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When you're first walking into your STEM classroom, you are most likely met with zero curriculum. Like many of you, I left the regular classroom and jumped headfirst into my K through five STEM role with a handful of supplies and zero curriculum. Yet, through trial and error, I have written a year's worth of lessons for K through five connected to standards. I'm going to be sharing with you my behind-the-scenes method in this episode. 

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Some schools are fortunate enough to purchase a specific curriculum for their STEM programs. If that is you, that is absolutely amazing, and I hope that works well for you. Now, based on teachers I have talked to on various platforms, most teachers in the STEM world have to write their own curriculum and start from zero. I know where you're coming from since that was me. So, through trial and error, I built a K through five STEM program that has a progression of learning and standards and a mix of different themes and topics that students learn throughout the years when they come into my STEM space. Now, I will say this isn't perfect. But, this is what has worked well for me in my classroom. I am constantly updating and trying new things with my students as the years go by to ensure that I am teaching relevant and meaningful lessons to my students. You can get a whole view of this year-long plan for free. This will be linked in the show notes. You can find it also at this link, naomimeredith.com/yearlongplan. 

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I also want to mention that my first year teaching K through five STEM was all about building relationships and basic skills. The things my students do five years later compared to when I first started are completely different. I had to backtrack and build up the skills of my students, even when it came to basic technology like logging into the computer, learning how to use Seesaw to document their work, and how to collaborate with others, which collaboration is something we are always working on. So don't feel like you have to do all the things you plan in one year. You can build up to all these lessons and perfect them as the years go on. So this is the future you that we are talking about. But at least you will get a great foundation for your year-long plan and where you want your STEM program to go. 

03:18

When first starting your year-long plan, you want to brainstorm the overarching themes that all students K through five will be learning in your classroom. In Episode Two, we talked about what STEM education means in the elementary space. I highly recommend this episode to help you build your background knowledge on what STEM is and what STEM should look like in the elementary space. When thinking about those themes, I am talking about Makerspace robotics and Hour of Code. Hour of Code is a freebie, and there are tons of resources out there already that are free for you. So you might not have to do much planning on that theme, but add it to your year-long plan. Your overarching themes can also include video and audio production, digital citizenship, and LEGO education kits if you have the funds. When you purchase the LEGO education kits, they come with their own curriculum that is connected to standards. So, if you are looking for something to purchase for your STEM space, I would save all of your money for LEGO education and kits. Also, if you can, add 3D printing to your lessons. If you don't have 3D printing, you can still have students plan and go through the process of creating a 3D design online, but they might not have the opportunity to print it, which is okay. But, again, that is something to save your budget for, if possible. Once you have a well-balanced mix of those themes, plan them out for the month you will see kids or works best for you.

05:00

In Episode 12, I talked about creative ways to plan your lessons with students, especially if you see groups of kids one day at a time. When planning this year-long plan, I saw students five days in a row. This overarching theme can vary for you. I use the same theme for the whole month. But if you see kids once a week, maybe you want to keep the same theme for two months. But again, have an overall balance of themes you're going to teach your students. 

05:34

For the purpose of this episode, I'm going to be using my theme of maker month and earth systems as an example to help you see how I planned out this overall unit. I wanted students during the third month with me to dive into our Makerspace and use that space independently. This is where I taught students how to gather supplies, use our money system, and plan a budget. This is a big part of this unit when it is connected to Earth System standards. Also, go back and check out episodes five and six, where I talk about how to set up your Makerspace and how to use the money, menu, and system. So for this theme, in my third month of STEM, students use Makerspace. Once you have all of your themes planned out for the year and you have a balance of different topics, you will backwards plan and tie in those relevant standards. In my opinion, you're not going to teach all of the standards in your classroom. Most likely, you are an extension of the general classroom, especially regarding science. I don't think STEM should be a replacement for regular science lessons. In fact, science in the regular classroom is so much fun. That is something I do miss sometimes, planning a fun science experiment. 

07:01

Your role as a STEM teacher is taking the science standards, integrating other standards, and giving them your own STEM twist. Now, maybe your principal and district have a different opinion. This is just me and how I interpret what STEM should be when the students come into my classroom. When planning my lessons through backward planning, I like to use science as my base and build on my other standards. From there, I use the NGSS, the Next Generation Science Standards. You may use your state standards for this planning. Start with your base for science and then integrate your common core state standards, including English, language arts, and math. I like to look at the English and language arts standards when reading informational text. When students build their background knowledge and research, they use a lot of informational text in different formats to gather that information. Check out those standards that will help you plan those imagined stages in your lessons.

08:22

When it comes to your math standards, you may be using specific standards regarding geometry, fractions, and telling time. But you might also want to consider the mathematical practices recognized in your classroom. For example, there's a mathematical practice that talks about making sense of problems and persevering when solving them. That is a huge concept in STEM. So don't forget about those mathematical practices. They are very relevant in the STEM space. Also, when you're in those common core state standards, look at those speaking and listening skills. Again, there are so many things that you are working on in this STEM classroom when it comes to sharing work, participating in a discussion, and being able to collaborate with others. These are some great standards that you can target in your STEM space. 

