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lessons for LEGO bricks

What are lessons for LEGO bricks I can teach? [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.153]

What are lessons for LEGO bricks I can teach? [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.153]

lessons for LEGO bricks

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Episode Summary

Wondering what lessons for LEGO bricks you can implement in your classroom? What LEGO kits are the best for the grade levels you teach? What are the best strategies for managing behaviors during these lessons? I’m answering these questions and more in today’s episode! This is part two of the LEGO episodes, so make sure you go and listen to part one if you haven’t already.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Behavior management strategies to use when implementing lessons for LEGO bricks
  • Examples of these behavior management strategies in action
  • The types of lessons for LEGO bricks you should implement and the LEGO education kits you should use for each lesson

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 [00:00:00]:

What are some lessons that you can use when teaching with LEGO bricks? What types of LEGO education kits should you buy? And what do you do when it comes to behavior management? This is part 2 of our LEGO episodes, and we are gonna be answering all those questions in today's episode. In the last episode, I shared with you all of the systems to set up in your classroom when it comes to using LEGO bricks. It was so funny when I was planning this episode, the systems episode, I was talking so much that I needed to break it up into 2 parts. I really didn't wanna overwhelm you with information, and part of it is because I haven't done LEGO episodes before.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:29]:

So I wanna make sure you get all of the information so that it makes sense and is exactly what you are looking for. So, thanks for hanging out with me for this part 2. I will say I did record part 1 and part 2 back to back, but in your time, you are getting it weeks apart. So thank you for being patient and ready for part 2. Alright. So behavior management is really important when you are teaching with LEGO bricks. When I was working for the LEGO After School Club, this was so important to me because I had seen it in my own classroom, and the person that I was working for actually didn't think behavior management was that important. It wasn't a priority.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:19]:

It was a very interesting conversation. Also, I was working for someone who had never taught before, but behavior management really is a big part of having kids be successful when using LEGO bricks. Think about your classroom setting. Not every kid likes to build with LEGO bricks. They don't. There are some kids who might not have ever built with LEGO bricks before. You need to have some systems in place and some rules in place so that it can go smoothly. There are also kids who are so obsessed with LEGO bricks that they are going to want to dominate the entire build, and they will also have a hard time collaborating.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:03]:

I learned this all the hard way, but I learned very quickly that having specific roles in their group is actually a game changer when you are using LEGO bricks. I was watching someone when I was in this LEGO after-school club who did not have roles, and it was absolute chaos. There were some kids who would just sit there and not do anything, and then there were kids who were dominating the whole time. And it brought me back to when I first used, like, LEGO Education Kids in my classroom. I had the same situation happen. But I don't want that to happen to you. So, how do you give kids roles when they're building with LEGO bricks? I like to group students in groups of 2 or 3. No more than that.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:47]:

If it's a group of 4, it just is too much, and there isn't enough for kids to do. So I will group them in groups of 2 or 3, and they have 3 specific roles. And you have a builder, a finder, and a director. And very self explanatory, but the builder will build the build. The finder is going to find the pieces. So when you look at a LEGO build that has directions, it will show you what pieces you need and how many. So they are in charge of finding the pieces. And then the director is in charge of the building directions.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:25]:

And in the last episode, I talked about how I would like to assign the builds using a digital platform like Seesaw. Or maybe you are using a LEGO Education Kit that already has an app, and the directions switch every 1 to 2 pages. They can decide in their group. There are some groups that will switch every single page because they need explicit directions. But then there are other groups who they're more laid back, and they're okay with switching every 2 pages, or some groups might even just keep their same roles for the entire day, and everybody is okay. It's really important to have these roles. Most groups need them. Some really, really need them.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:17]:

Some specific kids really need those explicit rules, and they might even move spots. I have seen that before. It's actually really cute. Not very efficient, but they actually might move spots when it's their turn to do their job. This helps so much. There is less fighting. It does help even out the experience, And I tell them nobody is a master builder in here. We are all learning how to collaborate and do our best job.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:46]:

So it's okay if you've built a lot of LEGOs, but you're not gonna build the whole thing by yourself. That's not what we do here. So these jobs are really, really helpful. If you are getting into a LEGO build, that is actually along with just robotics and how I do coding, which we'll talk about in other episodes as well. I do have that planned, but as I record, things grow and change, but that isn't my plan in this series. When they get to the coding part, if that is something your LEGO education kits use, there is a driver, a navigator, and a robot Wrangler. This is called paired programming. So you can actually talk about this with your kids.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:34]:

But the driver is the one who is going to be driving the actual device, the computer, and putting the code up on the screen. It doesn't mean they have to know how to code. Everybody can help and be involved and talk about the code. They're just the ones touching the computer. The navigator checks the code to make sure that everything is where it should be and everything's connected before they press play. The robot wrangler is in charge of the robot, and they have to make sure the robot is set up before the code is going. And then they have to go get the robot if it ends up somewhere if it's a moving robot. If you do have robots that roll, some of the builds might do that.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:18]:

I recommend having the robot on the floor. Do not put them on the tables. Sometimes the kids will make them go really fast. They'll fall off. Their build goes everywhere. There are pieces all over the floor. They're crying. They're yelling.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:30]:

They're screaming. Put the robot on the floor. Back to the building piece, I didn't mention this, but there will be times when kids can't find a piece. The newer the kits, the fewer problems you have. The more kids you have using kits, the more pieces go missing. So I do put these roles in place where if you can't find a piece, what are you going to do? I give them those strategies of what to do when you can't find a piece. And you might think, oh, I don't need to do this. You do.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:01]:

Because they're gonna ask you the same thing. I can't find it. So let me tell you what I tell them and then something about that. Here are the strategies I tell kids if they cannot find a piece. 1st is to look in the big part of the bin. If you haven't seen a LEGO education kit before, they come in these big bins, and there's usually some sort of tray on top that can be removed and actually placed inside of the lid so it doesn't slide around. But there's a bottom part, and sometimes some pieces end up down there. So kids need to look.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:37]:

