00:00

After students have completed a long-term STEM project, it's important to share their work with an authentic audience. How do you do this besides having kids stand in front of the class and share one after the other? In this episode, I will be sharing with you creative ways that you can have students present their projects and have all of their voices heard. 

00:52

This is the last episode of our mini-series all about the Engineering Design Process. I've had a lot of fun recording these episodes and diving deeper into each stage of the Engineering Design Process. All of these ideas can be modified for any grade level that you teach, which makes the EDP such a great way to plan for the STEM space. If you haven't grabbed it already, I have a free Engineering Design Process poster and planning guide that you can download for your classroom. You can grab that at Naomimeredith.com/podcastEDP, and I'll also link it in the show notes. 

01:31

You know, when kids get super excited and want to show you what they have created in STEM? I'm really talking about Kindergarten here because they physically want to show you. You can't look across the room and say, “Oh, wow, you've worked so hard on that.” No, you physically have to go see it. If you are talking to a kindergartner, this is a great way for kids to share. However, there are even more creative ways that students can share their long-term STEM projects. This is an important step not to skip when you are teaching using the Engineering Design Process. So let's dive into these four creative ways that you can have students share their work.

02:14

The first way you can have students share their work is to go digital. This is one of my top favorite ways, and this is something that I do with K through five in my classroom. If I'm using the Engineering Design Process or other teaching methods, I love using Seesaw in my classroom. You can also use Flipgrid as an alternative. I provide the Seesaw code for the class regardless of what stage they are in the Engineering Design Process, but especially during that final share stage. I will do this a few ways with my kids. Oftentimes, I will have them take a video or create an audio recording of their final project. This might be a scripted experience, or it might be off the cuff, and they record an action. Both are valuable, and they can have different purposes. 

03:11

One way that I've used a scripted model is with my first graders when they were sharing their final 3D printed designs when we talked about animal families and their traits. Throughout the week, students researched their favorite animals and learned all about the babies and their adults, what they have on their bodies, and how they might be the same or how they might be different. One thing to keep in mind with 3D printing, I usually don't get the prints done by the end of the week. This share piece was the next month once I saw the kids, they got their 3D prints back. They colored their designs with Sharpies to make them look like real animals. When they were ready to share their work, I had a very specific script that was written and first-grade friendly language that we practiced together as a whole class. We made it a fun game, and the kids really liked how when they got to their specific part, they were supposed to share. It was super crazy but really fun. So we practice this script as a whole class repeatedly, and then students were sent off with their iPad. They were to take a picture of their final 3D printed design, draw the habitat using the seesaw Drawing Tools, and then record audio of their script. 

04:35

This script was very specific, and it helped them share the differences and similarities between the baby animal and their adults. The first graders were able to be successful and independent in this task because they understood what the script was saying. It was shown on this screen, and it was also printed on paper if they wanted to use that version. I also had on the script some visual markers, so little picture icons, to help them remember what the script said. It was so great having the kids in first grade be independent with this task because there were a few kids that needed more support from me. I was able to do that since I'm the only teacher in the classroom. 

05:16

Another way that I've had students share it digitally when it's off the cuff is really showing their work in action. I've talked about this in the other Engineering Design Process episodes of this podcast, including how students have been able to take videos during the experiment and improve stage. This can also be part of the sharing stage. For Kindergarten, I have them create a wall maze using recycled materials to show how the different things on the wall can change the path of the ball moving down the wall. Students again use Seesaw as the platform where they can take a video of their work in action and feel like they are taking the project home. In STEM, we use a lot of different materials. Students aren't always able to take all of that work home. Even if it's recycled materials, it just doesn't always make sense for them to take it home, such as the cardboard wall maze. So having them take a video of their work in action is a great way for them to share their designs with me, each other, and their families at home. Now, this can get a little overwhelming to manage, and it does take a lot of work and practice to teach kids how to use technology appropriately in this stage. Sometimes I will go around with my phone, I have Seesaw loaded on my phone, and I will take a video of their work in action. This is also another great option. If you don't have iPads or tablets in your classroom, you could use your phone as an alternative. But that's definitely up to you. 

06:50

The second way that I like students to share their work at the end of this process is to have reflection questions. I use the same three questions for all of my Engineering Design Process challenges year-round and for all of my grade levels. I like having the same three questions because the responses definitely change based on the types of experiences that we do for each unit. It also helps build that consistency where kids are mentally keeping track of how they are growing throughout these processes and working to try their best. The three questions that I like to give students are, I am proud of; if I were to try this challenge again, …; I would change blank, or blank was challenging for me. These are some great questions for students to type their responses to. So you can mix in that digital sharing, record audio or even video of their response. There's a lot of differentiation within these questions. Some students might even want to draw a picture or take a photo to respond to these questions as well. You can even mix these questions and have them as a class discussion throughout the week. Or, if you are pressed for time, this could just be the last day of your share. You have students share as a small group and then as a whole class. 

