Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

Let’s settle this debate once and for all in the STEM classroom. How do you manage tape with your students’ STEM projects? I asked this over on my Instagram at Naomi Meredith and there was a lot of opinions and a lot of debate about this topic and it actually made me laugh and makes for a really good podcast episode. So let’s see if you use any of these strategies when you manage tape and maybe you’ll find a new one that you haven’t thought about before.

If you’re watching the video version, I have on my lap my cute little dog, Frederick, so we’ll see if he stays with me the whole time. Sometimes he will. He actually really likes it when I talk and record podcasts.

He gets all sleepy because he thinks my voice is very soothing. Out of the strategies, the strategy for tape that was the most popular, based on your comments that you are making on this video, is rip and stick. So you have your roll of tape, you take out a certain amount, you rip it, you stick it on the side of the table.

So this one was actually very, very popular and all these strategies that I’m mentioning, I actually use myself based on the kids I’m working with and the project that we have. Some people are really specific where they have a certain amount that they rip and stick. So maybe it is the length of their arm.

Maybe they have the kids measure a certain length and carry it back to their table and stick it to the side of the table. I have showed kids to do this where they’re sharing the rolls of tape I put on the table. I just show them, rip off the amount that you need, put it on the side, then you can cut the tape or you can rip the tape so that you’re not scrambling for the roll of tape.

Some of you did similar things as me. This strategy, in a way, does manage the tape. So some of you have the rolls on the table, they rip and stick it on the side of the table themselves.

Some of you as the teacher are in charge of ripping and sticking the tape. So this does manage the tape. Maybe it’s not as specific, but there is some sort of control on how much tape they can use.

This next strategy is even more controlled where you have the tape where it’s measured and stuck onto the actual ruler. So this gives that mass measurement of visually being able to see, oh, I only have a foot of tape. It’s on the actual ruler.

This is all that I can use for a project. And I have actually done this too, where I have a classroom makerspace menu where kids can buy certain amounts of tape. And so if you have it stuck on the ruler, especially if they’re in the process of building the project over many days, this can be really great because the tape is already there.

And if they need to buy more, they can see how much tape that actually is. I thought this was a really cool comment. One of you said you do this ruler strategy, but you use both sides of the ruler.

So one side is the 12 inches and then on the back is the 24 inches, which I thought was really clever as well. I really liked that idea. Some of you have even said, because you work with so many kids, you’ve been doing this for so many years that you are so good at ripping and sticking the tape on the ruler.

You don’t even need the ruler. You have the exact measurement. I feel like I could actually do that as well.

I totally get that. This strategy might seem like it’s very chaotic with the tape, but also in a way it’s not as restrictive and you just give them the whole role. And I’ve actually been doing this strategy with my STEM Afterschool Club kids to see how it goes.

And at first, usually the first few projects, kids use an abundance of tape. But when you think about it, when do they really build a lot of things and get to use tape in other areas of their life? So it’s exciting to use tape. It’s something they don’t get to use all the time.

So of course they want to use as much as possible. But then over time, again, they have the whole role to themselves on the table. They start using less and less and how to use the tape strategically and how to fold it or really think about, oh, I should use a piece this size here.

Or maybe if I cut the cardboard this way, I could use a little bit of a glue stick and the tape. So the whole role of tape has been working out fine. And this is my third year doing STEM afterschool programs and not every project uses tape anyway.

So you can definitely try that out. Maybe try with your older students and see how it goes. But this actually works out a little bit better than you think because you’re letting them have access to the tool they’re so in quote-unquote forbidden to use.

But when they have access to it, they don’t eventually use as much as you think. So this is a very interesting thing to try, but it’s been working well for me. Making baby tape rolls is also another strategy that I used a lot during COVID where my students weren’t allowed to share materials.

We were just, it was a lot of unknowns at the time. So I took a popsicle stick. I, again, could use that body measurement and be pretty precise on how much tape I was ripping.

But I would take a measurement of tape and I would wrap it around itself on a popsicle stick, sticky side down. So it was making a baby tape roll that kids could use themselves. This actually still works well.

I’ll still do it from time to time. If kids are sharing or having a hard time sharing, I’ll just make one really quick. I’ve also seen kids do this themselves.

If they need a little bit of tape to take home, they’ll make their own baby tape roll on a popsicle stick. Or I saw a kid yesterday do this with a straw. We were making straw mazes.

This is a really good strategy. It can be time consuming. I’m really fast at making them.

I don’t do this strategy as much anymore. Again, I just give them the whole roll. I’m like, try it out and see what happens.

I mentioned this a little bit before, but this can really depend on the project and how you want kids to use the materials and what element of math you want them to use. But having a maker space menu where all of the supplies have a cost to them. And it could also be based on scarcity.

The less of the items we have, the more expensive it can be. I do that a lot. I have a menu in my Teachers Pay Teacher Store and a whole in-depth way of how I use this with students.

So that will be linked in the description. But tape is usually like a middle priced item that students can buy for their projects. I always let them use glue sticks for free.

Hot glue gun depends on the kids. Sometimes I let them buy that as an option. But having that economy system and buying all of the items can be really helpful.

I usually have a set budget when I use this in my classroom where all the kids get the same amount of money. They’ve always asked me, how can I earn more money? And I’m like, you can’t. But one of you commented and said that you do let kids earn more money.

And to do that, they have to clean certain things in the classroom and they get really excited about it. I’m like, that’s actually a really good idea. So I thought that was really creative for the way to earn more.

With these tape management systems, it might not be the same for every environment. Like I said, I run STEM after school programs right now and the kids are ages 5 to 5th grade. But this could really depend on the age of your students, the project that you’re working on, the types of systems and routines you have in your classroom.

It is a real thing to talk about. So I just wanted to make sure that this was something that was in a podcast episode. It is really funny that this is that we’re talking about, but it is real life and something that we use a lot in a STEM space.

And a lot of money goes towards tape. If you have anything that you want to share, feel free to send me a message on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore. Or if you’re watching the video version on my YouTube channel, Naomi Meredith, you can just add a comment below.

And I would love to hear your thoughts about this topic. And if there’s other STEM materials that we need to chat about in the management and what you should and shouldn’t do, maybe hot glue guns, let me know. And maybe that’ll be an episode in the future.

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the elementary STEM coach podcast. I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, or send me an email to elementary STEM coach podcast at gmail.com. Also, make sure to check out my website, Naomi Meredith.com to see all the show notes from today’s episode and shop my K through five STEM resources. Any questions you have needs for resources or ideas for episodes, get in touch.

I’ll talk to you soon.