Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

Makerspace projects are so much fun for kids to explore with recycled materials. When these types of projects are thoughtfully planned with the standards in mind, they can explore the world in so many different ways than from the traditional science classroom. Take, for example, Earth science. In today's episode, I will be sharing with you the lessons that I teach k through 5, as it relates to Makerspace inside of my Earth's engineers lessons. 

Naomi Meredith [00:01:04]:

Before we jump on in, I wanted to read another awesome podcast review from 1 of you. These mean the world to me and also for other teachers who are also looking for a podcast that fits their elementary STEM needs. This is from a stegosaurus teacher, and they say standing out in STEM. I'm leaving 2nd grade this year and moving into a k through Five STEM position. It's exciting but also overwhelming. I'm grateful for all the tips and advice you share through your podcast. I'm looking forward to listening to more. Thank you for sharing this content.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:45]:

Thank you so much again for this review. If you haven't already written a review for this podcast, pause this podcast if you're on Apple Podcasts. Go on over there and write a review. I think you can also actually leave star ratings on Spotify. I'm not 100% sure about that, But that would mean the world to me, and it costs absolutely nothing. And, again, help other teachers like you find this podcast. If you have a very limited budget when it comes to purchasing your stem supplies, Makerspace projects are an Excellent way to go. In fact, you could do Makerspace projects all year if you really wanted to.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:29]:

I was really lucky when I was a k through 5 STEM teacher, and I had a fairly flexible budget. And I was very strategic in my purchasing, so the years where it was really low, I really zoned in on those consumable products to build up my maker space. I also think that it's so important for kids to explore with recycled materials, and I don't think kids do that enough. For a while, when I wasn't able to do STEM clubs Due to COVID restrictions, I actually had some take home STEM kits that I sent with students because parents were asking me, what can I do at home? What can I do at home? And a lot of the materials where recycled materials are very simple things that kids could get their hands on, and they absolutely loved it. I'm in the works with something else with this right now, but I'm currently not doing those kits, at the time of this recording. But it's So cute. I would always give my neighbor's kids a set of these kits. I did it for 6 months, and they are still asking me, it's a couple of years later, do you have any more of those STEM kits for us? We love them so much.

Naomi Meredith [00:03:45]:

So think about your students and how Makerspace can be so much fun. It doesn't have to be Crazy. And it can also be really purposeful in the way that you present this to students. I don't see it as a free for all. I'm not like that when it comes to anything that I do in the classroom. It's not a free for all, but I do allow a lot of choices in strategic ways. In the terms of the flow of my k through 5 STEM year long plan, which you can get the whole year long plan for free at Naomi Meredith.com/yearlongplan and see all the lessons that I taught to my students k through 5 in the order that they happened. Here is how the beginning of my year would go.

Naomi Meredith [00:04:31]:

I would start off the month and kick everything off with STEM survival camp, which you can listen to in episode 4. Then we would go into a digital citizenship unit where I utilize A lot of the digital citizenship curriculums that are out there and also integrated my own hands on way to implement those themes. You can hear more about all of those in episode 28. Then moving into the 3rd unit, this one that we're going to talk about today is my Earth's engineers Makerspace unit. And this is where we were really diving into my entire Makerspace of supplies. STEM survival camp had little bits of Makerspace, but it wasn't open to everything that students can choose from. There were very limited supplies in each grade level that students could use. So Earth's engineers, we are gonna be exploring today all the things in my Makerspace accessible to students? But again, not a free for all.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:33]:

Now how did this entire unit come to existence. Some of the origins of my units are really creative and some are just, Well, here's how it is, and this is just what happened. And so with Earth's engineers, I knew I wanted to do Makerspace for my 3rd month of the year. By this point, let's say, they come to school August, September, October, They're ready for some Makerspace time. And so I knew I wanted to do Makerspace. And as I was mapping out my whole Prior year, my k through 5, 7 year long plan, I was taking a look at all of the standards k through 5, and I noticed that there was a lot of standards in all of these grade levels that have to do with Earth science, which makes sense. That's a really important topic to talk about. But I also knew that I didn't want the kids to do the same thing that they were doing in their traditional classrooms during science time as they were in STEM.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:37]:

I was always thinking of how can I do this differently where maybe some of the Concepts are repeated? There is nothing wrong with that. I would even tell my students, if you are hearing things over and over again. It must be important and it must be something that you want to remember. So the concepts, Sure. Maybe they have learned about it before, maybe they hadn't. I didn't always line things up with classroom teachers because, again, If they're building a background knowledge with me, great. Or if they're hearing it in a different way in STEM, great. So I took upon on those standards and thought of ways how I can make this more hands on and implement Makerspace, which I knew at my school was something that wasn't happening in all of the classrooms.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:24]:

And so I had a safe bet that these lesson ideas were going to be good to go. Implementing these lessons during the 3rd month or the 3rd unit of the school year was awesome because by this point, My Makerspace was set up and ready to go. So that's a good little trick for you. If you don't have everything set up yet, Don't plan lessons with those items. And then if you know it's gonna come up, then you can take your time to get it all set up. And this is actually there was 1 year where I Was working on the labels with my Makerspace labels that have words and pictures, which you can get all of those. There's even options to create your own, All the colors, all the things. So when I was switching out labels, I was so thankful that this unit was 3rd on my list because my labels weren't ready to go until that 3rd unit.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:14]:

Also, I just made sure that all of my supplies were ready to go, so all the recycled things were stocked inside of their drawers. If I needed to ask for any donations, that was something that I would do. If there were things that I knew I Could just personally collect at home, I started doing that. I even put in the teacher's lounge a box collecting thin cardboard from all of those teacher lunches, And teachers were, like, hey. No problem. And they're just throwing their cardboard in there, and I had more than enough for this unit and many more units to come. So knowing that, not starting off the school year with a full fledged Makerspace project, it does, again, give you time to collect and organize those materials, so we were good to go as well. Now I'm also gonna talk about in when I'm explaining the lessons that each of them had certain materials that were specialized to them.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:06]:

So I also gathered those materials as well that were reusable that were being added to those designs. So when you're thinking about your Makerspace projects, not every single little thing in their project has to be consumable, meaning when they use it up, it's all gone. You can even think about depending on the project, But you can even think about if students don't want to keep their project or if that's not even an option, They have to deconstruct those things and put the items back if they can be reused again. And it's a great way to even teach a simple way of conservation, and how things can have more than 1 life. I also for this unit, because it was a full fledged, you get all access As to everything in my Makerspace, I did use my Makerspace money and menu where students, when part of their planning process, would create a shopping list of what supplies that they wanted to use within their budgets, and then they would purchase their supplies before they would start building. If you wanna hear more about those 2 systems that I use in my classroom, so how I set up my Makerspace, labeling with pictures and words, And also the Makerspace menu and money, I recommend for you to go back and listen to episodes 5 and 6. Alright. So what are the things that students did in this Earth's engineers unit? Well, They, I, I would tell them you are studying the earth and you have a different role of being an engineer to learn all about it.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:44]:

We're gonna start with 5th grade and go all the way down to kindergarten so you can see the whole scope of how this entire unit went with my students. 1st up with 5th grade, we talked about ecosystems and how there is a transfer of energy within those different food webs. I did know that my 5th graders actually had some background knowledge when it came to ecosystems coming into my classroom. This is a 5th grade standard normally when it comes to the ecosystems and, by diversity in ecosystem and transfer of energy in the Next Generation Science Standards. At the time, my district actually wasn't requiring us to teach the new standards. So for Colorado, in 4th grade is when they would learn those things, and we were still teaching them. Now for me and my STEM classroom, I was teaching the current standards. So I was really trying to do that for them because That's what they're being tested on anyway.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:43]:

But I just wanted to make sure I was teaching the current next generation science standards. But my students did come in with a background all about ecosystems, and they did a whole project. I even helped the teachers do a whole project on this. But I did also create the resources about those different ecosystems if they wanted to research or explore more about them. This Makerspace project was very unique because they did have access to those consumable items, so cardboard, paper, tape, but they also had specialty items that they could purchase from and use over and over again. So their challenge was how can you create a Rube Goldberg machine to show the transfer of energy within an ecosystem. When I proposed this challenge, the kids were like, what did you just say? And I'm all, okay. Trust There's 2 things going on.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:36]:

You're making a Rube Goldberg machine, and you are showing the transfer of energy in an ecosystem, and you're putting them together. And I did have to give that background knowledge on what a Rube Goldberg machine is. And once I started showing them videos and all of that, they're, oh, okay. That's what it is. And even 1 student said, You know in home alone, there's a Rube Goldberg machine. I said, oh my gosh. You were so right. Let's look that up.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:05]:

If you are to do that in your classroom, there is a video about the child setting up the whole Rube Goldberg machine for the robbers. Don't play the video of it actually hurting the robbers. It's not a 100% school appropriate. But, I mean, you can kind of infer what's going to happen when he's setting it up. So just Just beware. But I had different resources to share with them what a Rube Goldberg machine is and also the research resources for them to pick out the ecosystem that they wanted to represent in their Rube Goldberg machine, and then they set up a small version of the Rube Goldberg machine that would show the transfer of energy. What was really hard about this challenge is that they had to set it up and take it down every class time, And so they really had to be strategic in the way that they built their designs. Hence, I had them take a lot of videos and photos in Seesaw because they could rewatch their work and help them remember what went well, what didn't, and how did we set this up the day before.

Naomi Meredith [00:14:05]:

For 4th grade, they took on the role as a civil engineer, and they were to design a city based off of the data that they were given, and also what are the needs of that city. So they're kind of creating a model using fake data or GIS data, geographical information systems data, that I gave them. So we learned about different roles that civil engineers can have, how they can work with architects in a space, and what are those things that Communities typically need to get started to run effectively. So we combine that knowledge, And then with the data that I gave them, the data showed them where certain things in their landscape were located, where the grassy fields were, where a muddy pit was, where the river ran through, where there was a tiny lake. They had that data, and then depending on the time I had with them, there was also data showing how High, each of the features were in inches, and they had to add on the clay to show the landscape. You don't have to do the 2nd part. It's really up to you and the time that you have. The 1st time I ever did it with the clay, I I had the most disastrous experience.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:26]:

I personally made salt dough at home, and I made it way too sticky, like Extremely, extremely way too sticky. It was all over the place. The kids are screaming. I was laughing because I thought it was really funny. It was all over the place. I skip the clay part just with time, but it's actually a really, really cool part of the experiment because it does actually change how they will build things in their landscape. Using their landscape and using the list that I give them, then they create their tiny city and also how it would function in a, well, functional way. For 3rd grade, we touch on different natural disasters, and then we really zone in on flooding and different flood inventions.

Naomi Meredith [00:16:08]:

And they are challenged to create an invention that will help keep the house safe from the flood. Through that research, we look at current inventions, and they can even improve those inventions that already exist or create an entirely new one. And then I even taught students this is a math standard, but I taught students how to measure with measuring cups to gather the water and pour it in increments to see how much of the house can withstand when it comes to the water. This is a fairly new update, so if you do have this lesson or you have the k through 5 semi learning bundle or a variation of that bundle, the 3 through 5 or 3rd grade bundle, Then I would go and read down that lesson because that math piece is added where students actually keep track of those increments and if the house actually got wet. The kids are actually way more excited about pouring water and measuring the water because I showed them how to do that. A lot of them have Done that before, which is exciting. And then they were excited to keep track of how much water that their house could handle. In 2nd grade, their challenge was to create an invention that will help slow down or possibly stop water erosion.