Did you check in the big part of the bin? The next one is to ask another group. Sometimes, another group might accidentally have their piece. They might just have one extra, and so they need to ask another group politely. The other groups can say yes. The other groups can say no, but they are allowed to ask, not take. Also, another strategy if they can't find a piece is to check the spare parts shelf. And in the last episode, I talked to you all about the spare parts shelf and how I get that all organized. If the kids try all three strategies, all 3, they have to try all 3, and they still can't find the piece, they have to problem-solve and use a related piece that can complete the task.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:25]:

I would give kids this example when I was remodeling my townhome. I use this example a lot. But when I was remodeling my townhome, and if I tried all these strategies, then I still couldn't do something. I had to figure it out. I couldn't go whine to my parents and say, figure it out for me. And I also would tell the kids, do you see on here do any of these say, go whine at Miss Meredith and tell her you can't find a piece? And they're all, no. I'm like, exactly. So it doesn't say go tell Miss Meredith I can't find it.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:57]:

I probably can't find it either. If you did all these things as a group and you still can't find it, I probably can't find it. And that really helps too with their independence. I didn't have kids following me around the class like a baby duck. I said I'm not your mommy. You're not my baby ducks, that they weren't following me and telling me they can't find a piece. Sometimes when I was talking with them, I might know where one is. But overall, kids knew not to ask me where a piece was, I probably couldn't find it.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:27]:

When you're building with the LEGO bricks, and let's say you do have the opportunity for kids to continue their builds day after day, What I would have them do is write their names on a sticky note, put the sticky note on the top of their lid, put their build on top of it, and then any extra pieces go inside. And then I had some shelves in my classroom where they could put all their builds. It will look a little bit messy, but whatever. It all worked out okay. When I had my LEGO after-school clubs, kids actually had to take apart their builds every single day because I was taking the kits to a new school every day. And so they did have to deconstruct. I did not give them roles in that. They just had to all help out and make sure everything was where it needed to go.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:12]:

When we had the big Duplo blocks, and I did mention this in the last episode, they had to take apart their builds because they were quick challenges and more creative challenges. They did have to take them apart and then sort them by color. One thing you can add in, if you wanna do this once a week or if you have different kids every day, is I would have the kids I did this in my LEGO after-school club because they got really good at building because they're doing it every week. I actually had the kids check a color. So in LEGO Education Kits, the newer kits are sorted by color, and so each day had a different color that they were responsible for. So my Monday group had to go through the blues and make sure all the blues were there to check all the numbers, put back any extras, and make sure they got the spares that they were missing. Tuesday was responsible for the black pieces. Wednesday was responsible for the green.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:10]:

So that was a really great way to make sure the inventory was pretty good in the kits, and overall, they had most of the pieces. So I wasn't sitting at home and going through them. So that's a great strategy. You can do that once a month, or maybe if you have kids, like, maybe you're not using LEGO education kits, then maybe you have some kids who come in from recess and help you organize throughout the week. Again, so you're not doing it, and kids actually are really fast at it and enjoy the process. Alright. In terms of lessons, what kinds of lessons should you use and what kits to buy? So these are gonna gonna go back and forth. If you are thinking about LEGO Education Kits specifically, you can actually get started on their website, you can see the different types of kits they have available, and you can actually browse through the lessons that are already there.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:03]:

There's not a whole time, but there is enough where it will give you questions to think about. There are videos to show them in action. Some of the kits have related science activities that can go with them, and then you can also again find those PDF versions of the builds in case you need to print any or use them to assign digitally like I did in Seesaw. I'm gonna go through the different types of kits that I used, and I ended up using the lessons that went with these kits. I didn't really create my own when it came to, like, LEGO education kits because there were some already good ones out there. And so when it comes to my k through fives time year-long plan, when you see LEGO Education Kits on there, those are not things that I've made up myself. Out of all the things, coding and LEGO Education Kits are the units that I didn't create from scratch because there are already resources out there that were really good. In kindergarten, I had the opportunity to get the STEAM Park Express Kits, and I sorted all the pieces by color, so I talked more about that in part one of this little LEGO episode saga.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:18]:

And I had this sorted by color, and every day was a different challenge. And you can kinda see on the LEGO Education website where they're building a different part of the amusement park. And you talk about different things with simple machines and force and motion. And what's really cute about this, it's more exploratory for your youngest students. There is a picture where kids can replicate what's on the picture. So if it's an amusement park ride, kids can try to find the pieces to build that. There aren't step by step directions. It's more exploratory.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:50]:

Or kids can design their own ride that is related. A lot of kids actually really wanted to build what's on the screen as a starting place, and then they would add on, which was really, really cool. I did, by the end of my 5 years, have enough LEGO education kits where every single grade level had a different kit. I did use older kits, which was really awesome, but you may or may not have that opportunity. So I have heard of people using LEGO kits throughout the year, and so maybe everybody is doing robotics, with different types of robots, but maybe 5th grade is using the LEGO Education Kit. And then maybe you're moving on to 3D printing, and then 4th grade is using a kit. So if you don't have enough, but you wanna still plan thematically, plan thematically, but sometimes one group might be off by a unit just based on the materials that you have. In 1st grade, I used the discontinued LEGO WeDo 1.0 kits.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:50]:

And if you see these before, there's a lot of yellow and red bricks. The actual build plugs into a computer with a USB cord, and then you have to download the software on the device. The software actually still worked. There were a lot of blocks on our computers at my school, so I couldn't go and download them on all the devices, but the builds were actually still really good. In 2nd grade, I did a simple machine kit. Those are also discontinued, and they actually moved by using simple machines. So there wasn't any coding involved. This kit was actually really good, and I love the connections with simple machines.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:29]:

We would talk about a different simple machine every day. So this one is a really fun one, and they started adding on and creating other things while they were building. So I wish they still had that kit because I really liked that one. In 3rd grade, we did the LEGO WeDo 2.0, which has the popular Milo, the science rover. That's usually one of the first builds that you do. There are a lot of blue and green pieces, and it's that skinny blue case. What's really interesting is LEGO actually took away the app, and then people got upset, and then they put the app back. But as far as I have read, the app is going to be discontinued completely front in August 2024.


