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lessons in the K-5 STEM year

How to Stretch Out the Lessons in the K-5 STEM Year Long Bundle [ep.111]

How to Stretch Out the Lessons in the K-5 STEM Year Long Bundle [ep.111]

lessons in the K-5 STEM year

Check out the full episode on How to Stretch Out the Lessons in the K-5 STEM Year Long Bundle:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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Episode Summary

If you’ve been wondering how to stretch out the lessons in the K-5 STEM year long bundle, then today’s episode is for you. As we approach the back-to-school season, teachers are busy organizing their lesson plans and daily activities. So, I want to provide you with guidance on year long planning and help you create a plan for your lessons that works best for your STEM classroom. Whether you see the same kids every day or have a rotating schedule, we'll explore different scenarios and strategies to stretch out the lessons.

Do you have a different schedule for your K-5 STEM classroom? I would love to hear about it. Send me a DM on Instagram @naomimeredith_ and let me know what teaching schedule you have.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How to structure and pace your lesson plans
  • How to stretch out the lessons in the K-5 STEM year long bundle
  • Tips and strategies for the most common schedules when teaching K-5 STEM

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:


During back to school, this is the time of year when you are trying to figure out what your elementary STEM is going to look like and what exactly you’re going to do each day. And many of you are wondering what should the pacing of your year look like. In fact, this can look different for the different types of lessons you teach and how often you see your students. In this episode, I'm going to break down a whole bunch for you that is going to help with your year long planning. We're going to be talking about the pacing of your lessons and what that can look like, how to stretch out your lessons for the year long plan bundle, and how this works out with different scenarios of STEM schedules that are pretty common in this elementary space. So let's get started and see how we can implement this lesson planning.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:05]:


I've mentioned this before, but if you are new here I used to teach elementary STEM for five years and a total of eleven years teaching in elementary. And when I got my K through five STEM teaching position, I got a brand new to me school and a brand new classroom with limited supplies and zero curriculum. And in fact, this is a very common narrative in the elementary STEM space. I actually put a poll over on my Instagram not too long ago and I asked if you are in charge of your STEM curriculum planning. And 81% of you who answered this question said, yes, I am in charge of my STEM curriculum. That is a lot to think about, even if it's just one grade level.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:20]:


But more than likely it's multiple grade levels. There are a whole lot of moving pieces and how are you going to make it all work? So maybe you have your plans already. You kind of have an idea of what you want to teach. Maybe you even bought my K-5 STEM year long plan bundle that is constantly growing with lots of cool updates and lessons. But you're wondering, okay, so how can this even work for my STEM schedule? I'm going to be referring a lot to the engineering design process throughout this episode. So if you are a bit unfamiliar with the engineering design process, this is a next generation science standard for K through two and three through five. If you are a little bit unsure about the engineering design process or want to learn more, I created a whole series about each step in that.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:13]:


So if you go back to episode 15, I go through every stage of the engineering design process. Also, I have created free podcast playlists where I have categorized all of the episodes here on this podcast in categories of topics that you probably want to learn about. So any episode that is related to the engineering design process, including those in that series, are all in its own playlist. You can check that out at naomimeredith.com/podcastplaylist, and that will be linked in the show notes. I put together four common scenarios when it comes to teaching in your elementary STEM space. So hopefully I gathered a scenario that is very common to yours or maybe exactly like yours. And if not, I know that you can learn a lot about these structures and how it can help you of structuring your year long plan of lessons. The first scenario is probably the luckiest one and that is where you see the same classes every day in a row, or pretty close to it.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:24]:


You see them five ish days, five to six days in a row. This was my schedule for about half the time when I taught STEM. So I had the same six classes starting on Monday and I had them all the way leading up to Friday. I had 45 minutes for each class. In the middle of my day was my lunchtime and about five to ten minutes when it comes to passing time. So lots of time with the same kids for the week. Then the following Monday I would get a new set of kids. So I will say this is again a very lucky schedule because you can continue on with the same lesson throughout the week.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:04]:


So if I was doing an engineering design process project, here is the basic structure that we went through. Day one was ask and imagine. So I proposed the question to the kids and we used different resources that I pre researched to help them gain knowledge about the topic that would inform their decisions when they went into the planning. Now every day, if students weren't finished with every part of the engineering design process, and this goes for any day, they had the opportunity to keep working on that process. So if not everyone is on that stage in that day, that's okay. Think about it like the writing process. I always told the kids, I'm always going to teach you the next step, but if you need to continue the next one, keep going at it, that's fine. If they didn't get to the project, they didn't get to the project.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:50]:


That's where they're at in the process. That's real. That's real life. So day two was planning. So students would thoughtfully plan their designs and maybe a few would start building if they were ready. Day three was all about that create. So really diving into their project and making changes along the way. Day four, more creation.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:10]:


And really, for those big changes to be thoughtful, students had a modification checklist that was specific to their project that could help them improve their design. And finally, on the last day is where students would share their designs, oftentimes by taking videos and pictures of their work and reflecting on the things that we did together that week. Later on in the year, maybe a couple of months in, I would actually do some STEM stations with my kindergarteners and first graders. I'm going to briefly highlight how this structure worked. But if you're wanting to hear more how I do this in a complete unit, go and check out this on demand workshop. I have an on demand workshop for K through two, STEM planning, and then an on demand workshop for three through five. So this can help you with your whole year, but you can check that out at Naomi Meredith.com workshops, and you'll see all of those laid out for you. But if I was mixing in STEM stations, the first one to three days would be the project.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:11]:


So we would condense the engineering design process, and then the last two days would be STEM stations. So they would do two the first day, two the next day. And there was a really specific way on how I planned those STEM stations, so they were getting a variety of things. I realized that with projects, it didn't really work well doing five days a row in a project. For little kids, their Stamina is just at a different place. That's where they're at developmentally for typical kindergarten and first graders. There's nothing wrong with that. So that was definitely how my weeks would go.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:45]:


Sometimes I would even flip flop it, depending on the week and what was going on. Sometimes I even started with STEM stations and ended with a project. It really just went based on what was happening at school and all of those fun things. On to scenario two. Maybe you only teach kids two to three days out of the week, and then you see the same kids next week, two to three days. I did this schedule, but it was just the three days in a row. I didn't see them again for the rest of the month. So this one is interesting.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:17]:


There's a few options of how you can structure this. If you have your K through five STEM year long plan, you have those lessons. You can still do projects just like you would for the younger students. You can actually condense the engineering design process in three days. So if you see them three days out of the week, maybe just condense the project, kind of speed up some steps a little bit more, maybe do a bit of the imagining together. The plan could be verbal. It doesn't always have to be through drawing, which there are benefits to that. But maybe it's a verbal plan.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:51]:


They're going to talk about it with their partner and what they're planning. Maybe they're going to take a video and explain what pieces they're going to use. And then you can spend more time with the building. I wouldn't just jump into building. There is value through the process, but you can speed it up so you can get through the project in three days. It is very fast. So I do recommend having projects that are smaller because it uses less supplies and it is less to store. I talk a lot about this in my Makerspace episodes, namely episode five and six.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:24]:


Maybe you don't want to speed up a project. You know you're going to see the kids again. So instead you could do the same project for two weeks, so lasting five days and have one flex day. So I would actually follow the same schedule that I talked about before, like having kids five days a week, I would do that same exact schedule. And then you have one day that could be like a makeup day. Maybe you had a sub and you needed to not have kids be in all of your building supplies that day. Maybe there is a day off of school when it comes to like a snow day or something like that. So you could still do the five days on a project.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:07]:


So do half the first week, half the next. If you get kids to create, they're going to be really excited to jump into the create the following week. So that way they're not like, oh wait, I planned this, but I want to do it again. And they're starting all from scratch. Make sure they create a little bit or even just have them collect supplies and then they can get into those steps again. So having that six if you're doing three days, three days, that six flex day is really helpful. Or maybe it's two and two. You could do a project in four days.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:40]:


I have definitely done that. Especially when students are getting used to you and you are using that same process over and over again, they're going to get a lot quicker at building as well. What if you want to mix in some of those STEM stations when you have kids? Three days the first week, three days the next week? Well, you could do STEM stations the whole time, and you could have two different kinds. Here's how I might do it with STEM stations that would repeat. So let's say I start seeing kids Wednesday. So I would do two stations on Wednesday, they would do the next two. On Thursday they would start it all over. So Friday they would do two.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:20]:


Monday they would do two. And then you can do like fun one day lessons for the last two days you see kids. Maybe you want to mix it up a little bit. You do STEM stations for half of the week. So you do STEM stations Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday, you have, like, a fun STEM and stories, a one day lesson. And then the next week, you do it again. So you do okay, you're going to do the stations again. So two today, two tomorrow.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:46]:


And then you have a STEM and stories or half and half. First week, you do a STEM project that lasts three days. Next week, you do two days of STEM stations. The last day, maybe they pick their favorite station. Or you do a STEM and story. So there's a lot of options. We know with the little kids, you got to plan more, but those are some creative options that you can mix it up with your lessons. Scenario three, one of the most common scenarios I have found when talking to all of you in the digital space, you only see kids one time a week.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:22]:


You see by the end of the week, every student in the school. And you're wondering, I have all these lessons. I have the K through five STEM year long plan bundle. Can I still do the projects? Will I have enough time? I think yes. And I have had this schedule, too, where I saw kids one day a week. So here's how I would structure it. Week one, you would do that, ask and imagine. So what is the question, what is the problem they're trying to solve? And what is some inspiration behind it? The next week, you might want to add in another video to trigger their memory.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:02]:


And then they would do some planning and maybe gathering some materials so they have it on hand, put them in a bag. The third week, they really get into that creation. So for the first two weeks, you're not doing a lot of storage of projects already. Then the fourth week, you can really talk about those modifications and how they can share their work. So I still think that you can get a project done. You will definitely have to find your rhythm with this one and what would work best and a natural stopping place. But I still think that you can do a thoughtful lesson if you only see kids one time out of the week. And the last scenario, which isn't as common now, but I feel like it's becoming this way based on funding needs.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:49]:


And this is actually a question that was asked in my signature course, STEM Teacher 101. And there is a teacher who actually splits their time between two buildings. And when it comes to materials, super overwhelming. Should I be carrying materials back and forth? What should I be doing? How can I make sure robots are charged? All of that. So I haven't done this position. I have co taught with teachers in my building. But when it comes to the supplies, here is a creative way of looking at this. You can still teach those lessons.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:22]:


You want to teach. This will take some careful preparation. Now, if you have the bundle, you already are prepared. You just need to make sure you have all this stuff ready to go, but you can do a flip flop. So let's say I'm looking at my year long plan, and I have STEM Survival Camp as my first unit, and my second unit is Digital Citizenship. You could start off with both. Now. You could do STEM Survival Camp.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:46]:


At both schools. There's not very many supplies, but for the sake of this conversation, at school number one, they're doing STEM Survival Camp. Month one, school number two they're doing digital citizenship. All right? So that's month one. They're doing different things.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:04]:


Moving on to month number two. School number one, you're flip flopping. School number one is doing Digital Citizenship, and school number two is doing STEM Survival Camp. So that way you don't have to be worried about, oh, my gosh, I have to switch these materials back and forth, especially robots, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, in fact, this is a cool way that'll mix it up. So let's say you have four classes of a grade. Then that way you're not teaching it eight times, which eventually you're going to have to teach it eight times, but you're going to get super bored really fast. So at least you're breaking it up.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:41]:


You get to test it at both schools. And then month two, it can work out a lot better. So again, it'll take some careful planning. But that way you're not flip flopping materials every single week and your car is in a mess. You just have to keep track at which school is teaching what. So that would be a fun solution to that. The teacher in this group really liked this suggestion, so I can't wait to hear how it goes this school year for that teacher. So let me know if you're listening.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:06]:


Let me know in the Facebook group, or I'll check in on you to see what you ended up doing. As a recap, here are the different scenarios that we talked about when it comes to stretching out your year of lessons using the K-5 STEM year long bundle or any lessons that you have on hand. We talked about the first scenario where you see the same kids five days in a row. Next, we talked about the scenario if you see kids three days out of the week, and then you see them again for another three days the following week. The third scenario is when you see kids only one day out of a week for four weeks. So you see all the kids in the school by Friday, and then it starts all over again on Monday. And then the fourth scenario that we talked about is if you are splitting your time between two schools, what are your options for you? I'm curious. Do you have a different kind of schedule when it comes to your K through Five STEM space, I would love to hear about it.