10:19

I also like to integrate the ISTE standards for students. These are technology standards that have their own overarching themes. There is also one about digital citizenship, which you can easily tie into your digital citizenship lessons. They have their overarching themes and then little themes within those. Definitely become familiar with those. Those are also a must in your STEM space. Again, keep the science standards as your base, and then integrate the ELA, math, and ISTE within that to create well-balanced lessons. When thinking about assessing your students, when it comes to the standards, I would probably assess them how they show proficiency with the science standards. The other ones are skills that will help them to get there. But my assessment tool would be the science standards. If you are doing grades in your classroom, pick one or two that students can attack. You're zoning in on that specific standard in your STEM way. For this example, for my maker month and Earth Systems, I was looking for standards related to earth systems when possible and standards that talked about students demonstrating through building a model, creating, or building, which made the most sense to me for a Makerspace standard. Those connected well. I went through and highlighted those on my computer and then really brainstormed ideas from there. 

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That leads me to my third part, which is to brainstorm your lessons. Now that you have your overarching themes planned for the months, you know which standards you want to teach each grade level. This is where you can bring all those ideas to life, all of those different things you have been saving on Instagram, that you have been pinning on Pinterest, and that you have been googling. This is where you are going to bring in those ideas that are connected to standards. If you don't feel like brainstorming, I have all these lessons made. It's in a growing collection in my TPT shop. It's also in my monthly membership where you can access the year-long plan lessons and other monthly lessons and resources to help you in your classroom. If you don't want to do this part, I know it's overwhelming for K through five; that's six different grade levels. I have it all set up for you. I'll link that in the show notes. When brainstorming your lessons, think about how you can bring a different experience to your classroom that is different from the regular classroom. You might have tools that a regular classroom might not have, so play upon that. Can you show lifecycles by using robotics? Can you use Makerspace to demonstrate a model that classrooms might not always have? Take those standards in another direction so you're not repeating the same ideas for students, and they get to explore differently. 

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I'm going to be sharing with you two different lessons in this maker month and the Earth Systems lesson and how you can see how I approached this standard with a STEM angle while the teachers are still covering it within their science and reading instruction.

13:46

Here's what I did for the Kindergarten NGSS standard that discusses constructing an argument about how plants and animals can change the environment to meet their needs. I zoned in on ants. I was kind of a little unsure about talking about ants with Kindergarteners. I wasn't sure if they were going to like it or not. Now, if you know, you know, with Kindergarteners, they might love something or they might not. They're a complete mystery, and I love them. They're my favorite grade. I could do a whole podcast about Kindergarten. But we talked about how ants change their environment to meet their needs. It is amazing how ants build their whole colony underground and above ground that comes literally from nothing. When you look deeper at their colony, they have a space special for the queen, a different room for their eggs, a different place for the baby ants, and another room for their food. It is amazing how they change the environment from literally nothing to meet the needs of their entire colony. So as a class, throughout the week, we looked at different videos, books, and images about ants. Then students, in their own Makerspace way, built a cardboard maze that showed the different spaces that ants have in their colony and then had a little marble that would roll through the different rooms to go and check them all out. This was appropriate for Kindergarten. I knew that my Kindergarten teachers weren't talking about it specifically. They could still teach that standard while I taught it differently in my STEM classroom. For fifth grade, in this same unit, I picked two related standards that go together and how they could demonstrate their knowledge. It was the first NGSS standard that talks about developing a model to describe the movement of matter. The second related standard was to use models to describe that energy. For the standard within this Maker month and Earth Systems, fifth grade made a Rube Goldberg ecosystem. The students researched an ecosystem of their choice using the different tools I provided. This is a great opportunity to use epic books within your STEM classroom. Students researched their ecosystem and all the different components that come in it. Then we learned about Rube Goldberg machines and how it forms a chain reaction. With both of these pieces of information, students used materials from the Makerspace and other supplies I had on hand to build their Rube Goldberg machine to show the chain reaction of the movement of matter within their ecosystem. It was a very simple Rube Goldberg machine, but it was a great way for kids to be talking about that movement of matter and how different reactions should hit other or multiple chain reactions depending on what their ecosystem was. They were so excited about these Rube Goldberg machines. Many kids went home and started making their own and sent me videos that I could include on our school-wide news. 

17:09

These examples are two different ways, from the littlest kids to the oldest, we can take these science standards, integrate other standards within them, and have a progression of learning where they can show it in their own STEM way. As a recap, here are the three major things we discussed when planning your K through five STEM year-long plans. First, look at your overarching themes. Second, backwards plan and find relevant standards that connect to your theme. And finally, the super fun part, brainstorm lessons related to those standards. Of course, everything is linked in the show notes for today's episode, including the free year-long plan, the ultimate STEM resource library, and the lessons that I talked about, so you can get a better idea of how this can work best for your classroom and your students.