08:15

The third way that you can have students creatively share their projects is peer-to-peer sharing, especially in the older grades. They love to hear what their other friends in the class think about their projects. Yes, they want me as a teacher to notice their work, but as they get older, they're so focused on what their peers think. So give them that opportunity and teach them constructive ways to respond to one another. One way that I have done this is with the fourth grade, and they created videos that were all about space junk. So throughout the week, they were researching what space junk is, what the problems are, and what are some possible solutions and even thinking of their own solution. They created a short video in Adobe Spark with a voiceover to share their findings in a concise and clear way. 

09:06

From there, students pasted the link of their video in Seesaw. You guys know I love Seesaw by now. They pasted it in Seesaw, and we talked about ways that are constructive to comment on one another's work. Students commented on the videos, and they wrote at least one thing the students did well in their video and one thing that they needed to work on. The great thing is that these comments come to me first, so I was able to review those before they were approved so that the other students in the class could see. During the same unit for second grade, second graders researched different natural disasters that happen in our world, and they created a scripted video that utilized a green screen to teach us about these natural disasters. Again, students have that video posted in Seesaw, and instead of giving feedback through typing, students were given a paper feedback checklist, where they could circle what went well in the video and things that they needed to work on. 

10:10

This could definitely work for the older grades as well using a peer feedback checklist, especially when it comes to video and audio productions of their work. This same checklist was also used for the students when they were modifying their videos and before they were posting them. So all of the qualifications that their peers were marking them on weren't a surprise because these were things that they needed to add to their video anyway. Having a mix of digital and paper was a great way to have students reflect on their work and hear their peers' viewpoints on what their STEM project was. 

10:47

The fourth way that you can have students share their designs is by creating a museum experience. This is one where you will need space within your classroom or somewhere else in the building where other classes can move about and check out the students' work. Maybe consider if there are any display cases in your building that you could use for a month or so, or maybe somewhere in the library on top of the bookshelves, get creative. And This is a really fun, interactive way where again, students have an authentic audience to view their work. I did this when I was teaching third grade. So before I became a STEM teacher, I taught second grade for two years and third grade for four years. My third graders were really obsessed with rocks and minerals. That was one of the standards that we were teaching in science at the time. This isn't, per se, a STEM project. But this is more so to help you get an idea of how to do a museum-style sharing in your classroom. 

11:50

Students were given a specific rock or mineral that they wanted to learn more about. I actually had the real rocks and minerals for them to explore. They researched their rock or mineral using a variety of resources. Then they created an interactive poster for other kids, other third graders, and their book buddies to explore. Students created little short videos and audio recordings that were created in Seesaw. There is a share button that could create a QR code that could then be posted on the poster. When we were at recess, lunch, or specials. The different classes had the opportunity to sign up for those times when my room was empty. They could borrow the iPads and check out our interactive displays and all the different rocks and minerals that we had in our classroom. So this was not only a great way for my third-grade students to have an authentic audience throughout the day. But the other classes had an in-house field trip that they could come and explore as well, and the classroom teachers appreciate it because there are no permission slips or bus forms required. 

13:01

Another way that I have done this museum-style is for a semester when I first started teaching STEM. I taught gifted and talented science on Mondays for the kids who had been identified in giftedness within science. We would work on projects for the whole semester, and then students had the opportunity to share their projects with their peers through a museum style. I did provide a peer feedback checklist a lot like the one that I just talked about and that the other third, fourth or fifth graders were given so they could give feedback to their peers on their project. After this museum experience, students collected those peer feedback forms, and actually created a graph based on the responses that they were given, and then reflected on how they could improve their work for a different type of presentation for next time. Again, those authentic audiences can definitely be those peers. Use the kids who are in your school, use your teachers, and you can really be creative with the time and the space to make this museum type of experience come to life. 

14:12

As a recap, here are the four different ways that you can have students creatively share their STEM projects at the end of the Engineering Design Process. First, they can share digitally. Second, have reflection questions. Third, peer-to-peer sharing, and fourth, create a museum-style type of sharing. This is the final episode of this mini-series about the Engineering Design Process. But we will definitely be talking about the EDP again, and a lot, but I wanted to make sure to go in-depth about each stage, so this can help with your overall planning. Also, don't forget to grab your free Engineering Design Process poster and planning guide that is linked in the show notes to help you organize and streamline those lesson plans and to dive deeper into the EDP. You can grab that using this direct link Naomimeredith.com/podcastEDP.