


Aaron Shepard  16:28

Oh, yeah. So in general, so outside of the technology that I do, for example, while we were in Jamaica, we did stargazing events. And the last few nights have been great, because it’s been a full moon. There’s been Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, like so much to see. And for a lot of people on the island, that was the first time ever looking through a telescope. So watching that was just,


Naomi Meredith  16:51

oh, that’s cool. I just got chills. That’s amazing.


Aaron Shepard  16:57

Yeah, it’s, um, and again, like, you don’t really think about it until you see it because it’s like, this is a telescope. I’ve got to I’ve, you know, these are things that are normal to you. But when you realize that it’s the first time for somebody else, and you’re watching, oh my gosh, like they can see like the moons of Jupiter and the clouds and the wings on Saturn and people are. It’s a very powerful thing to witness.


Naomi Meredith  17:23

I’ve never seen that. So I think I would have the same reaction.


Aaron Shepard  17:28

Oh, yeah. It’s actually the first time I looked at Jupiter, I saw the bright red spot. I was like, oh, it’s like a NASA thing. Like, that’s, I guess they’re like, I didn’t even like, you see the pictures of it. But it’s like, oh, like, there it is.


Naomi Meredith  17:42

Oh, that’s cool. Oh, my gosh, I can I can only imagine, especially with kids to, like they want to I mean, without so many things they see on the screen. Like, that’s amazing. You see in real life. So was it just like that the whole time with the workshops to just interacting with all of the supplies? Did you just see that same sort of excitement?


Aaron Shepard  18:01

Yes, yes. Usually, when I, I do a lot of robotics work, because the robots are just awesome. They, and in particular, I do. I call them like my telekinetic mind control robots. I have these headsets, they can pick up like how you’re thinking like it’s not it’s very broad. It’s not like they can’t realize that you’re thinking cat. But it can measure if you’re really concentrated or if you feel relaxed. And so then I have those headsets mapped to the robot. And so you can drive the robot thinking one way, and you can send it in one direction then you can send it back and the other ones and like usually when I see that kids are like, the look is always like and then when they do it, they’re just like, what’s


Naomi Meredith  18:54

Oh my gosh, your face right now people can see your face that’s so funny. They’re just like, “No way!” I would be too. So what does the robot do if you’re confused, it just goes in circles.


Aaron Shepard  19:04

They just said it’ll stop. It’ll like go, it’ll like go one way than the other. Like, it’s actually like, if you’ve seen Star Wars, it’s good. Like Jedi Mind Training. I got to really think about this. It’s such a cool experience. And so this is something that I’ve been toying with for years. And so I’ve been demoing it, probably about six years now. And like I’ve done it, done a whole bunch of kids always love it. Every year. I’m like, should I do something else? And then people are like, no, no, just keep doing that. I’m like, alright, that’s what you want. I mean, okay, we can do it.


Naomi Meredith  19:36

Yeah, we don’t do that in class. I don’t know I’ve heard of any STEM teachers. If I’m wrong, please message me but I haven’t heard of any STEM teachers doing that in class. I don’t think we have the robots and the capability for it. We probably don’t have the funding to be honest.


Aaron Shepard  19:51

Well, it’s not a terribly expensive thing. I mean, I can probably about maybe $300-400 total for everything. Okay, that’s actually really good. Yeah, so I mean, and then I built my own versions for on like, probably like 250 300, like parts everything. But then a lot of it was me like, figuring things out and like having to go to the manufacturer and be like, Hey, what’s your? What’s your Bluetooth protocol? Like, what? How do I interface like I am people are very nice. Usually, if you ask and you tell them what you’re doing, they’re like, oh, yeah, sure, that’s how you do it. But yeah, it’s some, my philosophy was STEM has always been to, I’m going for the, I’m going for the wow factor, like, I’m going for the thing that makes you go, I didn’t even know this was possible. And then the wow factor for me because like, the reality of what we do, and our field is that, you know, it’s like, you sat through math class, it’s boring. Sometimes you’re like, huh, so if you go for the wow factor, and this is what I tell kids, it’s like, it’s it’s the payoff for doing all of the work. So if you sit through, you pay attention to, like, the math and the physics and all that other stuff, where you’re like, Yeah, I don’t really care. That knowledge allows you to make really cool stuff. Like a flame thrower that I might be building.


Naomi Meredith  21:12

Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh, I mean, I’m sure that kids love you. And that’s a great point, too. That’s a great way to say I was talking to some kids at school the other day, and it made me so sad. And like, what are your favorite subject? I don’t know how you’re talking about what your favorite subjects were. I don’t really ask that question. But anyway, they’re saying that science is boring. Not STEM, not my class. Okay. That’s a whole other thing. They didn’t say my class. But science. I’m like, that makes me so sad to hear that and they are in second grade. And they’re all Yeah, it’s boring. We just watch videos on my own. No, no, no, no, no. So yeah, I definitely agree with that wow factor and exposing kids to a lot of different things. All of my units are completely different because you never know what a kid is going to connect with. Some kids might like robots some might like building with Makerspace some my like my STEM survival camp units, so you never know what they’re going to connect with. So I totally agree, the more obscure the better. Because there’s usually no background knowledge, which is great, because they have they have to learn to Yeah, so I love how that’s a great philosophy like the wow factor. I love that. Do you? So you do that mind control robots with kids? Do you do other things in the community to help support some education?


Aaron Shepard  22:31

So for the past few years, it’s been, I’ve done like different talks, I usually will do anything from like, overview of robotics. I run a TikTok account. And so I’ll do crazy things on that. One video that like went really really well. I don’t know if you remember the Oscars. But you know, when Will Smith did the slap thing? Oh, yeah. I like broke it down. Like got out the physics calculated, like how, how hard it was. And it was one of those things where like, it went viral. My mom called me she was like, did you do that? I was like, yes, Ma, she was like, That’s hilarious. And so many comments, because I do try to go through my comments. So many comments were like, wow, like, I didn’t even know, like, I’m gonna pay attention in class now. Like, this is awesome. And that’s what I’m going for.


Naomi Meredith  23:23

That’s so okay, I’m gonna have to find that. And then I’m gonna link it in the show notes for this episode, and then we’ll watch it.


Aaron Shepard  23:31

Yeah, I’ll definitely I’ll send it to you. But I’m always looking for anything that I do. Like, sometimes it’s hands-on. Sometimes it’s just talking, I’ve done everything from talks on robots to talk like I’ve done talks on like all the African American astronauts, it just really depends. But my bigger kind of overarching goal, like the thing that is pushing why I do, what I do, is that I want to promote science, literacy and science appreciation. So I’m not an artist, but I have an appreciation for art, I can look at it, I can understand the basic themes. Like, I’m sure you’ve done the same thing where like, you’ve gone to the museum, and you can be like, Oh, well, this is, uh, this is impressionism, or this is a representation of the blah, blah, blah, that happen so and so time ago, but it just helps to shape a broader mind. And that was really like, I really noticed that during the pandemic, when we were not a scientifically literate society, and we paid for it. So that’s when I was like, okay, like, like, let’s, let’s kind of personalize science. Let’s make it something that people are at least familiar with. I’m not saying that every kid has to be a scientist, but every kid should be able to look at science and be like, okay, and have a profound respect for it.


Naomi Meredith  24:48

Oh, absolutely. All of my STEM lessons actually start with the science concepts and then weave in everything else because that’s just how you like what we talked about. We’re exploring the world in different ways, and it’s super important. written. And yeah, this is just part of just you being a human. So that’s really great. And that’s funny too about the art that I was just talking about this with my fiancee this morning. He teaches high school Spanish, so completely different. And he was he’s teaching about art right now and Spanish. And this is so horrible. I was like, Why do you even teach that? And I even really liked that comment, but he said exactly what you were saying. Like just to be a more well rounded and you know, and he’s like because I’ve taught you you know what a Botero is and what it’s showing. And I’m like, Yeah, that’s true. So I probably shouldn’t have said that wasn’t very nice to me. But it was 5 am in the morning, so I wasn’t very happy.


Aaron Shepard  25:44

Yeah, that’s, yeah, I think so. All of Alexis’ teacher friends, for instance, but one year, you know, back, especially when I was young, and I just like a little bit more, you know, I have a little bit more spunk to me. And I would just kind of, I hadn’t really been broken in yet. I don’t know what we were talking about. But I think I got upset or something. And I was like, so what, you teachers get summers off anyway? Like, why are you complaining? Yeah, She had whipped around so fast. And I was like, I shouldn’t have said,


Naomi Meredith  26:18

like, yeah, yeah, you know what? I’ll, yeah, that’s a whole other that’s a whole podcast in itself.


Aaron Shepard  26:23

Oh, those are fighting words. I quickly realized that that was just like, oh, like, if you could have seen the look on her face, I was like, I’m scared.


Naomi Meredith  26:35

That’s pretty funny. So sweet. Well, we know what not to say to teachers. But do you have any advice for kids or teachers that could be separate or the same to help encourage them to help dream big, whether it isn’t STEM, you have great philosophies in STEM in general, and I hope people reach out to you, but what advice do you have?


Aaron Shepard  26:58

This just comes from my own personal philosophy, I am a big-picture, then-details kind of dude. And so whenever I’m like trying to teach something, or like when it comes to the subject of teaching STEM, I’m always thinking about the applications. Because at the end of the day, that’s what we’re really in it for. I don’t really care about the Pythagorean theorem, just for the sake of it. I mean, there are some people that do, and that’s great. And they make great mathematicians. And yeah, I understand that if I know Pythagorean theorem, then I can, you know, write this control policy for my spider robot because, guess what, it makes a big triangle. And so I can model it that way. You know, I may not necessarily, I don’t really care about differential equations for the sake of differential equations. But if I’m modeling a spacecraft that’s coming into the atmosphere, and it’s got to break and land, otherwise, you lose this billion dollar probe, then all of a sudden, my interest in my investment is hiked up a little bit more. So I’m always like, start with the end, and then build out from there. When I am teaching STEM, when I think about teaching STEM, I’m always focused on the applications first because that’s what creates the investment. And that’s what makes it stick to people or stick with people.


Naomi Meredith  28:15

I think that’s really great advice. And just that we’re not doing arts and crafts all day that there is that real world application. And even if it even that, if the application is simple, thinking about a five-year-old, that’s gonna look way different than with a high school teacher, but all kids can learn now they’re all capable. There are applications to everything that we’re doing and everything we’re teaching, but there’s so much in STEM. And I think just how STEM education is evolving in the elementary space, just taking it to the next level, having it be rooted in science and math and engineering concepts where we’re not just playing with Legos today. Or we’re we all just building with blocks? Like there’s a purpose behind there’s so much opportunity and just a bigger picture as to what we’re doing. So I think that’s really good advice coming from someone who works at NASA, and you apply these skills that are really good to hear. That’s something definitely, as teachers, especially in the STEM space, should be doing so. Yours. I could talk to you all day, and you can get Alexis back on No, just kidding. No, but where it gets teachers to find and connect with you. You have a bunch of places they can reach out to.


Aaron Shepard  29:25

Ah, yeah, all my handles are the same. @Spacecadetshep, that’s Instagram, Twitter, and TicTok. I don’t know if I’m going to stay on Twitter too much longer, but that’s another conversation in and of itself. But yes, I try to make myself pretty available. And again, my thing is, my big thing in STEM with teachers with students is applications and then collaboration like at the end of the day, like this is a science is it is a collaborative thing. So as I think the image of like the lone dude in his garage, first of all, that’s not that’s inaccurate for numerous reasons. One, it doesn’t have to be a dude, it can be, it can be a woman, it, you know, scientists can look so many ways but then too it’s a very like group oriented collaborative project. And so again, I’m just about connecting and building the community, and just even being a conduit to other people in the community or, like, the passage program where like, they’re literally some of the best and brightest people in the business of STEM and science communication. And so just being able to bridge all that together is that’s my MO.


Naomi Meredith  30:43

I love it is super inspiring, and I appreciate you doing what you’re doing and supporting STEM and just helping just bring that to light. And we need more people like you out there. Aaron. Thank you so much for being here today. We appreciate I know other teachers gonna love hearing from Euro. There are so many great, I was taking notes the whole time. So thank you so much again for your time, and we’ll chat soon. Thank you.


Aaron Shepard  31:10

Yes, thank you for having me. It was it’s always so much fun to do things like this. And yes, I I have enjoyed every second of it. And I just love talking STEM. I love the education part of it. The technical part. Love it all. Like it’s so incredible.


Naomi Meredith  31:27

Same here. I could do it all day, man. I pay to pretty much do so I got it. Oh, thank you again.


Aaron Shepard  31:34

Yes, thank you.

 

 

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!

integrating Seesaw

Integrating Seesaw and the Engineering Design Process [ep.49]

Integrating Seesaw and the Engineering Design Process [ep.49]

Check out the full episode on Integrating Seesaw and the Engineering Design Process:  

 

 

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Watch the video version of this episode here on YouTube:

Episode Summary

I am a huge fan of Seesaw and teaching with the Engineering Design Process. So naturally, I found a way to merge the two together with my everyday teaching in the STEM classroom. 

Today’s episode is from an online summit I did in the past at one of the Seesaw Connect Online Conferences. 

In today’s episode, I am breaking down different ways that I like to integrate Seesaw when teaching with the Engineering Design Process and how to make it work for K-5. 

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How I integrate Seesaw when teaching the Engineering Design Process
  • How to adapt these lessons for K-5
  • Examples of activities that integrate Seesaw with the Engineering Design Process that my students completed 

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

You probably already know by now that I am a huge fan of Seesaw and teaching with the Engineering Design Process. So naturally I found a way to merge the two together with my everyday teaching and the STEM classroom. While the audio from this episode has never been heard before on this podcast, this presentation is from an online summit I did in the past at one of the Seesaw Connect Online Conferences. I’ll be breaking down different ways that I like to integrate Seesaw when teaching with the Engineering Design Process, and how to make it work for K through five. Let’s jump right in. 


Naomi Meredith  00:36

We have the Engineering Design Process, which is standards that we have to teach. Then we have Seesaw, which is this amazing tool that we know works well for our students. How in the world can we connect the two together? I am Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned K through five STEM teacher. I am here to show you just that, including how we can integrate Seesaw with the Engineering Design Process to showcase student learning and really show off their creativity. So let’s dive into this course and have a great time together. First, we’re going to learn about what is the Engineering Design Process, and it’s not just for STEM classrooms. This will be very helpful, especially if you are a classroom teacher too. We’re also going to see ways that we can integrate the Engineering Design Process with Seesaw. Three, we’re going to look at some student examples. I have pulled together things from primary students and also the intermediate students I’ve had in my classrooms. So you could see the age range and ability levels in that way, and for some useful supplies and resources that you can take away and implement in your classroom. 


Naomi Meredith  02:18

First, let’s build some background knowledge on what is the Engineering Design Process. It is a real process that engineers use to ask questions, find solutions, and iterate ideas. Iterate means to test your solution, make some changes, and then test and make changes. So that process happens a lot. So why in the world should we teach this? It’s this big, scary world, our students aren’t engineers, well, actually, they can take on that role. They are in the Next Generation Science Standards for elementary. So Kindergarten through second grade have the same Engineering Design Process standards, and they can be applied to any of the other science standards that you have as well. So it’s a great way to solve those problems. When you’re looking at the Engineering Design Process standards, you don’t have to teach them for every single unit. So that’s a whole other lesson that we could go into. But you really want to think about the standards where there is a problem that students need to solve. It is different than the scientific method, and the Engineering Design Process isn’t replacing the scientific method. So think about it like this, we have scientists who are testing solutions to see if they work, they’re doing experiments, and they’re using different variables to test those solutions. Engineering Design Process is a little bit different because we’re asking a question, and then we’re building to solve a problem. Yes, that can be hands on building. But as you get more into it, it can involve other things like electrical engineering, or computer engineering. So it’s not just that I’m building engineering that we typically think of, but that is definitely a great start. 