Naomi Meredith [00:17:25]:

You are able to connect your We Dos to Scratch. So that's really awesome where you have that option where you can do that type of block based coding, and it is a little more challenging in a good way. The coding is very, very simple for the WeDo 2 point o's, but the kits are awesome. There are limited challenges. So if you do need more challenges, I did write, different versions of kinds of builds that you can use with LEGO WeDo 2.0. I have in my membership the STEM teacher bookshelf as a bonus. All of the builds, and there are some others I need to add, but different bonus builds that you can use with WeDo 2.0, and also some easier challenges for your younger students and some harder challenges for your older students. So, I'll link that in the show notes.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:12]:

It's a bonus, $9 a month. If you don't wanna do all the reading in the book bookshelf but just join for the LEGO WeDo challenges, that's a great option. In 4th grade, I had the BricQ Motion Prime. There are 2 different BricQ Kits. I had the older one. This one was really cool because it was about force and motion when it comes to sports. And it was a lot of winter sports, not all winter sports, but it was super cool because, again, these fields didn't move with coding. They moved with different types of motion in sports.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:46]:

And there are some cool little experiments to try with all of them that are on their website. For the younger kids, I have had friends in my district when I worked there who have this kit, but it's the BridQ Essential Kit, Motion Essential, And that kit is really awesome, too. Again, they move by different sports, so different than the older kids, and a lot of fun there. So those 2 kits are cheaper because there aren't any electronics for that. There's not they're not considered robotics because there isn't any coding involved, but it is fun to mix it up. And, if you're looking for a place to start for kits, those are great because you might be able to afford those a lot easier. For my 5th graders and for my LEGO after-school club, I use the LEGO spike essential kits, which come in those big yellow buckets, and coding is involved. I did more challenging projects with my 5th graders, but when I did this as a LEGO after-school club, K-5 could definitely do the challenges.


Naomi Meredith [00:19:49]:

If you pick more of the simple challenges, even for the older kids, it works great. You can just do one-day challenges. If you really only have different kids every day, you can build, take apart, build, take apart every day. If you have older students, like 6, 7, and 8, the LEGO SPIKE Prime Kits are really great for that one. There are more of the LEGO Technic pieces and more complicated coding, which is really great. Also, LEGO SPIKE Essential has more icon block coding and more of the traditional, like scratch coding, and you can switch between the 2. I do know with the other kit, it's a little more complicated in a good way. So if you're trying to decide between which kit is which, the spike essential is for elementary, and the spike prime is for the older, like, beyond elementary. Now if you are somebody like, I cannot afford LEGO education kits, that is something that's not going to be happening, That is okay.


Naomi Meredith [00:20:50]:

You can still use those mixed bricks. That is definitely a possibility. And a big thing I like to tell teachers is when you are planning with mixed bricks of LEGOs, you actually plan it just like a makerspace lesson. Your medium is just LEGO bricks and not recycled materials. So think about that when you're planning your lessons. Lessons. You can definitely do very similar things. You can also think about stem and stories lessons where you are building to solve the problem that is related to the book.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:24]:

I have a bunch of lessons for you to get started separate from my k through 5 STEM year-long plan, but different lessons that you can use to get started, and those are actually really great for sub plans. Also, if you wanna do a stem station with lit mix LEGO bricks, I have some engineer inspiration boards that are thematic for different holidays throughout the year or different months, and kids can see those items, choose what they wanna build, and build how they wanna represent it with the LEGO bricks. So that's a great challenge to keep the building purposeful. It's not exactly a free build, but they have a small challenge they have to solve and then represent it with their bricks. Along with that, you can also try some task cards, and that is a new line that I'm coming up with. I have a really fun one that I did that really connects well with my STEM career quest podcast for kids, and it's all about insects and spiders because my first guest interview was with entomologists, scientists who study bugs, and each of the task cards is how to build and represent something. One of my favorite ones, because I had just learned about this, is an insect hotel where it is actually a safe place for natural insects in your garden or backyard to have a home, and it's to help really help pollinators and really help the life cycle of bugs. So students can learn more about an insect hotel and how to build that.


Naomi Meredith [00:22:52]:

But that's just one of 20 challenges that are in those cards. So LEGOs are a great way to build these small challenges, but also they can take them apart at the end. They could take a picture in Seesaw. But just a really great way to have those reusable items if LEGO education kits are not a possibility, or maybe they are, and you just want to use those in a different way. In this episode, we talked about behavior management when it comes to using LEGO bricks in your classroom and different types of kits and lessons that you can focus on. If you haven't already, go and check out part 1 where I talk more about the systems and routines in relation to LEGO bricks in your classroom. But I appreciate you being here on this journey. If you love the jobs that I was talking about and hear you're like, oh my gosh.


Naomi Meredith [00:23:47]:

Those are amazing. They are amazing. Let me tell you. They're a game changer. I have all of those roles inside of my STEM teacher 101 course, where I talk about different jobs and why they're important when working on STEM projects, not just LEGO bricks, but those posters are in there for you. They're actually not in my shop at the time of this recording, but they're in there for you. They're ready to go, kid friendly color and black and white, and you can use them when you use LEGO bricks in your classroom. Thank you so much for being here, and I will see you in the next episode.

lessons for LEGO bricks

 

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach 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. 