Naomi Meredith [00:17:09]:


Send me a DM over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore. Or if you are watching the video version of this episode, feel free to leave a comment below, and I would love to check in with you. Thank you so much for listening, and I will see you in the next episode.

lessons in the K-5 STEM year

 

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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!

engineering design process

STEM Survival Camp & The Engineering Design Process [ep.103]

STEM Survival Camp & The Engineering Design Process [ep.103]

engineering design process

Check out the full episode on STEM Survival Camp & The Engineering Design Process:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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

Episode Summary

Today’s episode is the audio from a presentation I did at the Seesaw Connect Summit. In this episode, I share how I merged the Engineering Design Process with my STEM survival camp unit in my K-5 STEM classroom. 

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The history of how STEM survival camp was created
  • How to integrate the Engineering Design Process in my STEM survival camp lesson
  • How to integrate Seesaw with the STEM survival camp challenges
  • Examples of how I implemented this in my K-5 STEM classroom

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:


One of my most favorite units I have ever taught is STEM survival camp. If you are looking for a way to easily double your Makerspace supplies for practically free and have the opportunity to take your students outside, then this unit is perfect for you. While the audio from this episode has never been heard before on this podcast, this was a presentation I did in the past at the Seesaw Connect Summit. In this episode and session, I'll be sharing with you how I merged together the Engineering Design Process and this fun, hands-on unit into my classroom with this K through 5 STEM unit with examples. If you wanna hear more in detail about STEM survival camp, I just did a re-release, and you can even scroll back all the way to episode 4. And I talk in that episode specifically about every single challenge in the STEM survival camp. If you need more background knowledge when it comes to the Engineering Design Process, I do get into it in this session, but I'm linking the 2 together. So STEM survival camp and the Engineering Design Process.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:05]:


So if you wanna hear more about each of those stages, go all the way back to the episode series all about the Engineering Design Process. So that starts in episode 15, then it skips to episodes 17 through 22. So you can listen to that first Or listen to this episode, and then go back and listen to those episodes that I just listed, and that can give you some more background knowledge to understand what I'm talking about. So let's jump into this fun episode to talk about one of my most favorite units. 


Hey there, teachers, and welcome to the session that's going to help kick off your year using the outdoors STEM survival camp. I am your guide, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned current K through 5 STEM teacher and coach. My role not only includes teaching over 500 students in my school but also leading professional development and co-teaching with the teachers to help them integrate STEM and Technology. With over a decade of experience, along with a Master's in STEM Leadership and a STEM certificate, I help teachers worldwide navigate the best practices, strategies, and tools out there.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:53]:


I truly believe that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM and Technology in their classrooms. I can't wait to connect with you and be your guide during STEM survival camp in our short time together and other adventures. Here is an overview of the session and how we will spend our time together at STEM survival camp. First, you're going to hear the origin story of how STEM survival camp got started. Next, you're going to learn how to integrate and understand what the Engineering Design Process is, which is used in these STEM survival camp challenges, then you're going to see real examples of ways that you can integrate Seesaw with these STEM survival camp challenges, and then you're going to have some resources that will help you implement this in your own classroom. Let's gather around the campfire campers, and let's hear the origin story of STEM survival camp. Everybody likes a good origin story, and where things come from, so I think you'll like this one. This unit was born during the summer of 2020, and I was in the middle of a pandemic just like you. My school district was still planning on going back to school 100 percent in person for elementary students, along with the possibility of going remote at a moment's notice.


Naomi Meredith [00:04:18]:


The units I had done in the past, during August, wouldn't work since students would share classroom materials and most likely didn't have the same items at home. I needed to create something that could be shifted no matter what, and students could still have the same STEM experience. At the time, I was watching this survival show alone. And if you haven't seen it before, people are forced to be creative to survive, well, alone, by building their necessities, gathering, and protecting their food, traveling the land, and for those that stay really long staying entertained, thus STEM survival camp was born. This is one of six units I taught in my K through 5 STEM classroom, and we had an absolute blast. So much so that this is a unit that I taught again and will be taught each year coming back to school to help ignite creativity, create engagement, and improve critical thinking skills. I'm excited to have you learn more about this experience so that you can start something similar in your classroom. Before you dive into the actual STEM survival camp lessons, it's important to understand the basics of what the Engineering Design Process actually is.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:43]:


In my own definition, the Engineering Design Process is the real process engineers use to ask questions, find solutions, iterate ideas, or try something over and over again. So why is this important in the elementary space? Why is this even relevant? Well, the Engineering Design Process is part of the Next Generation Science Standards, even starting in kindergarten. Of course, there is a progression of learning among all the grades, but this is something that needs to be taught to our students. Now depending on which state you're in, your state might have even different variations of the Engineering Design Process and your standards and what they have adopted. So check that out and see what the science portion is for your state and district. Also, the Engineering Design Process is different than the scientific method. This doesn't mean getting rid of the scientific method, either. So I would say the scientific method is using science to prove and investigate a problem, and there typically is that scripted outcome or reason why something happens, at least in that elementary setting.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:58]:


It's great to integrate the Engineering Design Process along with the scientific method. So different types of experiments, different lessons, but the Engineering Design Process is used to plan, build, and solve a problem with multiple outcomes and solutions and, often, this comes with inventing. So, again, both are very different. Both are relevant. Both are needed. You typically don't teach both in the same lesson. So that'll help you understand the difference between the two. And also, when you're teaching the Engineering Design Process, this is a great opportunity to promote that creative problem-solving and also creativity with constraints.


Naomi Meredith [00:07:43]:


Students are creative beings, and it's amazing to tap into that. But also giving them those challenges where things aren't unlimited, they have to be creative with what they have. And you will see in these STEM survival camp examples that I'll be sharing with you that there is some creativity with constraints, which is really important to have so that students are problem-solving in a different way. In this course, I will be providing you with some free resources to help you get started when planning using the Engineering Design Process that will help you with these STEM survival camp challenges along with other STEM challenges that you want to implement in your classroom. Now that we have a basic understanding of what the Engineering Design Process is let's see how we can integrate that with Seesaw when we are accomplishing STEM survival camp. I'm going to be showing you these examples from kindergarten and 5th grades to the same challenge for each of those 2 individual grades so that you can flex up or down depending on the age of your students that you and you might even teach all of the students as I do as well.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:57]:


Now you already know that Seesaw has some amazing creative tools that you can use with any type of lesson and any type of subject, and I will use a mixture of both tools depending on the time and experience my students have with Seesaw. So, of course, you have the green add button. And when you click on that button, you get a variety of tools that pop up on your page, just like what I'm showing here. And then you also have those same tools that are embedded with activities. So, again, depending on their experience, you might want to it up. So, for example, my kindergartners don't have as much experience with Seesaw when coming into the school year. So I will typically start with one-page activities with them that have one goal in mind, or I will do a one-day challenge with the green add button. So maybe that is, let's just take a picture of our work today.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:52]:


Now for my older students, that I have had more time with, the years and more experience with Seesaw, not only with STEM survival camp but other challenges we do during STEM. I will use more of a mixture of multi-tools. So we might do let's take a picture and record our voice on top using the arrow tool. or I might even send them multi-page activities that we will edit throughout the week and go through during our time together. So really mix up the creative tools when you are using CSA with your student. The 1st stage in the Engineering Design Process is at. Now you are asking the problem that needs to be solved. This problem can be teacher or student-directed depending on the time that you have and what you're really trying to accomplish.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:43]:


Since I have limited time with my students, I typically will have the ask the problem already written out for them, and I will keep this question really open-ended. So when you're thinking about the problem that you're trying to solve, shift from can you do this, which is typically a yes or no answer, to how can you, which keeps it more open-ended. So just shifting those few little words can really change the outcome of your challenge. So for this STEM survival camp experience, kindergarten has the question, how can you create a solution to help you cross the river safely? And 5th grade's challenge is how can you create a shelter that will withstand different types of weather. So both are very open-ended for the challenges that they are going to attack. The next stage in the Engineering Design Process is the imagined stage. Now, again, depending on the time you have, you probably want to pre-research a lot of these resources for students to explore. just so that they can attack what they need to. Again, research is a really great tool, and skill for students to have.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:00]:


That isn't always in my STEM position, what time we have for. I really want to get kids into building and collaborating. So I will pre-research in a lot of ways and provide those resources for students. So you see on the left that there is the shelter inspiration, so I found different images of shelters that are built in real life by people. My students are gonna build little small prototypes of these or whatever they choose to plan. And if you've done challenges before, really think about how you can take pictures and videos as students work in action because that's really helpful for kids to see what real kids have done. Now this isn't a means to copy each other's work, but just seeing different examples that will give them a basis of understanding. The cool thing with Seesaw is you can even go through your past classes in Seesaw and save work with those QR codes.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:56]:


So if you click the three dots under a student's post in a journal, students could scan that QR code, and they can check out work that way, or you can even create a list of links to past student work. Also, in the Imagine stage, you can find videos online, websites that are related, podcast whole podcasts or even podcast clips, or even create a collection in Epic Books that you can share with students. So the more pre-research that you do as a teacher and giving those tools to students, that can really help you save time and help them focus on what they need to know for their challenge. Group students have gathered ideas from all of the imagining resources. It is time for them to plan their design thoughtfully. Planning designs is important for all grade levels and is possible for all grade levels, no matter what their abilities are. The planning stage is also where I will tell them how much of each item they're going to be able to use. So in this unit for STEM survival camp, there are predetermined amounts of materials they're allowed to use along with anything that they collect from the outside.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:05]:


So here is an example of a kindergarten plan, and this is from a different related project. So you notice it says Pumpkin Bridge. It's from something else; however, the challenge is how you can create something to help cross the river safely. So a bridge would definitely work in this situation. So ahead of time, in this one-page activity that I sent my kindergartners, I added in the predetermined materials that they would be able to use for my classroom. So, for example, they will be able to use popsicle sticks, cubes, and cups. You can even limit this even more and have a set amount of popsicle sticks, cubes, and cups; that is entirely up to you. Now for this challenge, they are also able to use anything that we collect from the outdoors.


Naomi Meredith [00:14:51]:


There are some rules that will go over in the create stage for that. So students use Seesaw, the drawing tool, to draw their design, and I really encourage them to use colors to really think about how their plan could look like in real life. They can also label their drawing as well. I've seen students draw lines from the materials list to their actual drawings, or they like to use that text tool to label on top. So depending on their experience with Seesaw and how you want to go with this. Those are a couple of options for planning for those younger students. You can also leave that material section blank if you don't have time. Or, if you want to use Seesaw tools even more, students can take pictures of the materials that they're going to use in the classroom, and then they can put that in that empty space.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:43]:


For the older students, I do still have them thoughtfully plan their designs. And what I have found is that drawing their plans on a separate piece of paper can really bring out those details just based on the types of devices that I have that they use Seesaw on. Older students will often get frustrated drawing their plans just using their fingers because there's so much that they want to add. So I still have them plan on a piece of paper. I'll send them that planning sheet, but then they will take a picture of their plan. and then also they can talk about their design using the microphone tools. So, again, they can use the c sub tools in a different way. When the older students are planning, I will try to encourage them to draw more than one view of their plan based on our planning rubric, label the parts, and also explain what each of those parts will do.


Naomi Meredith [00:16:34]:


So in this example, they're going to use 6, a bag, a wrapper, and string, and you notice that they describe what each of those parts is going to do. During this planning stage, if you are thinking about using the money for students to purchase supplies, this is the stage that you would do that. I do use money in other units. For STEM survival camp, I just have the set amount of materials. But if you are thinking about adding money and a budget, the planning stage is where you want to do that. Now that the plans are underway, it is time to take, which is the students’ favorite part, especially since they get to find some materials from the outdoors. So like, I mentioned during the planning stage, I will tell them the amount of the predetermined things for my classroom that they are able to use within their design.


Naomi Meredith [00:17:25]:


So, of course, it goes back to that creativity with constraints. It's always good to let students be creative and design whatever is in their heart's desire that is school appropriate, but also have those constraints when it comes to the material because when you think about things that we build in real life, there usually isn't an unlimited amount of materials and students need to realize that. and be creative with what they got. So we'll go over those things that they can use from the classroom, and then they can go outside to collect the materials that they want to add to their design. So this is really fun, especially when the weather is nice, so keep that in mind as well. So when we go and collect things from outside, I do have some ground rules that I go over with all of the classes. So these are the same rules for k through 5. So these are my biggest things that we are collecting, is only take what you need.