Naomi Meredith  03:58

So when you’re looking at those Next Generation Science Standards, again, look at those standards see what would make the most sense with the scientific method work or the Engineering Design Process. So for this session, we’re focusing on Engineering Design Process and examples for those. The great thing about this is through this process, as students get used to it, as you as a teacher are used to teaching it, it does promote creative problem solving. So there are multiple solutions to the problem, which is amazing. It’s hard to get used to at first because everybody’s ideas are going to look different and unique. That is the amazing part because that is how inventions get started. So definitely something to dive into. It’s actually really fun once you start using it in your classroom. When integrating the Engineering Design Process, Seesaw makes it so easy with the tools they already have built into the platform. So when you are planning your lessons and if you’re already familiar with Seesaw, you know that those tools are available and you can link the two together. So when you see the examples that I share, I have those tools in mind as I am lesson planning. Now, if you are new to Seesaw, I’m not gonna go over what all the tools do, just a quick overview. So just make sure that you check out Seesaw’s website, they have some great tutorials for you to use when you’re getting started. Also, if you’re familiar with everything, definitely check those out as a great refresher. I’ve used Seesaw as a classroom teacher. So I’ve seen the value of what it was with my 24 students, and now as a K through five STEM teacher. I also see how amazing it is with all the kids in the school. So this can definitely be done with all ages. 


Naomi Meredith  05:39

Now, of course, we have the green add button. So when you click on that, as a teacher or a student, there’s all these tools that are available. So we have photos, kids can take pictures of their work, students can draw their own drawings and draw on top of things. They also have the option to record a video within the platform, which is very helpful. So they’re not doing any external uploading. But you can do that as an option as well. And then, of course, they can type a note to respond to things and add a link. So adding in those tools right away are very, very meaningful. And then we also have the Activity button, that light bulb. So depending on the time you have creating activities ahead of time that go along with your lesson, and students respond on top of the pages that you send them is also great as well, because they can keep track of their thinking throughout the week. So often, I will have a Engineering Design Process notebook I’ll send to their activities. And then we will go through that as the days go on. Instead of me printing something, it’s more interactive. 


Naomi Meredith  06:38

With this Seesaw tools available, I’ve included some resources in here to help you with the planning process, and as you brainstorm some ideas. So the first document is that lesson plan document more like a brainstorm, of course, we’d like to type out our lessons a lot of us but this is just a great way to get ideas out there and think through how a lesson would work with the Engineering Design Process. So of course, to start off with the unit that you’re thinking about, and the main standards that you’re looking for, I typically start with the Next Generation Science Standards. So yes, the Engineering Design Process is a Next Generation Science Standards. But I look at the other science standards to see if there are problems that we can solve that all of them work again for the Engineering Design Process. So I look at the one that I really want to assess. And of course, I integrate the other content areas as well. So how are students going to be reading informational texts? How are they going to be writing about their thinking? How are they going to respond digitally, which are common core standards? What math standards? Am I working on Mathematical Practices, so I list all of those there, those are all woven in any materials that I need. And those usually I pop in at the end once I think about those materials that might be needed. And then I go through each of the steps. So you’ll see that there’s little question stems, it’ll help you think through that. 


Naomi Meredith  08:00

The second one is a poster that I created and have in my classroom, which you will be twins with me. And it’s just each of the steps and how I combined some of them. So you notice that experiment and prove are together on the same step. Because when you think about it with kids, you’re always experimenting, you’re always improving. So I don’t have them as separate steps, which you might see in other posters, because that is a step that goes back and forth the whole time. It’s simultaneous. So you’ll notice this little icon to trigger things with step you’re on with kids maybe even have a little clip, and you can clip on which step that you are at, or even kids have their own poster. And they can clip where they’re at as well. Of course, you go back and forth through the stages. So don’t think oh, we already imagined we’re not going to do imagining again, you always can go back to those stages. So I hope that you find these resources helpful while you are navigating this standard and making meaningful lessons. This is probably your most favorite part is how have students actually use seesaw to enhance the Engineering Design Process? Are there student examples? Can it be done? The short answer is yes. And I will show you those different examples of how students have tackled this in many different ways. Now the first stage of the Engineering Design Process is that you ask a question when I first started writing questions, I used to write them can you build blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so when I was thinking about it, can you can you is a yes or no response. 


Naomi Meredith  09:38

Can you build this? Yes or no? Maybe, and so wasn’t really open-ended and it really closed off the thinking of the challenge. Now students didn’t really notice that at first, some of the older students did with the wording, but it really closed off the experience. So when you are writing questions, write them instead by using how can and that really opens up the possibilities. Because you’re not teaching a cooking lesson, you’re not teaching an arts and crafts, it shouldn’t all look the same. It should look different because you’re igniting that creativity. So think about that questioning. Also, when writing questions, there are lots of ways to do this. Depending on your time, you might actually want to provide the question. There was a point when I was teaching STEM for only three days of the week. And so we really didn’t have the time to develop a question together. Wow. So I would provide that open ended question that we’re trying to solve. Now, depending on your time classroom, teachers, you can integrate this throughout the day, which is amazing. You could develop the question together so you can provide How can and then maybe the topic, and then you guys think about the problem you’re trying to solve? Sometimes with those integrated units, you might even have a question that kids have been thinking about already things that have popped up. So this could lead into an engineering design challenge. 


Naomi Meredith  11:03

So it can bring that challenge level up more. Now if you’re thinking about differentiation, you could write two part questions for students who need more of a challenge. The way I teach the imagining stage in the Engineering Design Process for primary and intermediate students, is fairly similar, but with a variety of resources. I will often pre research the topics, again to save time, and students have a lot of choice within the resources that I provide them. So we’ll do some imagine just to help build that background, and they understand the problem even further. I’ll provide images that are from real life. So a great resource is Unsplash and their high quality photos. So for one of our challenges, we were learning about boats, and so I provided different images of boats to give the that inspiration. I also will use things like podcasts with students, there’s some great ones like brains on tumble science are some great ones to build some background, lots of videos, little video clips, and they might explain the science concept or maybe take kids to the place that we are learning about. Also get epic epic books have a lot of great kid resources, I’ll create collections for students, and they can explore within that collection to help them research. So really guiding them toward that direction, giving them that choice. I also want to make sure to hold students accountable for their learning nothing crazy. So you can see that these response sheets are very similar, there’s just two different ways to respond. So they might be able to respond by writing and seesaw makes it easy with the typing tool. They can also respond by recording their voice, so that’s a lot easier for them. And then they can also draw their thinking. So drawing and labeling their thinking you is seeing those drawing tools, or they might draw on a separate piece of paper, take a picture and insert it into that box. You notice there’s QR codes and you obviously can’t scan a QR code on the iPad that you’re using. This might be something that I print out these are actually videos linked to YouTube at my school they are YouTube is blocked, so will actually watch a video as a class, respond to that video, watch the other video as a class and respond to that video. So using those outside resources to fill that background to build understanding to know why they’re solving this problem and what is going on. And just giving them those opportunities to explore things that are at their level. So this can be of course again everything can be differentiated based on the needs of your students and the things that you have available. 


Naomi Meredith  11:03

So it can be as guided or as open-ended as you want, when it comes to that questioning part. Now, like I said, I typically will write the questions ahead of time just for time, I see them a very limited time during the month. And so we will dive more into the other stages. So on the left, we have the fishing pole challenge, how can you create a fishing pole to help catch the fish? This is the challenge that I did with my first graders. And then on the right we have the build a shelter challenge, how can you create a shelter that will withstand different types of weather? Now, they seem very similar. They have that how can and they’re more open ended. But there is a big difference when you’re writing for primary and you’re writing for second secondary students or those intermediate students in elementary. So typically, what I have found be helpful with those younger students is that you have a one part questions. So yes, their creations will have lots of different things in them, but they’re answering one question. For the older students. This is a two part question, can they create a shelter? And can that shelter withstand types of weather we have three types of weather they’re trying to withstand. So there’s two things that they have to answer and focus on. 


Naomi Meredith  14:54

Planning is so important at any stage when you’re doing a project, and the planning doesn’t have to be super intense. So if you’re thinking about how much time that you have planning can be quick, it doesn’t always have to be drawing. So I’m going to show you drawing examples. But if you are super pressed for time, I’ve done this before in a class, I’ve done a 45 minute session with the Engineering Design Process with younger students. And so far part of the plan I showed the students the materials that they’ll be using, and then with their partner, they were talking about the five that they wanted to use. And that was their plan. So they were thinking about it ahead of time. So it can be as involved as you would like. Now the great part about this planning stage in the Engineering Design Process is I relate this a lot to the writing process. And so this is a time to really think about your ideas, you might not do exactly what you draw or talk about. But it’s a way to get your brain thinking of lots of different ways. This example here is a student, one in Seesaw sent them this planning sheet. And the wonderful thing about the drawing tool is that it’s endless colors. My first week teaching Stan I had somebody eat crayons, the kids were crying because we wouldn’t share the crayons, you stuffed him in his mouth. And then you split them all back in the bucket. So nobody could have crayons. So that doesn’t have to happen with the Seesaw drawing tools. So this is super great. Ahead of time you notice on the side, the materials that we’re going to use, I actually put on there real pictures of the things and the labels. Sometimes the kids, it depends on how you can make it you could make the labels movable with the pictures. And so there’s some ways that you can do that. And students can actually move and label the things that they have drawn. Or you can leave it stagnant like this. And students can draw lines to what they are showing. So this will help especially the younger students to make sure that they are using everything that is provided, are you just thinking of a way that it can be used, not required to use all the materials, but just ways that they can add more details to their plans. 


Naomi Meredith  18:34

For older students, depending on the unit, my first few units I typically do, we do focus a lot on the planning stage. And so this was an example of how a project we were doing of designing a hiking backpack. And so students actually drew their designs on a piece of paper just with the devices that we have, it wasn’t as easy to draw on the actual device. So planning on paper is a okay, that’s why you have the picture taking tool in Seaside and you can upload it that way, I would really wanted students to focus on the different parts of their designs. And trust me, I did not draw this I can’t draw. Mine looks like the other one the the Kindergarten example. So students were drawing their plans, they were labeling their designs and the purpose of those plans, I wanted them to also think about multiple views of their designs. Now I should have put it on here. This plan actually came to life and that student built it out pretty similar to what they had decided on which was pretty amazing. Now if you’re like well, we only have Chromebooks, we only have devices with a front facing camera. One little hack you can do is have students turn in the papers to you at the end of class or have them lay them all out on a table. So lay them side by side. And then if you just use your phone, download the Sisa app really quick. And then you go and take a picture for each of the students and add it to their account. It really takes about five minutes you can probably get a better picture than then holding it up to the camera all awkwardly and you see their eyeballs popping out, you know what I’m talking about. If you have your kids do that, I still do sometimes. But if you want a more clear picture like this, that’s a great hack. If you want to be the kid’s favorite teacher at school, having to build some things that create stage of the Engineering Design Process is so much fun. And this is the stage that kids thrive for. And they love it. And you don’t need a whole lot of materials to get started. Once they have started their plan, they have something in mind, this is where the magic happens. For sure. 


Naomi Meredith  20:35

Now, there isn’t a whole lot in the create stage students might do, because they are obviously creating, but you can definitely use these as still as an asset to help them with their creating process. Now on the left is a final picture that a student uploaded into their seesaw journal. So that definitely can be something you can include of their final design. So it was protect the food challenge. So how can you create something that will help you protect the food when staying the night in nature, so there’s the little bear and that’s their invention, so they can’t get the popcorn. On the right, what I actually sent the students in seesaw is a strategy of building cardboard technique that they could have used to improve their design. So this is a video of when you download the slides and click this photo, it takes you to the video if you want to check it out. But it is an L brace technique. So it’s just the way to make cardboard stronger. And you notice on the left that student actually use that technique. So I don’t force students to use techniques that I teach. However, it’s just a strategy to help them improve. So that’s a great way that you can include videos. Now a tip for creating videos like this one, when it is a technique, I actually record without sound that way students can watch it over and over again, they don’t need headphones. And they’re just paying attention to the visual process of something being created. And this is also great, because there’s no language barriers, it’s all visual. And so they can watch this as many times as needed. For a project that involves robots, or even older students or things that have multi steps. Again, sending them those tips are very, very helpful. I’ve noticed that with the older students, there’s a whole lot of differences of as you get into the projects, and they are more used to the Engineering Design Process. 


Naomi Meredith  22:22

If you’ve used it a lot of times, they might, some students might be ready to move on to the Create stage when others are still needing to plan one more day. So if you have these teacher tips available, this will help kids be successful independent on their own. So this project is a Sphero project. And they’re creating with using Sphero. Sphero is that little ball robot. And so there are some tricky steps that just connecting the robot in general, it doesn’t even have to do with the designing part. But I include these tips. So if they are working ahead on their own, or if they are working in a group, and I’ve already shown the steps, or if a student is absent or even if you want to do this at home, they have these available in their seaside journal, and they can refer to it right away. So they don’t have to wait on me. They don’t have to take the picture themselves. Like what was that? Again, they can just look in their seaside journal, and it’s right there. On the left is a different video No, I did make this ahead of time I use Sphero for quite a few lessons. So if you know you’re going to use the tool many times, or if your partner teachers are going to use the same tool, if you make a video tutorial of those steps in detail and just kind of take some time, I will play that video as a whole class has my mini lesson. And then I also send it to kids and their seesaw journals so they can access that as well. This video does have my voice because they do need to hear what I am clicking on. But just a way that how you can really use video to enhance and you can be in more places than one during that creation process. So think about those things that students might need you personally make a video or send them pictures and then you can be in more places than once. Once students have created their design, they are ready to experiment and improve along the way. Now, like I said, with the resources, experimenting, improving will happen simultaneously. And so that might be a quick back and forth process, especially with the younger students, they immediately see if something’s going wrong, I need to fix it right away. So this is a great opportunity, especially if the projects are really messy or awkward. If it involves water. During this stage, you can have the support by walking around as a teacher, but also you might be the one who wants to film and take videos of the students putting their designs in action. This is an example of a boat when we were helping the gingerbread man travel across the river so if he thought a little more smart, he could have designed an invention so he didn’t get eaten which he didn’t want to get eaten me most Okay, so I was taking video of the kids testing their designs, and I didn’t want them to have an iPad around the water. So this worked out great. So if you see that top box, that black box in the corner, if you click on that, when you download the slides, you can see the little boat moving around. So it’s cute, you can hear their voices, it’s great for the parents to see also, they can get that perspective of a different type of learning that’s happening in your classroom, because, of course, you know, they’re going home and sharing this, but it’s cool for the parents to see it really quick. And you might actually take quicker videos than the kids. With older students. 


Naomi Meredith  25:36

Again, I will also go around and take videos, sometimes they’re better at being more independent at that stage. But again, if it’s super messy, I’ll do that stuff just to keep the devices safe. But with those older students, and they have those two part questions anyway with their designs, but I will give them a modification and testing checklist. And they will have this beforehand. So while they’re creating, they’re thinking about how they can improve anyway. And so this isn’t always a mystery to them. And sometimes they might even help me make that checklist and improve it and things that should be added, which is super awesome. And so for this one with a build a shelter challenge that we saw in another session is that they were building a shelter to withstand the elements. And so yes, they built a shelter but cannot withstand the elements. So before they actually tested their design, I have some guests if it would withstand and it’s okay if it were all yeses, but we are trying to make their designs even better. Now one of the stations was water as well, I just love using water, obviously, I did have students tickets picture before and a picture after. And then they could see how their design change or was made better. So you can see that the student didn’t have a covering. So did it withstand rain or snow, but then they added a covering and something on the bottom to make it more sturdy. So implementing all of those layers, which is great, I could print these out, of course, for students, and they could check it off, not a problem. But it’s just adding in that extra element to bring their creations to life and sharing their learning and interacting with their work in a way that they might not have had before. 