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teach kids with LEGOS

What Systems Do You Need When You Teach Kids with LEGOS? [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.152]

What Systems Do You Need When You Teach Kids with LEGOS? [STEM Project & Behavior Management Series] [ep.152]

teach kids with LEGOS

Check out the full episode on What Systems Do You Need When You Teach Kids with LEGOS?:  

 

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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

Episode Summary

Tired of your students having a free for all when using the LEGO bricks in your classroom? If so, today’s episode is for you. In this episode, I’m sharing systems and routines you can put in place when it’s time to teach kids with LEGOS in your STEM classroom. This episode is part one of a two part series on LEGO bricks. Make sure you check out next week’s episode to hear part two!

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Systems and routines to use to teach kids with LEGOS
  • Why systems and routines are need when teaching kids with LEGOS
  • Tips for managing and organizing the different types of LEGOS

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 [00:00:00]:

When you are using LEGO bricks in your classroom, is it a free for all, or do you have systems in place to keep it controlled chaos? In this episode, I am going to be sharing with you the systems and routines that I like to use when using LEGO bricks in a STEM space. I am so excited about this episode, all about LEGO bricks, that this is going to be broken up into 2 parts. In this first part of this 2 part series, I am going to be talking about the systems to put in place, whether you are using LEGO education kits or mixed buckets of bricks in your classroom. In the second episode of this 2 part series, we are going to be then talking about the behavior management strategies and also the different types of lessons and kits that you can use.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:31]:

I have to admit something. When I was looking through all of my episodes and working on this series, I realized I don't have a dedicated LEGO brick lesson. We are over 150 episodes in, and I haven't done a whole episode about LEGO. And I am so sorry about that. In my opinion, teaching with LEGO bricks is one of the easiest things to teach STEM, especially if you have LEGO Education Kits. They're pretty self-explanatory in terms of all the other STEM kits or things you might use, and I think that might be why I didn't record an episode yet or I didn't get a whole lot of questions about LEGO bricks yet, but I have gotten some questions. So, I apologize for not recording this sooner, but here we are. It's going to be okay. I had a lot of fun planning this episode for you, looking through my camera roll, and getting ideas.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:38]:

When I taught with LEGO Education Kits, I actually saved them towards the end of the school year and during state testing time. There are a couple of reasons for this. 1st, in my role, when I was a k through 5 STEM teacher, yes, I was a STEM teacher, but I was also our school technology point person and also did some co-teaching off and on during the years. When it was state testing time, I actually got pulled for a big chunk of those weeks to support teachers when it came to technology needs and also makeup testing. For about 2 to 3 weeks, I actually had to have a substitute in my classroom full-time so I could support our administration during this time. So, in turn, I would save my LEGO education lessons during state testing because I knew this was something that a substitute could do, and with my systems and routines, it would actually work really, really well. Side note: my substitute that I had would actually say how organized I was, and I met his wife at an education conference. She is a teacher in our district, and she was saying, oh, yeah.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:00]:

My husband substituted for this STEM teacher. She was super, super organized. He loved being there, and we came to the conclusion. It was actually my classroom. He was talking about me and the wife hadn't ever met before. So it was such a small world, so funny, and good to know that he had a good experience in my classroom because of the systems and routines that I am going to talk to you about. I do know that LEGO education kits can be really expensive, and I'm gonna talk about the different kits that I have used. Some are retired, some are current, and it is a really good investment staple STEM products that I absolutely love because they can be used over and over again.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:49]:

And I will say LEGO Education Kits, for the most part, have great longevity you can get a lot of use out of them. If you don't have the funds or you know you won't ever have the funds and you only have mixed LEGO bricks, that is okay. I'm also going to be talking about that in this episode. Likewise, I am gonna talk about some LEGO Education Kits that use Duplo blocks, those bigger blocks, because I did get to try that out with my kindergarten classes. So, if you do teach pre-k or kindergarten, I have some good options for you, too. I also recently did a short-term contract where I was teaching LEGO Education Kits in after-school programs for our company, and I started to train some people as well in how to use these kits with students with people who had never taught children before. I will say the systems that I used in my k through 5 STEM classroom are the same ones that I used in an after-school program. So maybe that's you.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:56]:

Maybe you have the chance to do LEGO with an after school program. These tips and tricks are gonna work in all these situations. Alright. So, let's get into those systems when you are using LEGO bricks in your classroom. Side note: I keep saying LEGO bricks because, for a short time, I was a LEGO ambassador, and they did say that LEGO, you usually don't say LEGO by itself. You add on something. There was a reason for it. There was a name for it too.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:29]:

And it's actually not LEGOs. It's LEGO like fish is 1 fish or mini fish. LEGO is 1 brick or mini brick. But they did say you have to add something at the end, so it's LEGO bricks. So, I might say LEGO Education Kits are LEGO bricks. If I mess up, I'm so sorry, but there's a reason why I'm saying it like that. So, first of all, you are sharing the actual builds with students. And if you are buying a kit, you will often get the paper versions of the builds.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:02]:

For me, I didn't like the clutter. I didn't like how the books were flimsy paper. So whenever I would get brand new kits in my class, I actually recycled all of them. I know that you can use them offline, but they just really bothered me and the pages would tear, and I just didn't like storing them. What I did instead is I actually grabbed the PDF version of the build, which all of them can be found for free, open access on the LEGO Education website. I would download all of those and make them seesaw activities that I could share with students. If I wanted them to build something specific on one day, I could have it scheduled to go out on certain days, or I had all of them available for students, and they could pick and choose what they wanted to build. What was really cool was when students were finished with their build, they could take a picture or take a video of their work because they couldn't take their builds home, of course, and so they could take it home by taking a picture or taking a video.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:09]:

Also, with some of the builds, there was a paired science activity, which is on their website, and I'm gonna talk more about that in the lesson plans. But that is how I would streamline the builds, and so this is actually part of their roles, which I'm also gonna talk about. But so that you know, that was just something I really like to set up. Some of the LEGO Education Kits actually have an app that goes with them. It depends on the kit that you're purchasing and the building directions are already in the app. So, depending on the kit you have, check it out. It was really helpful. And again, when I had a substitute, I did this for all of my students from first through 5th grade.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:50]:

All of the building directions were in Seesaw. And what I actually did is when kids would sign into Seesaw if we had to use the iPads because they couldn't use their laptops because they were used for testing. I had all of the QR codes to their Seesaw class up on the whiteboard. I had them organized by grade level, so they were there for the week. The substitute knew they were going to be there, and it was all set up. I also had a section in my classroom that was for LEGO spare parts. And for the LEGO Education Kits, certain parts repeat and are used for all of the kits, and a lot of the newer kits actually come with spare parts already. So I had a section that was the spare parts shelf, and all of the spare parts were organized by exactly what piece they were.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:41]:

I did have some students help me out with this at the end of the school year, all of the years, but we had them organized in these little containers that are for crafting items or small beads. And it was really nice because they're see-through on both sides. You can see what piece you need. And if they were found on the ground, kids could quickly organize them. I know it sounds really tedious. I don't do this for my mixed LEGO bricks, but it was really helpful because if they were missing a piece, they could easily find it and then get back to work. I will link the exact little containers that I got in the show notes. They were easy to store.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:20]:

I did have to show kids how to open them. You open the latch-up. I would say, what would happen if you open it the other way? And they're all, oh, no. It would fall. I'm like, exactly. So make sure you open it the right way. None of them actually fell because they remembered my face and what I would tell them when we were introducing the kits. If you do need to buy other parts that aren't found in the extras that LEGO supplies you, or maybe you have an older kit. You need a specific piece, all of the LEGO Education Kits either in the kit or you can look online, every LEGO brick has a specific part number.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:59]:

You can go on to the website Brickowl, and you can actually purchase individual pieces that you are missing in bulk. So they are really cheap. They're, like, a few cents. You wanna try to purchase from 1 seller because you do have to pay for shipping per person you buy from. It is a legit website. It doesn't look super fancy, but it actually is legit because sometimes I had to go in and purchase things for my classroom or my LEGO after-school club, so that's a great resource as well. If you are using a LEGO education kit that uses the big Duplo blocks, the big ones. They come in these ginormous boxes, and when they get delivered to your school, everyone's like, what did you buy? I'm like, they're just a few kits of big LEGO bricks.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:49]:

What I ended up doing to help streamline how kids would use them. For my youngest learners, I had my green fabric cube boxes that I was obsessed with. I use it for so many different things, including mini green screens, so that's why they were green. When we weren't recording on a green screen, I actually had them all against a wall. I had about 20 of them, and I sorted all of the kits by color. Again, this sounds tedious at first, but it was really helpful because, at the end of class, students would take apart their builds and sort them back in the colors, which is actually a great skill for our youngest kids anyway. There also are some pretty pieces like little kitty cats in the kit that I had or little flowers that I sorted into ziplock bags and kept to the side, and they were only allowed to use those when the build required it. I also did that for my kids for my LEGO after-school clubs because kids get distracted by them. And, yes, I am all about creativity and expressing yourself, but kids get distracted, and they actually are the most stolen pieces.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:59]:

So I just keep them to the side. They are pulled out when needed, and then we have to put them back at the end of class. If you only have mixed LEGO bricks in your classroom, they are just all mixed up. They're basic pieces. You can order these off Amazon. They often will come in these big giant buckets that look like a giant LEGO. I would keep them in that giant LEGO because they're actually super cute, and they're pretty sturdy and easy for kids to carry. When kids were putting these big buckets away, I made them slide them on the floor because if they were feeling brave and wanted to carry the bucket by themselves, that usually didn't go well.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:41]:

And I swear I would have somebody spill a bucket of those LEGOs on the floor once a week. So I recommend having a broom and a dustpan, sweep up those LEGO bricks, and dump them in. If there are other things in there, oh, well, it's a way quicker way to clean them up. Likewise, it is a lot easier having the mixed buckets of LEGOs on the floor. And depending on your tables, it might be hard for kids to reach across and share. I had tile floor, I drew with a chalk marker different little LEGO bricks on the floor, and those were spread out around the room. And so those are the places that they had to put those mixed buckets of LEGOs. Toward the end of my last year, I got a small grant from our PTO.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:33]:

I was able to purchase some big baseplates. Those are the big ones that kids can build on. Some baseplates that were sticky and hung them up on my wall to have a LEGO wall. For my preference, I actually made the base plates match the color of the wall. So, I had a green wall and a blue wall that were used for recording. The reason why I matched them is so that if somebody were to use that wall for a green screen or blue screen, it wouldn't take away the space of the wall. It could still be an area they could record in front of, and it actually blended in a lot better. But you can make it whatever style you want.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:13]:

That was just a preference for me. The plates on the wall ended up being a part of a stem station or a free building choice at the end of the year. I didn't use them that often, but they were pretty cool to have. Now that you have all of those systems put in place tune in to the second part of this 2 part series. I'm gonna be talking about the behavior management tips that work really well and also the different types of lessons and kits that you can purchase for your classroom. I know you wanted it all in 1. I did, too, but I really wanna make sure that I am not overwhelming you with ideas and also helping you be set up for success. So I will see you in the next episode where we will be talking about those two things.

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More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach 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!

types of STEM after-school clubs

8 Types of STEM After-School Clubs [ep.116]

8 Types of STEM After-School Clubs [ep.116]

types of STEM after-school clubs

Check out the full episode on 8 Types of STEM After-School Clubs:  

 

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Playlist of each type of club in their own bite-sized segment: 

Episode Summary

You’ve made the exciting decision to host a STEM after-school club, but now you may be wondering what types of STEM after-school clubs you can host. That’s what I’m discussing today. With over a decade of teaching experience, I have gained much experience in hosting engaging and interactive after-school clubs that students love. In today’s episode, I’m sharing 8 types of STEM after-school clubs you can host, and I’m sharing some strategies to support you with starting your own.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • 8 types of STEM after-school clubs
  • An overview of each type of after-school club
  • Tips and strategies for starting each type of club

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 [00:00:00]:


So you're ready to start hosting a STEM after-school club. What types of STEM after-school clubs can you be hosting? Based on my experience of being a teacher for 11 years and 5 of those being a K-5 STEM teacher, I have a whole list of STEM after-school clubs that you can try, and these are all clubs that I hosted in my classroom that my students absolutely loved and provided a variety of experiences. So let's dive into these fun club ideas. 