Naomi Meredith [00:18:20]:


So we don't wanna be excessive with what we're taking from nature. But based on the plans, we only take what we need. I will have one initial day that we will go outside to collect materials. And then depending on the class, some classes do want to go back out a few days later, and some of them will actually take things back outside and then collect something new. So I also don't have students bring bags with them because I did that the first time, and then they came back with bags of dirt and all sorts of things. We had a spider and a slug. So happen to be able to carry what they take from the outside indoors. Next is that living things stay living.


Naomi Meredith [00:19:03]:


So we're not picking up all the grass out of the ground, taking leaves off of trees, taking small little creatures on purpose; those living things need to stay living. And then, along the same lines, sticky, slimy, and wet things stay in nature. So that might even include, like, a bag wrapper that they find that is all wet and soggy. Let's leave that outside. probably even put it in the trash. So that way, things that are coming indoors aren't as filthy. Your room will be a little bit of a mess, but this will help with that collection piece. Once students have gathered their materials from the doors and also used the things in your room, they are going to create.


Naomi Meredith [00:19:48]:


So here are some of my 5th grader's examples with the build the shelter challenge. From me, they were able to use one foot of string, one grocery bag, one foot of tape, and 2 brown paper bag pieces. You notice there are other things in their designs. They did actually find a lot of things outdoors, and then they decided to combine designs after we tested them. For kindergarten, they had other materials for me as well, along with things that they collected from the outdoors. So for them to cross the river, however, they chose. They had one foot of tape, one piece of bubble wrap, 3 small pieces of cardboard, 4 popsicle sticks, and one plastic top. I did give them more material since it's their first-ever challenge with me, and I wanted them to experiment with things that sync and flow, which we'll talk about in the experiment section of this little course.


Naomi Meredith [00:20:38]:


You also can see in the picture of one of those kids. There is a little Lego person. They happened to have that in their pocket. They wanted to add it to their design. I said sure. And then I added water on the last day, so they built their designs for a couple of days. And then the last day is when we tested with the water, which again will go over in the experiment and improve. The improve stage really goes along with the create stage as well. Now with this done survival camp, they are fairly separate because students really do need to be pretty much done with their design before they experiment.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:15]:


However, when you're thinking about other challenges that you do in the future using the same process, there's a lot of experimenting and improving that go back and forth. So with the 5th-grade challenge, how can you create a shelter that can withstand the elements? After students have built their shelters, we will have an experimenting day. So they have a slide, a modification, and a testing checklist, and this actually got improved with my student suggestions. but they have different tests that they will put their shelter through. So they will actually guess before they test which rhymes. But they wanna guess, do they have an entrance for people to get in? Yes or no? Will it keep the inside dry? Does wind not get in, does it protect against snow, and can it be moved without breaking? So this isn't for a grade, and I remind students that this is just a way to test how you designed your shelter. So they will go through and guess using Seesaw, and they will either use the shape tool to add a little star or even just the drawing tool. And then, they will go through and test their design, which I will have set up around the room.


Naomi Meredith [00:22:26]:


So we have the wind station. The snow is glitter. And then there's a water station. You can kind of see in the picture that there is a little basket, and then there's another bucket with water. They put this sponge in the water, and then they squeeze it on top of their shelter with their shelter in that basket. So then they're not flooding. They're designed completely. It might be based on how they designed it.


Naomi Meredith [00:22:50]:


And then, from there, they will go back to their checklist and then check off what actually happened. I do have another agency saw where I have students take a picture of their design before and after testing, which is really helpful. and I will have some towels on hand because a lot of students if they have time, will actually go back and improve their design and test again. So it's really great having Seesaw. Make sure to keep it away from the water. But having Seesaw available because they can really showcase what is happening during those experiments. Similarly, with kindergarten with the crossing the river challenge, I have them if they take a picture of each other's work and add it to their modifications. So they're thinking about if certain things would sink or flow, and you could do this part after their building piece or even beforehand, depending on the flow of your lessons.


Naomi Meredith [00:23:46]:


So, again, Seesaw makes it really easy to record the results and things that paper might not be able to do. From there, students can share their work either by taking a picture, or a video adding to those pictures that we're taking for testing the experiments, sometimes I will take the picture for them and put it in their Seesaw account depending on our time. Other kids will help each other take pictures of as well of their work, which is really helpful. And then, I always make sure to have some questions at the end to reflect on. And I use these questions throughout all of my different types of units because the responses will definitely change over time. and based on the types of projects that we are working on. So students can either use the text box tool to type in their thinking can record a video answering the responses. Some students prefer not being on video yet, so they might use the microphone to record their voices as well.


Naomi Meredith [00:24:47]:


For younger students, I will maybe ask them one of these question prompts, and then they will respond back, and you can hear my voice on the recording as well. We might do all three, or maybe I will type in their answer for them. So there are a lot of opportunities for students to reflect on their work throughout this process. Thank you so much for joining in on this little journey, campers. Now that you have seen the examples used in kindergarten for a STEM survival camp, along with how it can be taken to higher levels in the 5th grade, you can now explore and create your own STEM survival camp challenges that you can use during back-to-school time. I have included some free resources to help you plan using the Engineering Design Process, so make sure to check those out, And these planning pages can help you when you're designing STEM survival camp challenges along with other Engineering Design Process lessons that you may be teaching in the future. If you have any questions and make sure to reach out, I can be found in a lot of different places. You can find me on my website, naomimeredith.com, send an email, contactnaomimeredith@gmail.com, and @naomimeredith_, where I share a lot of STEM and technology content all the time.


Naomi Meredith [00:26:08]:


And then also on YouTube where I have more video tutorials and also things for students as well. Thank you so much again, and I hope you have a wonderful school year. This presentation had a ton of visuals, and I bet you are dying to see all of the examples and handouts. You can grab the video recording of this episode, the video slides I referenced throughout, student examples, and bonuses for only $5. That's less than a fancy coffee drink. This will all be linked in the show notes, and you can check it all out here at naomimeredith.com/PDreplay.

engineering design process

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

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!

how can students record a podcast

How Can Students Record a Podcast? [ep.65]

How Can Students Record a Podcast? [ep.65]

how can students record a podcast

Check out the full episode on How Can Students Record a Podcast?:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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Episode Summary

In today’s episode, I share how I plan a student podcasting lesson about light pollution and how we figure that out through the Engineering Design Process. In this lesson, students explore what light pollution is, the effects of light pollution, and possible solutions. They then share all of this information through a mini-podcast. With their podcast, they take on the role of a citizen scientist. This lesson is a cool way for students to share their learning and learn a medium that they might not have heard of or tried before. 

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • An overview of the light pollution podcast lesson plan
  • Tips for how students can record a podcast in their classroom
  • Equipment and software recommendations for podcast recording

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 


Naomi Meredith  00:00Are stars in the sky disappearing? Why are human and animal sleep patterns disrupted? There is a type of pollution out there that isn't always talked about, and that is light pollution. In this episode, I will be sharing with you how I plan a student podcasting lesson all about light pollution and how we figure that out through the Engineering Design Process. In this lesson, students will explore what light pollution actually is, what the effects are, and what are possible solutions while sharing all this information in their small mini-podcast. With their podcast, they are taking on the role of a citizen scientist. And it is a really cool way for students to share their learning and also learn a medium that they might not have heard about before or have even tried before. So I'm so excited to share this lesson with you and this episode. So let's jump on in. 
Naomi Meredith  01:08

I never really thought about teaching students how to podcast. It didn't really ever come up in my mind. But I will say this is one of my favorite lessons that I have taught to my students. Especially since I, obviously you're listening, I have my own podcast. So it's really cool to share with students what a podcast is and how they can create one and share their information with others. Now with this lesson, I did it with fifth grade. But don't tune me out if you don't teach fifth grade. You can definitely adjust for the students that you teach and see how this can work best for you. Now with other lessons, I do teach my students how to record videos and edit videos. So that's something that they learned with me over the years. But I really wanted to teach students the other side of things with podcasting. Not all students are comfortable being on camera. I do record my podcast with videos simultaneously. I know not all people do that, and that is the joy of podcasting, where you really don't have to be on camera. So this is great for students who have a lot to share. But they are more camera-shy. And that's okay. Some of them even have a great narration voice. This is a great experience for students to be exposed to. When I introduced this to my students, I even compared it to YouTube since a lot of them aspire to be on YouTube one day. And it's another way that is growing, that their voices can be heard, but also just have those opportunities in the future. So it's really cool once we get going with this unit, that students really start to grasp the concept of podcasting and how it can be a beneficial way to share information with others. 


Naomi Meredith  03:22

There are a lot of standards that I use to connect this lesson, and I specifically picked light pollution. Because as I said in the intro, this is a type of pollution that isn't often talked about. I found out about light pollution, to be honest when I was getting my master's in STEM leadership. I probably had heard of it, but I never really thought about it before. But the more that I was researching about it for a project, I knew that this was something that my students needed to know about. So not only are they learning about podcasting, but they are learning about a type of pollution that is a problem. Specifically,  light pollution, and it correlates with the standards for the fifth-grade NGSS standard II SS 1-2. It talks about the patterns of daily changes in the length of shadows day and night. And there's that part where it's the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky. So I really focused on that section when it says the stars and the night sky because, due to light pollution, it really changes how we can actually see the stars in the sky. As I was researching this topic for students and pulling resources for them, I learned that there are some places in the United States that are protected where if you traveled to these locations, they are absolutely stunning and absolutely beautiful. It is like major diamonds glowing in the sky. I think there are some places in Colorado where I live, so that would be really cool to check out these places where light pollution is prevented. So we talked about the NGSS standard that is correlated with this lesson. And when it comes to the Common Core State Standards for ELA, when students are reading informational texts, that is a big standard that they will be hitting. So like I said, I pulled different resources for them that they will research through, that are vetted. They are legit resources. So students aren't really doing a random Google search. I don't have a whole lot of time for that piece. When I pre-research things and share those links with students, I know that they're going to be able to find the information that they need, but they still have to read it. But it's all set up for that right there. Of course, there are those writing standards where students are producing their work digitally. So yes, through the podcast, it's being produced digitally, but also when they are note-taking, and again, accessing those resources. 


Naomi Meredith  05:47

Podcasting also really applies to those speaking and listening standards. There are those standards that talk about producing a digital piece and being able to share that information clearly. So a podcast is a really great way for students to be thoughtful about what they are saying instead of standing in front of the class reading off of a note card, their board, or everybody else's board. The podcast forces the students to listen back to what they are actually saying and be mindful of that. And it's really cute too. When you do a podcast project like this or any type of recording, the students are actually kind of hard on themselves. It's very interesting. When they're creating things with their hands, I feel like I really have to push them to make modifications. But when it comes to video and podcasting, they are so critical of how they sound and how they do things that they want to try it again. So it's a really great self-reflection tool. For the math standards, this really connects to the mathematical practice where they talk about constructing valuable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others. So they are gathering that information and being critical of what they are reading and then trying to figure out a way to produce it where it makes sense. And then also, when they're collaborating in a group, they are also having that critiquing and reasoning of others of how they should actually plan out their show, which we'll talk about in a second. There also goes along with that standard, when in fifth grade, students actually have to think about the timing of their podcast. So when it comes to the actual editing, and the time that it takes, also when they are adding elements of different sounds, and really thinking about how long the sound is, they are thinking about the decimals and how that is correlated with time. Because there are all of those seconds, they have to be mindful of. And especially if they are taking pieces out of their podcast, they are thinking about the time and how long it takes for them to speak in a part. 