Naomi Meredith  27:18

The sharing part of the Engineering Design Process, you really don’t want to skip and especially when it involves that reflection piece. This could be when you’re thinking about planning your projects that you really focus in on a certain unit and have students share the and reflect on their designs. Because that reflection part is so important, how can they improve and get better. And also notice the things that really work well, when they’re working in a group when they’re testing out things. So this is always a continual process. So the Engineering Design Process isn’t something like one and done, I checked it off my list. You can do this all year long. So of course, that was all the standards. But you could do this every month. And it will totally change the way that students really attack this type of thinking. So not the only way to attack problems. But it’s just really great that they have different projects to express themselves with the Engineering Design Process. For younger students, I will often I encourage them to type their thinking when they are answering reflection questions. Of course I have, right the sounds you hear. So it’s totally fine. Even having kids have these questions up on their screen and seesaw and using them as sentence frames, and they can record their voice. On top of that, that which is excellent. They have the sentence frame right there in front of them. And they can go to a quiet spot and record how the project went. On the right hand side is actually a student recording. So when you click on the slides, you can listen to the voice. I wish he used the arrow to point to everything, but have students take a picture of their work and then again, go to a quiet spot. And they can record how their project work. 


Naomi Meredith  28:55

So this was another food protection challenge invention. And he explained all the process of how this whole design works, which was really great. The thing I like about having kids record over a picture is that they can do that later on. So they could take a picture one day, and then the next day they can record their voice. Maybe you have a designated recording station and students take turns so that there’s not all this screaming and excitement because there is when you’re doing challenges like this, but you could hear what students are working on. With this one again, I added more detailed questions. So more challenging questions for older students to think about. There is a video of at the top of a robot prototype and action and I think I was watching it you can hear my voice at the end I was very impressed because it stayed on the track the whole time. So that was super exciting. So we posted that video. And then having those pictures of things in action are really great. What I love is that students can also comment on one another’s work so that could be a whole lesson of how students can Give one another feedback on how their design work. This is a game design. And so students gave feedback to each other’s work on how well the game was played. And if it actually made sense. And some of the parents even have their child started commenting other work as well, which was super amazing. The seesaw blog is also another opportunity where you can share work to other audiences. So students younger or older, could share with their book buddies, or if you’re connected with other classes as well. So don’t skip that sharing piece. It’s super important for students to reflect and make meaning of the work that they did. When thinking through lessons that you want to implement the Engineering Design Process and integrating seesaw, there isn’t a whole lot of supplies and resources that you need. In fact, you can just start with donations of general recycled materials, so cardboard tubes, then cardboard, construction paper, anything you have on hand will work just as well. So don’t feel like you need anything fancy. But if you do want some fancy things, I have provided you my suggestions, my top 20 favorite STEM tools to integrate into any classroom setting. So these are things that have various price ranges. And you might even have some of these at home or even ask for some grants or different ways to gather these items in your classroom and build up a whole little STEM collection. And of course, don’t forget to also download your brainstorm planning guide for the Engineering Design Process, and then your poster that you can use with your students. As you can already tell, this presentation has a ton of visuals, and I bet you are dying. To see all of the examples and handouts from this presentation. You can grab the video recording of this episode, the video slides that I referenced throughout student examples and bonuses for only $5. That’s less than a fancy cup of coffee. The bonus includes my Engineering Design Process posters of various sizes and planning sheets to help you with your integration with seesaw or really any other edtech tool that you use in your classroom. This will be linked to the show notes and you can check it out all here Naomi meredith.com/seesawEDPvideoreplay.

 

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. 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!

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

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stem and literacy integration

STEM and Literacy Integration Ideas [ep.48]

STEM and Literacy Integration Ideas [ep.48]

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Episode Summary

Even though it’s not in the name, literacy definitely has a place within STEM challenges. In fact, I would even say that STEM and literacy are a perfect match.

The audio from today’s episode is from an online summit I presented at in the past at one of the Wonder Workshop International STEAM Summits.

In this episode, I’ll be sharing five different ways that you can combine STEM and literacy together and make the perfect pairing in ways that you might not have thought of before.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • STEM story and retell lesson ideas
  • STEM and story lesson ideas
  • STEM and literacy lesson ideas using robots
  • Green screen STEM and literacy lesson ideas
  • Stop motion animation and literacy lesson ideas

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

Even though it’s not in the name, literacy definitely has a place within STEM challenges. In fact, I would even say that STEM and literacy are a perfect match, just like avocado toast. Well, the audio from this episode has never been heard before on this podcast. This presentation is from an online summit I did in the past at one of the Wonder Workshop International STEAM Summits. I’ll be sharing five different ways that you can combine STEM and literacy together and make the perfect pairing in ways that you might not have thought of before. I’m more than just a STEM coach in this episode. Think of me more as your STEM chef. Chef’s kiss. Let’s get to it. 


Naomi Meredith  01:13

Hello, and welcome to this very fun session. I am so glad that you are here. Literacy and STEM integration are perfect like avocado toast. I am your presenter, Naomi Meredith. So why in the world would we even think about implementing STEM and literacy? They kind of seem like two separate worlds that don’t exactly go together. Well, I had this analogy with avocado toast. If you don’t like avocado toast, I’m so sorry. I love it. I know a lot of people do. So just bear with me. So of course, avocados are delish on their own. So is toast. But when you put the two together, it’s an amazing combination. So just like STEM and literacy, they are amazing on their own and you do wonderful things in your classroom. But they are even better together. Actually it does that make your planning so much easier. I think coming from the classroom and into a STEM role, I still have that classroom teacher mindset, where I really want to be thoughtful about my planning, having things cross curricular, having those experiences be meaningful and integrated rather than separate. So literacy pops up into my instruction all the time. I know that whether you are a STEM teacher or a classroom teacher, or even have a different specialized role that you could find meaning within this integration. So today, I’m going to be sharing with you five different ways that you can integrate STEM and literacy together. I’m going to also give you some student examples that you could think about for your own planning or even do the same lessons in your classroom. 


Naomi Meredith  02:51

So first, we have STEM and stories. This is the first way I love sharing with teachers to integrate STEM and literacy into their classrooms. I feel like that this is the easiest way and in some ways the most fun to plan. But as elementary teachers, we love reading stories, we love books, we have extensive classroom libraries. Well, that can definitely go into your STEM integration. Now thinking about STEM and stories, it could be picture books, which are a great example. You could even use chapters from a chapter book, even nonfiction articles can fit into this category, STEM and stories. So with that, thinking about different types of STEM lessons you can use, the best one to get started is to think of stories that have a clear problem and solution. Oftentimes with that problem and solution, how building can go into that story. So I’ll give you an example. If you’ve read this story, Iggy Peck Architect, they go on a field trip and the poor teacher heaven forbid, this would happen if I went on a field trip, but she passes out on the hill and the kids have to go save their teacher. You can pause reading the story and then have the kids build to solve the problem. Then you can read the rest of the story to see how their solutions compared to what is in the book. So a problem and solution story especially like I said building to solve a problem works really well with this integration. Also, alternate endings, stories that would change if the ending was changed, work well. So you’re really thinking about that story structure with both of these problem and solution and alternate endings, parts of a story beginning, middle and end. What if the ending did change? You could have students write the alternate ending and then build what that alternate ending could be. So that again, a very easy integration. I know you’re thinking of books in your head right now. Also, with STEM and stories, this is a great way to explore nonfiction topics. So some stories have specific science and nonfiction topics that it touches on or you can integrate other types of science within the story that would actually make sense. So you could go either way with that. What’s really great is if you’re using a fiction story, and then you’re exploring nonfiction topics, you’re really going into those standards when it talks about the paired selections, and comparing and contrasting, or you could do a nonfiction story and then a nonfiction exploration. So again, you’re connecting all of those things together. What’s really great about starting with the STEM and stories, and really, with all the other four examples is that you are maximizing your time. I know that teachers are pressed for time, you are really maximizing that time and connecting it all together and building up that scientific background for kids. 


Naomi Meredith  05:43

So more examples for you thinking about that problem and solution and if within this presentation when you have access to it, you can actually click on each of the pictures for more detailed lesson plans. The first one is showing After the Fall. So the book is really, really cute by Dan Santat I believe. After the Fall is after Humpty Dumpty fell and he’s so sad, and he just doesn’t believe in himself. He’s down on his luck. Well, students can build a solution to that problem, Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall. This is a great time, springtime, easter eggs are on sale. You may have a collection hiding in your class, but students can build a solution to keep Humpty Dumpty safe for an alternate ending. In the middle, we have the gingerbread man. As we know, in their original there are lots of different versions. But in the original poor gingerbread man gets eaten by the fox. So what if the gingerbread man got a little bit smarter? It got to the river and we found a way to float across the river.  So there’s an example kindergartener built, not me, I just held up the boat and took the picture. But students learned about sinking and floating and created a different ending for the gingerbread man to float across the river. Obviously, eventually, in that picture, the cardboard would disappear. Then we also have that scientific connection, where we read Beekle, The Unimaginary friend, and students create their own unimaginary friend, and they have to figure out a way to have them stay together with a magnetic force. So you’re talking about forces with magnetic energy. So there are some, there’s a little paperclip on her hand and a magnet on the back. But they could explore different things that are magnetic and not, and choose the one that works best to keep their friendship together. 


Naomi Meredith  07:26

Thing number two of how to integrate STEM And literacy is through robotics. The robotics in elementary isn’t as scary as you might think. Luckily, a lot of companies out there just like Wonder Workshop, love Dash, the robot, that is a amazing robot to get started with in your classroom. I’m not getting sponsored to say this. But Dash is a wonderful robot to have in any classroom, because there are lots of different avenues to code that robot, there are others as well. Companies are making it a lot easier for coding and robotics to be in the classroom to get students exposed to that type of learning. So don’t be scared of it. It is okay. What’s great is that you can share robotics and connected again to that literacy. So a lot of those same types of things. So story retail, can be used building your vocabulary, we are always are working on vocabulary development, whether it is content specific or scientific specific that can definitely be incorporated there. Also, it’s a cool way to bring the story to life, you’re bringing that movement into life. So you not only are students thinking about the story, but they’re thinking about the coding pattern as well. So that’s really integrating different types of thinking, and that students will really shine with this hands on way. So thinking about story retell, any type of robot, you could do this with. This is a little bee bot, and we put a little hungry caterpillar face on it. But students were coding the robot to different squares on the grid to retell the Hungry Caterpillar eating the food in order of when it happened in the story. So it’s really a great way. There’s a little side tip of robotics is if you have robots, measure the distance of one forward move. So on this grid, I made it with butcher paper, and then I pressed go on the little robot for one forward move. Then I measured the distance that it took. So that helped me know how big my squares needed to be. I printed the little foods on the side to put on this square. So you could do that with Dash, the Code-and-Go-Mouse, Sphero, whatever robot you use, but that’s how you can make a grid, very cheap. So code and retell this story. Also, building vocabulary having again, like talking about life cycles in your class, you could have students code the robot to show the lifecycle in order when it happens. So it could be on a grid, it could be in various places in the room for extra challenge that aren’t measured precisely. So then they’re building that vocabulary and going into your site. It’s unit building that background knowledge, also bringing this story to life. And that last picture, we have Sphero to pull us through the Ididarod race. And so we were reading some fiction stories kind of goes with that sentence stories as well. But it was bringing how what the I did route is and how that is an annual event in Alaska. If you’re from Alaska, I hope you’ve been I did write I want to talk to you sounds super cool to go to, I would never run the race, but I really want to go see it. But you can bring this story to life and make it more hands on and tangible for kids. So robotics is a great way. Don’t be scared, you can definitely do it. 


Naomi Meredith  10:40

Another way to integrate that literacy and STEM together is green screen. Now you don’t have to have an official screen, I have a blue screen behind me a blue painted wall. The one right next to me is green. But you can get creative with that green screen as well as go to Dollar Tree and get a green plastic tablecloth and it can be hung anywhere in your room, you definitely want to have great lighting. But also you think get even more creative. I could use this green stool behind me as a type of green screen, you can use green shirts, which you’ll see in some of these examples as a type of green screen. So think outside of the box when it comes to a green screen, because you could definitely do it on a smaller scale, which even might be more tangible in the classroom, when you’re thinking about the noise level and the space that you have. So green screen is really great. When you’re thinking about book reviews. I know a lot of units are talking about opinion writing where you’re trying to persuade someone to read the story. You can amp up your game with book reviews with green screen. Weather reports are a classic example. But it’s a great way for kids to work on writing a script practicing that oral reading, which is another standard that oral recall that oral retail write a script and they can tell the weather report of that day. Also, research projects doesn’t have to be super complicated can be enhanced with that green screen, a different way to publish. 


Naomi Meredith  13:41

So we have in the first one, you see the kids, we have an iPad stand and we can talk about other apps. Definitely message me we can talk about great apps to use for green screen, but green screen or blue screen can be used. Fun fact, blue or green is typically used because humans shouldn’t naturally be that color. So it really makes things pop with that background. So students in their writing class, wrote a book review and they publish their writing. They wrote it out nicely. They did all the editing. But then they had to share with our audience. We didn’t just type the story. We had kids verbally retell their stories. So you see that there’s a little script hanging on or their writing hanging on the tripod. The student was reading their published piece from there and I wish I had a picture of this from there and the green screen app. We put the book cover on the shirt. So it looked like the kid was wearing their shirt to promote it like a little bit of marketing about their story. And the middle of course we have a weather report that was the weather that day. So students quickly in the morning wrote their weather report, practiced their script, and then they read it out loud and pointed to what the weather was and then we uploaded that video on Seesaw. The last example is me for a research report. I was wearing a green shirt and I blended them into green background and researched about a famous person in STEM, this was Mae Jemisen, and it goes along with those, like those old school, I guess, old school. But when you have kids research about a person, they cut out the paper and put their head in it. It’s like that idea, but in a green screen more interactive way. And I’ll tell you, if you just show the kids this video, they will start laughing, it is a little bit creepy. If I didn’t stay still, my head was floating around. But it was just a fun way to prepare a research report. 


Naomi Meredith  15:26

Stop motion animation, one of the oldest animation techniques out there, it’s still used today. It’s used all the time. But it’s also a great way that you can integrate STEM and literacy. Again, this is like a low floor high ceiling type of activity I’ve learned so much about, um, students patience and creativity. So much happens with stop motion in front of the screen. It’s like, it doesn’t take a whole lot of hard technology. There are lots of free apps out there. But students really are focusing on paying attention to detail and how they’re going to manipulate the tools so that they can move smoothly. So this is really great for those problem solving skills. And if you can collaboration, so stop motion animation can be integrated with literacy, again, that story retell, that’s really a big thing with our comprehension. Again, building that vocabulary, and it’s a cool way to do creative writing. I love stop motion animation. And you’re gonna see in these examples, you actually don’t really need anything fancy. When I started this in my K through five STEM classes, I really didn’t have a huge budget. So I actually had the kids do all of their stop motion animation, like that middle picture with papers, so we drew the props, and then they move them. So you can just do paper. If you don’t have any budget, you can get started that like I said, the app is free. So if you have even your phone or one or two iPads, you could get started with stop motion animation. 


