Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

Grading STEM projects. I don't love it; you probably don't love it, but in reality, this is increasing in popularity the more we gain elementary STEM in our spaces around the world. So, how do you even grade a project like this? In this episode, I will give you some strategies on how to grade a STEM project using a rubric. 

Naomi Meredith [00:01:01]:

Before we jump into the episode, I wanted to read another amazing 5-star podcast review from one of you. This is from ParksTeam, and they say, “So helpful. I especially love the 6 part series broken down by grade level. I struggle with finding things appropriate for kindergarten, so this episode was so helpful. Thank you, Naomi.” Thank you so much for your review. Reading these definitely makes my day. I absolutely love that this podcast is making a positive difference in your teaching and, therefore, your students.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:38]:

If you wouldn't mind taking a moment and heading on over to Apple Podcasts and writing a 5-star review, that would mean the absolute world to me. It costs nothing and helps other teachers like you find this podcast. Over in my Instagram DMs at Naomi Meredith_ I got a message from 1 of you, and you wrote me saying, “Hi Naomi, just found your podcast and loved it. I tried to see if you already talked about this, but my STEAM is struggling with grading. Do you have an episode on how you do grading in your room?” This is an excellent question, and I have actually received similar questions from a lot of you out there over in my Instagram DMs and also by way of email. And it is an important concept to consider. Now, spoiler alert, I technically didn't have to grade and give grades when I was a K through 5 STEM teacher. I know that sounds absolutely insane, and you might be saying what, that's not fair.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:47]:

I know it kinda wasn't fair because the PE, art, and music teachers did have to give grades, and I did not. I was told because there aren't any STEM standards in Colorado that, I wasn't required to give grades, so I didn't. But I always thought about it if they ever changed their minds or they ever said when grading times came around, I had a plan in mind if that was something that I needed to do. And have no fear, this isn't a fluffy episode where I just pulled something out of thin air. This is literally exactly how I would grade projects. When I taught in the classroom, I would grade projects like this. And I also was on committees to grade things using rubrics and also to design them for these types of things. I did a lot of project-based learning when I was a classroom teacher, so I would be using that experience if I ever were to grade.

Naomi Meredith [00:03:43]:

So don't write me off saying you don't know what you're talking about. I do, and this is exactly how I would grade a STEM project and really any hands-on project. First, you want to make your STEM projects standards-based. Now, when you're thinking about backwards design and planning your lessons, you should be looking at the standards anyway because this will make it a lot harder to grade if your lessons aren't standards-based, to begin with. You do wanna keep this in mind, which is why in my entire K through 5 STEM year long plan of lessons, they are all rooted in NGSS standards along with an integration of common core literacy and math standards and the ISTE standards for students. All of my projects that I do k through 5 are revolved around this. And if it ever came down to grading, I wouldn't be stressed or stopped because I knew my lessons were standard space even when we were doing something with robots, even when we were doing something with Makerspace or coding.

Naomi Meredith [00:04:50]:

It all connected together. So you need to go and start there. I do have some episodes that talk all about how to plan a stem lesson. So those will be linked in the show notes if you need some help with that, but you need to start there. You need to have your lessons be standards-based because what are you gonna grade them on? Now, maybe your school grades on character traits like collaboration and critical thinking. Amazing. Awesome. There actually are some common core standards in speaking and listening that talk about explaining ideas and working together as a group.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:24]:

But if you're gonna have to really grade, think about your lessons. You might need to start there with the grading piece. If you're just doing surface-level activities where they're just playing with robots for the day. You might need to rethink what you're doing with your kids. From there. So let's say, okay, Naomi, I do this, I plan with standards in mind. How are we gonna do this? How are we going to assess these projects? And like I mentioned, I like to use a rubric because it has a whole variety of things when it comes to an actual project.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:59]:

And when you are designing a rubric, I highly recommend creating a rubric that involves the process versus the product. It has both of those intertwined. So again, if you are planning with the standards, you might have ways where students are demonstrating a specific science standard in their actual project, and that might be the grade level indicators that you put in the rubric, and then, of course, you go up from there. So I like to use a 4-point rubric, four being the highest, 1 being the lowest, and then 3 and 2 are in the middle. So 3 would be what I would expect for a grade level 2, they need to do it with support. Four is above and beyond. 1, they didn't do it all, like, they might have some things or were absent. And so, having those indicators maybe have those specific science standards.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:52]:

How are they demonstrating this in the project? How are they demonstrating specific math concepts in their project? Are they doing specific parts of the engineering design process? Are they demonstrating those things? So you're merging those standards together where they maybe have 5 different levels. Some of the standards actually would overlap. So, just the way that you write the rubric is really important as well so that students can find success. Also, if you create this rubric while you are planning, you know how you should teach the lesson so that students can succeed in this overall grade. You could give honestly whatever points you want. If you had 5 categories, each category is worth 20. That is correct.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:40]:

That is the correct math. That is the m and stem. Good job, Naomi. But if you do that, then you could have a score out of 100, and you would be good to go. Creating standards-based rubrics is actually one of the 2 updates that I am putting in my k through 5 stem year long plan of lessons because this is actually a really highly requested nature that I told you a lot of you have been asking about. So this is something if you see the lessons, my lessons are $10, if you see that price difference, then that means I have updated those lessons with me teaching the lesson. So you actually get to hear how I teach the lesson to students. I create a video about me actually explaining the whole thing in the product, and then there's also an update with standards-based rubrics and more math connections.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:31]:

So, the sooner you jump in on those, the better. You get all the updates for free, so you can have a rubric already set up for the main grade level that I plan it for. And then, if you need to adjust it for other grades, you can have a sense of what that could be like. And finally, when you are creating rubrics for your students, I highly recommend writing them in kid-friendly language. If you have students in 2nd through 5th grade, this actually might be a little bit easier because you're writing in a way that if they read the rubric or if they were self-assessing, they could understand what is happening. I recommend doing a self-assessment on these rubrics with your students that can be a whole other topic, but that way, you're not creating 2 different rubrics. When I taught writing, we graded on the student-friendly rubric, so there wasn't any miscommunication about what they needed to add, and then it made sense. This might be a little more tricky for k and 2, maybe a little bit of 2nd grade, where you might have to add some images on this student-friendly rubric.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:40]:

But honestly, you could do the same thing. You could still grade them on the same thing. It doesn't have to be this whole overcomplicated thing when it comes to creating a rubric for students, write it in a way that a student would understand. And that way, you as a teacher be like, okay. They did this, or they didn't do this. So then you don't need to create 2 different things. That is my philosophy on it, especially if you're making it standards-based anyway, why do you need to have the teacher's language? Now, maybe you have student examples on the side of, oh, here's what a 3 looks like, here's what a 2 looks like. Awesome.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:16]:

But really, it saves a lot of time. You're getting at the same idea. If it's standards-based, you'll be good to go. If you are interested to see in exactly how to create a rubric from scratch where it is a 4-point system, learning how to put the standards together, and putting together that Process First product, I invite you into the self-paced signature course of mine, STEM teacher 101, where there's a new module that is all about how to grade using a rubric. So there's a section already about self-assessment and explaining rubrics and different ways to do that and examples for you. And then the new module is actually going to walk you through how I create a rubric with that process first product and really the whole explanation of that. As a recap, here are the 3 ways that we talked about how you can grade students' STEM projects using a rubric. 1st is making sure that your lessons and the rubric itself is standards-based.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:25]:

Next, we talked about creating a rubric that combines the process of how the project is made and the final product. And 3rd, we talked about writing those rubrics in kid-friendly language. It will save you time. And also, as the teacher understands, hey, this is what is expected for this type of project. As a reminder, don't forget to jump in on my signature course, STEM Teacher 101. It is never too late to jump on in our community of teachers, and I am continuously listening to you and seeing the needs that you want for your stem space and adding in those modules. Also, the cool thing about it, I added a private podcast feature. So, if you are busy on the go like most teachers, every module has a podcast pairing.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:18]:

So when you sign up, you get that private podcast, and you can actually listen to the entire course and not feel like you have to be stuck on the computer watching my cute little face. So I invite you in there. The link will be in the show notes, and I will see you in the next.