Naomi Meredith  07:50

What time that they're taking out of that? Are they including all the information that they need? So that telling time when it connects to decimals, there is a lot of math involved with that. So you might be wondering, what platform do they actually use when they create their podcast? How can you make this happen? I have heard of some teachers using a platform called Anchor, like the ship anchor, but I would definitely be mindful of that and the age of your students. I looked it up, and anchor is geared toward students who are 13 and older. So yes, anchor is very easy to use. But at the time of this recording, their target audience is not elementary school. So I actually would not recommend using that platform. Alternatives to this, you can do quite a few things. So these aren't the only things that you can use, but these are three that I think that definitely can work and I have experience with. I use Wevideo, so w-e-v-i-d-e-o, and it has video in its name, but it actually gives students the chance to actually just record audio. It's a very visual platform where there are different layers of things, they could add in the stock sounds that are there. So if they want to have a little bit of an intro with music, they can do it all on that platform. Wevideos also had some really awesome updates. So in this past year that I did the podcasting, there also is a classroom tab where you can assign assignments a lot like Google Classroom, you can create groups and students can collaborate within that group. It's all web-based, so you're not tied to one specific device. It just makes things a lot easier. Even though I have a Mac, I actually have been using Wevideo recently to do a lot of video editing because of that cloud-based feature. It doesn't really slow down your device. Now if you have Macs available and maybe even iPads, you could do the same thing in iMovie so students can do the narration part. I don't think iMovie is really that complicated for students. I just feel like the way that we have video setup it is a little bit more visual than iMovie, but iMovie is pretty easy too once you get the hang of it. I also think that on the iPads, a tablet, or phones, it's a little bit more simple. So you can definitely use that feature. Students can take things and cut them out. Now if you're really on a budget, I would actually recommend using Seesaw. So Seesaw has a recording feature, I think they can record up to 10 minutes, and students aren't going to need 10 minutes, trust me, they only record maybe one to three minutes for their podcast, five on the longer side. They're short, and that's okay. I tell them that I actually want them to have a short podcast. But you can actually have students record in Seesaw where they open up a project, or you send them an activity. Maybe they have one simple picture that could be their podcast cover art and that could be part of the project. Then when they hit the microphone, they can record what they want to say and then click pause, regroup, and then unpause and keep recording. The limitation of this is that they can't really edit. So if they mess up, it is what it is. But again, you have that audio piece, and it's a safe website for kids. So if you're really on a budget, you can definitely try that out. 


Naomi Meredith  11:08

Of course, if you don't have any of this stuff, you could have them read it out loud and pretend that they did record it. But just having that element of that technology, T for technology in STEM, it really does make a difference if they actually can record and then it has that natural piece of them modifying their work. After students were researching light pollution, I had some guiding questions for them. They did have a note-catching sheet that had these specific questions I wanted them to understand, and that would go into their podcast. I gave students a script template. This is really important, especially when students are new to creating audio and video, they don't really know the structure of how it should be laid out. Now, when I am recording this podcast, I'm not really reading a script, I have notes on the side. But I'm not really reading word for word, I just check out my notes and just start talking to you. But I'm not in fifth grade. So they actually need a little bit more support. So I give them a structured outline, and it has all the guiding questions I want them to include in their podcast. Whatever order they want to is totally fine, but it all has to be there. And then there's also a part on the side where they actually assign the parts to the different group members. Now, before we even get into that recording or even writing the script, we actually listen to different examples of podcasts so they can kind of understand the different styles. I do share with them actually a little bit of my podcast. And then it's kind of fun because they have a little bit more respect for me. And they're like, oh, my gosh, you have a podcast, and I'm like, “Yes, people, I do.” So it's actually kind of fun for them to hear my voice in that way. So we listen to a little bit of that. I also share with them different kid podcasts and just the different styles. Is it an interview style? Is there a host, a single host who's sharing information? Is that a kid interviewing somebody else? Are the two hosts talking to each other? So we listen to those different styles. So then, they can figure out the style of podcasts that they want. That's really up to them. I just want them to answer the questions, but then they can be really creative with that. So they have that background about light pollution, they understand the background of what a podcast is, and then the writing the script part actually takes a while for them. Just like this podcast that you're listening to, all the work before the podcast and after takes the longest. The recording is the easy part, and I tell the kids that the recording they get done in pretty much one class time. So writing out the script, and making sure that it makes sense, takes the longest part. I also want to make sure that their wording is accurate. This is a really great writing activity as well because it's really thinking about how they can be engaging in their writing, especially having a hook. So I will tell them, you might want to have some little stories, you can make them up. Nobody knows your life. Just make it up and see if it makes sense. Like, did you know like, for example. I was telling the kids that when I was on vacation, I was with all my girlfriends, we were in Florida, and when we were walking through the town, all the lights went off. But then there were red lights, and it was a little bit scary. The STEM teacher in me was like, “Oh my gosh, I actually know why the lights are red.” So I asked my friends, “Do you know why the lights are red?” They said no, I'm like, well, it's to actually help the sea turtles. Because the lights in the sea are actually distracting and they can't usually find their way out. It's actually a big problem for sea turtles. The red lights don't trigger where they need to go. So I told the story way better to the kids. But I was telling them something like that would be really good in a podcast because you have that story element and that can really grab your listeners' attention. 


Naomi Meredith  14:59

So I was really trying to have them have that style, not just stating the facts like here was light pollution, here's what it is, but really having some fun with this, then they really took off with it. It was so cute. When it came to recording, you can have microphones. There are some that I recommend that are really small. You can have USB microphones. You don't even have to, it's just the benefit, and they feel so professional when they have their microphones. Also, I use those big fabric IKEA cubes, those big giant ones that are square. What we do is we put the script inside of the box, they are holding the microphone, but then outside of the box the microphone is connected to the device that is recording. So what's really nice about this is that their head is in this little sound booth, it looks super funny. But it actually helps block out the sound around them. I know that that can be really hard when you're in a classroom and thinking about the situation with sound. This helps the whole time. I also try to spread out students the best I can. So some might be in the hallways, but it's also not perfect. In a school, I tell them, your audio isn't going to be absolutely perfect. A school is loud, even in the hallways. That's just how it goes. So we do the best we can, spread out the best we can, and go from there. When it comes to the modifications, the kids will of course listen to what they have. But I also give them a checklist of certain things that they need to listen for. I also don't expect it to be perfect, but there are just those must-haves that they really need to focus on, like, are they speaking clearly? Are they not talking too fast? Did they include everything that was from the checklist from our research? So very specific things that again, are tied to those standards that I talked about in the beginning. There are very specific things from that. If I wanted to grade them, then the checklist is reflective of a rubric that is again aligned with the standards is what's really fun with students creating a digital piece is that you don't have to sit there in front of the whole class and listen to all these podcasts. At the end, I show students how they can actually grab their podcast, download it and of course, add it to Seesaw. So they download that from the video. I show them how it's going to process, then I show them the process of uploading that video to Seesaw, and then how they can actually tag all the group members in there, which is really great. Then I'll go through on my phone really quick, have Seesaw open, and then I will approve those. The students can go and listen to each other's work and give them feedback, which of course the feedback comes to me first. So they can't just say good job. But they can talk about things that went really well for that group and things that they need to work on. So that's a really quick thing that you can do. When it comes to giving feedback. I also give them the chance to reflect on their work, I always use the same question. So what went well for you? What was the challenge? And then if we were to do this project again, what would you try again and do differently? So this is a really fun project, and the kids get really excited about it. 


Naomi Meredith  18:04

Also,  in my fifth-grade class, they do something called Genius Hour, which is a whole other thing that'd be actually really fun to talk about on the podcast. I haven't done a Genius Hour in STEM, but I know that's something that you could do especially if you're integrating STEM and GT. So I'll write that down because I think that'd be really good. But anyways, some of the kids after this lesson for their Genius Hour and other projects went and created a podcast to share their work. So a completely different topic. So I know for this project, it was very guided when I gave them the topic that I wanted them to learn about. But then they had all that creativity within the project, learn the structure of a podcast, so then they can take that skill and run with it for future projects. So if you are interested in getting started with this lesson with your class, I have created all the work for you, researched all the links, created those templates, and modified it based on the way that the kids have interacted with it. So, of course, I have this lesson available for you. It's all linked in the show notes. You can get grab it on its own and its grade level bundle, you can do a three through five bundle or the whole year-long plan for K through five. But this is just a really great lesson to get kids excited about podcasting and really provide them with structure so that they can be successful. Also, when it comes to lesson planning, you guys have asked, and I have definitely answered when it comes to your planning for third, fourth, and fifth, and you can even include six. So my virtual STEM planning workshop for upper elementary students is open, and you will learn how to plan two integrated lessons that are standards-based from scratch, has high engagement, and have resources that will support your project. If you are able to attend live, we are going to collaborate together and create something that you can take away. You definitely don't have to be there live. It will be recorded, and I'm also adding a private podcast link, so you can listen to the audio on the go. So if you are here listening to the podcast, obviously you like podcasts. That will be available to you just like the K through two STEM planning workshop, the recording is already there. Then there also is that podcast link as well. So you can always do that option. The live is super fun. So we get to chat together and collaborate. But totally understand, I know you're busy. But think about how two hours of your life can actually change the way that you plan for the rest of the year. So you're getting the inside access and get to hang out with me and increase your planning. So there are so many options out there for you, I am here for you. And I am so glad that you have asked about this workshop and I'm able to provide that for you. So make sure to check out the link in the show notes where you can get that information. Go out and sign up so we can hang out and help with your virtual planning. So thank you so much again for being here. I hope that you try podcasting with your students, and let me know how it goes.

how can students record a podcast

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

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!

integrating Seesaw

Integrating Seesaw and the Engineering Design Process [ep.49]

Integrating Seesaw and the Engineering Design Process [ep.49]

integrating Seesaw

Check out the full episode on Integrating Seesaw and the Engineering Design Process:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

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Episode Summary

I am a huge fan of Seesaw and teaching with the Engineering Design Process. So naturally, I found a way to merge the two together with my everyday teaching in the STEM classroom. 

Today’s episode is from an online summit I did in the past at one of the Seesaw Connect Online Conferences. 

In today’s episode, I am breaking down different ways that I like to integrate Seesaw when teaching with the Engineering Design Process and how to make it work for K-5. 

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • How I integrate Seesaw when teaching the Engineering Design Process
  • How to adapt these lessons for K-5
  • Examples of activities that integrate Seesaw with the Engineering Design Process that my students completed 

Resources Mentioned:

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

You probably already know by now that I am a huge fan of Seesaw and teaching with the Engineering Design Process. So naturally I found a way to merge the two together with my everyday teaching and the STEM classroom. While the audio from this episode has never been heard before on this podcast, this presentation is from an online summit I did in the past at one of the Seesaw Connect Online Conferences. I'll be breaking down different ways that I like to integrate Seesaw when teaching with the Engineering Design Process, and how to make it work for K through five. Let's jump right in. 


Naomi Meredith  00:36

We have the Engineering Design Process, which is standards that we have to teach. Then we have Seesaw, which is this amazing tool that we know works well for our students. How in the world can we connect the two together? I am Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned K through five STEM teacher. I am here to show you just that, including how we can integrate Seesaw with the Engineering Design Process to showcase student learning and really show off their creativity. So let's dive into this course and have a great time together. First, we're going to learn about what is the Engineering Design Process, and it's not just for STEM classrooms. This will be very helpful, especially if you are a classroom teacher too. We're also going to see ways that we can integrate the Engineering Design Process with Seesaw. Three, we're going to look at some student examples. I have pulled together things from primary students and also the intermediate students I've had in my classrooms. So you could see the age range and ability levels in that way, and for some useful supplies and resources that you can take away and implement in your classroom. 


Naomi Meredith  02:18

First, let's build some background knowledge on what is the Engineering Design Process. It is a real process that engineers use to ask questions, find solutions, and iterate ideas. Iterate means to test your solution, make some changes, and then test and make changes. So that process happens a lot. So why in the world should we teach this? It's this big, scary world, our students aren't engineers, well, actually, they can take on that role. They are in the Next Generation Science Standards for elementary. So Kindergarten through second grade have the same Engineering Design Process standards, and they can be applied to any of the other science standards that you have as well. So it's a great way to solve those problems. When you're looking at the Engineering Design Process standards, you don't have to teach them for every single unit. So that's a whole other lesson that we could go into. But you really want to think about the standards where there is a problem that students need to solve. It is different than the scientific method, and the Engineering Design Process isn't replacing the scientific method. So think about it like this, we have scientists who are testing solutions to see if they work, they're doing experiments, and they're using different variables to test those solutions. Engineering Design Process is a little bit different because we're asking a question, and then we're building to solve a problem. Yes, that can be hands on building. But as you get more into it, it can involve other things like electrical engineering, or computer engineering. So it's not just that I'm building engineering that we typically think of, but that is definitely a great start. 