Naomi Meredith  16:55

So the first one with that story retell, this was a great starter activity. We combine Legos and modeling clay, but we talked about quickly, different, very few even doing a fairy tale unit, we talked about different fairy tales, and students had to retell the story through movement, and they weren’t allowed to add sound, or music. So they had to be very clear with their visualisation and the movements of their images to show accurately the story. So the first one, you probably can guess, is Little Red Riding Hood. And so this group did a really great job collaborating together, and restyling Little Red Riding Hood. And we would all guess what the fairy tale was. Another one that was really great. I don’t have a picture on here, but it was the tortoise and the hare and the kids had the little tortoise and the hair move inch by inch and had the whole story. It was amazing. And the tortoise was made out of clay. And then the hair was made out of Legos. So cute. When you’re thinking about that building vocabulary. Fifth grade was talking about the human body systems. So they researched about a different body system like very specific, more like a body part like eyes, your heart, ears, more specific things. And then they had a rubric to what they needed to include in their stop motion video. And all of that I’ll show you a couple examples are i’ll link these in here. That way you can watch them on their own, they don’t have sound. So if you go into the presenter notes are right there. Also with that creative writing, we really want to encourage that creativity in our classrooms. And having those narratives that are just have that creative piece and all those story elements, so students could complete their creative writing, and then create a stop motion animation to tell the story that they’re trying to convey. So they can narrate over their movements with their creative writing piece. So I definitely recommend stop motion animations, second grade and up, I think you can do it with K and one with some guidance. But second grade usually can be a little more independent and understand the picture taking process Makerspace. Of course, they’re all these big names, and they really aren’t scary, I think you can definitely do it. But Makerspace is my fifth way for integrating STEM and literacy together. And so you definitely again can integrate the two and make a meaningful experience. When you’re thinking about stocking up your Makerspace, having donations from home is a great place to start or even if you’re wanting to do it next school year. I have a little bin at my house where I start collecting things all summer long, and then I’ll bring it into school. So cardboard, for sure bottles, all those sorts of things. But writing game rules is a great way to integrate that Makerspace experience when you’re talking about a how to and how to be really clear with your writing and playing a game you have to be very, very specific. You might even be thinking about some games we like there are some games that have not very good rules. So those are some good non examples as well that you could share with students. You definitely can integrate that Engineering Design Process which a lot of states are adopting or already are using. 


Naomi Meredith  20:00

In the Next Generation Science Standards, which do have a portion that have the Engineering Design Process, so integrate that Makerspace, that science piece, all the literacy, those can all be connected together. And then of course, research projects are a great opportunity to use Makerspace. Because, really, you don’t need a whole lot of materials. So we used to have some cardboard and tape, you’re good to go. When you’re thinking about those game roles. Students can design a game using cardboard, tape, marbles, and then create those game roles. So how many players are needed? What do you do step by step, if I were to read your directions, what I know how to play, you could even have the editing phase where the game is created, students have to read the instructions, they can’t ask the author, and then figure out how to play and then they can get feedback on the game rules. That could be that editing that peer review, and see how they could change the rules. So it makes more sense, or even giving feedback like, hey, we found another way to play, maybe you want to change this piece up. So that’d be a great way to make that meaningful editing part. When you’re building that vocabulary, they Engineering Design Process, so you have the problem you’re trying to solve. And then that research piece and keeping track of information. This is just one way but building a cardboard airplane. And you’re talking even that math with the STEM, all the different measurements and the lines and angles of how you should set up different parts of the airplane, you could go through that whole engineering design where students are gathering data, and also writing the modifications that they made to their airplane and how it improved their design. So you can definitely go deeper into the responses for various phases. I think that modification piece and also explaining how the design worked or great opportunities to really integrate that writing. And that oral communication research projects. Like I said, low practice is a recycling plant. So we were researching about how recycling plants work, and what types of things can be recycled. So we did some research on that. And then we built up our recycling plants. And then students were able to present about how a recycling plant works. Again, that oral communication, you can go as deep as you want and reading. We also use books on Epic books, which is a free for teachers website, where there are lots of great examples of how to take care of the earth, how recycling works, how it compost works. So we’re working on that Earth piece together. So lots of ideas out there, you do have access to this presentation and click on those different pictures to go more in each of those lessons. But I know I’m that kind of person where I want to try all the things and maybe you’re like oh, so overwhelmed, you don’t know where to begin well next steps. Choose a lesson that you have in your unit upcoming that you think needs an upgrade. And springtime is a great time to dive in and try something new. And the kids have this energy but use that energy in a really hands on way and the kids will still be productive and engaged. So choose the lesson you think needs an upgrade. Try one of these ideas. It could be a lesson, or it could be a whole topic maybe the last month of school you want to do Makerspace so you’re talking about Earth Month, bringing your recyclables let’s find what we find outside we can build with it. So definitely use what you have. You don’t have to start off completely fresh, but use that little upgrade. So make it gourmet avocado toast get really good. Don’t feel like you got to make all the different avocado toast.


Naomi Meredith  23:34

Make one really good with the salmon in the egg and the capers like that picture. Oh my gosh, I’m getting hungry right now. But make that one lesson really, really good.


Naomi Meredith  23:50

Integrating STEM and literacy is so much fun. And I bet you’re dying to see all of the examples and handouts from this presentation. You can grab the video recording of this episode, the video slides I referenced throughout student examples, and bonuses for only $5. That’s cheaper than the dog treats that I like to buy for my little dog Frederick, way cheaper. The bonus includes a list of tools that you can use in STEM and literacy integration to different lesson planning templates and clickable links to lesson plan ideas you might want to try for various grade levels. This will be linked in the show notes, and you can check it all out here. Naomi meredith.com/stem literacy video where you play.

 

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. 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!

stop-motion-used-in-the-classroom

How is Stop Motion Used in the Classroom? [ep.47]

How is Stop Motion Used in the Classroom? [ep.47]

Check out the full episode on How is Stop Motion Used in the Classroom:  

 

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Episode Summary

Stop motion requires minimal materials for students to be successful but involves a high level of creativity and critical thinking.

This episode is a presentation from an online summit I spoke at in the past, the Teach with Tech Conference.

In this episode, I provide an intro to stop motion animation, a list of tools to get started, an explanation of student examples, and ways to extend this lesson even further with other resources.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • What stop motion animation is
  • Tools to get started with stop motion in the classroom
  • Ideas for how to use stop motion in the classroom

Resources Mentioned:

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

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

Stop motion animation is one of my most favorite units to teach students. It requires minimal materials for students to be successful, but involves a high level of creativity and critical thinking. Well, the audio from this episode has never been heard before on this podcast. This presentation is from an online summit I did in the past the teach with tech conference, you’ll get an intro to stop motion animation, a list of tools to get started explanation of student examples and ways to extend this lesson even further with other resources. 


Naomi Meredith  00:32

And stop motion is one of those things that I feel like anybody can do. It’s not as hard as you think. So what in the world are we doing today? Well, I’m going to give you an introduction to stop motion, so you can be an expert on it. I’m also going to be showing you some tools to get started with stop motion in your classroom, which these are minimal tools. And so that’s great news. I also have some student examples to share with you and then some other extensions to take your stop motion to the next level when you’re ready. Or if you’re ready already, this is for you. 


Naomi Meredith  01:37

So in short, what in the world is stop motion animation? Well, stop motion is a lot of pictures played with tiny movements really, really fast to make things look like they are moving on their own. So you probably have seen examples of this, which we will show. But basically all those tiny pictures are doing all the animation for you. So animation experience is not needed. Anyone can make it look awesome. You’re probably more familiar with stop motion than you think. These are some examples of stop motion used in popular movies. Oftentimes I will show clips for my students because they are amazed how fluid the movements are, they can’t believe that a computer didn’t do all the work. Gumby is stop motion animation with all of its interesting characters. So that is probably one you’re familiar with. A year without a Santa Claus, they use a lot more puppets, and that also has stop motion animation. And then chicken run, and all those movies along those same lines are also made with stop motion animation. A big misnomer is that the LEGO Movie is not made with stop motion animation. It was actually made to look like it was created that way because LEGO is typically used in stop motion animation with kids, so they wanted to give that feel. But it actually wasn’t made that way. It was made with real animation. 


Naomi Meredith  03:10

So when you’re thinking about this technology tool, why in the world should you use it. It’s so old, who cares? Actually, there are some benefits to it. Stop Motion brings stationary objects and topics to life. It also doesn’t require a lot of tools. So that is great news, especially as teachers, we don’t always have access to unlimited resources. You can pretty much use anything when it comes to stop motion. The biggest thing that I love about this is that it teaches patience and problem solving. And I’ll show you some picture examples with this. But the critical thinking and problem solving happens in front of the camera. The kids aren’t spending a whole lot of time on their device until they start editing. But to make a really great video, it takes so much patience and problem solving for it to make sense. Those are things we want for our kids. Right? The technology piece. There’s lots of different options out there. What I’ve started with is this free app stop motion studio. This works amazing, and it’s a great place to start. Actually when I came into this STEM position in the first year, when I tried stop motion animation, I downloaded the free app on our iPads. Then the next year I was looking through my app management system and I actually had this one purchase from the previous teacher. I had no idea the kids had no idea and we were very successful with this free version. So totally go there. You don’t need to upgrade. As of right now, during this presentation, you can get it on iPads, Google Play, and Kindle Fire depending on your device compatibility, all for free. Start with the free. If you are able to let’s say you have one iPad or two iPads in your classroom and you don’t mind upgrading, you can buy the Stop Motion Studio Pro. It has additional editing options and LEGO faces that you can add on so has like more real animation to add in your stop motion. There’s also the options of green screen and you can do more editing within the app, I will show you some other apps at the end. So if you are just using the free version, I’m going to show you some other options if you don’t feel like upgrading. 


Naomi Meredith  05:42

Now with the Stop Motion Studio Pro again, it is compatible on these three types of devices. Then you can also purchase the software for computer programs. So this would be best with for Macs and Windows, if you are able to upgrade or if you write a donor’s choose or if you have a classroom budget, the HUE Document Camera, which I know has other benefits outside of stop motion animation. So it might be worth the investment. But the HUE Document Camera also has an option of stop motion animation software. And so each of those can be bought separately, or it can be bought together as a package. I’m not an affiliate, I’m just giving you free information. But this might be an option as well. So again, if you are a classroom teacher, or even a STEM teacher, if you bought one of these cameras and had a station in your classroom, that could be an option. So don’t feel like you have to have a device for every single student. In fact, stop motion works very well when it comes to collaborating and assigning roles. So that might be just something to keep in mind, depending on your situation. So lots of different options out there. If you even wanted to go super cheap, you could take a lot of pictures on a phone, like if you really trust your kids with a phone or if you have old little tablets that don’t connect to Wi Fi or don’t have cell service, you can take a lot of pictures that way, and then swipe through and it looks like it’s moving. So I’ve heard of kids actually doing that before they come to my class. And they’re so grateful to have the app, but you don’t even need to have a special app to do this. So when it comes to the materials you can use, these are just some options to get started. Honestly, you can just use paper as a prop. I will actually show you an example of how paper was used in stop motion. So these are things that kids could bring from home. Again, if you have donations, or you have a little budget, these are great places to get started. There’s actually a whole YouTube channel for stickbots. It’s a brand and there are some good clips on there kind of filter through and watch them first before you show the kids. But these have little string on them and it moves their joints so they move a little more human like so that can help when kids are trying to make a video of a person walking it moves a little bit better than a minifigure.


Naomi Meredith  08:09

Play-Doh is a great option as well because kids can mold and change their characters. I love Play-Doh and then I also discovered Crayola has a great modeling clay. What’s great about modeling clay is that it doesn’t dry out so they can leave their creations for a week. I had an after school club for stop motion animation, and kids would make things with modeling clay. We would leave it high up on the shelf and then they came back to their work and it was perfectly fine. It’s very inexpensive. It’s actually a little bit cheaper than play-doh. So keep an eye out for that Crayola modeling clay. LEGO, of course, amazing kids love it. Great option to build settings, characters, all sorts of things. Masking tape is great on hand if they’re trying to tape things to the background, construction paper, and of course many fakes. There’s lots of knockoffs of minifigs on Amazon so that you can look into that, depending on your class or school roles, even encourage kids to bring that from home and really encourage mixing these mediums. They can really bring their settings and their videos to life. So behind the scenes, here’s what it typically looks like in my classroom. The other thing I really love about using stop motion is that all the work is done in front of the camera. So you can see an example right here. I had iPad stands, which again, this isn’t something you have to have, but we had an iPad stand they zoomed in, they would move it like take make their little setting, move their character, take a picture, move their character take a picture. 


Naomi Meredith  14:53

They were back and forth the whole time, but it doesn’t have to be silent in my classroom. I know that can be hard when you’re filming and there’s 25 kids or they’re trying to make video goes stop motion is that recording the sound, you can make a stop motion video without sound. And it’s great. I have an example of that also to show you, and all that if they do want to add sound that can be done later. And usually, with timing wise, you have one group that finishes really fast, they might be out in the hall adding sound, the rest of the class is working away, and they can talk and collaborate that way. So that’s what I love, it doesn’t have to be completely silent to make this work. Here’s another example. This iPad, I believe, has a stand on the back. But I’ve seen kids actually make iPad stands with Legos to make their iPad stand up. So being inventive in a different way. But you can see that they’ve zoomed in on their screen on their setting. And you can’t even really see all this background actually wanted part of it in there. But there’s just a lot of little materials in their thing. If you kind of can see in this picture, there also is a LEGO base plate. And a little tip that I have seen kids use is each peg on the base plate, they move it one by one, to make their story look more fluid. So the tinier the movements, the better the video is going to be. Here’s some all other behind the scenes, this is from after school club that I hosted. This is actually that modeling clay that I was talking about. And since we had more time for this project, we actually filmed our videos using blue screen or green screen. So we still use that stop motion app. You can use the free one again. But we made sure that we filmed it in front of a background that we could change later. The reason why this is a blue screen is because if you can kind of see here, the stamps of these flowers are green. And we didn’t want them to disappear when we change the background. And this is actually a blue t shirt that we had. And so we’re going to change that later. And this image right here, I do have one of my walls painted green in my classroom. So we push the table up against the wall, we use the green face plate. And then she started filming her video here. And what was funny about this one, she actually decided she liked it without changing the background. So she actually left it like this and didn’t end up changing it. Here’s what a screenshot of a stop motion video would look like. This is actually the stop motion studio. This is from their website. And so this is what the app would look like. Very, very, very simple. So the kids would this one is already finished. But typically the image would be behind them. And there would be a red button for them to press once they have their object in the place that they like. So they move their character little take a picture, move a little ticker picture. This one has 101 frames, which we call them frames, that is great. You really want to encourage this, like I said before, the tinier the movements, the more pictures you take, the better your stop motion video is going to be. When kids are first getting started, they typically will take about 15 to 30 pictures. And at first glance, you’re like, Oh, that looks really awesome. But they’re usually really choppy. And they’re over in two seconds. So the better the more patient and the smaller the movements, the better their video is going to be. So these videos can take time, you can get it done probably in a couple of days. But if you really block out that time, if you can get them done and have them be really awesome. So you might be a classroom teacher, you don’t teach them. And you’re thinking, Well, why would I even use this? Like this is so cool, but how can I even use stop motion. If I were to go back to the regular classroom, as myself, I would use that motion. And here’s why. You can use this in so many ways. This is just to get your wheels turning, you can show the comprehension of the story by retelling it through stop motion, comprehension and main idea and summarizing are big standards for kids. Why not have them show it in a different way through stop motion, it can help kids of all different comprehension levels. And you can even pair those kids up in differentiated pairs. That would work so great. So try set motion for one of your units. Fairy tales worked very well for this. You can also have kids show vocabulary or vocabulary words from the text. And again, that is another way to bring it to life instead of just drawing I know not all kids love to draw. Why not have them create those vocabulary words and maybe the other kids in the class can try to guess what word they’re trying to show. Stop Motion can  be another way for students to publish their final piece, they could create a stop motion to visually show their writing. So maybe as they maybe they do still type a final piece. And then they add a stop motion to go with it. And they could put a little QR code in their published piece to show kids the animated part of it. So that would be really, really fun. A great extension to writing. You could also use this in math. So with stop motion, you could have kids visually show a word problem and what’s actually happening happening in the word problem. So if Tommy has 100 watermelons and gets rid of 50, how many legs does he have left? Well have the kids make a stop motion animation, and then they could show the work to solve it. And I bet you would have some great submissions for that. And that helps with that comprehension. Again, you can also have students show visually how things grow and change over time within science. And I have a similar example to this that paper example I’ll show you in a little bit. But you could have them show a process. So if you’re doing lifecycles, you can have the kids just with paper, draw each stage of the lifecycle and show that through stop motion, you can even again with that, instead of doing the circle form of the lifecycle, you can have them actually show the progression of it growing up, I’ve had kids do both. Both are pretty awesome. So that can bring those kinda like I guess, a little more boring, which I never think science is boring, but maybe it’s boring for some of you to make it more fun with stop motion. And then if you’re doing some history, you could have them create a stop motion of historical events on a timeline. So each group could have a different point on the timeline, acted out with stop motion, and then they could you could show those stop motions in order of when it happened to help them connect something visual to the abstract idea. So here’s the fun stuff. Student examples. Here is one we did with fairy tale. So I mentioned fairy tales are a really good one for stop motion. This is like one of the best ways to get started. Have kids pick a fairy tale that they are familiar with and show it visually with stop motion. This one you probably can guess is, you guessed Jack in the beanstalk. You are correct. I love this one because this little guy he didn’t speak a whole lot in my class. But his video was so clear and made sense. And he made his little beanstalk with the LEGO mixed up the greens and then wrapped around some modeling clay to make the vines. I was like, oh my goodness, can I take a picture? And he’s all Yeah, so thank you little guy. This one with comprehension. I’ll show you a little bit is where we took a story we took the day the crayons came home or the day the crayons quit. I’ve done both. And each group had a different part of the story. This is a good story you can break up if you haven’t read the book. Go get it. It’s amazing. It’s hilarious. But each group had a different page and they had to create the character this character is made with modeling clay paper and then a marker cap and then no crayons were harmed in the making of this video. We hung that up in our classroom. And then we put all the videos together into one. So it’s actually a stop motion retelling of the story. I’ll show you a little bit you will have access to this video. But just so you can kind of see what’s going on. We added them some sound of course. Come home by Drew and Al. Parents, Charles and Charles to taught me to always make room for everyone.


