Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

With so many options out there, which back to school STEM activities should you be doing with your students? There are those typical one-day challenges like building the tallest tower or flying the fastest paper airplane, which are all awesome. Keep doing those activities. But in this episode, I'm gonna be sharing with you a different take on back to school activities that you can do in your STEM space. So let's jump in on those creative ideas.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:04]:

Before we get started on this episode, I wanted to read another awesome review that was left by one of you over on Apple Podcasts. and this is from the vendor librarian. If you're new to STEM or just need some great ideas to keep your lessons fresh, Naomi can help. I am a school library media specialist and was asked to start incorporating STEM into my curriculum about 2 years ago. I have not had a lot of formal training and was basically piecing it together. I was excited to find Naomi's podcast earlier this year and really enjoy listening to ideas on how to teach and structure STEM in the classroom. Thank you so much for this review I think I've mentioned this before, but one of my top love languages is words of affirmation, and this definitely fills up my bucket. But not only that, writing a review like this, so if you guys wouldn't mind pausing the podcast, go and write a 5-star review over an Apple podcast. This helps other teachers like you who are in the STEM space are getting into this in their classrooms and help them know that this is the podcast that they're looking for.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:16]:

I've said it many times on here before, and even some of my podcast episodes are based on this, but I love a good theme. And my friends can definitely attest to that there are many times. We have done themes for things, and that even goes back into the classroom, and I think back to school is its own theme. I know right now, during this back to school time, you have all the prep, all the meetings, getting your classroom set up, which we're actually gonna talk about in the next episode things to do to prep. But when you are ready for that lesson planning, and you don't wanna feel overwhelmed, what are some things that you can do that are stand based that will actually work? So these 3 big main ideas that I'm gonna be sharing with you were favorites of my students and the most successful. So let's dive into these 3 back to school STEM activities that you can do with your students. First are those get to know you activities. And if you are a STEM specialist and, of course, as a classroom teacher, you know how important this is.

Naomi Meredith [00:03:23]:

But even as a STEM specialist, this is something that you can do in your room. Now there are a couple of benefits to this, actually. Think about your students who are coming into your space during this back to school time. They're working on community building and getting to know each other in their own classroom. So the same is true in your space. And maybe you've been doing this for a few years now, and you already know all the kids, but they might not know each other in that class setting. Here and there, you might have a class set loops, whatever. But for the most part, they mostly don't know each other when it comes to being in the same class together.

Naomi Meredith [00:04:05]:

So doing these get to knowing activities in a STEM way is a cool way for them to learn about each other and even themselves and for you that you might not have known before. So how can you do this? How can you do some get to know activities in your STEM space? Well, you can make the experience, of course, hands-on. A very big top favorite, and I know another STEM teacher that I talked to this summer, this was also a favorite of her students. It was an all about me Lego Brick Build. So I have different questions that I display on the screen, and buckets of mixed Lego bricks around the room, or you can give kids their own little buckets if you're worried about the sharing piece, But, anyway, they have mixed buckets of LEGO bricks available to them, and each of the questions will ask them something, and if it's true about them, they grab that many bricks or that color of bricks. So something like grab 5 orange Lego pieces if you saw a movie this summer. Now the way that I wrote these questions was to help them not be exclusive.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:14]:

A movie you watched this summer is more inclusive. Maybe you went to the theaters. Maybe you watched a movie at home. Maybe you watched a movie at Grandma's house. Maybe you watched it on your iPad. So that can have a lot of different interpretations and help kids get involved. And while they're digging for their legos, they are talking to the kids at their table, and then this frees me up as well.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:34]:

I'm talking to the kids. So if you're worried about kids wanting to talk in your classroom, this is a good way to get kids to talk. And there are also some math extensions too if you wanna get to the rows and columns of the LEGO bricks, add that little bit of math piece in there. So I've created those different slides where it’s easy literally, like, no prep and so much fun. And then, of course, once they have all the LEGO bricks, they get to build with them. Another thing that you can do with the same LEGO bricks. You could do this on the same day, is have different items that represent the school, and students can build those things like a back to school engineer inspiration. So, again, you can display those images up on the screen or even send it to students digitally, and then they can build how they think those items should look with the LEGO bricks or whatever building materials you have on hand. Now maybe you'll want to take your back to school STEM activities in a digital way, which I am all for.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:36]:

I love a mixture of paper, but also a mixture of digital. This works really well if you have devices available in your classroom or even if your students are one to 1 and they are carrying devices into your room, this is a good way to sneak in those little tips when it comes to logging into technology because I know that that can be a whole struggle in itself. and any extra work with that in the STEM space, you're definitely helping out the classroom teachers as well. So you can assign a digital activity that will help you get to know your students in a STEM way. The first way is going through, and you could do a different letter a day. This actually would work really well, a different letter a day. But go through what STEM means, and you have a different slide, one for each letter, And you, as the teacher, this is what I did. But I had my slide completed, and I had it up on the screen when students came in.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:32]:

and it just had a picture of me, like, just sitting there on the screen with the different things that I liked about that letter and STEM. So, for example, science. I had up on the screen the slide for science, and there was a big picture of me. Now it was funny the kids were like, who's that lady at all? That's me, guys. So that was a good introduction. And then this was for the letter s in STEM for science. And we talked about the things in science that I really, really like and what science means. And so I had things up there like, oh my gosh.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:07]:

I love sea lions. They are my favorite there, like, what slippery puppies. Raise your hand if you also like sea lions. I'm like, awesome. Good job. I also like the solar system. It intrigues me. I probably would never want to go into space, but I love learning about it.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:25]:

Hands up, thumbs up if you agree with me. So things like that were they got to know me. That was the introduction, and then they got to complete their slide as well. And it also embedded those skills like logging in, getting to the assignment, and also inserting an image in the text box, which are really good skills to have because they can carry into different platforms. Likewise, another one that I did with older students is we did an apps about me activity. This could be printed too, but adding in those digital components is really, really fun, and the students really love this and learn new things from each other. So with this one, there is no coding involved, but you send the kids a template that has different apps I'm putting in quotations. but different apps that they are going to create, and they are all about them.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:15]:

So one of the apps, one of the slides that they are designing, is the food ordering app. And if they could have their perfect menu and where things are delivered from or they are served, what would that app have, so learning their favorite foods. So those types of things are really great. I actually mix these in throughout the week, so day 1 is where I'll really focus on a get to know me activity. And then I might cycle this through even the 2nd month I see them. I've talked on here that I had kids 5 days in a row, so I had the same 5 kids all Monday through Friday, but I would mix those in throughout the week. So if it was a fast finisher, if they are finished with that part, they could go and work on this project throughout the week. So it's good to have that on hand.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:02]:

And then kids are even working on it in their classrooms, which is awesome. They are super excited about this activity. Another back to school STEM activity that you can use in your classroom is outdoor learning. More likely than not, you are going back to school. and the weather's still hot and nice. And kids have been used to playing outside. So why not take that to your advantage? I've talked about this before here on the podcast, specifically back in episode 4, but that is STEM survival camp. One of my favorite units that I have ever taught, and I also love sharing with teachers.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:42]:

this was kind of a happy accident. Go back and listen to that episode. You can hear how I actually started STEM survival camp, and I actually didn't start my year off with this. I used to do digital citizenship, which we'll talk about super important, but this was an awesome, awesome way to start off the year. So if you have ever heard of STEM survival camp, all of these challenges involve things where students are collecting items from outdoors. So you are providing a few of the makers' space materials, but the majority of the things they are finding outside. And if you even want to, depending on where you live, you could have students build outside. So that's a really great bonus as well to be out in the fresh air because most of us in the STEM space are in classrooms without windows.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:30]:

So the different challenges k through 5 are different things that if they were left alone out in the wilderness, what are those types of things that they would need to know how to do to survive the elements? So we start off with kindergarten across the river challenge. 1st grade, design a fishing pole, 2nd grade, protect the food challenge. 3rd grade design a game from the land because if you're out long, your phone's probably gonna die eventually, and you need to stay entertained. 4th grade's a little bit different. They actually learn a life skill, and they are designing a hiking backpack. So I actually teach them how to sew hand stitching. And then 5th grade is the build a shelter challenge, where they design a shelter to withstand the elevates.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:14]:

So lots of different fun things going on, so every grade has a different challenge. And, again, some of the materials are from outside. Some are the things that I provide them. which is a great way to embed how to use materials in the maker space. It is not a free for all for this challenge. In fact, It is never usually a free for all entirely. But with this one, I have very specific materials that they have the option of using in addition to the things that they buy on that side. And this helps them learn the management of those things, like managing the tape allotment that you have, how to cut tape, and how to measure the string that you need for your design.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:55]:

So those types of things are really helpful with minimal tools so that they're still being creative, but creativity with constraints. Another great thing too is that this naturally promotes collaboration and creativity in a hands-on way. So I'm not telling them, alright. Be creative. Good luck. Here's how you should design it. We're looking at examples from the real world, showing examples that past students have done, and having them work together to complete this challenge. Likewise, if you are hoping to teach the engineering design process as the process that you're using in your classroom when it comes to project learning, then this, again, is another way to go through those steps where I'm not saying, alright.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:38]:

Ask is a step of the engineering design process. Imagine is the next one. It's all embedded in there. So I'm all about embedding things and having them come to life instead of having things in isolation. And this whole unit is definitely a way to do that. And bonus, if you're already setting up your classroom anyway, I actually would set up my whole classroom as a camping theme. So again, go back to episode 4. I tell you all about it there.