Naomi Meredith  03:58

So when you're looking at those Next Generation Science Standards, again, look at those standards see what would make the most sense with the scientific method work or the Engineering Design Process. So for this session, we're focusing on Engineering Design Process and examples for those. The great thing about this is through this process, as students get used to it, as you as a teacher are used to teaching it, it does promote creative problem solving. So there are multiple solutions to the problem, which is amazing. It's hard to get used to at first because everybody's ideas are going to look different and unique. That is the amazing part because that is how inventions get started. So definitely something to dive into. It's actually really fun once you start using it in your classroom. When integrating the Engineering Design Process, Seesaw makes it so easy with the tools they already have built into the platform. So when you are planning your lessons and if you're already familiar with Seesaw, you know that those tools are available and you can link the two together. So when you see the examples that I share, I have those tools in mind as I am lesson planning. Now, if you are new to Seesaw, I'm not gonna go over what all the tools do, just a quick overview. So just make sure that you check out Seesaw's website, they have some great tutorials for you to use when you're getting started. Also, if you're familiar with everything, definitely check those out as a great refresher. I've used Seesaw as a classroom teacher. So I've seen the value of what it was with my 24 students, and now as a K through five STEM teacher. I also see how amazing it is with all the kids in the school. So this can definitely be done with all ages. 


Naomi Meredith  05:39

Now, of course, we have the green add button. So when you click on that, as a teacher or a student, there's all these tools that are available. So we have photos, kids can take pictures of their work, students can draw their own drawings and draw on top of things. They also have the option to record a video within the platform, which is very helpful. So they're not doing any external uploading. But you can do that as an option as well. And then, of course, they can type a note to respond to things and add a link. So adding in those tools right away are very, very meaningful. And then we also have the Activity button, that light bulb. So depending on the time you have creating activities ahead of time that go along with your lesson, and students respond on top of the pages that you send them is also great as well, because they can keep track of their thinking throughout the week. So often, I will have a Engineering Design Process notebook I'll send to their activities. And then we will go through that as the days go on. Instead of me printing something, it's more interactive. 


Naomi Meredith  06:38

With this Seesaw tools available, I've included some resources in here to help you with the planning process, and as you brainstorm some ideas. So the first document is that lesson plan document more like a brainstorm, of course, we'd like to type out our lessons a lot of us but this is just a great way to get ideas out there and think through how a lesson would work with the Engineering Design Process. So of course, to start off with the unit that you're thinking about, and the main standards that you're looking for, I typically start with the Next Generation Science Standards. So yes, the Engineering Design Process is a Next Generation Science Standards. But I look at the other science standards to see if there are problems that we can solve that all of them work again for the Engineering Design Process. So I look at the one that I really want to assess. And of course, I integrate the other content areas as well. So how are students going to be reading informational texts? How are they going to be writing about their thinking? How are they going to respond digitally, which are common core standards? What math standards? Am I working on Mathematical Practices, so I list all of those there, those are all woven in any materials that I need. And those usually I pop in at the end once I think about those materials that might be needed. And then I go through each of the steps. So you'll see that there's little question stems, it'll help you think through that. 


Naomi Meredith  08:00

The second one is a poster that I created and have in my classroom, which you will be twins with me. And it's just each of the steps and how I combined some of them. So you notice that experiment and prove are together on the same step. Because when you think about it with kids, you're always experimenting, you're always improving. So I don't have them as separate steps, which you might see in other posters, because that is a step that goes back and forth the whole time. It's simultaneous. So you'll notice this little icon to trigger things with step you're on with kids maybe even have a little clip, and you can clip on which step that you are at, or even kids have their own poster. And they can clip where they're at as well. Of course, you go back and forth through the stages. So don't think oh, we already imagined we're not going to do imagining again, you always can go back to those stages. So I hope that you find these resources helpful while you are navigating this standard and making meaningful lessons. This is probably your most favorite part is how have students actually use seesaw to enhance the Engineering Design Process? Are there student examples? Can it be done? The short answer is yes. And I will show you those different examples of how students have tackled this in many different ways. Now the first stage of the Engineering Design Process is that you ask a question when I first started writing questions, I used to write them can you build blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so when I was thinking about it, can you can you is a yes or no response. 


Naomi Meredith  09:38

Can you build this? Yes or no? Maybe, and so wasn't really open-ended and it really closed off the thinking of the challenge. Now students didn't really notice that at first, some of the older students did with the wording, but it really closed off the experience. So when you are writing questions, write them instead by using how can and that really opens up the possibilities. Because you're not teaching a cooking lesson, you're not teaching an arts and crafts, it shouldn't all look the same. It should look different because you're igniting that creativity. So think about that questioning. Also, when writing questions, there are lots of ways to do this. Depending on your time, you might actually want to provide the question. There was a point when I was teaching STEM for only three days of the week. And so we really didn't have the time to develop a question together. Wow. So I would provide that open ended question that we're trying to solve. Now, depending on your time classroom, teachers, you can integrate this throughout the day, which is amazing. You could develop the question together so you can provide How can and then maybe the topic, and then you guys think about the problem you're trying to solve? Sometimes with those integrated units, you might even have a question that kids have been thinking about already things that have popped up. So this could lead into an engineering design challenge. 


Naomi Meredith  11:03

So it can bring that challenge level up more. Now if you're thinking about differentiation, you could write two part questions for students who need more of a challenge. The way I teach the imagining stage in the Engineering Design Process for primary and intermediate students, is fairly similar, but with a variety of resources. I will often pre research the topics, again to save time, and students have a lot of choice within the resources that I provide them. So we'll do some imagine just to help build that background, and they understand the problem even further. I'll provide images that are from real life. So a great resource is Unsplash and their high quality photos. So for one of our challenges, we were learning about boats, and so I provided different images of boats to give the that inspiration. I also will use things like podcasts with students, there's some great ones like brains on tumble science are some great ones to build some background, lots of videos, little video clips, and they might explain the science concept or maybe take kids to the place that we are learning about. Also get epic epic books have a lot of great kid resources, I'll create collections for students, and they can explore within that collection to help them research. So really guiding them toward that direction, giving them that choice. I also want to make sure to hold students accountable for their learning nothing crazy. So you can see that these response sheets are very similar, there's just two different ways to respond. So they might be able to respond by writing and seesaw makes it easy with the typing tool. They can also respond by recording their voice, so that's a lot easier for them. And then they can also draw their thinking. So drawing and labeling their thinking you is seeing those drawing tools, or they might draw on a separate piece of paper, take a picture and insert it into that box. You notice there's QR codes and you obviously can't scan a QR code on the iPad that you're using. This might be something that I print out these are actually videos linked to YouTube at my school they are YouTube is blocked, so will actually watch a video as a class, respond to that video, watch the other video as a class and respond to that video. So using those outside resources to fill that background to build understanding to know why they're solving this problem and what is going on. And just giving them those opportunities to explore things that are at their level. So this can be of course again everything can be differentiated based on the needs of your students and the things that you have available. 


Naomi Meredith  11:03

So it can be as guided or as open-ended as you want, when it comes to that questioning part. Now, like I said, I typically will write the questions ahead of time just for time, I see them a very limited time during the month. And so we will dive more into the other stages. So on the left, we have the fishing pole challenge, how can you create a fishing pole to help catch the fish? This is the challenge that I did with my first graders. And then on the right we have the build a shelter challenge, how can you create a shelter that will withstand different types of weather? Now, they seem very similar. They have that how can and they're more open ended. But there is a big difference when you're writing for primary and you're writing for second secondary students or those intermediate students in elementary. So typically, what I have found be helpful with those younger students is that you have a one part questions. So yes, their creations will have lots of different things in them, but they're answering one question. For the older students. This is a two part question, can they create a shelter? And can that shelter withstand types of weather we have three types of weather they're trying to withstand. So there's two things that they have to answer and focus on. 


Naomi Meredith  14:54

Planning is so important at any stage when you're doing a project, and the planning doesn't have to be super intense. So if you're thinking about how much time that you have planning can be quick, it doesn't always have to be drawing. So I'm going to show you drawing examples. But if you are super pressed for time, I've done this before in a class, I've done a 45 minute session with the Engineering Design Process with younger students. And so far part of the plan I showed the students the materials that they'll be using, and then with their partner, they were talking about the five that they wanted to use. And that was their plan. So they were thinking about it ahead of time. So it can be as involved as you would like. Now the great part about this planning stage in the Engineering Design Process is I relate this a lot to the writing process. And so this is a time to really think about your ideas, you might not do exactly what you draw or talk about. But it's a way to get your brain thinking of lots of different ways. This example here is a student, one in Seesaw sent them this planning sheet. And the wonderful thing about the drawing tool is that it's endless colors. My first week teaching Stan I had somebody eat crayons, the kids were crying because we wouldn't share the crayons, you stuffed him in his mouth. And then you split them all back in the bucket. So nobody could have crayons. So that doesn't have to happen with the Seesaw drawing tools. So this is super great. Ahead of time you notice on the side, the materials that we're going to use, I actually put on there real pictures of the things and the labels. Sometimes the kids, it depends on how you can make it you could make the labels movable with the pictures. And so there's some ways that you can do that. And students can actually move and label the things that they have drawn. Or you can leave it stagnant like this. And students can draw lines to what they are showing. So this will help especially the younger students to make sure that they are using everything that is provided, are you just thinking of a way that it can be used, not required to use all the materials, but just ways that they can add more details to their plans. 


Naomi Meredith  18:34

For older students, depending on the unit, my first few units I typically do, we do focus a lot on the planning stage. And so this was an example of how a project we were doing of designing a hiking backpack. And so students actually drew their designs on a piece of paper just with the devices that we have, it wasn't as easy to draw on the actual device. So planning on paper is a okay, that's why you have the picture taking tool in Seaside and you can upload it that way, I would really wanted students to focus on the different parts of their designs. And trust me, I did not draw this I can't draw. Mine looks like the other one the the Kindergarten example. So students were drawing their plans, they were labeling their designs and the purpose of those plans, I wanted them to also think about multiple views of their designs. Now I should have put it on here. This plan actually came to life and that student built it out pretty similar to what they had decided on which was pretty amazing. Now if you're like well, we only have Chromebooks, we only have devices with a front facing camera. One little hack you can do is have students turn in the papers to you at the end of class or have them lay them all out on a table. So lay them side by side. And then if you just use your phone, download the Sisa app really quick. And then you go and take a picture for each of the students and add it to their account. It really takes about five minutes you can probably get a better picture than then holding it up to the camera all awkwardly and you see their eyeballs popping out, you know what I'm talking about. If you have your kids do that, I still do sometimes. But if you want a more clear picture like this, that's a great hack. If you want to be the kid's favorite teacher at school, having to build some things that create stage of the Engineering Design Process is so much fun. And this is the stage that kids thrive for. And they love it. And you don't need a whole lot of materials to get started. Once they have started their plan, they have something in mind, this is where the magic happens. For sure. 


Naomi Meredith  20:35

Now, there isn't a whole lot in the create stage students might do, because they are obviously creating, but you can definitely use these as still as an asset to help them with their creating process. Now on the left is a final picture that a student uploaded into their seesaw journal. So that definitely can be something you can include of their final design. So it was protect the food challenge. So how can you create something that will help you protect the food when staying the night in nature, so there's the little bear and that's their invention, so they can't get the popcorn. On the right, what I actually sent the students in seesaw is a strategy of building cardboard technique that they could have used to improve their design. So this is a video of when you download the slides and click this photo, it takes you to the video if you want to check it out. But it is an L brace technique. So it's just the way to make cardboard stronger. And you notice on the left that student actually use that technique. So I don't force students to use techniques that I teach. However, it's just a strategy to help them improve. So that's a great way that you can include videos. Now a tip for creating videos like this one, when it is a technique, I actually record without sound that way students can watch it over and over again, they don't need headphones. And they're just paying attention to the visual process of something being created. And this is also great, because there's no language barriers, it's all visual. And so they can watch this as many times as needed. For a project that involves robots, or even older students or things that have multi steps. Again, sending them those tips are very, very helpful. I've noticed that with the older students, there's a whole lot of differences of as you get into the projects, and they are more used to the Engineering Design Process. 