Naomi Meredith  19:00

They wanted to read it together. One day we’re happily coloring together with a strange stack of postcards arrived for him in the mail My name is the only close so you didn’t get the point they ended up doing some editing later. So this is like towards the end this took a week in a club. But and we also filmed with green screen. And so that was just another way that we could bring a story to life each kids work separately and then we brought it together as a group so that was really really fun and they were so excited to show their families. Couple other examples fairy tale. This challenge was pick the fairy tale and you have to create a stop motion and we have to guess what it was. There is no sound in these videos. So I will show you you can see the answer already. But this is Little Red Riding Hood no Sound, we didn’t have any grade for the wolf. So that was the hunter getting them off. And then began. So that was a 13. Second video, there was probably about 200 pictures taken and four kids actually worked on this stop motion. And they were from different classes. This was an after school club, but I’ve done this regular class too. Okay, this one tortoise and the hare. So they mix together LEGO and clay, and they found the eyeballs from the LEGO bends. This one is pretty smooth, I think they took about 300 pictures, and it’s only 16 seconds. So you see, the more pictures you take, the smaller the movements, the better it’s going to be. So those are linked down below. Again, you can also use paper as a medium, when you don’t have a lot of materials like or money to spend paper is also a great option. So we will pull up this one is how a fossil is formed, I probably won’t show the whole thing. This one is pretty long, and they have sound if it will pull up for us. So they actually wrote words, they wrote a letter took a picture, data, great job selling fossil, and did little movements along the way they wanted to add sound we just did not have time. So you can get the point that one is a minute long. And then here’s another one. So it’s showing a process. This one was about the human body for fifth grade. So fifth grade, they studied each studied a part of the human body, and then they had to explain all about it with a stop motion. The kids in this group were amazing artists, I was just shocked they did not trace it. But this was all done was stop motion and paper. And this was done with the free app the year I didn’t know I had the paid one. One thing you notice there’s a lot of flashing in the background, I suggested to them to put paper on a solid background. So they wouldn’t have that flashing, but it’s pretty smooth. So great stop motion example right there. You kind of seen this in the examples I’ve shown you but you can have other extensions. So if you want to add in green screen, you could upgrade to the Stop Motion Studio Pro. Or if you just want to go ahead and purchase the Green Screen by DoInk, this is a wonderful green screen app for any project anyway, I would suggest purchasing that that would be worth your investment very, very, very easy. And great for kids to see how green screen actually works. They also have an animation app. So not stop motion animation where you take tiny, tiny pictures, but you can actually add layers of characters and cartoons on top of your work. So that’s again, another great investment. iMovie actually has the addition of green screen I haven’t played around with it yet. I’ve heard mixed reviews about it iMovie screen, but you also have to have a Apple device to use that. But I love teaching kids iMovie I think it’s great for kids to know lots of different platforms so they can transfer that knowledge. So I will oftentimes, I won’t always show them in the stop motion app that they can do editing because I want them to learn iMovie and use everything. So that’s something I try with them stick that studio is an alternative stop motion app. I’ve had kids like it some kids not this is also free. I’ve had more success with the Stop Motion Studio app. But that’s just up to you for you can have kids try it out, especially if they’ve done it before. 


Naomi Meredith  23:33

There’s lots of books out there. These are a couple I would recommend for you to check out these were at Michaels. I’m sure you can find them on Amazon, but they have some great tips and tricks for getting started and those be awesome to have in your classroom library for kids to learn more who are interested. Excited to jump into stop motion animation even more. I put together a collection of resources to help you get started. You can grab the video recording of this episode. The video slides I referenced throughout student examples and bonuses for only $5 I wish I could buy a new Kindle book for that cheap. Let me tell you, it’s not usually that good of a deal. The bonus PDF includes a plot storyboard for students to brainstorm their stop motion story in a sequential order a project checklists to help students stay on track throughout their project and an anchor chart where you can add ideas as a class when discoveries are made as to what makes a great stop motion animation. If you’re looking for even more than that, I even created a special bundle for you that will not only include this whole video replay with bonuses, but a stop motion animation guide to walk you through the whole process with a detailed week long collaborative less than a paleontologist and fossil project and a zoo ologists and pollination Project everything you will need to kick off your stop motion animation journey and using lessons that my own students have absolutely loved. This will be linked in the show notes and you can check it out all here. Naomi meredith.com/stopmotionbundle.

 

 

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!

Ask me Anything! Q&A Time with Naomi [ep.46]

Ask me Anything! Q&A Time with Naomi [ep.46]

Check out the full episode on Ask me Anything! Q&A with Naomi:  

 

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Episode Summary

Today is a special episode that you helped me plan. I told you to ask me anything.

You sent me questions on Instagram and via email. I’m answering those questions in today’s episode.

Some of these questions are STEM-related, but some are personal, and I’m answering them all.

 

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

Today is a special episode that you helped me plan. Ask me anything. You sent me questions over on Instagram and by way of email and I will be answering those in today’s episode. Some of these questions are STEM-related, but some are personal, and I am answering them all. So let’s jump in. 


Naomi Meredith  00:21

Thank you so much for submitting your questions. It was so much to read what you wanted to know. There was quite a variety of things, and they were so much fun to answer. I always take notes before I record this podcast. So it’s very reflective for me. A few of them had me stumped for a minute. So I’m definitely excited to talk about these and answer the things that you wanted to know. Also, I hope you enjoy it. So we could definitely do another one like this. Again, I’m sure you will have more questions after I answer all of them. So let me know if that’s something that you’re interested in. Also, don’t forget to join the waitlist for my virtual workshops coming in 2023, it will be a good time to learn and connect with other STEM teachers. I definitely don’t want you to miss out on this new opportunity. So jump in on that waitlist at Naomimeredith.com/workshopwaitlist. 


Naomi Meredith  01:48

Now let’s get started on these questions. I’m going to read the question out loud. I’m not going to name names. I didn’t ask if I could read your name. So if you asked it, you know who you are. If you wanted to ask it, you know who you are. So let’s jump in to these questions. Question number one is, what is your absolute favorite thing about teaching STEM and what is your least favorite compared to being a classroom teacher? So most of you know by now that I am a former classroom teacher turned current K through five STEM teacher and coach. I taught in the classroom for six years at two different schools by choice. So second grade for two years at a title one school. Then third grade for four years at the district I actually grew up in. So I taught in the classroom for six years, and I wanted more of a challenge. So I took on this role as being a K through five STEM teacher with zero curriculum, and minimal tools. So here I am five years later in this K through five STEM position. I will say my most favorite thing of all is being able to teach all of the kids in the school. I’m not surprised by this because that’s actually the main reason why I got into teaching K through five STEM, I wanted to impact more kids than just my classroom of 20 for which that is actually something I really do miss is having your own little group of kids that you see every day. But I do love seeing all the kids in the school. I love seeing them year after year, because as a classroom teacher, you don’t get that opportunity all the time to teach all the kids and have that relationship with them. Sure you see them in the hallway. But it’s really cool that my fourth graders now I’ve known them since Kindergarten. So I’ve really gotten to get to know them throughout the years, have them in my after school clubs, just all of those really cool things that we have been able to build upon every year. My least favorite thing and it also is dependent on the day, my energy levels is when you are a K through five specials teacher, especially if you’re teaching in that position all day, there were years that I would co-teach. So that was a really nice mix up. But the thing of being in the specials rotation is that you always have to be on and that can be very exhausting. Some days, especially when the days are like sunlight is getting shorter, and I need some coffee when I get home. Like for real. I actually drink coffee when I get home from work. But always being on is a lot. It’s like being the cool aunt, hosting sixth birthday parties at a time. I have five to 10 minutes transition time depending on what class that’s in between. I covet those 10 minute times. Sometimes I just need to sit there and decompress for a minute, because I don’t even know what just happened. So it can definitely be a lot being on and you have to be excited and pumped up for all of the classes. Even if it’s your fourth time teaching that group of kids I always say that the first rotation, “Poor kids,” especially if I’ve never taught it before they get the kind of like the worst version. Then I would say, the third group of kids, the third time I teach the lesson get like the best version of the whole lesson. When we get to the fourth, I’m so over it and I want to move on. So you might be feeling the same thing. But I’m the kind of person you probably know by now, I will dive in and do everything to the best of my ability. So I am definitely drained at the end of each day, but those are my favorite and least favorite things. 


Naomi Meredith  02:32

Next question is would you ever record yourself teaching the STEM K through five curriculum. As you now I have built up my whole K through five STEM curriculum from scratch, which you can actually see the whole year long plan at Naomi meredith.com/year long plan, there’s still several lessons on the way where I am perfecting those for you. But you know, I have created those things. And they are very detailed when it comes to the Engineering Design Process. And it’s a yes or no for me when it comes to teaching those and recording myself. No, I’m not going to record myself teaching every single lesson while in the classroom, I just want to make sure that I am protecting my students privacy. And when I’m teaching, of course, I’m saying their names and all of that, that would take a lot of editing. I feel like that’s just a lot of pressure on me and also for those students as well, knowing that we are being recorded. So for me personally, I’m not going to record myself in my actual classroom. However, I am planning forward and we’ll be doing this for like kind of like a 2.0 version of the year long plan where I want to create something where I am actually talking about the behind the scenes, and how to set up each stage of the Engineering Design Process materials, differentiation opportunities, and even how to set up some specific things. So I want to have that but also I would teach where I would be teaching and you could even use the lessons with your students or you could watch me and give you some ideas of how to relay that information to your kids. So it’s a yes or no for me so not completely now. But that is definitely something I have. Of course thought about. I am making notes when I am teaching so I can help create that opportunity for you. 


Naomi Meredith  02:32

The next question is, how much time do you put into your job outside of contract hours. My first year teaching K through five STEM was obviously a lot of work. And in a lot of ways, I felt like being a first year teacher. So not only was I new to the position, I was in a brand new to me district. And I had to get to know the people get to know the kids learn how the school ran. So that was a lot in itself. So it really humbled me to learn reading and relearn some new things. So I would say my first year in the position, I spent a lot more time outside of work, preparing and researching and teaching myself how to use even some of the basic tools, and even get to know my students what will work best for them. That first year, I was doing things with kids that I definitely don’t do now I had to build up simple things like learning how to log in how to use Google Slides and Google Docs, just basic, basic things. And we are definitely in a different place now. So likewise, I was spending a lot more time out of work to get all of those things ready. And make sure that I was prepared K through five because oftentimes, my plan time was not enough time, or is it really ever enough time. But it wasn’t enough time for me to really have thoughtful plan that lessons. Of course, over the years I have built upon those lessons, I have modified things, I have streamline things. You even hear on this podcast, how I live for systems and routines and structure. And everything I teach even that first year is very purposeful. And I have a lot of meaning behind it, I am still testing out things and seeing what works and doesn’t work. And that might even change class till class. So that it self reflection is super important to me to always be a better teacher, even a better teacher than the hour before. So the time I do spend outside of work is mainly business related, which is STEM related, which also impacts my job in a good way. But I will say I don’t spend a whole lot of time outside of work working on actual school things. But when I do work on school things, it’s often related to my after school clubs, mainly my school, my news that I run where we record five days out, and we have an episode come out every single day. Last year, I actually was editing majority of the videos on my own, I figured out how to have kids helped me edit a lot more. So the time I spent outside of work is usually when it comes to a brand new unit that I need to revamp or when it comes to after school clubs. 


Naomi Meredith  08:11

Okay, the third question is what is my top or favorite STEM activity your students have tried. This is my most favorite one. I love talking about it because this is definitely born out of absolutely nothing. And it was my whole unit that I love to start off the school year STEM survival camp. I talk all about this in episode four. So if you want to hear it all in detail, I go through the whole thing and how I set it up. But basically, at the time, I was going into the fall of 2020, I needed a set of lessons that if my students were to go remote at any moment, we were starting off in person, I needed something where they could have materials at home and I wasn’t sending home about love of supplies. So at the time, I was watching a lot of alone with my teacher, honey. And it’s about these people who are sent off to the wilderness their extreme survivalist. And they have to literally survive alone. But if you keep watching the show, there’s a lot of patterns of things that people have to do to survive. So from there, I created a whole K through five STEM unit of different challenges that are based off of the show, and things that they could do to learn that Engineering Design Process and start off the year in a fun way. So definitely one of my top favorites. I love that unit. The kids still talk about it. They love that unit as well. They always beg for it they always ask if we’re gonna do it again. So that was a really great challenge to start off the year with all of my kids. 


Naomi Meredith  09:45

Okay, along with that there’s a similar question but different and this one is What do you think is one of the best Engineering Design Process activities to do with Kindergarten in first grade. So aside from STEM survival camp, when it comes to the Engineering Design Process with these younger grades, I love doing things that are quick. So things that you can do within two to three days is a perfect amount of time. And they can actually go pretty deep within that timeframe. What I will say is my favorite is doing things that involve Makerspace with Kindergarten and first grade. They are so creative and imaginative, they are willing to try anything. And I love how they believe in themselves. And they are so excited about what they build, and they still have that magic in them. So that is definitely my favorite type of project when it comes to Engineering Design Process to do with those younger kids. And a specific lesson that I really have loved with my first graders you could do with Kinder is where we talk about bioluminescence, where we talk about how living things give off their own light, and they love they’re so amazed they cannot believe and I’m like, Oh my gosh, these things do not plug in into an outlet on the wall. They don’t have rechargeable batteries, they glow on their own. They’re super amazed. And so like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe that. So we talk about that. And then students think of a living thing that they wish had bioluminescence and then they have to create that item, and then explain what that bio element what that bioluminescent part helps them so Makerspace definitely a winner, it can get crazy. But if you have systems and routines in place, it’s totally a lot of fun with those younger students. 


