You Have the STEM Tools. Now What?
The first few weeks of school are a whirlwind. Schedules settle in, routines take shape, and teachers finally get a clearer picture of what the year is going to look like. It’s also when all those STEM plans made over the summer meet the reality of the school day.
Maybe there’s a new makerspace. New technology. A cabinet full of materials. Or simply a goal to give students more opportunities to explore science, engineering and math in meaningful ways. The challenge usually isn’t enthusiasm for STEM. It’s making it easy enough, relevant enough and useful enough to become part of what actually happens in the classroom.
So as the school year gets underway, here are a few things worth considering.
Make It Easy to Get Started
Teachers already have a lot competing for their time. Even the best STEM resource can be difficult to use regularly if every lesson requires extensive preparation, setup or specialized knowledge.
Sometimes the difference between a STEM resource that gets used and one that sits on the shelf is simply how easy it is to get started.
Clear lesson plans, ready-to-use materials and simple technology can remove some of that friction. And teachers shouldn’t need to be engineers or STEM specialists to create a great experience for students.
In fact, some of the best STEM conversations start with questions rather than answers:
What do you think will happen?
How could we test that?
Why do you think that happened?
What should we try next?
Giving teachers the tools to facilitate those conversations can make STEM feel much more approachable.
Give Students Something to Figure Out
There’s a noticeable difference between learning about a STEM concept and having a reason to use it.
A lesson about forces becomes more interesting when students have something to predict and test. Habitats take on new meaning when it’s part of a problem they need to solve.
Even when the underlying academic concept is the same, the experience changes when students have a question in front of them. They start making decisions. Comparing ideas. Trying things. Talking to one another. And, yes, sometimes discovering that their first idea didn’t work. That’s part of the fun.
Connect STEM to What Students Are Already Learning
STEM doesn’t have to live in its own corner of the school day. Science and math concepts become especially interesting when students see how they can be used outside of a worksheet or textbook.
Fractions can become part of a production problem. Coordinate graphing can help create a design. Time and money can become variables in an efficiency challenge. Energy can become something students need to understand to make a system work better.
These kinds of connections help students see academic concepts differently.
Instead of asking, “When am I ever going to use this?” they get a chance to find out.
Make Student Thinking Part of the Experience
One of the best parts of STEM can also make it tricky to assess: students are often working together. A group might be building, testing, debating and changing course all at once. There’s a lot of learning happening, but it isn’t always obvious what each student understands.
A simple reflection can help. What happened? Why do you think it happened? What did you change? What would you try differently next time?
Giving students a place to capture that thinking helps connect the activity back to the learning. It also gives teachers another window into what students understood, not just what the group accomplished.
Finding What Works in Your Classroom
There’s no single formula for a great STEM program. What works in one classroom or school may look completely different in another.
But the resources that become part of regular learning tend to have a few things in common: teachers can get started without a huge lift, students have something meaningful to figure out, and the experience connects back to what they’re already learning.
That’s what we’re working to make easier with MindLabs.
MindLabs brings together physical card decks, augmented reality, ready-to-use lessons and a Digital Notebook to give students opportunities to explore STEM concepts together while giving teachers the structure and resources to make it manageable.
Because a STEM resource can only make an impact when it makes it into students’ hands.