Naomi Meredith  22:22

If you've used it a lot of times, they might, some students might be ready to move on to the Create stage when others are still needing to plan one more day. So if you have these teacher tips available, this will help kids be successful independent on their own. So this project is a Sphero project. And they're creating with using Sphero. Sphero is that little ball robot. And so there are some tricky steps that just connecting the robot in general, it doesn't even have to do with the designing part. But I include these tips. So if they are working ahead on their own, or if they are working in a group, and I've already shown the steps, or if a student is absent or even if you want to do this at home, they have these available in their seaside journal, and they can refer to it right away. So they don't have to wait on me. They don't have to take the picture themselves. Like what was that? Again, they can just look in their seaside journal, and it's right there. On the left is a different video No, I did make this ahead of time I use Sphero for quite a few lessons. So if you know you're going to use the tool many times, or if your partner teachers are going to use the same tool, if you make a video tutorial of those steps in detail and just kind of take some time, I will play that video as a whole class has my mini lesson. And then I also send it to kids and their seesaw journals so they can access that as well. This video does have my voice because they do need to hear what I am clicking on. But just a way that how you can really use video to enhance and you can be in more places than one during that creation process. So think about those things that students might need you personally make a video or send them pictures and then you can be in more places than once. Once students have created their design, they are ready to experiment and improve along the way. Now, like I said, with the resources, experimenting, improving will happen simultaneously. And so that might be a quick back and forth process, especially with the younger students, they immediately see if something's going wrong, I need to fix it right away. So this is a great opportunity, especially if the projects are really messy or awkward. If it involves water. During this stage, you can have the support by walking around as a teacher, but also you might be the one who wants to film and take videos of the students putting their designs in action. This is an example of a boat when we were helping the gingerbread man travel across the river so if he thought a little more smart, he could have designed an invention so he didn't get eaten which he didn't want to get eaten me most Okay, so I was taking video of the kids testing their designs, and I didn't want them to have an iPad around the water. So this worked out great. So if you see that top box, that black box in the corner, if you click on that, when you download the slides, you can see the little boat moving around. So it's cute, you can hear their voices, it's great for the parents to see also, they can get that perspective of a different type of learning that's happening in your classroom, because, of course, you know, they're going home and sharing this, but it's cool for the parents to see it really quick. And you might actually take quicker videos than the kids. With older students. 


Naomi Meredith  25:36

Again, I will also go around and take videos, sometimes they're better at being more independent at that stage. But again, if it's super messy, I'll do that stuff just to keep the devices safe. But with those older students, and they have those two part questions anyway with their designs, but I will give them a modification and testing checklist. And they will have this beforehand. So while they're creating, they're thinking about how they can improve anyway. And so this isn't always a mystery to them. And sometimes they might even help me make that checklist and improve it and things that should be added, which is super awesome. And so for this one with a build a shelter challenge that we saw in another session is that they were building a shelter to withstand the elements. And so yes, they built a shelter but cannot withstand the elements. So before they actually tested their design, I have some guests if it would withstand and it's okay if it were all yeses, but we are trying to make their designs even better. Now one of the stations was water as well, I just love using water, obviously, I did have students tickets picture before and a picture after. And then they could see how their design change or was made better. So you can see that the student didn't have a covering. So did it withstand rain or snow, but then they added a covering and something on the bottom to make it more sturdy. So implementing all of those layers, which is great, I could print these out, of course, for students, and they could check it off, not a problem. But it's just adding in that extra element to bring their creations to life and sharing their learning and interacting with their work in a way that they might not have had before. 


Naomi Meredith  27:18

The sharing part of the Engineering Design Process, you really don't want to skip and especially when it involves that reflection piece. This could be when you're thinking about planning your projects that you really focus in on a certain unit and have students share the and reflect on their designs. Because that reflection part is so important, how can they improve and get better. And also notice the things that really work well, when they're working in a group when they're testing out things. So this is always a continual process. So the Engineering Design Process isn't something like one and done, I checked it off my list. You can do this all year long. So of course, that was all the standards. But you could do this every month. And it will totally change the way that students really attack this type of thinking. So not the only way to attack problems. But it's just really great that they have different projects to express themselves with the Engineering Design Process. For younger students, I will often I encourage them to type their thinking when they are answering reflection questions. Of course I have, right the sounds you hear. So it's totally fine. Even having kids have these questions up on their screen and seesaw and using them as sentence frames, and they can record their voice. On top of that, that which is excellent. They have the sentence frame right there in front of them. And they can go to a quiet spot and record how the project went. On the right hand side is actually a student recording. So when you click on the slides, you can listen to the voice. I wish he used the arrow to point to everything, but have students take a picture of their work and then again, go to a quiet spot. And they can record how their project work. 


Naomi Meredith  28:55

So this was another food protection challenge invention. And he explained all the process of how this whole design works, which was really great. The thing I like about having kids record over a picture is that they can do that later on. So they could take a picture one day, and then the next day they can record their voice. Maybe you have a designated recording station and students take turns so that there's not all this screaming and excitement because there is when you're doing challenges like this, but you could hear what students are working on. With this one again, I added more detailed questions. So more challenging questions for older students to think about. There is a video of at the top of a robot prototype and action and I think I was watching it you can hear my voice at the end I was very impressed because it stayed on the track the whole time. So that was super exciting. So we posted that video. And then having those pictures of things in action are really great. What I love is that students can also comment on one another's work so that could be a whole lesson of how students can Give one another feedback on how their design work. This is a game design. And so students gave feedback to each other's work on how well the game was played. And if it actually made sense. And some of the parents even have their child started commenting other work as well, which was super amazing. The seesaw blog is also another opportunity where you can share work to other audiences. So students younger or older, could share with their book buddies, or if you're connected with other classes as well. So don't skip that sharing piece. It's super important for students to reflect and make meaning of the work that they did. When thinking through lessons that you want to implement the Engineering Design Process and integrating seesaw, there isn't a whole lot of supplies and resources that you need. In fact, you can just start with donations of general recycled materials, so cardboard tubes, then cardboard, construction paper, anything you have on hand will work just as well. So don't feel like you need anything fancy. But if you do want some fancy things, I have provided you my suggestions, my top 20 favorite STEM tools to integrate into any classroom setting. So these are things that have various price ranges. And you might even have some of these at home or even ask for some grants or different ways to gather these items in your classroom and build up a whole little STEM collection. And of course, don't forget to also download your brainstorm planning guide for the Engineering Design Process, and then your poster that you can use with your students. As you can already tell, this presentation has a ton of visuals, and I bet you are dying. To see all of the examples and handouts from this presentation. You can grab the video recording of this episode, the video slides that I referenced throughout student examples and bonuses for only $5. That's less than a fancy cup of coffee. The bonus includes my Engineering Design Process posters of various sizes and planning sheets to help you with your integration with seesaw or really any other edtech tool that you use in your classroom. This will be linked to the show notes and you can check it out all here Naomi meredith.com/seesawEDPvideoreplay.

integrating Seesaw

 

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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!

stem and literacy integration

STEM and Literacy Integration Ideas [ep.48]

STEM and Literacy Integration Ideas [ep.48]

stem and literacy integration

Check out the full episode on STEM and Literacy Integration Ideas:  

 

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Episode Summary

Even though it's not in the name, literacy definitely has a place within STEM challenges. In fact, I would even say that STEM and literacy are a perfect match.

The audio from today’s episode is from an online summit I presented at in the past at one of the Wonder Workshop International STEAM Summits.

In this episode, I'll be sharing five different ways that you can combine STEM and literacy together and make the perfect pairing in ways that you might not have thought of before.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • STEM story and retell lesson ideas
  • STEM and story lesson ideas
  • STEM and literacy lesson ideas using robots
  • Green screen STEM and literacy lesson ideas
  • Stop motion animation and literacy lesson ideas

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

Even though it's not in the name, literacy definitely has a place within STEM challenges. In fact, I would even say that STEM and literacy are a perfect match, just like avocado toast. Well, the audio from this episode has never been heard before on this podcast. This presentation is from an online summit I did in the past at one of the Wonder Workshop International STEAM Summits. I'll be sharing five different ways that you can combine STEM and literacy together and make the perfect pairing in ways that you might not have thought of before. I'm more than just a STEM coach in this episode. Think of me more as your STEM chef. Chef's kiss. Let's get to it. 


Naomi Meredith  01:13

Hello, and welcome to this very fun session. I am so glad that you are here. Literacy and STEM integration are perfect like avocado toast. I am your presenter, Naomi Meredith. So why in the world would we even think about implementing STEM and literacy? They kind of seem like two separate worlds that don't exactly go together. Well, I had this analogy with avocado toast. If you don't like avocado toast, I'm so sorry. I love it. I know a lot of people do. So just bear with me. So of course, avocados are delish on their own. So is toast. But when you put the two together, it's an amazing combination. So just like STEM and literacy, they are amazing on their own and you do wonderful things in your classroom. But they are even better together. Actually it does that make your planning so much easier. I think coming from the classroom and into a STEM role, I still have that classroom teacher mindset, where I really want to be thoughtful about my planning, having things cross curricular, having those experiences be meaningful and integrated rather than separate. So literacy pops up into my instruction all the time. I know that whether you are a STEM teacher or a classroom teacher, or even have a different specialized role that you could find meaning within this integration. So today, I'm going to be sharing with you five different ways that you can integrate STEM and literacy together. I'm going to also give you some student examples that you could think about for your own planning or even do the same lessons in your classroom. 


Naomi Meredith  02:51

So first, we have STEM and stories. This is the first way I love sharing with teachers to integrate STEM and literacy into their classrooms. I feel like that this is the easiest way and in some ways the most fun to plan. But as elementary teachers, we love reading stories, we love books, we have extensive classroom libraries. Well, that can definitely go into your STEM integration. Now thinking about STEM and stories, it could be picture books, which are a great example. You could even use chapters from a chapter book, even nonfiction articles can fit into this category, STEM and stories. So with that, thinking about different types of STEM lessons you can use, the best one to get started is to think of stories that have a clear problem and solution. Oftentimes with that problem and solution, how building can go into that story. So I'll give you an example. If you've read this story, Iggy Peck Architect, they go on a field trip and the poor teacher heaven forbid, this would happen if I went on a field trip, but she passes out on the hill and the kids have to go save their teacher. You can pause reading the story and then have the kids build to solve the problem. Then you can read the rest of the story to see how their solutions compared to what is in the book. So a problem and solution story especially like I said building to solve a problem works really well with this integration. Also, alternate endings, stories that would change if the ending was changed, work well. So you're really thinking about that story structure with both of these problem and solution and alternate endings, parts of a story beginning, middle and end. What if the ending did change? You could have students write the alternate ending and then build what that alternate ending could be. So that again, a very easy integration. I know you're thinking of books in your head right now. Also, with STEM and stories, this is a great way to explore nonfiction topics. So some stories have specific science and nonfiction topics that it touches on or you can integrate other types of science within the story that would actually make sense. So you could go either way with that. What's really great is if you're using a fiction story, and then you're exploring nonfiction topics, you're really going into those standards when it talks about the paired selections, and comparing and contrasting, or you could do a nonfiction story and then a nonfiction exploration. So again, you're connecting all of those things together. What's really great about starting with the STEM and stories, and really, with all the other four examples is that you are maximizing your time. I know that teachers are pressed for time, you are really maximizing that time and connecting it all together and building up that scientific background for kids. 


Naomi Meredith  05:43

So more examples for you thinking about that problem and solution and if within this presentation when you have access to it, you can actually click on each of the pictures for more detailed lesson plans. The first one is showing After the Fall. So the book is really, really cute by Dan Santat I believe. After the Fall is after Humpty Dumpty fell and he's so sad, and he just doesn't believe in himself. He's down on his luck. Well, students can build a solution to that problem, Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall. This is a great time, springtime, easter eggs are on sale. You may have a collection hiding in your class, but students can build a solution to keep Humpty Dumpty safe for an alternate ending. In the middle, we have the gingerbread man. As we know, in their original there are lots of different versions. But in the original poor gingerbread man gets eaten by the fox. So what if the gingerbread man got a little bit smarter? It got to the river and we found a way to float across the river.  So there's an example kindergartener built, not me, I just held up the boat and took the picture. But students learned about sinking and floating and created a different ending for the gingerbread man to float across the river. Obviously, eventually, in that picture, the cardboard would disappear. Then we also have that scientific connection, where we read Beekle, The Unimaginary friend, and students create their own unimaginary friend, and they have to figure out a way to have them stay together with a magnetic force. So you're talking about forces with magnetic energy. So there are some, there's a little paperclip on her hand and a magnet on the back. But they could explore different things that are magnetic and not, and choose the one that works best to keep their friendship together. 