Naomi Meredith  15:02

This question made me laugh and there was emojis on this one. So this question was, Do you have any kind of class reward for behaviors asking because my kinders are, they had some emojis on here, and I’m going to just say cray cray. Yeah, I kind of do. Kinder is crazy. And I feel like for some reason this year, they’re even crazier. So at my school, we have a PBIS system where whole classes can earn a tiger paw. So they can earn this through specific behaviors that they represent and as the class, so I talked about this in a past episode when it comes to behavior management. So I list all of those factors. So when they are crazy coming in, we reveal all those factors. Sometimes I’ll even practice them coming into the room, we will do a lot of hand signals, like if you can hear me point to the ceiling, if you can hear me hands on your shoulders, point to miss Meredith point to your ear segment. Listen really well. Fun fact, I worked at Build A Bear in college for a few months. And I was that person who would be at the little like fluffers station, where they have their heart. So if you haven’t been available bear, it’s a little creepy at first, where they have these shells of bears, you pick out your shell, you could pick out a heart to put in your bear and you go to the station, they fluff up the bear, they literally put the fluff in. So I was the person at the fluffing station. And I had to talk to the kids, a lot of them even Kindergarten, where oh, put the heart to your heart. So it’s extra loving, like you put it to your brain. So it can be as smart as you. So I kind of do those things with Kindergarten and pay, it works well. So those little things are helpful, giving them our behavior, incentive stickers, or even any stickers in general. I don’t give kids candy. That’s not for me, but I am not against bribery. So if they’re having a hard time, like if you’re good, if you’re doing what you’re supposed to do, I have a special surprise. Sometimes a special surprise is the story bots. He’s singing some songs and they have some really great songs about space. So if you’re doing a space unit, check it out. Highly recommend. I have most of the words memorized by now. Another time The surprise was I’ll show you the hole in my tooth. So one day, I was eating oatmeal for breakfast. And I thought I had oatmeal on my teeth. But it was a filling from when I was a kid it fell out. And I had a hole in my tooth that day. So the kids are in Kindergarten a little crazy. And they clean up really really fast because they wanted to see the hole in my tooth. So I let them. They all sat around me and I showed them the hole in my tooth. And they were actually pretty good that day. So I’m not against that bribery, if you can make it a surprise. Super helpful. 


Naomi Meredith  17:43

All right, next question is how can I grow my STEM page? So this person reached out to me on Instagram, I just started this year and want to connect so much love here. I totally agree. I love me some teacher guy um, and I’ve met a lot of really cool people on there, including Kelly Hogan, who I recently had as a guest. And I also have future guests who I’ve also connected to on Instagram. So it’s a really cool way to reach out especially since most of us are the only STEM teacher in our building. So I love having that teacher gram aspect, Instagram, it’s been so awesome. I started my Instagram when I was a third grade teacher, I had another username, and I just posted random stuff. And it was super ugly scroll back to the bottom of my page. They’re still there, you could see what I was doing as a third grade teacher, which I’ve always been all about hands on learning and technology. So you’ll see some trends in there. But definitely if you’re looking to connect with other STEM teachers, go to some of your favorite accounts. You can go to mine and see who is following them and also who they’re following. That’s a great way to find other people in the STEM community. And you can comment on people’s pages you can send them a DM most of us teachers one thing gets creepy unless you are being creepy. So don’t be creepy. I appreciate some good DMS and answering your questions. So like this podcast, but that’s a good way to get started and get connected and definitely share what you’re doing in your classroom. That’s a great way to connect as well and give help to other teachers and inspire them along the way. Also, I have so many things for you guys coming out you’re just super inspiring and I love creating for you and just bringing us together that coming up soon I’m thinking of ways how we can meet virtually and chat with each other. So obviously you could tell I have a lot of things coming up in the future. So keep an eye out for that as well. Just join the waitlist you’ll be notified about everything. 


Naomi Meredith  19:46

All right, next question is the fun one and not stimulated, which is totally cool. When and where is your wedding? Because there’s so many you know, I got engaged on Christmas Day of 2021 and you didn’t ask for this story but I’m Gotta tell you. So we were on a cruise, I had no idea I was getting proposed to, I knew he had a ring, but I didn’t know I was gonna get proposed to. I didn’t think he wanted to travel with a ring. And that’s a whole other story. So somebody asked me that question. I’ll do another Ask me anything. And I’ll tell you the non engagement story. So anyway, he proposed we were on a cruise with a couple of friends. And we had a great time we went to a show. And then we got a phone call that we were in close contact with COVID, there was still covered protocols going on. And it was my friend, she had COVID, she was texting me, she and Phil while and then got tested. So they told us, we had to be in a room for about 24 hours, they’ll come back and test us. So when they called us it was midnight, and we’re like, Okay, we’ll come back at midnight the next day, like, No, it’s too late for us. We’ll come back the next next day. So it was 36 hours. But you know, when you can engage to have fun and you’re celebrating and kind of don’t really remember the whole conversation. So the next day, we went out and got breakfast. And then we heard our names over on the intercom at the boat and we had to go back to our rooms. And there were security at the door. And we were locked up in a room for a while. So I learned how to make towel animals we still do all you can eat all the food and drinks and made the most of it. And here we are. We’re going on a cruise again pretty soon. So that’s how we got engaged. But our wedding is June in June in Colorado of 2023. So super excited about that. It’s a winery that we really enjoy. So that will be a fun and beautiful time. I’m super excited. 


Naomi Meredith  21:36

Next question, what is your favorite pen and marker? This is such a T Trick question and I am here for it. Okay, my favorite marker 100 per million percent are the Mr. Sketch smelly markers. I love how all they smell. But I always wanted to be a teacher when I grew up and all my teachers use the Mr. Sketch smelly markers. I would ask for them for Christmas. I just thought that’s what real teachers use and write with. So when I got the call of my first teaching job teaching second grade, I ran over to Lakeshore learning and bought myself a pack of Mr. Sketch smelly markers, because that’s what real teachers write with. So hands down, still my absolute fave. When it comes to pens, I’m not super biased. I leave kind of like some bad pens on my desk because people leave me notes all the time for about computers or whatever. So I do love a good flare pan. My handwriting looks really good in a flare pen. But I’m always open to other options so you can hit me up with your ideas. I try the other day this really cool ink joy 300 T pen. I was like, Oh my gosh, this is beautiful. So not quite a gel pen is like in between. So love me a good pen. I don’t like pencils at all. I actually don’t even like sharpening pencils. I don’t leave a pencil sharpener out in my classroom because I don’t like the sound. So I’ll sharpen pencils, like once a month. So yeah, that’s where I’m at with the marker and pen situation. 


Naomi Meredith  23:10

Alright, a couple more. This was a good one. If you weren’t a STEM teacher, what other career would you love to have? You might not be surprised by this that I am definitely an entrepreneur at heart. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. But even as a kid, I’ve always had this entrepreneurial side to me. I was the kid where oh no, no, we’re not hosting a lemonade stand. We’re gonna upgrade this to a snow cone Stan and have 30 different flavors. And the sign is going to match all the names of the flavors. I made a lot of money doing that as a kid I even had the kids I nanny do a snow cone stand and we made a lot of money. So I love me making some good side hustles I even was set up garage sales for my family and wait all day to make a couple of bucks. I was the person in college I paid my way through college so I worked three full time jobs went to school full time paid my way through college was debt free when I graduated in four years, but I always had a lot of different side hustles to make ends meet and I just love meeting new people and I love learning new things. So not surprising that I have my own teacher business and I love supporting you because STEM there’s so much to learn. And just even running a business there’s so much so when it comes to a specific job if I wasn’t a STEM teacher, I think I’ve needed to be a STEM teacher first but I would love to be some sort of STEM coach like being able to reach out to schools across the world and or either being a STEM consultant so using my knowledge when it comes to being in the classroom, and just having those opportunities to meet teachers like you in person and really merging those two things together my passion for education and also entrepreneurship. So I think I would always be a STEM teacher at heart I I always thought I wanted to work for a magazine, which I thought would be really cool, but I think everyone wanted to work for a magazine. But I think that’s what I would definitely do if I wasn’t a STEM teacher. 


Naomi Meredith  25:11

All right, last question. It’s all about my little Freddy boys. So Frederick is my 10 going on 12 pounds chihuahua mix. And I think he was so freaking cute. I’m so in love. And so these questions are about him. What’s Frederick story? When did you get him and how did you pick his name? So Frederick is my first ever dog as an adult. And I got him in September of 2020. And he actually came with that name Fredrik, and we loved it so much. He’s looking at me right now, because I keep saying his name. He sits and listens to me podcast. But we thought it was such a good big boy name for such a tiny little boy who was seven pounds when we got him. And he lived on the streets for a week. He ran away from his family, and they didn’t want him back. So now he is our little fur baby and are his forever home. And so this leads into the next question that was asked, Does Frederick have any brand deals yet? Okay, so Freddy, Fred is the perfect dog for me. He does pose for pictures and he is super photogenic. He doesn’t have any brand deals. But if you want to reach out you definitely can. Well, you can go follow him on Instagram. It’s at little Frederick the dog. And he’s I think he’s cute. It’s just a way for me to spam his account with pictures and not always spam you guys on my Instagram for him? Because I know not everybody is a dog person, but you might become one when you see him. So no brand deals yet but if you know of any or if you want to connect, hit me up. All right, well, thank you so much for playing along with me and this episode, totally different vibe. But hopefully you got some good nuggets in there and had a good laugh. While you are listening to this, you kind of get to see a another side of me always a good time. It’s always a little awkward. Sometimes. I’m just standing here in my office at home, looking at my camera and talking into the microphone. So I hope that you had a fun time listening. I had a lot of fun with these questions. We definitely should do this again sometime. If you liked it. Let me know if you didn’t like it. Let me know I don’t ever have to do it again. So thank you so much again and we will chat soon.

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

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

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

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

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

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!

classroom-teacher-to-steam-teacher

From Classroom Teacher to STEAM Teacher with Kelly Hogan [ep.45]

From Classroom Teacher to STEAM Teacher with Kelly Hogan [ep.45]

Check out the full episode on From Classroom Teacher to STEAM Teacher with Kelly Hogan:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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

Episode Summary

In today’s episode, I chatted with Kelly Hogan from Mathematically Enthused.
 
Kelly shares her journey from classroom teacher to STEAM teacher and provides tips and tricks for strategies and activities she has incorporated into her classroom.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How Kelly became a STEAM teacher
  • Kelly’s favorite part about teaching STEAM
  • How Kelly structures projects with her students when she sees them once a week
  • How Kelly stores her students’ projects
  • What surprised Kelly about being a STEAM teacher

Meet Kelly Hogan:

Kelly Hogan is a former classroom teacher turned K-6 STEAM teacher on Long Island, NY. Kelly loves all things Math and is passionate about bringing practical, functional Math skills into STEAM lessons. Kelly is a Level 2 Google Certified Educator and loves helping other teachers simplify their day through the use of Google Technology. When she’s not teaching, Kelly loves working out and hanging out with family, friends, her husband, and Rowdy, her puggle.

Connect with Kelly:

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

In today’s episode, I am chatting with Kelly Hogan from mathematically and I have been chatting with Kelly a bunch on over on Instagram over the past few years when she had a different instagram name and throughout her different teaching positions. Kelly is a former classroom teacher turned K through six STEM teacher in Long Island, New York. She loves all things math and is passionate about bringing practical and functional math skills into her STEM or STEAM lessons. She is a level two Google certified educator and loves helping other teachers simplify their day through the use of Google technology. When she’s not teaching Kelly loves working out and hanging out with her family friends and her husband. And of course, her little Puggle rowdy, this episode was so much fun. And Kelly has such a great experience from being in the classroom and into the STEM space that I know you’re definitely going to connect with. And she even has some awesome tips and tricks of what she has done in her classroom that I definitely want to use and mine and I’m sure you definitely want to use in yours. I can’t wait for you to listen to this interview. 


Naomi Meredith  01:07

Well, Kelly, thank you so much for being here. today. We’re chatting a little bit before this. And you and I have talked over the years and we message each other all the time. And you’re so sweet when you tagged me in your stories. So I knew I had a hat? Well, I asked you a while back, I think when I was first launching, well, you’d be a guest. You’re like, yes, so they finally got it all together, I figured out how to invite guests, blah, blah, blah. And then I’m just so excited to chat with you and your position because I think your story and I don’t know all of it. But I think your story will really resonate with a lot of teachers, because most of us have been teachers who are in the classroom, and then we get thrown into this role. So tell us more about yourself and your background and just how you stepped into your STEAM are STEM will probably say both, but how you stepped into your role.


Kelly Hogan  02:29

So for those who don’t know me, I’m Kelly Hogan and mathematically enthuse on Instagram and Teachers Pay Teachers. And to tell you my full STEM STEAM story. I need to go back like way, way back. So before I was in college, I was looking to Yeah, I was looking to be a teacher from as long as I could remember. And I was preparing to go to school for music education. So I was focusing on being a music teacher and being heavily involved in music ensembles that were curricular and extracurricular. But when I got to college, I realized that that was not necessarily the best fit for me. I loved doing music and being part of ensembles. But I realized that as a teacher, I’d be kind of limited in what I was doing with students and impact was important to me. So I graduated from college in 2005, with my bachelor’s in elementary education, and in New York State Teachers are required to get a master’s degree. Oh, I didn’t know that. Yes, after a certain amount of years now. But the time when I graduated, there was no limitation on how many years you had. I think now, once you graduate, you have to have your masters within about three years. So choosing the Masters was hard for me because at the time in 2005, the big push was reading and literacy. And I knew definitively that I didn’t want my masters in reading and literacy. So I shopped around for a while. And at Hofstra University where I got my masters from at the time they had a program that was elementary maths, science and technology. Oh, basically. Yeah. So it was Elementary, MSP, and it was lots of integrated projects. One of the things I remember very distinctly about that program was that I had to make a scale model bed for a stuffed animal of my choosing. We had to make board games, we had to write papers about the process. I actually fell in love with math through that program, which is kind of interesting. But I had friends who after we graduated, were getting jobs as the science teacher in schools where science was a push in, or where they were just specializing departmentalized at the elementary level. STEAM and STEM wasn’t a thing. It wasn’t a job at the time. And I was just kind of using it to enhance my toolbox and my work in my classroom with my kids. I have taught every classroom grade except for second. It’s So at some point in time, I have taught everything from K through six. And I was happy in the classroom. And then I ended up teaching math as for about a year and learn that that was not my thing. love math, did not love math is. So I was kind of looking around and thinking about where my next career move would be, what would my shift be. And the district right next door to mine had an opening for an elementary scene teacher. And I read all the ballpoint bullet points on the job and was literally floored. Because I was like, that’s the job. That’s that’s the job I won. So they interviewed in April, I was offered the position a couple weeks later. And then I was appointed in May of 2021. And I have been in that STEAM mindset ever since I’ve never looked back. But the irony is that if I go back to my high school experience, I always did want to be especially right here. So it was kind of looping back to what I wanted to do without knowing exactly what I wanted to do. So I definitely am in the right space right now. I love my job. And even on my worst days, it’s so energizing. So it’s the right place for me to be


Naomi Meredith  06:17

Oh, yeah, well, I guess I think really, you’re it’s a very creative space. And I think your experiences definitely lead us into the STEM position. Because I thought about that, too. Like I had a class. In middle school. I wasn’t called STEM because like that term is so new. But it was called technology. But all this stuff was STEM based. So you had all these stations, there’s robotics, there was stop motion, there was like these laser cutter things and like, I’ve always loved science and the hands on stuff. So it just makes sense. Like, so probably stay with you like, oh, this makes sense why I’m in this role, and your masters pretty much is STEM.


Kelly Hogan  06:56

So yes, that that program has evolved. And it’s actually now called masters in elementary STEM education. So it’s it’s really interesting, but I was also always a very love science and technology. So it just, it was the right hat to put on. And it kind of found me at the time that I needed it to find me so I could not be any happier than I am right now.


Naomi Meredith  07:18

Oh, good. I’m so glad. I’m glad it was like a it’s a hard but fun transition.