Naomi Meredith [00:17:23]:

We did talk about the other ways how erosion can happen, but like 3rd grade, we zoned in on one type of erosion and that was water erosion. I've done this one a couple of ways. It depended on the weather. Colorado has really crazy weather, but I have had buckets of soil where I actually reuse it each week because on Friday, it would dry out over the weekends, and then throughout the week, it'll be dry for all the students. But I had buckets of soil that students could actually put their inventions in to help test and then using the water. But I also have taken students outside, and they carried a cup of water and a measuring cup, and then we went outside. A little tip for both of these lessons, because they do involve water, is I asked classroom teachers if they had any measuring cups in their science kits, And I knew not everybody was doing an experiment with this in their classroom at the time, and so I got a ton of of donations where I could borrow their measuring cups and then give them back when we were finished. I also always kept on hand a ton of dry wicking towels, So they would soak up the water.

Naomi Meredith [00:18:35]:

I always seem to be using these a lot. I did a lot of experiments and things with water. Having those on hand is extremely helpful. Going into 1st grade, their challenge was to learn more about Earth's light and how this can be seen naturally through bioluminescence. The 1st graders were super impressed with themselves that they were learning the word Bioluminescence, which, yes, that is a very big word. We researched about that, and I actually wrote articles, Short little articles for the students where has my voice reading to them about different things in on Earth that have bioluminescence. From that research, students were thinking of a living thing that they wish had bioluminescence, and then they had to explain how the bioluminescent would actually help that living thing. So I always would give the example that I always wish that my dog, Frederick, his big little ears, he's a 10 pound chihuahua mix, so I call his big little ears, would glow because if we take him out at night to go to the restroom, then we would more easily be able to see, you know, what that comes out of his body.

Naomi Meredith [00:19:47]:

So, that was my example. I can draw a little Fred pretty good. And so the kids really enjoyed that project using the Makerspace, and then Depending on the year of my budget, I would have glow sticks that they could use to show the bioluminescence. If I didn't, they would use shiny aluminum metal or shiny bubble wrap or yellow paper to show the parts that would glow. Really, for 1st grade, we talked about how different animals change the land to create their homes, and we zone in you get the theme here. I really zone in a part of that standard, but zoned in on ants and how ants, they change the land to create their home. I always make them laugh when I would say, you know, A little ant and their ant friends, they don't have a Home Depot where they can go get some shovels and say, hey, let's build our house right here. They literally have to figure it out and create the homes themselves.

Naomi Meredith [00:20:42]:

So we talked about Anthills and how different rooms have different purposes, And then they created a marble cardboard maze that shows a different anthill, the different homes, and then the marble represented the ant. For kindergarten and 1st grade, I did bits and pieces of the engineering design process, and we finished their projects in in 2 to 3 days. And then my other 2 days of the week, because I did see them 5 days in a row, I played around with some different stem stations, which I don't have available quite yet. But I played around with some different stem stations, and that worked out really, really well. You do get your hands on those lessons. I always give you more than enough than what you have to teach because I don't even know what of your teaching. A lot of you are in the STEM space, but some of you are in library or maker spaces. Some of you teach homeschool.

Naomi Meredith [00:21:34]:

Some of you teach gifted and talented. And even a growing number of you are in the classroom and you need more of that support. So I always give more than enough in my slides, but then pick and choose what would work best for you. As a recap, here are the 6 lessons that I taught in my Earth The engineers Makerspace lesson that you can try with your students, and they're also included in my k through 5 STEM year long plan or also bundled in their own little bundle. 1st, we have 5th grade, and they created a Rube Goldberg machine to show the ecosystem, and the transfer of energy. So we have 4th grade, and they were creating a model of a tiny city using GIS data. Then we have 3rd grade. We zoned in on the natural disaster of flooding, and they had to build a structure to keep the house safe.

Naomi Meredith [00:22:27]:

Then we had 2nd grade where we talked about water erosion, and they had to create an invention to either slow it down or stop it. Then we have 1st grade and we studied Earth's light, and they did that by creating a living thing that could possibly have bioluminescence. And finally, in kindergarten, we talked about how animals changed the land to create their homes, and we zoned in on anthills and Made a little cardboard marble maze for that. If you haven't tried Makerspace yet or you're hesitant, this is A great way to integrate those standards in your classroom and also get the hang of doing a Makerspace project. It isn't perfect. It might not turn out exactly how you want it, but again, this is a really cool way for students to floor the world in a different way, and also hit those important standards.