Naomi Meredith  00:00

With all the cool tools and resources out there, it's important to structure your STEM lesson that is rooted in standards but still engaging. In this episode, I will be sharing with you four different ways that you can plan a STEM lesson and make it work for the time that you have in your classroom. 

Naomi Meredith  00:49

In the last episode, Episode 24, we talked about how to organize all of those ideas and lead up to the actual lesson planning for your STEM lessons. So make sure to go back and check that out because we are at the tail end of that episode and are now getting into how to dive into that planning. Also, if you're curious about how actually to plan your whole STEM scope and sequence, I also recommend checking out episode 14, where I go more into detail about that process. So how do you structure a STEM lesson? Here are four ways that you can structure your STEM lesson, and I know that you are going to find a way that works best for you. You may even try all four of these ideas. 

Naomi Meredith  01:37

First are multi-day projects. For this and all of the different ways to plan, I am going to be talking about how I use the Engineering Design Process as my base, especially when it comes to those multi-day projects. I am really zoning in on the Engineering Design Process. If that's a process that you're not using, this is when you can implement project-based learning, design thinking, the launch process, or even the scientific method, whatever method you are using for planning. This is when I think about those longer multi-day projects. When I'm thinking about multi-day projects, I'm thinking projects that will obviously last more than one day, about three to five days, and you have 40 minutes plus with your classes. I will definitely stretch out and use all of my days with my second and fifth graders and really dive into all of those stages of the Engineering Design Process. 

Naomi Meredith  02:37

For my first and Kindergarten students, I typically have their multi-day projects last about three days. Then I use the remaining two days of my week doing STEM stations, which is another way of planning. We're going to talk about this later in the episode. When working on multi-day projects, here is how I break up all of the stages of the Engineering Design Process. Day one is all about ask and imagine, so using all of those resources to build background and really dive into that S-the science part of the project. Day two is finishing up any imagining and zoning in on their plans, and being thoughtful with those plans. Then days three through five are all about creation, experimenting, and improving, which those stages go back and forth a lot. Then eventually sharing their work in a way that makes sense for that project. 

Naomi Meredith  03:31

I do see kids K through five, five days in a row, the same six classes throughout that same week. If you're a teacher who sees different classes every day, here's how I might split up your multi-day projects. Day one would be all about your asking, imagine. On day two, you could finish up the imagining stage, dive into the plan, and start to gather materials. Maybe you don't have them build quite yet because you probably don't have anywhere to store projects that are being built. Then the final week that they come, day three, or if you do want to carry it into day four, the kids are diving into the creation, experimenting, improving, and sharing piece. Again, remember to have smaller projects. This will also help kids get their buildings done a lot faster. If you are storing projects for more than one day, if the projects are smaller then you will have more ways to creatively store those projects. I know storage can be really tricky, especially when we're not always going into classrooms that were originally designed to be a STEM space. 

Naomi Meredith  04:39

Now multi-day projects might not work best for everybody, and that's okay. Sometimes your schedule is out of your control. So this is for my people who do see the kids one day a week, or if you need ideas for sub plans, if you have a weird week, if you do see kids once a week, one day, but then you see them again the rest of the week. So, for example, there was one year that I taught, and my schedule was a bit funky. On Mondays, I taught eight classes a day, I did say eight, for 35 to 40 minutes. I can't remember exactly. But I taught eight classes in a day, it was insane. Let me tell you, I was super sweaty at the end of the day, that was on Mondays. Tuesday, I was co-teaching with the classroom teachers to help them implement STEM and technology in their instruction. Then Wednesday through Friday, I had the same classes, my same six classes K through five, for three days in a row. 

Naomi Meredith  05:40

For my multi-day projects, I had to zone in, make them more simple, and even shorten some stages of the Engineering Design Process. I also, on those Mondays, didn't connect it with my Wednesday through Friday schedule because it wasn't always the same kids that lined up for that week. So I use this method of the challenge of the day on my Mondays, where it was a quick STEM lesson that had elements of the Engineering Design Process and still planned with standards. I would start and finish within that Monday. So that's all the time that we got. 

Naomi Meredith  06:17

So this brings me to my second way to structure your STEM lessons, and that is the challenge of the day. Like the name says, you are done with a challenge in one day. It has elements of the Engineering Design Process, so you can go through them very quickly or zone in on one or two of them. You are literally done in one day. Here are some examples of challenges of the day that I have done in those random one-day lessons. The year that I had that one day is when I did all of those Dot Day activities. They were quick, they were fun, and students were able to express their creativity, but they were complete in one day, which was perfect for Dot Day. If you're interested in hearing about the types of activities that I did for Dot Day, make sure to go back and listen to episode 16, where I give you five different STEM lessons that you can try in your classroom. Another great use of these one-day activities is to do those themed holiday lessons. At the time of this recording, I am in the middle of the fall, and I have five fall STEM activities that you could try in your classroom back in episode 23. Another great use of your challenge of the day is thinking about those quick STEM projects that are rooted in standards that students can explore and zone in on those science topics. 

Naomi Meredith  07:42

I do take home STEM kits called STEM snack packs. These are quick challenges that families can do together and explore, or it could be a great option for the challenge of the day. If you really don't want to plan using the STEM snack pack models, then this could also be a great sub-plan. One of my lessons for this is the foil boat challenge. Students are given one large piece of foil, and they have to design a boat with just the foil. Then they test different objects to see how much they will weigh. So they make a hypothesis of how many of that same object they think their boat will hold, and then they try lots of different things within that boat. They can even calculate the weight of the items that it held. Things that you could put in your boat would be small marbles, LEGO bricks, popsicle sticks, or any tiny things that you might have laying around. You could find the weight of those things and help them do the calculations. So again, quick one-day activities where it really is a challenge of the day. 