Kelly Hogan  07:23

Yes. Yes, definitely hard. I would yes, definitely describe it as hard. It is.


Naomi Meredith  07:29

Yeah, it’s hard. I think being a classroom teacher though before I bet you see those two is super valuable. Because you know how to plan you’ve obviously taught all the grades. So I think having that experience instead of there’s nothing wrong with just jumping into sand. But I think having that background and education and classroom management and planning a lesson and figuring it out really, really helps in your role a ton. I see that a ton for myself.


Kelly Hogan  07:54

100% 100%. I can’t imagine coming out of a teacher education program into STEM without having a little bit of classroom time first, because it is amazing how much management it takes.


Naomi Meredith  08:08

Oh, yeah, I that’s like the biggest thing. I’m like, Oh my gosh, it’s like, wow. It’s like sometimes I’m the mean, and I’m not the nicest. Most mostly nice, but sometimes mean. What have been your favorite parts so far? Because I mean, I know you love it, but like, what are your favorite parts about it?


Kelly Hogan  08:31

I don’t want to be too cliche and say everything. But to some degree. Yes, it’s everything. But the most important things that I would stick with is that every day is exciting. My students love to come into the STEAM lab, I would say that out of the 360 students I serve. Maybe I have two students who aren’t engaged when they walk into the STEAM lab a week, which is outstanding, and the energy that they bring in really energizes me. So that is a huge part of it. The 40 minute periods are lovely. They’re I actually they’re a blessing and a curse, kind of like what you were saying about being me. And it’s great to have 40 minutes when it’s a tough day for a certain class and you’re just trying to muscle through it. And then you get to send them back to their teachers. Like you’re being the fun auntie, right. But I also only get to see my students for 40 minutes a week. And that’s the downside is that there’s so much I always want to do in STEAM that I’m always strapped for time. And then I think seeing every kid at school so I teach all the kids in my school K through six, which means I have a relationship with all the kids in the school I have relationships with their siblings, and so far I’ve only been there for this is my second year but I’m already really enjoying seeing kids grow from year to year and how they change. And it’s really just it’s amazing how I was concerned about the show worked periods not being able to build relationships with my students, and you have a different kind of relationship. But it’s so long term. And I love that.


Naomi Meredith  10:08

It’s so true. Like I was talking to my kids by fifth graders. And I think my first year with them for a second, I’m counting on my hands. Second, third, fourth it, so I knew them since first grade. And it was cool. Like, they’re like, We don’t remember the person before. I’m like, Well, that’s nice. But it’s just like, cool to see them over the years. And I have like pictures of them. And it’s just like, that is something you don’t get always get as a classroom teacher, unless you loop with them, which I don’t know why you want to do that. But yeah, it is so cool. I love that. And I didn’t know you only taught was that once a week. So how do you structure your projects? That’s a big, a lot of people do that. Like that’s hard.


Kelly Hogan  10:51

Yes. So to add on to that, I see them 40 minutes a week. And I have one minute between classes.


Naomi Meredith  10:58

What? Yes. Oh, yeah, I need to know what what do you do?


Kelly Hogan  11:02

Which normally means I actually have students waiting outside my room as I’m releasing them. Because as teachers, most of us are on time, if not early. So structure was really important for me. And I knew that in order to be really productive with all grade levels, my structure would have to vary a little bit only seeing them for 40 minutes a week. So my k one, two lessons, especially in the beginning of the year, they get an instant build when they come in, and I have short challenges up on the board where I give them some free build time I give them a material, I try to rotate materials, so they get a new material, usually every month. And they’ll have about three problems they need to solve by building something with their materials, then they get a quick brain break, because my little guys need movement. So if I can beam it with what we’re doing for the day, I theme it with what we’re doing for the day, then I usually have a short video or short read. And then we go back into a challenge. The second half of the year, I stretch out the lessons more to be like one week is our background and plan. And then the next week is our built, then with three through six is a little different. So obviously a lot faster pace because those kids are doing more in depth projects. So they kind of come into a do now and they do now sometimes it’s just as simple as get your materials from last week and chat with your group about what your next steps are. And then I do a mini lesson I know I was just listening to I’m not sure if it was your most recent episode, but your structure of your classes, I was doing like the same thing. I’m thinking about the pie piece, right. So you have the the large IPS is not really teacher time. So I do about five to 10 minutes, some weeks, it’s honestly just reviewing what we did last week and reviewing hot glue safety because that comes down again and again. And then they’ll have about depending on how much talking I do 2020 to 25 solid minutes of building, and then five minutes of cleaning like crazy. And I tried to get them in line early. So really, my time on teaching is about 35 minutes with the cleanup with everything else that’s going on. So the Do Now time is super valuable for me in my structure, because it gets them moving and doing something from the moment they walk in the door. And it helps me transition because I only had one minute on the clock between classes. So sometimes when I’m really desperate, I’m very behind with my littles all instead of reading them the book that we’re working on problem solving from, I’ll play it on YouTube, just to give myself time to set materials as much as I love to read to them. I do sometimes just need the time to swap over from my kids to my little kids, because sometimes my Thursdays especially today happens to be a Thursday when we’re talking to each other. And my Thursdays are I have fourth, second. Sixth, second, fifth. So it’s a lot of flipping materials all day. And then yeah, yes, yes. So if I could choose, I would love to have all of my fourth grades one day and my sixth grades and other day, but that really wouldn’t work in our school. So yeah, so it’s similar structure to what you’re doing. But my pacing, obviously a little bit different, very similar to your structure. However, our projects from whatever do you talk about on the podcast and seeing you share is that your projects last about a week where my projects my student, my fourth graders finished up their mini golf design project and it took them about probably eight weeks, but it was one session per week. Yeah. So I really have to I have to backwards plan a lot. I have to really think about what I want the end of the project to be where I want it to land. So my sixth graders right now are making playable winter winter carnival games for the week before our holiday break. And they have to Have you done without a doubt by Thursday, December 15? Because we’ll start on Friday, December 16. So I really had to count back. And I’m, I’m hoping we’ll make it because I gave them more time than last year. We had Veterans Day on a Friday, and we had our school fundraiser on a Friday that the kids were in all days a lot like Field Day. So when I lose a week with them, it’s it’s a big hit. It’s a big Yeah.


Naomi Meredith  15:22

Oh, yeah, it totally is. It is. But I’m glad I appreciate you like explaining that. Because I think, like I said, your situation is more common. Seeing the kids once a week. And I think some teachers, you might have experienced this struggle with like doing a longer project with the older kids just like how do you structure that. And of course, it’s not perfect all the time. And you just have to figure out how it will work out. And it’s okay, if it takes long. But I think if you have natural breaks in the project, it’s probably really doable, carrying it on every week. It’s not ideal. But you know, your older kids can handle it, too. So how do you store everything? I’m sure people are asking.


Kelly Hogan  16:04

Goodness gracious, I that is my biggest, I would say the biggest pit in the peach, right. So I have a classroom that prior to my arriving there was converted from what used to be our computer room and a very small science lab into one STEAM classroom. So I have a lot of space, I have about 1300 square feet, which in theory sounds like a lot of storage space. Yeah. However, I do have cabinets, and the cabinets are chock full of stuff from science kits and stuff from donations and storing is really hard. And what I learned last year in my first year was that if I’m having kids do cardboard projects, there needs to be one grade level doing a cardboard project at a time. I learned last year that one of the things that I can’t do is have multiple large builds going at the same time. So my fourth grade does a large build the first part of the year, when they’re done, my sixth grade right now is doing a large build than my fifth grade will do a large build next, because I have about three or four storage cabinets that I can use for student storage. And beyond that I don’t really have storage space. So we do a lot of what I call with the little guys deconstruction project. Yeah, put it up for a day, take it down, we’re using paper towel tubes, and we’re taking them back down and putting them away. So that really helps with the space management and the project storage. Last year, I made the mistake of doing a couple of cardboard projects at the same time and I was literally buried in cardboard in the lab and I was miserable.


Kelly Hogan  19:20

So I made that change because I just couldn’t live like that. I am not comfortable with clutter. And that’s been my biggest point of growth in this job is that it is cluttered all of the time. Yeah, my brain is healthy clutter. Yes, it’s healthy clutter, and I generally know where things are. But to the untrained eye, it looks like a hot mess.


Naomi Meredith  19:44

Oh yeah, minus two. It’s like what I’ll say make mistakes get messy and like my room crashed. Like I will say like I have like a big room but also like no storage. So there’s just stuff everywhere. Like I have my wife Lillian, you know you’re good. Getting a wagon soon. I have a wagon just chillin. I have like, all my stuff I have like I’m cutting. I have my Cricut machines out cutting sticker like that’s it’s trashed all the time. But it’s very, very organized. Is there anything else that surprised you? I mean, the storage your time, like what like coming out of the classroom getting into this, you’re like, Whoa.


Kelly Hogan  20:25

I touched on it a little bit earlier. But honestly, it was the amount of classroom management that I took. Because as a fairly established classroom teacher, when I left the classroom to go to AI s already had about 12 years under my belt. And then when I went into STEAM, so now I have 13 years, and I thought, Alright, I have systems, I know my systems pretty well, I feel very comfortable with them. So I thought I had it on lock. And I was just going to walk in and my systems were going to work, and some did, and some didn’t. So what I didn’t realize was how many more systems I needed last year. And this summer, I spent a lot of time just thinking about systems that would help class run smoother, and create a common experience with clear expectations for my students. So I have even more systems this year than I have probably ever had. And could I use a few more? Probably yes. But it actually it feels a lot better in my classroom this year with more systems. So I would say I have at least twice the amount of systems in place that I did when I was a classroom teacher and I didn’t expect it to be that much more.


Naomi Meredith  21:35

Yeah, yeah, I agree. Yeah, I felt the same way. Because I’m all about classroom management. Ever since I started teaching. I was like the biggest thing I had to work on. So I’m like, huge on that. And I had, there’s so many things I did so wrong. My first year like I’ve had, I think I talked about this, like the crayons, I had a big bucket of crayons, someone ate them and spits them out. Like a lot didn’t work. That’s not good. But yeah, I totally agree with you. And it just comes with time and how things are moving in your room? And it depends on the project. Sometimes I think I’ve noticed that for sure. Like, oh, or the grade some grades, do certain things. And some?


Kelly Hogan  22:16

Well, and I was just going to say that. And I think yes, some grades can can manage a lot of materials, some grades can’t manage as many materials. And also from year to year. Sometimes the grades are not the same personalities. They’re not the same kind of maturity. And I’ve had to adapt and change some things even from last year that I did, because they just didn’t fit with the incoming group. And not because they couldn’t meet the expectations. But because the constraints have had to be modified a little bit to require less materials to be used or to simplify some of the building that we were doing or be really specific about how to use scotch tape. Yeah, is something I never thought I would have to teach anyone had to use scotch tape because I I remember using scotch tape as a kid. I am shocked at how many young hands need explicit direct instruction about how to use a tape dispenser. I did not expect that last year, but this year I’m rockin and rollin.


Naomi Meredith  23:16

Yeah, it’s like dangling everywhere. Like no, no. Oh, my goodness. Oh, no,


Kelly Hogan  23:20

We were just making parade balloons today was second grade. So I was teaching them that. If we can’t rip the tape off, we can use our scissors and we can cut the tape off the dispenser. Because otherwise we’ll be there all day trying to take things


Naomi Meredith  23:34

Oh yeah, it’s so funny. You said that was one girl I interviewed as Jen, we were talking about tapes. It’s a real thing. I never thought seriously. I’m all about the tapes.


Kelly Hogan  23:46

I did last year too. That was one of my other big shockers was masking tape kids who couldn’t physically rip the masking tape without like closing it. Like it would just be a string of close tape. And that didn’t even dawn on me as a muscular skill until kids started doing it. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I need to teach them how to rip the tape.


Naomi Meredith  24:10

Yeah, we’re in the business of life skills right here. If any, they don’t learn anything from us, at least they know how to use tape.


Kelly Hogan  24:16

Oh, how do you see they’ll be able to wrap a present like you won’t believe Oh, yeah,


Naomi Meredith  24:20

Actually have a lesson. I’ve done that. And the kids got so mad at me. It was like, they had to find the area and perimeter of the wrapping paper that they were doing and how many pieces of tape. They did choose a method and the kids did not like that project like how to give most kids had it like oh, well this is good life skill. I haven’t done that in a while but it was interesting. Yeah. Oh, I’m


Kelly Hogan  24:47

sure it was.


Naomi Meredith  24:49

I’m so I know because you okay, you leave the nicest feedback on my TPT store. I always know it’s Yeah, and it’s just so kind of Yeah. I like oh, you remember Did you realize someone the other day, but I’m thinking other resources, I know you’ve used what have been some of your favorites of mine, that you’ve seen success in your classroom.


Kelly Hogan  25:10

I’ve used a lot of them. My my favorite, honestly, this year is the Makerspace menu. I know you also have an episode that where you talked about that. So I’m gonna plug you for you, people should go back and listen to that episode if they’re interested in this. So the Makerspace menu has been a huge time saver for me. When I took the same role. Last year, I always had STEAM budgeting on my mind, and my kiddos thinking differently about their tasks and having some strong constraints in place. And in my mind, I was going to create STEAM lab money thing out, and then I heard you talking about it. And I was like, why am I going to sit down and build this all out myself when I can just get the resource and give myself peace of mind. And it’s actually been really great because you have the front of the menu page where you have all of the items set already. So I go in and take out things that I know I either don’t have a lot of that I know it’s in the past have not used in a way that made sense for the material, or something that just doesn’t fit a certain project. And I just have it out. And right now in my classroom. Just this week, I set up like a $1 $2 and a $3 drawer that they pull out of a cart. So that’s cool. And what my kids shot like that. So that’s been huge for me. And like I said, I’ve used a lot last year I use the spider web.


Naomi Meredith  26:45

Oh, yeah, you sent me a video. I remember you tagged me the spider polies.


Kelly Hogan  26:49

Yes. So I did that with my Kindergarten last year Kindergarten this year is not quite ready for that. They’re very young. They’re Yes,


Naomi Meredith  26:56

same.


Kelly Hogan  26:59

Five and six. They’re not ready for that just yet. But when we did push pull, we did that last year that was super fun for them. And my students do a board game project and we use a lot of the materials from your seam survival camp board game unit, but what I do is we don’t use exterior outdoor materials because we do ours in the winter. Oh, perfect. And the thing I’ve been using a lot lately is your Google Classroom Google Suite posters and your hot glue gun holsters. So I use them when I’m teaching my students have glue safety because they don’t really know a lot about a part of the hot glue gun. And so I have them in Google Classroom for instruction but then I also have them actually framed and hanging up in my lap.


Naomi Meredith  27:42

Other frames.


Kelly Hogan  27:46

Listen, they’re printed on cardstock with color they need to stay nice


Naomi Meredith  27:54

Framing the poster that’s adorable. Get to so frame.


Kelly Hogan  27:57

Yes, I will frames and command strip frame hangers are like Velcro. Yeah.


Naomi Meredith  28:06

That makes me so happy like I’m so all these like things have helped to save time. I love them, then you tell like that i i was playing around with it for years. And then I was like, How can I make this makes sense for other people. And I just added an update. I don’t know if you’ve used it yet. I just added it like a few weeks ago. But it’s like a table. So they have to write down like the items how many and then the the total costs which your your math brain would love and I just added it and my kids are like, Oh, I like this update. I’m like perfect.


Kelly Hogan  28:40

I’m chuckling listening to you because I made one really quick because I want them to have a budget ledger. So my kids have been using a budget ledger with I’m gonna download. I’m gonna download the update because I didn’t know it was there.


Naomi Meredith  28:52

No, like they had like a few weeks ago. I’m like, I should probably have this in there. So that’s so funny like, well, you. I’m glad I made you proud with my mask.