Naomi Meredith [00:01:30]:


Pretty soon, I will be hosting a live workshop to take you behind the scenes on how I set up my favorite club of all my school-wide news. Not only will I be showing you exactly how the news ran day today, but all of the prework that I did at the beginning to get it all organized to get kids signed up. All of that behind the scenes work to what we actually did every week to set up the news where we didn't have to go live every day and depend on that. There is a whole method to the madness Everything is all streamlined, and I kept track of it all. So I could show you exactly what I did. I don't want you to miss out on this super fun opportunity. So make sure you join the wait list because you'll be the first to know when it's live And for people on the wait list, you always get a bonus. So make sure you join at Naomimeredith.com/newswaitlist. It's also linked in the show notes, so you can check it out there. In the last episode, I talked about the three reasons why you should host a STEM after-school club.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:20]:


If you haven't gone back and listened to it, no worries. Keep listening to this episode. And then when you're done, Go check out that one because they all go together, and it will all make sense. I love after-school clubs so much they're a lot of fun to plan, and also it's an awesome opportunity for students. My first year teaching K through 5 STEM. I went a little bit crazy, and I hosted 4 days of clubs. The only day that didn't have clubs were Wednesdays. But those clubs were all different because I wanted to have a whole variety of experiences for my students and have them interact with STEM in a lot of different ways.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:06]:


Also, in my district, all of the clubs were actually free. So We're a really nice opportunity for them to join. When I did do creative clubs, sometimes I charged a small fee of $3 just to pay for extra materials. And that was plenty when I had about 20 to 30 kids. That could buy me enough supplies for what I needed for the projects I was thinking about. Also, for 2 of my other clubs, I designed shirts, which I'll talk about when I get to these clubs later in this episode, And that was optional. Students didn't have to buy a shirt, but this was a good way to promote the club, which again will make sense in a second. When I hosted clubs, the clubs typically ran for 4 to 6 sessions in a row. So if their club were on a Tuesday, it would run for the next 4 to 6 Tuesdays.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:03]:


The other specials, teachers in art, PE, and music, we went through and tried to really plan these sessions together so that it all made sense when it came to when a new club would start, when it would end, and all of those different sessions. There were a few clubs that I hosted that did last the entire year, but then they had their own schedule. So it goes into all of that management and all of that pre-work when it comes to setting up a club. which I will talk about in the workshop. And if anything, if you're not even going to do school-wide news, joining the workshops is helpful because the way that I set up that club is exactly how I set up all of my other ones. So you'll get the templates in that workshop anyway, so join it for the 1st hour and then leave for the next. I don't know. But they're all of that work, and all of that management helped it run smoothly for the rest of the year I had all the kids set up and organized, so I didn't have to worry about it again.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:05]:


Another fun thing that I ended up doing once I had my school I knew running is me and the other special teachers started to make commercials promoting our clubs when it came to the time to sign up. They were anything fancy. A lot of times, my commercials had my dog Frederick in them, which all of the students in the school knew who Frederick was because he was in my commercials a lot, and he was also on the news with me when I had to record something last minute at my house, but it was so fun because we had made commercials about our clubs, and then our clubs were always full because they knew about them because they would go home and tell their parents about it. So it was a really fun way how we promoted these opportunities for kids. So kids always signed up. We also tried with our clubs when it came to signing up, where we would mix up the grade levels. So sometimes I would have a 4th and 5th-grade club running, and then the PE teacher might have a second and third-grade club. So kids could have a lot of different experiences.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:10]:


Sometimes we had clubs with kindergarten and 1st grade. I did that my 1st year, and the kids are really, really, really hired at the end of the day. So that's definitely up to you if you host clubs for kindergarten and first. I don't recommend it. I love the little one so much. They are my favorites, but they're also really tired at the end of the day, and it's just a lot. So that's my 2¢ on that. My clubs ran for about an hour after school.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:40]:


I was still done at the end of the day by 4 p.m., got to go home, and there were about 20 to 30 kids in each club. Almost all of them I ran by myself. Here and there, I had some clubs I had some help with, which also depended on the club that I was running, but most of them, I was running by myself, and it worked out just fine. So let's get into those eight STEM after-school clubs, the different kinds you can run, and I'm gonna be sharing with you just a little synopsis of what I did in each one. For some of them, I do have lesson plans created. Some of them I don't. Some were just like on the fly, or sometimes it was a curriculum that was already created.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:22]:


which is going to make sense as you're listening to this. So if I do have materials currently at the time of this recording, I will share them with you here. And, again, when it comes to the whole setting up a club, the whole process is exactly what I did for my school-wide news. So join in on that waitlist, Naomimeredith.com/newswaitlist, because then you can see, like, how to even set up a club to begin with. With the clubs I'm going to mention, you really don't have to do them in any certain order. I don't really have them in a certain order anyway. They're just When I thought of them, I wrote them down. So here they all are, the 8 different types of STEM after-school clubs that you can try.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:05]:


The first one that you can try is computer coding or anything related to computer creation. This will take literally no prep from you, which is awesome when it comes to hosting an after-school club. The program that I really like to use for this club setting when it comes to computer programming on the computer is Google CS First or Google Computer Science First. It is a free program, and at the time when I did it, they actually sent stickers that went along with the challenges. It changes all the time. They're always updating it and making it better, so I'm not quite sure if that is still a thing with this program. But what I really liked about it is that there are different themes of coding. So there's a whole theme that you are deciding to create your challenge around.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:58]:


So there's fashion and design, there's storytelling, but you're solving this problem through coding, which is pretty awesome because real world problems are using coding as one of the ways to solve them. So it was pretty cool. The curriculum's all laid out there. they have a lesson that the students watch. They have videos. and then they apply what they learn using scratch. So they have both at the same time, and they are building upon that challenge to really solve it. It's super cool.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:33]:


I highly recommend it. It's a great way you could do this club a couple of times a year and just choose a different seam. I had everybody work on the same theme. So when I presented the club, it was computer coding, fashion, and design. So they knew what we were getting into, which was pretty fun. On this side note, this isn't exactly computer coding. Now I know there are elements to coding with this, but you could do things like a Minecraft club. You could use Minecraft for education, as an option if you don't want to do that as a regular classroom lesson, or also you could do a 3D printing club.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:13]:


This is a great time to try out 3D printing because the biggest management is you managing the prince as a teacher. So if you do this as a club, You only have a handful of students. You're learning the platform. So try it as a club this year. And then the following year, you could do it with everybody. So a great way, pretty low preps since you're using student devices. You don't really have a whole lot of other materials to worry about. but computer coding on the computer is a great option.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:43]:


The 2nd type of STEM club to try is using LEGO bricks. Whether you have LEGO education kits or LEGO just mixed LEGO Bricks, This is a great club as well. Again, minimal prep. I did 2 versions of this club. I did LEGO 1.0 and LEGO 2.0. In LEGO 1.0, we just had quick one-day building challenges A lot of them I just made up, like building the tallest tower, and then we measured them with yardsticks. It was pretty fun. The kids liked it.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:20]:


It wasn't so fun when the towers fell over, and they had to clean it up, but it was things like that that they would build in one day. We would learn about it. We would watch some videos about it. They would try the challenge, and then they'd clean up and go home. Super low maintenance. When it came to LEGO 2.0, They didn't have to come to 1.0 to start. It's just a fun name I came up with. In LEGO 2.0, we use LEGO Bricks and other materials to merge them together and do stop motion animation.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:49]:


This is actually when I tested out stop motion animation. I had never done it before in a class. So I tried it in my after-school club. I loved it. I love teaching it. There are a lot of units I actually like to teach. I feel like in every unit I teach, I love that one, which is pretty true. but it was really fun teaching stop motion animation came up with a whole unit, and actually, with that unit used it for a summer camp class that I taught all about stop motion.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:19]:


So that was a lot of fun. That lesson, I do have the whole thing that you could use for an after-school club. So you can check that out in my stop motion bundle, which I'll link in the show notes. If you were looking more up for a LEGO challenge. I recommend looking into the junior 1st LEGO League. I might have mixed up the words of that. I always mess that up. but that is a competition based LEGO challenge.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:46]:


It can be a bit pricey. the prices change quite often. I did it for 1 year because our district decided to fund that, and then we did our own challenge within our district. But essentially, you have LEGO education kits. They do tell you which one you'll use. And then you have a challenge, and then the students build and solve a challenge, and there's lessons that go along with it. So it is pretty self-guided. Again, it is a bit pricey.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:12]:


So look into it first. but if you want more of a competition or something more guided, that's a good thing to look into. The 3rd type of STEM club that you can host is a school-wide news club. Again, this is one of the most favorite clubs I have ever, ever, ever hosted. It was like having my own class again. which is why I think I liked it because I had the same group of kids. I thought of the idea one day when I was walking my dog, Frederick, and it popped into my head, and I figured out how I was going to do this. My biggest challenge was that I didn't want to be going live every day because, for me, that was my planning time, and I needed my plan time to plan.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:56]:


And then here in Colorado, you get snow days, we get a delayed start, and I didn't want the news to be dependent on weather and kids getting there. So I figured out a whole system of how to have the news pre-recorded. So my students would only come on Mondays, and then it would be the way we scheduled it out. Everything was ready to go for the next week or so. In the 1st year, I only had a courting team of kids. I had 40 kids, so I split them into 2 groups, and we alternated weeks, and it grew so much in popularity. The kids up absolutely loved it. I had little kids begging me to be on the news.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:37]:


The following year, it doubled. I had 80 kids sign up. So I had about 60 kids on my recording team and 20 on my editing. No. That's not true. I had 50 in my recording and then 30 in my editing. So we would record on Mondays. I had 3 groups of 20, and then we edited on Tuesdays.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:01]:


I had 3 groups of 20. And then, the way I scheduled it out, they all had the same amount of time to be in the club. So it was a whole lot of fun. We had a logo. We had a brand. We had a whole brand about it. It was a huge privilege to be on it. kind of in a lot of ways, like student leadership, but in a different form.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:22]:


the kids were literally obsessed. So was I. I did have teachers help me with this one and help guide the news, but it was a whole lot of fun and very informative. We actually informed the school about what was happening. It wasn't just random. Oh, what's the sports for today? Like, we actually kept up with what was happening in the school. What were the current events of elementary school life? So I'm gonna share it with you.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:47]:


That's a whole snapshot of what we did, but I'll share with you how I set this up. So join that waitlist at Naomi Meredith.com/newswaitlist. The 4th type of STEM Club that you can host is creating things with your hands. I did this in a few different ways. One of them is that I hosted a Makerspace club, and this is where I tested out a lot of my seven stories lessons that you can get in my shop, which I'll link to the ultimate bundle in the show notes. This was so much fun, where we would read or listen to a short story and then complete a related STEM challenge. I did charge about $3 for this club so that I could cover the cost of materials that I didn't have on hand, and that was plenty. Most of it was recycled materials anyway.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:37]:


This was a great club because, again, I tried out lessons and things that I liked and didn't like. It also let me see as a teacher how I wanted my classroom maker space to be set up because I have it had it set up all the time. It wasn't something that I would bring out when I wanted. It was always set up. So having a club setting helped me see, okay, how is the flow of materials? Are there places where kids get stuck? where should the scissors go? Where should the markers go? What is a what makes sense in this situation? So that actually helped me find the flow of my maker's face. If you wanna hear more about Makerspace, I highly recommend going back to listening to episodes 5 and 6, and I break down that whole thing And then all the things that I use to set it up, I have a bundle of that as well. So everything I just said will be linked in the show notes. Another creating club that I started but actually didn't get to finish.