Naomi Meredith  08:46

The third way that you can structure your STEM lessons, it's very similar to the challenge of the day, but that is STEM and stories. This one is definitely a favorite for when I have sub plans. If you're a library specialist who is implementing STEM, this is definitely for you. Of course, read the story to your students, and if you are short on time, I recommend you pre-record yourself reading the story. You could get an ebook version of the book and screen-record yourself reading it. It's even more fun if you're reading it at home with your pets or your children. I have my little dog Frederick when I do this, and the kids love it because I talk to him throughout the story.  The kids feel like they're at home with me, and they have that connection piece as well. If I am personally the one pre-reading the story, the students are just as engaged as they would be if I was reading it in person. 

Naomi Meredith  09:44

STEM and stories challenges allow me to gather any supplies that are needed. Also, when I have students who are coming in that have a hard time with transitions, they come in later in my lesson so that way I can chat with them and handle any of those situations. Once the story is over, all the kids are ready to go. I definitely recommend doing this. This is a great time-saving hack. STEM and stories lessons can last for one day, or you can also stretch it out to multiple days. One of my favorites is after reading the story, Not a Box, students will create a straw marble maze. I use Amazon cardboard as their base, and I have it pre-cut. The students use tape and straws to create the maze for their marble to travel through. You can experiment with different marbles, such as round marbles or marbles with a flat side, to see how it changes the pace of their game. 

Naomi Meredith  10:44

After listening to the story, on day one, students can create their straw cardboard maze. On the second day, they can do all of the math and peer reviews that go along with it. They can calculate how fast the marble goes through their maze. They can add points to their game, write the rules, and then have other people play their game and receive feedback on how the game went. This allows them to make modifications along the way. Just like any of these, you can always extend them further and add even more elements of STEM. STEM and stories are a great way to highlight those common core standards that go along with reading literature. Or you could even do a nonfiction text and really highlight their informational standards as well. 

Naomi Meredith  11:28

The fourth way that you can structure your STEM lesson planning is using STEM stations. During my first few years teaching STEM, I did STEM stations with K through five. This was a way for me to test out all the random supplies in my classroom, see what would work for different types of grade levels, and see my kids' skills and capabilities when it came to using different types of tools. Now while being in my fifth year teaching STEM, I have a pretty good grasp of what the capabilities are for all different grade levels. I only use some stations with K through one. Again, this isn't just a primary thing. I highly recommend using stations when you're short on time, so you can also test out all of those interesting tools. For most weeks, when I'm teaching Kindergarten and first grade, I will do a longer project that is three days or a smaller challenge of the day project around the same theme. The last two days are STEM stations. The way that I like to structure STEM stations, and that has worked best for time, is I have four stations, and students rotate through to a day. 

Naomi Meredith  12:41

So here's how I explain it to the kids, “Hold up two fingers on one hand, put up two fingers on the other hand. What is two plus two?” They usually can tell me four, and I'm all, “Great. We're going to do two today and two tomorrow. If you don't get to your favorites today, when are you going to do them?” They say tomorrow. So they understand that they will get through all the stations as long as they're at school and everybody's happy. I can get through explaining the lessons, often showing a short video that correlates with the science standard. They're able to do the first station, clean up, stand at their clean station, point to the next station they're going to, complete that station, clean up, and they are ready to go all in 45 minutes. Also, I don't throw out random things for the kids to do. I still plan everything with themes and with standards. Again, this does take careful planning, and you can pull out bits and pieces of the Engineering Design Process. 

Naomi Meredith  13:44

Now I told you I like to plan with four stations. So naturally, I plan each station that goes along with each letter of STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math. This also helps make sure that I am planning stations that have a variety of tasks for students to do, they are getting a well-balanced experience and their STEM station rotations. For example, here are the four stations that I used when I taught the sun, moon, and stars to first grade. We first started off with a related video with Sideshow kids. Then the science station was moon phase puzzles, where they had all of the different moon phases cut up, and then they put those puzzles back together and got to learn and recognize the details within each of those phases. The technology station was day and night coding where students used to Bee Bots or Blue Bots. They rolled a dice, and there were pictures on the grid that went to each of those things that can be seen during the day, night, or both. 

Naomi Meredith  14:44

The engineering station was some space inspiration. So students had LEGO bricks to build various things that go along with space and all those different images that were provided to them. If I want to mix it up with that space engineering board, I do have some flash cards I got from the Target dollar spot forever ago. They show real-life pictures of things that can be found in space and interesting facts on the back. I had both options for students, and they could choose what worked best for them. The math station was geoboard constellations, and students had different images of famous constellations that they could build using the geoboards and then check off on their laminated list of which constellations they were able to build during that time. Stations can have a little bit more prep work when it comes to supplies. But if you are teaching a lot of classes, it's definitely worth the time. Then you have the tools ready to go for many years to come, and the kids are even more engaged because they all go together and are planned around their standards and go along with that theme. 

Naomi Meredith  15:51

As a recap, here are the four different ways that you can structure planning your STEM lessons. First are multi-day projects. Next are the challenges of the day. Third are STEM and stories lessons, and the fourth is STEM stations. This episode is about finding a planning structure that will work best for you and really root your lessons in standards and research so that the experiences are super meaningful and you are digging into those experiences in your own STEM way. If you want lesson planning templates for this and really dive into structures and routines when it comes to planning and setting up your STEM space, I welcome you to join my course, STEM teacher 101, where I dive in deeper on all of these topics, give you templates and resources, a bonus community to chat with and you even get five PD credit hours that you can take in your own time and be the STEM superstar that you are.