Kelly Hogan  29:01

Yeah, I was like, oh, we need a budget ledger. Yes. Because it’s, it’s easier for them to kind of track what they’re spending. So that’s awesome. I’ll download that as I just been printing all of mine from a single project I made for the kids instead of actually adding it to my resources. Not so yeah, so I’ll download that. Yeah, I love the menu. And it’s great. I love what I love about it. And what I love about having budgeting as a constraint in STEM and STEAM is that having done it without the budget last year going to using the budget this year, the change in the conversations and gathering materials is so powerful and so impactful because they’re really evaluating what they actually need versus I’m just going to take it because it’s there. And I find that we’re creating much less waste because of that as well as as a human being but also as a STEAM teacher waste is really important to me and I’m trying to reduce reuse as much as I can. It’s inevitable because we do build out of recycled materials. But I like to think that before we recycle, those materials are kind of getting a second life before they actually become actual recycling or trash. But I do try to reduce waste as much as possible. And the budgeting has really changed that piece.


Naomi Meredith  30:18

Oh, I see that too. And you probably say this, you don’t have to restock as much. And it keeps them super independent. Like they have their little list and they’re very thoughtful. They’re like, Oh, I don’t have enough money for this. And like, while you’re gonna have to make a choice, like that’s how it is, if you’re remodeling a house, you don’t have unlimited money. That’s just, you have to be creative with what you got. I love it, too. I’m like, obsessed, and they don’t have the kids laughing like, I’m the banker, and I’m the cash register. I am all the roles, and they just start laughing.


Kelly Hogan  30:51

When I when I framed it for when I started budgeting with the kids was when you decide you grew up, and you might want to be an engineer. Engineers do have constraints like this when they’re working for companies to engineer video games. They have a finite budget for that video game, maybe? Yeah, they pitch their idea. And their idea, oh my gosh, it’s kind of like my mom. They pitch their idea. And their bosses love it. But then they say, okay, yeah, you can make a mock up for $3,000. And if you can’t do it for $3,000, then you can’t do it. Yeah. So I’m trying to drive home the message that for those who already know, they have an engineering mindset, and they want to be engineers, that it’s not all sunshine and roses, and just making what you want, you have to actually budget and plan. And just think about what you’re doing. And that is part of the Engineering Design Process. But and you you might like this, too. So part of my process for them is, after they budget, I also have them write up a plan, I have them write up from third through sixth, they write the first five steps of their plan. So as a group, they’ll write what they’re doing. And we talked about how we’re not writing, get the materials, but we’re writing attach cardboard, a cardboard. So after they write the first five steps and their budget, because I am working like one week at a time, they’ll submit it to me, I bought a stamp that says building permit approved from Zazzle. It read through their plans, I look at their diagrams and labels. And I look at their budget and just check that their math was right. And I stamp them for approval. And then the next time they come in, they get to shop and they can get whatever change they need and all that kind of good stuff. And it has been so much fun for me honestly, even with the stamp, but it’s really changed the way projects are flowing to have those, you know, and some kids for some kids, yes, they don’t want to work with a plan in front of them. They just kind of want to dive in and go. So that’s why I only said five steps because after those five steps, they are going to dive in and go. But I want them to have something to start with. Because often I found last year that when they didn’t have a place to start definitively. There was a lot of I don’t like this anymore. I want to start again. And I don’t see that as much this year,


Naomi Meredith  33:12

saying, but how does Yeah, cool. I’ve never thought of having it’s almost like writing a how to I never thought of that. That’s so smart. And especially carrying it on the weeks for them. They’re not Oh, I remember I was going to do this like, oh, that’s what I was working on. That is so that is a cool way to plan. That’s like that’s really good.


Kelly Hogan  33:33

I was in part from hearing the I heart STEAM podcast, she had some ideas that were similar to that and my own thinking about it and then the stamp I just kind of got the idea in my head so I it just really took off and that stamp was not cheap, but it was worth the money.


Naomi Meredith  33:53

Yeah. Well on YouTube everyone so you’ll use it a ton. Yes. Well, I appreciate you sharing all this stuff and I’m so excited for I’m no other teachers are gonna want to reach out to you. Because I’m sure that your story is so much like, they’re like mine. But do you Where can they find you and do you have anything you want to share with them? Just that they would love?


Kelly Hogan  34:20

Cool. I am mathematically enthuse, which is a really long handle, but I’m mathematically enthused on Instagram. I’m mathematically enthused on tick tock though I don’t post as much or interact as much on tick tock, but I consume a lot. And mathematically enthused at Gmail. I do have a blog that I am slowly building at mathematically enthused blog.net and I am super responsive on Instagram. So that’s really the best way to get me. But I’m happy to answer any questions that anybody has, especially if they’re considering making the change from classroom into STEAM as I’m sure you are and your role is As someone who’s also a STEAM coach, so I anyone has any questions anyone wants to figure out how to turn a math lesson into something STEM or STEAM just to put some energy into it. I will talk to anyone I also happen to be an extrovert. So there’s, there’s no wrong way to contact me. I’m good.


Naomi Meredith  35:21

Well, I love chatting with you. I appreciate you so much. And I’m just excited for this episode and just where your journey and STEM is going to be. So thank you again for being so excited today.


Kelly Hogan  35:35

Thank you for having me. This was a blast.


Naomi Meredith  35:37

Good. We’ll chat soon. 


Kelly Hogan  35:40

Yes, yes.

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. 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!

robot-ideas-for-winter-time

5 Robot Ideas for Winter Time [ep.44]

5 Robot Ideas for Winter Time [ep.44]

Check out the full episode on 5 Robot Ideas for Winter Time:  

 

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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Episode Summary

Looking for some fun robot ideas for wintertime?

In this episode, I will be sharing with you five winter-themed robot lessons that you can teach in your classroom.

These are lessons that I have taught my students that they have absolutely loved, and I know that yours will too. 

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 5 winter robot ideas
  • How to implement each of these ideas in your classroom
  • What the children learn during these activities

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

What are some fun robot ideas for wintertime? In this episode, I will be sharing with you five winter-themed robot lessons that you can teach in your classroom. These are lessons that I have taught my students that they have absolutely loved, and I know that yours will too. 


Naomi Meredith  00:48

Before we jump on in not a whole lot of announcements today, but I have one very exciting one. So in 2023, I’m going to be hosting live virtual workshops. I definitely don’t want you to miss out on all the fun. So it will be a great time to learn and connect with other STEM teachers about various topics. Again, I don’t want you to want to miss out on that. So you can join the waitlist here, and you’ll be the first to know when they are open. You can join the waitlist at Naomimeredith.com/workshopwaitlist. 


Naomi Meredith  01:26

For all of the lessons that I’m going to be talking about in this episode, I use various specific robots and a variety of robots in my classroom. However, don’t be so stuck on the robots that I’m going to be talking about for each of these lessons. You can definitely mix in whatever robots you have on hand. For example, if I’m talking about the Sphero robot for a specific lesson, you don’t necessarily have to use it. So it can definitely work with whatever robots you have. Also, I’m just sharing with you a snapshot of how I taught these lessons. For second through fifth grade, I went through the whole Engineering Design Process throughout the week, so this wasn’t a one-day challenge. You could, of course, modify it to be a one-day challenge, but we really went through all the stages of the Engineering Design Process for each of these lessons, besides the Kindergarten and the first one that I will be sharing at the end, the one for Kindergarten and first grade was for a STEM station. So it was one of many activities that we did throughout the week. So just keep that in mind when you’re hearing about these lessons. They’re way more involved than what I’m really talking about. I just wanted to give you an idea for winter theme robotics lessons that you can use Well, of course, during the wintertime, and help spark creativity with all of these fun, different themes. 


Naomi Meredith  02:48

The first robot idea for wintertime is Sphero sleds. As I said, don’t get too caught up in the type of robot that I used. For this lesson. I was inspired by the Iditarod, and I’m not quite sure why I got inspired by it. But I was inspired by the Iditarod, and I’m so glad I picked this topic for this lesson because where I’m at in Colorado, most kids actually don’t know what the Iditarod is. Now once I started talking more about it, they had a little bit of background based on maybe some movies that they had seen. But overall, most kids had no idea what the Iditarod was. In general, if you can pick very obscure topics, that’s going to really help with the engagement. So not only were the kids engaged in the topic of the Iditarod but they were also excited to code and integrate some engineering challenges as well. So a whole lot of things to be engaged in. So basically, the Iditarod is a dog sled race, a very famous one that takes place in Alaska in March. That’s a basic snapshot for you to look up, but the kids are super into it. Of course, if they love animals and dogs like me, like my little dog, Frederick, he could definitely not do a dog sled race, that would not be happening. He doesn’t even like going outside when it’s sprinkling water outside. He will avoid sprinklers when we go on a walk so he would not be an Iditarod dog. But the kids love seeing videos of this. There are a whole lot of great things out there. 


Naomi Meredith  04:24

The Iditarod website is awesome for research. They can research a musher and learn more about that and their sled race, all of that. So students will research and learn about the Iditarod, and then they will design a sled for the robot to pull through the race. So depending on the type of robot, this could definitely vary your materials. When I did this in my class was Sphero. I had red solo cups or similarly shaped cups that they could cut and manipulate plastic straws, paper, and tape, and that was actually it. Those were all the supplies that students had to work with, so they really had to be creative. This actually helped that the weight of the sled wasn’t too heavy so that the robot could pull it while it was being coded. Then students would have to code their robot through the Iditarod race. So I have a race track that has all of the checkpoints that are actually listed in the actual race. Students can learn about that pathway and how treacherous it is, and how there are so many different angles to go through. It’s really fun, too, because depending on their sled design, it really changes how the robot moves and how it affects the race track. This is a really fun challenge. The kids are super engaged and super excited. Then they get to learn about something that they may not have heard about before. 


Naomi Meredith  05:46

The second robot idea for wintertime is Sphero snowflakes. Again, use whatever robot you want. I did this lesson with the fourth grade. Students learn about different types of angles, lines, and symmetry. This is really well represented in snowflakes. There are some awesome videos out there when it comes to the math behind snowflakes and how they have all these different things. It really helps students build on that vocabulary when it comes to lines and angles and even how to measure angles. Depending on the type of robot that you have. You can even code the robot to go in certain angles, which is really helpful as well because we know this is a very hard math concept for students to grasp. So why not implement it within your STEM classroom? After students learn about the math behind snowflakes, they will create their own snowflakes that will be taped onto the floor. In my classroom, I have tiled floors, so I actually have pulled out the sidewalk chalk, and the students will sketch out and measure their snowflake designs on the floor. They were going absolutely nuts that I let them draw on the floor like it’s just chalk is totally fine. 


Naomi Meredith  06:57

So again, there’s some engagement, but students would draw their snowflake design on the floor, and then they would cover it up using masking tape. It’s so much fun too because it looks like Buddy the Elf decorated your classroom for Christmas or the holidays. So you have these fun snowflake designs for the week, and then students can pull them up when they are all finished. You could build your own snowflakes, but it’s way more fun to have the kids build the snowflakes, and they get so creative with their designs. Now, if you get really strict with a snowflake design, where it’s not just a free build, and you really have students measure using protractors and yardsticks, they can actually have a snowflake that is legit symmetrical. They can have parts of their code where they can actually loop the code because there are identical lines at angles. So this, again, is a great application of their math skills and putting it in a concrete way. So this was so much fun for the kids. It really differentiates itself based on its snowflake design and what they create. 


Naomi Meredith  08:41

The third robot idea for wintertime is Winter Games robot mapping. This is a lesson that I did with third grade, and we talked about the Winter Olympics and all the places that they have been located within a certain amount of time. We used Google Earth to explore all of these places and learn a little bit more about them and just some cool facts about the Winter Olympics in general. Students placed them on their maps. Likewise, we realized that the most current Winter Games are all located above the equator, and we talked about the reasoning behind that. So this was a cool integration to actually expose students to Google Earth. Noticing those tools and even practicing their mapping skills, and where things are located on a world map, from there students coded their Ozobots, their little tiny robots to travel to each of the places where the Winter Games were held in the order when they happened. When the robot landed on that location on the map, then it had to perform an action. So this also helped too, where they had to code in chronological order, and in some places, they had to go backward. So it really helped again, really notice the pattern of where things are located in the world. If you did this with larger robots, you could use the same map template that I used, and you could blow it up even bigger. If you Google ways to print a PDF on multiple pages, you could print the map and make it very ginormous. Then you could laminate it if you wanted to and then use larger robots. So don’t feel limited if you can’t use the Ozobots. I know at the time of this recording, those are actually hard to get your hands on. So you can use a variety of different things as well. So it was just a really cool connection to think about the Winter Games, what they are and where they’re located in the world. 


Naomi Meredith  11:37

The fourth robot idea for wintertime is winter animal migration robots. This one was for second grade, and we did mapping in a different way. We talked about different animals, the reasons why they might migrate, and how there are a bunch of animals that decide to migrate during the wintertime. Students are given articles about specific animals that migrate during the winter time that I pre-researched and wrote articles for them, shared the articles in Seesaw, and recorded my voice. So they had all of that information for them. They chose an animal out of that selection that they were most passionate about. Then they had to code their animal with the migration path that it takes during the wintertime on a specific map. So I had all this created for them, they had the specific maps, and they had an idea of the locations of where the animal migrated to. But then they actually had to create the path and where it stopped at different locations. Again, the robot had to perform an action. So this was super engaging for them. We even made the little Ozobots be the animal that was migrating. So I have little pictures that they could tape to the robot, and it was super fun for them to even record the robot in action on Seesaw, I didn’t mention this with the other ones. But I actually have students record a video of their robots in action with Seesaw, which you could do with Flipgrid or whatever you use. But this is a great way for students, I have air quotations, to take their work home because sometimes it’s hard for kids to really talk about what they did in STEM class because we use such obscure things. So I highly recommend taking photos and videos of their work. So then it feels like they are taking the work home, I say you’re taking the work home by taking a picture, it doesn’t always have to be a physical object. So it’s just super fun for this winter animal migration project and all the other projects for them to share the learning with their families. 


Naomi Meredith  13:38

The final robot idea for wintertime is build a snowman robot coding. This was part of a STEM station rotation out of all the different winter-themed STEM challenges that I did throughout the week with the younger students. So this was one of many where we didn’t go through the full Engineering Design Process. Students were given different images of fun snow people and characters that had different accessories on them, they had a full image of that character, and the cards that they were given had all the different parts that would make that specific snowman. From there, students had to code their robots. I use Beebots but again, definitely up to you what robots you would like to use. But students would code their robot to collect the pieces to build that snowman character in the order of how they thought it should be built. So this even included the round ball at the bottom of the snowman, the middle, if there was a middle, would you put the eyes on first before the glasses or would you not so it really helped them with that sequential order of how things are being built. So it’s almost like that reverse engineering where it actually is taken apart for them, and they have to think of what order would it be to build that snowman character. So it was super fun for them. They could definitely take turns, they can take the cards off the grid as soon as they collect them. You can even add in more snowman stories if you would like. But this was a really fun and engaging STEM station. It was quick, it was engaging, but there was plenty for the students to interact with. 


Naomi Meredith  15:16

As a recap, here are the five robot ideas for wintertime that you can implement in your STEM classroom. First, we had Sphero sleds. Next are the Sphero snowflakes. Third are the Winter Games mapping, which I used Ozobots. Fourth, the winter animal migration, again with Ozobots. And fifth, build a snowman coding. I hope you enjoyed all of these different fun winter-themed robotic lessons. Of course, mix in the robots that work best for you, what you have on hand and the age level of your students. If you’re interested in grabbing all these lessons and getting them in full detail, I have them all packaged together nicely in a bundle in my TPT shop. Or you can even purchase the lessons individually based on the students and the needs that you have. But that way, it will save you some time, and then you can see the engagement in your classroom that I saw and mine.

 

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a K-5 STEM educator and business owner in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. 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!

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

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

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