Naomi Meredith [00:17:35]:


So I was really, really sad about this. I started a digital branding basics club. In this club, the whole purpose was for students to create a fictional brand where they would be providing a good or a service, and they would develop the whole brand around it. So we were going to create a basic website to talk about brand colors when it comes to the psychology of that and why certain colors are used for certain things. Design a logo that they create digitally and also get it cut on our school cricket machines. And with the logo, we're also gonna put it either on a shirt or on a hat, which I, again, was so sad. I didn't get to do this club because the COVID shutdown happened.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:19]:


So we had 1 week of this club, and then it never happened again. And then, I went in a different direction with my club, so I didn't have the chance to fit that one in. So creating clubs, definitely recommend it could be a little more prep work, but kids love it. The 5th STEM club to try is an experiments club. This is a great way to do those experiments that you haven't done in a while that take a little bit of prep, like slime and ooblec. Only do ooblec if you don't have carpet on your floor. Definitely don't do that. And, also, just those things that are, engaging that they might miss out on the regular class.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:58]:


They may or may not be doing those things. So hands on experiments are a great club. With that, I also hosted an after-school club, which, honestly this one I didn't really like very much, but we did it. I tried it. Didn't do it again. but hosted, where we were setting up a school weather balloon that we were going to send up into near space, and the students were picking the things that we would have as the experiments that we would send up with the weather balloon, and they also set up the frame with help with some people from our district. And then, I had to go and set up a school-wide assembly event where the whole school went to watch this balloon getting set up, and the kids who were in the club got to help with that process. I didn't like this one as much because it was very teacher driven.


Naomi Meredith [00:19:46]:


And I and, like, teacher driven in a sense where I was doing a lot of the learning and the trainings, and also I did have to drive and get the balloon. So I had to drive for 2 hours and then go find it in the middle of a field and drive back Also, this was very weird. It's weird how a couple of clubs got affected by this, but the day the balloon got launched was the last day the kids had school for the spring because of the COVID shutdown. So it was weird. I thought it was cool, a cool experience, but also a lot of work for the teacher. So keep that in mind. Another club, number 6, that you could try is having a technology support club. This one is a lot of fun because you can train the kids on certain technology skills that are needed in the school that are constantly being asked of you, and they're your eye support team.


Naomi Meredith [00:20:40]:


So I would tell kids that I am the manager and you are my employees, and I'm gonna train you on the ways of the different things that are needed in the school. the 1st year I did it every other week. And then, in the following years, I just did once a month. That was plenty. But if I needed help with certain things or teachers were asking me questions because I was the technology person. I would send out my eye support team, and they would be there to help. I did also have a logo and shirts for this 1, and they would wear them proudly, and they were definitely a lifesaver. Another fun thing that I had these kids do in the club is that they made videos for our school-wide news, and they would make videos of certain processes of how to use technology like plugging them in, hanging up headphones, logging into Seesaw, and they also made cleaning videos that we would send out every so often on the news.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:29]:


And likewise, during testing season, there were certain technology things that 3rd through 5th-grade teachers had to do. So those kids helped me make videos as well that we could play on the news. Two more clubs are coming at you. I told you it had lots of ideas. The 7th club that you can try is robotics. There are a lot of different curriculums out there, so this is actually a great time to use the curriculums that come with your robots. My favorite is the Dash robot by Wonder Workshop, and they do a whole robotics league competition that comes out in the fall. So I recommend trying that.


Naomi Meredith [00:22:05]:


Also, the Vex robots are really great. There is a competition element. So if you could get other schools in your area to do it, it's a lot of fun. I haven't hosted Vex as a club, but I have judged it, and it is super, super cool. So If you have the money in the space for it, again, that one can be a bit pricey, but that one is a lot of fun and a good challenge. And the last type of club, that isn't really a club, but you can create take home STEM kits. This developed when we actually couldn't do after-school clubs, and I can do a whole episode about this one, but I created Take Home's STEM kits that were for purchase. And in the kit, there were 4 different STEM activities that had the instructions, a video, all the supplies, All of the related science, people in STEM, and explorations, all included in this box, and a new kit came out every month for 6 months.


Naomi Meredith [00:23:02]:


So it was a lot of fun to put these together. A great way for kids to be involved with STEM at home. I did make commercials to promote these to get kids to buy them. I didn't really make any profit off of it at my school. It was really just to fund the materials, any extra money I just put back into the program to buy more masking tape, which is something I always seem to run out of, but I do have a couple of commercials I made. I will post those in the show notes They're pretty funny. One of them has my dog Frederick who is the star of the video. So check them out.


Naomi Meredith [00:23:33]:


They're silly. They're cheesy, but they were a hit. As a recap, here are the 8 different STEM after-school clubs that you can do in your classroom. 1st, computer coding, 2nd, LEGO, 3rd, school-wide news, 4th, creating clubs, 5th, experiment clubs, 6 technology support, 7th, robotics, and 8th, which is a club, not really a club, take home STEM kits. In the next episode, I'm going more go into more depth about the benefits of having a school-wide news crew. which you definitely don't wanna miss out on. It definitely changed our school-wide culture for the better. So that is an episode I'm really excited to record.


Naomi Meredith [00:24:19]:


And while you're at it, make sure to check out the show notes. There are a lot of fun goodies in there, including the link to sign up for the wait list for my live workshop training, and you can find that at Naomimeredith.com/newswaitlist.

types of STEM after-school clubs

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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

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!