Naomi Meredith [00:14:07]:

And the last back to school STEM activity theme that you can try in your classroom is all about digital citizenship. This involves quite a few things, and you don't need to do this all at once. It's overwhelming for you as a teacher, but it's also overwhelming for the kids. They're tired at the end of the day. There's a lot of new information coming at them. So put it in bits by bit by bit that will make sense for them So, in the long run, they can be successful. Back in episode 10, I talk about the top technology skills that your students need to know, and these are perfect for what you can do throughout the week or the first couple of months of school when they are handling technology appropriately. So it's just those basic things like how to manage your headphones, things like that, where are they stored in the classroom? Are you having students bring those in from their homeroom classroom? How is that working in your class? I actually have little mini lessons tied to these and little technology badges that they can earn physically or digitally.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:14]:

So that will be linked in the show notes for you. So you can actually see And even some of them, I have, like, the videos of me teaching them, like cleaning devices, things like that where your students can hear or you as a teacher can hear the language and then present that to your students in your own way. Also, don't forget your classroom rules I think have fun is kind of a weird rule. I don't think it should be a rule to have fun. It might not be fun all the time. You might be frustrated. That's not fun. but think about your classroom rules.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:45]:

And a few of them actually might involve technologies. So I have some kid-friendly posters that I use with my students, k through 5, again, linked in the show notes for you. Maybe your school or district is thinking about having a device contract for using devices or borrowing them. You might need to talk through those types of things. Is that part of your role, or do you need to reiterate that in your space? I have an editable one that you can grab that has a great starting point, and also some posters that go along with that, so some reminders. when they are using technology, what are those things that they need to do? And, finally, what do you need to do as a teacher? Now this isn't really you teach, but I just wanted to put this in there. Think about your own digital citizenship. And maybe you are in charge of the schoolwide technology.

Naomi Meredith [00:16:36]:

I was also that I talked about that in the last episode. A big part of my role is that I was the technology person, and so think about those things that teachers need to know so that they can be successful. And I highly, highly recommend doing this. I know it takes a little bit of work upfront. But if you can find videos or you can record videos of you answering commonly asked questions, then this is gonna save you time in the long run because you have that on that checklist. And then if teachers are asking you throughout the year, especially if it's things that are related to two things that they're working on with students, then you can send them that video link again or say, oh, it's over here on this checklist. Here's the link to the checklist. So then that's ready to go.

Naomi Meredith [00:17:20]:

So I'm just putting that in there. That's a side note. But keep that in mind because this is something I would resend to people all the time because I already answered it. So there's that resource for you. I am like Google, apparently. So here's the here's that link that'll help you out. So back to the kids, you have those basic technology skills that you were constantly teaching and re-teaching, and this goes the whole year. This isn't going to go away.

Naomi Meredith [00:17:46]:

But keep that in mind. That's something that you were doing starting out with back to school. but then you also want to get into those digital citizenship lessons. How are they interacting with the online space? Again, that is something that is not going away. That is something that kids need to learn how to be successful, and they might not be learning this at home. So think about those very specific digital citizenship lessons. I do have an episode all about digital citizenship that can help you out with this. When you're thinking about my year and how the order of things that I taught, I started off the year with STEM survival camp.

Naomi Meredith [00:18:22]:

So having that collaboration and working on the engineering design process, all that fun, then the 2nd month was specifically about digital citizenship. I actually used to teach digital citizenship as a unit first because some survival camp didn't exist yet, but then I actually switched it to month 2, and it worked so much better because the kids are settled into the school year. The teachers are ready to use more technology, and they were ready for these types of lessons. So there are some great resources out there, but I'm thinking about adding a STEM twist. How can you make these lessons interactive and hands-on? So I created different things that go along with private and personal information. How can we be kind online? What does it mean to have safe websites that we can explore? So those types of things that a hands-on way is really beneficial to really make it stick in their brain. Hopefully, the classroom teachers are talking about this too. Maybe you are a classroom teacher, and you're like, oh, and you talk about that.

Naomi Meredith [00:19:24]:

But, hopefully, this is just another way how can you reiterate this very, very important information. If you are wondering exactly how I lay out my year, the order of things, and what graded levels get what, you can download my year-long plan for absolutely free, and you can grab that at naomimeredith.com/yeardlongplan. And this, again, will be linked in the show notes. As a recap, here are those 3 back to school STEM activities that you can use in your classroom. First are some get to know you activities and have your STEM twist. Next is outdoor learning Take those kids outside. It's probably still nice out. And finally, different ways to teach digital citizenship.

Naomi Meredith [00:20:11]:

All of these lessons that I have talked about are linked in the show notes for you, and you can grab those individually if there's a specific one that you really, really loved. or I've also bundled them up nicely so you can have a whole collection of things, especially if you teach a lot of kids, you need a lot of stuff. If you wanna hear about more back to school STEM activities, you can actually go to episode 7, where I talk about more things that you can use in your STEM space. Thank you again so much for being here, and I'll see you in the next episode.