Naomi Meredith  07:26

Thing number two of how to integrate STEM And literacy is through robotics. The robotics in elementary isn't as scary as you might think. Luckily, a lot of companies out there just like Wonder Workshop, love Dash, the robot, that is a amazing robot to get started with in your classroom. I'm not getting sponsored to say this. But Dash is a wonderful robot to have in any classroom, because there are lots of different avenues to code that robot, there are others as well. Companies are making it a lot easier for coding and robotics to be in the classroom to get students exposed to that type of learning. So don't be scared of it. It is okay. What's great is that you can share robotics and connected again to that literacy. So a lot of those same types of things. So story retail, can be used building your vocabulary, we are always are working on vocabulary development, whether it is content specific or scientific specific that can definitely be incorporated there. Also, it's a cool way to bring the story to life, you're bringing that movement into life. So you not only are students thinking about the story, but they're thinking about the coding pattern as well. So that's really integrating different types of thinking, and that students will really shine with this hands on way. So thinking about story retell, any type of robot, you could do this with. This is a little bee bot, and we put a little hungry caterpillar face on it. But students were coding the robot to different squares on the grid to retell the Hungry Caterpillar eating the food in order of when it happened in the story. So it's really a great way. There's a little side tip of robotics is if you have robots, measure the distance of one forward move. So on this grid, I made it with butcher paper, and then I pressed go on the little robot for one forward move. Then I measured the distance that it took. So that helped me know how big my squares needed to be. I printed the little foods on the side to put on this square. So you could do that with Dash, the Code-and-Go-Mouse, Sphero, whatever robot you use, but that's how you can make a grid, very cheap. So code and retell this story. Also, building vocabulary having again, like talking about life cycles in your class, you could have students code the robot to show the lifecycle in order when it happens. So it could be on a grid, it could be in various places in the room for extra challenge that aren't measured precisely. So then they're building that vocabulary and going into your site. It's unit building that background knowledge, also bringing this story to life. And that last picture, we have Sphero to pull us through the Ididarod race. And so we were reading some fiction stories kind of goes with that sentence stories as well. But it was bringing how what the I did route is and how that is an annual event in Alaska. If you're from Alaska, I hope you've been I did write I want to talk to you sounds super cool to go to, I would never run the race, but I really want to go see it. But you can bring this story to life and make it more hands on and tangible for kids. So robotics is a great way. Don't be scared, you can definitely do it. 


Naomi Meredith  10:40

Another way to integrate that literacy and STEM together is green screen. Now you don't have to have an official screen, I have a blue screen behind me a blue painted wall. The one right next to me is green. But you can get creative with that green screen as well as go to Dollar Tree and get a green plastic tablecloth and it can be hung anywhere in your room, you definitely want to have great lighting. But also you think get even more creative. I could use this green stool behind me as a type of green screen, you can use green shirts, which you'll see in some of these examples as a type of green screen. So think outside of the box when it comes to a green screen, because you could definitely do it on a smaller scale, which even might be more tangible in the classroom, when you're thinking about the noise level and the space that you have. So green screen is really great. When you're thinking about book reviews. I know a lot of units are talking about opinion writing where you're trying to persuade someone to read the story. You can amp up your game with book reviews with green screen. Weather reports are a classic example. But it's a great way for kids to work on writing a script practicing that oral reading, which is another standard that oral recall that oral retail write a script and they can tell the weather report of that day. Also, research projects doesn't have to be super complicated can be enhanced with that green screen, a different way to publish. 


Naomi Meredith  13:41

So we have in the first one, you see the kids, we have an iPad stand and we can talk about other apps. Definitely message me we can talk about great apps to use for green screen, but green screen or blue screen can be used. Fun fact, blue or green is typically used because humans shouldn't naturally be that color. So it really makes things pop with that background. So students in their writing class, wrote a book review and they publish their writing. They wrote it out nicely. They did all the editing. But then they had to share with our audience. We didn't just type the story. We had kids verbally retell their stories. So you see that there's a little script hanging on or their writing hanging on the tripod. The student was reading their published piece from there and I wish I had a picture of this from there and the green screen app. We put the book cover on the shirt. So it looked like the kid was wearing their shirt to promote it like a little bit of marketing about their story. And the middle of course we have a weather report that was the weather that day. So students quickly in the morning wrote their weather report, practiced their script, and then they read it out loud and pointed to what the weather was and then we uploaded that video on Seesaw. The last example is me for a research report. I was wearing a green shirt and I blended them into green background and researched about a famous person in STEM, this was Mae Jemisen, and it goes along with those, like those old school, I guess, old school. But when you have kids research about a person, they cut out the paper and put their head in it. It's like that idea, but in a green screen more interactive way. And I'll tell you, if you just show the kids this video, they will start laughing, it is a little bit creepy. If I didn't stay still, my head was floating around. But it was just a fun way to prepare a research report. 


Naomi Meredith  15:26

Stop motion animation, one of the oldest animation techniques out there, it's still used today. It's used all the time. But it's also a great way that you can integrate STEM and literacy. Again, this is like a low floor high ceiling type of activity I've learned so much about, um, students patience and creativity. So much happens with stop motion in front of the screen. It's like, it doesn't take a whole lot of hard technology. There are lots of free apps out there. But students really are focusing on paying attention to detail and how they're going to manipulate the tools so that they can move smoothly. So this is really great for those problem solving skills. And if you can collaboration, so stop motion animation can be integrated with literacy, again, that story retell, that's really a big thing with our comprehension. Again, building that vocabulary, and it's a cool way to do creative writing. I love stop motion animation. And you're gonna see in these examples, you actually don't really need anything fancy. When I started this in my K through five STEM classes, I really didn't have a huge budget. So I actually had the kids do all of their stop motion animation, like that middle picture with papers, so we drew the props, and then they move them. So you can just do paper. If you don't have any budget, you can get started that like I said, the app is free. So if you have even your phone or one or two iPads, you could get started with stop motion animation. 


Naomi Meredith  16:55

So the first one with that story retell, this was a great starter activity. We combine Legos and modeling clay, but we talked about quickly, different, very few even doing a fairy tale unit, we talked about different fairy tales, and students had to retell the story through movement, and they weren't allowed to add sound, or music. So they had to be very clear with their visualisation and the movements of their images to show accurately the story. So the first one, you probably can guess, is Little Red Riding Hood. And so this group did a really great job collaborating together, and restyling Little Red Riding Hood. And we would all guess what the fairy tale was. Another one that was really great. I don't have a picture on here, but it was the tortoise and the hare and the kids had the little tortoise and the hair move inch by inch and had the whole story. It was amazing. And the tortoise was made out of clay. And then the hair was made out of Legos. So cute. When you're thinking about that building vocabulary. Fifth grade was talking about the human body systems. So they researched about a different body system like very specific, more like a body part like eyes, your heart, ears, more specific things. And then they had a rubric to what they needed to include in their stop motion video. And all of that I'll show you a couple examples are i'll link these in here. That way you can watch them on their own, they don't have sound. So if you go into the presenter notes are right there. Also with that creative writing, we really want to encourage that creativity in our classrooms. And having those narratives that are just have that creative piece and all those story elements, so students could complete their creative writing, and then create a stop motion animation to tell the story that they're trying to convey. So they can narrate over their movements with their creative writing piece. So I definitely recommend stop motion animations, second grade and up, I think you can do it with K and one with some guidance. But second grade usually can be a little more independent and understand the picture taking process Makerspace. Of course, they're all these big names, and they really aren't scary, I think you can definitely do it. But Makerspace is my fifth way for integrating STEM and literacy together. And so you definitely again can integrate the two and make a meaningful experience. When you're thinking about stocking up your Makerspace, having donations from home is a great place to start or even if you're wanting to do it next school year. I have a little bin at my house where I start collecting things all summer long, and then I'll bring it into school. So cardboard, for sure bottles, all those sorts of things. But writing game rules is a great way to integrate that Makerspace experience when you're talking about a how to and how to be really clear with your writing and playing a game you have to be very, very specific. You might even be thinking about some games we like there are some games that have not very good rules. So those are some good non examples as well that you could share with students. You definitely can integrate that Engineering Design Process which a lot of states are adopting or already are using. 


Naomi Meredith  20:00

In the Next Generation Science Standards, which do have a portion that have the Engineering Design Process, so integrate that Makerspace, that science piece, all the literacy, those can all be connected together. And then of course, research projects are a great opportunity to use Makerspace. Because, really, you don't need a whole lot of materials. So we used to have some cardboard and tape, you're good to go. When you're thinking about those game roles. Students can design a game using cardboard, tape, marbles, and then create those game roles. So how many players are needed? What do you do step by step, if I were to read your directions, what I know how to play, you could even have the editing phase where the game is created, students have to read the instructions, they can't ask the author, and then figure out how to play and then they can get feedback on the game rules. That could be that editing that peer review, and see how they could change the rules. So it makes more sense, or even giving feedback like, hey, we found another way to play, maybe you want to change this piece up. So that'd be a great way to make that meaningful editing part. When you're building that vocabulary, they Engineering Design Process, so you have the problem you're trying to solve. And then that research piece and keeping track of information. This is just one way but building a cardboard airplane. And you're talking even that math with the STEM, all the different measurements and the lines and angles of how you should set up different parts of the airplane, you could go through that whole engineering design where students are gathering data, and also writing the modifications that they made to their airplane and how it improved their design. So you can definitely go deeper into the responses for various phases. I think that modification piece and also explaining how the design worked or great opportunities to really integrate that writing. And that oral communication research projects. Like I said, low practice is a recycling plant. So we were researching about how recycling plants work, and what types of things can be recycled. So we did some research on that. And then we built up our recycling plants. And then students were able to present about how a recycling plant works. Again, that oral communication, you can go as deep as you want and reading. We also use books on Epic books, which is a free for teachers website, where there are lots of great examples of how to take care of the earth, how recycling works, how it compost works. So we're working on that Earth piece together. So lots of ideas out there, you do have access to this presentation and click on those different pictures to go more in each of those lessons. But I know I'm that kind of person where I want to try all the things and maybe you're like oh, so overwhelmed, you don't know where to begin well next steps. Choose a lesson that you have in your unit upcoming that you think needs an upgrade. And springtime is a great time to dive in and try something new. And the kids have this energy but use that energy in a really hands on way and the kids will still be productive and engaged. So choose the lesson you think needs an upgrade. Try one of these ideas. It could be a lesson, or it could be a whole topic maybe the last month of school you want to do Makerspace so you're talking about Earth Month, bringing your recyclables let's find what we find outside we can build with it. So definitely use what you have. You don't have to start off completely fresh, but use that little upgrade. So make it gourmet avocado toast get really good. Don't feel like you got to make all the different avocado toast.


Naomi Meredith  23:34

Make one really good with the salmon in the egg and the capers like that picture. Oh my gosh, I'm getting hungry right now. But make that one lesson really, really good.


Naomi Meredith  23:50

Integrating STEM and literacy is so much fun. And I bet you're dying to see all of the examples and handouts from this presentation. You can grab the video recording of this episode, the video slides I referenced throughout student examples, and bonuses for only $5. That's cheaper than the dog treats that I like to buy for my little dog Frederick, way cheaper. The bonus includes a list of tools that you can use in STEM and literacy integration to different lesson planning templates and clickable links to lesson plan ideas you might want to try for various grade levels. This will be linked in the show notes, and you can check it all out here. Naomi meredith.com/stem literacy video where you play.

stem and literacy integration

 

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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!

STEM sub plans

How Do I Write STEM Sub Plans? [ep. 33]

How Do I Write STEM Sub Plans? [ep. 33]

STEM sub plans

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Episode Summary

No matter what you teach, writing sub plans is a lot of work.

Sometimes it's easier to teach than write the sub plans. Am I right?

For those days you need to be out of the building, here are my tips, systems, and lesson ideas for STEM sub plans, so you don't have to stress about it anymore. 

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Tips for lesson ideas and systems when it comes to writing your STEM sub plans
  • 3 examples of lessons to use for your STEM sub plans

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

No matter what you teach, writing sub plans is a lot of work. Sometimes it's easier to just teach then write the sub plans. Am I right? For those days that you do need to be out of the building, here are my tips, systems and lesson ideas for STEM sub plans, so you don't have to stress about it anymore. 


Naomi Meredith  00:52

This episode was inspired by a question that I got on my Instagram DMs the other day, and it's from @InspiredKia. She asked, “So curious when you have a sub, do you alter your lessons? Or do students still have full access to your supplies and materials?” This is a great question. As the short answer, it really depends. My sub plans change based on the rotation of kids that I have, where they are at in a project, what the project is, and also what the school schedule is like. I have an early release day once a week. Or maybe there's an assembly schedule or even a fire drill. It really all depends. So I will be sharing with you all the different ideas that I have for sub plans that have worked well in my classroom that you can use in yours. 


Naomi Meredith  01:44

Before we even get into the actual plans, first, you need to create a sub plan template. This is going to save you a lot of time when you are getting your sub plans ready, whether you know ahead of time you're going to be gone. Or if you need them last minute, I use my same template year after year with some modifications. Again, it makes it so much easier. If you have this system in place, I first create a simple Google doc template. I create a one column table where for each section are the different things that I'm going to add into that plan. The nice thing about making this a Google doc is that you can make a copy of it and create different templates for different days. This is helpful if you have different schedules for different days, which I've also had in the past. But also if you want to create a template for a half day morning, or a half day afternoon, that's really helpful as well. 


Naomi Meredith  02:46

Here's what I put in each section in the order that they go in before I even get to the actual plans. I've had a lot of subs over the years tell me they love the organization of my sub plans, and they have appreciated the information that I have included for them. So take this feedback that I have gotten and take a look at your own sub plans. Maybe you don't even have any yet and see how you can tweak them and make them even better. At the top of my sub plans and that first section is a welcome message, letting them know I'm so grateful to have them here. If I personally know the sub, I might write them something sweet or funny just to give them a little laugh, so a nice little introduction. Also, depending on the setup, I might give them my phone number, but it also depends on where I am at for the day. If I'm at a training, I don't mind giving my phone number or email. But if I'm on vacation, I will not include that information. After that I will have what to do for attendance. I personally don't have to take attendance for my classes, but you might so add in that information and how to do that for a sub. 


Naomi Meredith  03:53

After that is my behavior protocols and a general sense of what I do for behaviors, positive and negative, and if there are any school wide incentives that the sub needs to give out. For example, my school has something called Tiger paws, and other teachers can compliment another class and award them a tiger paw, which in turn the classes are collecting Tiger paws to earn a class party. Our substitute or guest teachers can give classes a golden paw, which is worth five paws. Classes really have to work hard to get these golden paws and I let my sub know within these notes what a golden paw is and how classes can receive them. After that is just a basic list of phone numbers for emergencies and who to contact if they need help. I will also leave these important phone numbers by my telephone. So that is also helpful to have on hand for myself but of course for a sub. After that I also include my daily schedule and my duty schedule. Even if the sub doesn't have to cover my duty for the day, I like to include all of them that I have throughout the school year. Then I'll just highlight the duty if that pertains to that particular day. Like I said, I have two different time schedules for my week. I have my regular Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday schedule. But then on Wednesdays, the time changes a little bit. So I include all of that on my template. Again, I'll just highlight the day that I am gone and the schedule that the sub needs to keep track of is a nice little hack. If you set this up beforehand, you don't have to type it in again for the rest of the school year, and you have it ready to go and you're not scrambling or forgetting about any of those different schedules or special duties that you have. 


Naomi Meredith  05:43

Next, I will write down what the seating looks like in my classroom, what students will do when they enter my room where they will sit, and what it looks like when they're sitting at my tables. I have two different types of chairs in my classroom. One of my tables has these big black chairs that are ginormous for my first and kindergarteners and I don't let them sit in them because they fall in them, they can't get in the chair, and they don't know how to push them in. So I include this in my notes that students can sit at the other tables with the blue or green stools. My older students sit at tables that correspond with their classroom number, and I have a sheet on their table that has the different numbers that are all mixed up. So just let the sub know about this. So if kids think they can sit wherever they want, that's not always the case, I let them do that when they're with me. But just so the sub is aware, I don't write down their seating numbers, you can go ahead and do this. I just trust the kids to sit at third numbers. I don't get too particular about it, but you know your kids best. So if you do, you need to include a seating chart, go for it. Finally, I do list out the activities in the order of when they will happen throughout the day, and what the sub will need to do with the kids. So that is just the sub plan templates. So this is the one that you would write on and modify as needed. Separate from that I actually have a simple sub binder. I had this when I was a classroom teacher as well. But this is the more detailed information about the school. 


Naomi Meredith  07:16

A handy trick with this is oftentimes at the beginning of the year, you might get a whole lot of paperwork from your front office with maps, what to do in an emergency, referral forms, school schedules, all of that information, I actually just put it in my sub binder. So it's just in one location. I go to this binder if I need that information, but it's just all helpful. It's all in one place for myself. I also like to include in here different things that could be for fast finishers, a sub has never needed them. But just in case you never know. I will include things like hidden pictures searches, crossword puzzles, those types of easy activities. Then also a list of fun little brain breaks if the sub needs them, and a few random read alouds that no matter what you can do a read aloud. If all else fails, go for it. So I always have this in the binder, I just change it out every year or if there's something that changes in our schedule. But otherwise, I don't really go back into this binder very often, but I leave it out for my subs. Aside from that I have a another binder that has the student information. I have four different binders, one for each rotation that I teach. Again, I also use this binder as the teacher for my class list. It has all of my classes of my students. It has pictures of all the kids, and also all of the IEPs, 504s and all of that information for each grade level in each classroom. Again, this is something that I use all the time, I'm not creating something extra for my subs. But this is just a helpful system in a binder to have out for your substitutes, so they know what your students look like and then any very important information that they need to know about the students they have on hand. I also write down little notes. I will write down their nicknames or what they like to be called. If there's any information like severe allergies, I'll make sure that's written down next to their name. If certain students have a para or need extra support, so that the sub is aware of this, and they're not blindsided when all of the classes rotate to them throughout the day. 


Naomi Meredith  09:24

Now that you have set up your sub system, I'm going to share with you three different types of sub plans that you can use for your students and STEM. The first option is to continue lessons that students have been working on with me throughout the week. Again, this really depends on what the project is, where they're at in their project, and what class is actually working on this project. Also, it does depend to what day I have a sub as well. Again, this will really really depend on all of these factors and I really tried to do this option continuing a lesson if possible. But the other two options are something I'm going to talk about as well. If this isn't the case, more likely than not my older students, third, fourth and fifth grade are able to complete a lesson that they're working on, which is awesome. If there's something new that I do need students to really focus on before they get started, then I might even create a screencast video using Screencastify. I will film myself teaching that part of the mini lesson and have the substitute play that for my students, I don't do this every time. But if I do, I will create a short link using Bitly bit.ly of that video that I created that's in my Google Drive. Since I know I'm going to be gone, I will share with some of my older students that the teacher will have to first show them how to get this link. If anything were to happen, they could help the sub out, I would do this as a classroom teacher as well, both in the classroom and as a STEM teacher. The substitutes have really appreciated this because I also teach it in a way where I'm engaging with the class. So I'm not just talking at the kids. I will say raise your hand if or turn and talk to the partner about this. So I really tried to make it interactive, even though it's recorded, and my substitutes have even told me they've really liked it when I've left these videos, and they could see how I am as a teacher, because sometimes I don't always meet the substitutes. They really enjoyed this and it's helped set the tone for the class, and the kids have a better idea of what they're going to be working on throughout the lesson. 


Naomi Meredith  11:40

The second option that works excellent for sub plans is STEM and stories. I have talked about STEM and stories quite a bit and a lot in past episodes. So that is sprinkled in throughout many episodes. So keep an ear out for those because I'm sure gonna be talking about them again. I also have a couple bundles of seven story lessons that I have taught with my students that you could just grab and use for future sub plans as well. I don't typically teach STEM in stories that often in my classroom because I like to save them as sub plans. Substitutes, I've found really like doing read alouds. This is a great way to capture the students attention. The students are going to listen to a story, they might plan their design and then build their design, probably using reusable objects like blocks or LEGO bricks. I won't typically do Makerspace materials for these challenges, because I have a whole set of rules in place when it comes to Makerspace. So make sure you go back and listen to those past episodes as well because I explained my whole system and rules for that. But I have found that these STEM and stories lessons have been really successful for substitutes. They're easy to prepare beforehand and a sub can do it for multiple classes throughout the day. Also, since you probably teach a lot of kids, you can have a bank of these prepared, and then just keep track of which classes have done which story. Then your sub plans might even be done for the rest of the school year. So I highly recommend saving these STEM and stories for these special moments. I have a bunch of them already made for you so your sub planning might even be done. A couple of my favorite favorite books that I love for STEM and stories is After the Fall by Dan Santat, Not a Box by Antoinette Portis, and Rosie Revere Engineer by Andrea Beatty. 


Naomi Meredith  13:40

Finally, the third option that you can do for your STEM sub plans, and this is a last resort, is to do a video. I also have this on hand for whatever reason I have had times where I woken up, I've lost my voice, I can't teach and I wasn't prepared for that. Sometimes just having a video, you just got to do it. I don't recommend doing this all the time. But it's just something again, good to have on hand. When I do a video I actually create an accountability sheet that students have to fill out when they're watching and I will add it to the plans that I would like the sub to collect these sheets that students filled out. I will pick a few winners of kids who really tried and really showed their work while they were watching and give them a prize. This really helps us out because the kids might be even more engaged in the video and I don't even say what the prizes are. I just think of it last minute so they don't even know what they're trying to earn but they just want to be the ones who win. So that has been really helpful. 


Naomi Meredith  14:44

My top three videos that I love using in the STEM space that are actually related to content is first Monsters Inc and it is rated G. When students watch Monsters Inc., they have to draw three inventions they see that the monsters use throughout the video. I also leave a space for them where they can draw an invention that they think would be helpful for the monsters to use. I have all three of these by the way that I'm going to talk about in my TPT shop for free. So of course, this will all be linked in the show notes as well. The second video that I like to use, this is more for fourth and fifth grade is Dream Big. The last time I checked, it was on Netflix, but it also might be on some other streaming platforms. I actually heard of this video, I got sent the physical DVD and I think a lot of STEM teachers that year did, but it's actually really good. It shows kids how engineering and all types of engineering is being used in our real world. It's super interesting and it's all these short little videos along the way. I highly recommend watching it on a Friday night, it's actually really good. There is one caveat, there's one little part where these high school students have a robotics competition or they're building something, and their design keeps sinking, like it keeps sinking or it keeps getting water in it. It's one of those. So they ended up using tampons as a way to soak up the water. I don't think they actually show tampons, they just talk about it. So not inappropriate, but I'm just letting you know if kids ask about it. That is in there, and it's pretty funny. Not again, not inappropriate, but just something you might want to watch out for. I don't have subs skip that part, I think it's fine, but just be aware of your audience. 


Naomi Meredith  16:35

Then the third video I like to use in the STEM space is also rated G is Rio with those cute little singing birds. The songs are super catchy. I have students draw five or more different animals that they see in the rain forest habitat. Now pro tip, it's really nice for the subs if you mix up the videos throughout the day. So if you have Rio for K and one, you have Monsters Inc, for two and three, and then Dream Big for four and five, then the sub doesn't have to watch the same video six times and they will appreciate that. Then you can also just keep track of who watches what so then you're not watching the same movie all day. Then you have to think of a new one for the next time. It's just nice to mix it up. Also, the sounds a little bit backwards, I actually use the real old school DVDs for these videos. I don't trust the WiFi when I'm gone. Of course, it's not going to work when I'm not there. So I actually have a DVD player hooked up to my TV in case of an emergency. I know that the video is going to play. If you don't have a DVD player, or you don't want to go as old school as me, then I recommend pre-downloading the video and not having it go in a web browser. Because again, it might not work when you're not there. So definitely not innovative. But maybe it is innovative because I'm solving a problem through old school technology. I don't know it has worked well and has been totally okay for any teacher technology to I also take pictures of what the remotes look like, I create a visual chart of all the teacher technology so that they can find it and know exactly what buttons to click. So that is also a another great tip to have as well. That's something that I will keep inside of my sub binder whenever I need it. 


Naomi Meredith  18:24

As a recap, here are my tips for lesson ideas and systems when it comes to writing your STEM sub plans. First create templates for writing your plans. Next, you can have the option of students continuing the projects they're already working on. Second, you can also create Stemmons story lessons or have those prepared and ready to go. And third, as a last resort, you can do related STEM movies. Overall writing sub plans isn't fun for anybody, it is my least favorite thing to do as a teacher. But hopefully with all of these ideas you can feel more prepared so you can even have things ready to go. So in the case that you have to be gone, it won't be as stressful. You can grab and go and then be on your way for the day that you are not in the building.

STEM sub plans

STEM sub plans

 

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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!