194. 3 End of Year Science Activities & STEM Challenges [Replay-ep.159]

Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach podcast. I'm your host Naomi Meredith, a former classroom teacher turned H2P 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. The end of the school year can be crazy and overwhelming in any type of classroom. What are some STEM and science activities

that you can do to keep kids engaged and still learning? I'm sharing with you lessons that are easy to prep and that your students will definitely enjoy. And if you're already done with school

and you have kids of your own or you're gonna be teaching some summer camp opportunities, these also work well for summer learning.

Okay, so onto the activities. What are some fun things that you can still do at this crazy time of year? I know, like I've been on both sides. So I was a classroom teacher for six years and then K35 STEM.

So I understand the different ways that kids can respond in different spaces. But even as a classroom teacher, doing those hands-on things actually are really, really good for kids and they absolutely love it. And it's a great way to harness their energy and also do something really, really productive.

So what are some kinds of things that you can plan for? First of all, think about some makerspace challenges. And if you're in the classroom like, no, no makerspace, I can't do it. Think really small.

You can use things that you already have in your classroom. You can ask your kids for some donations, maybe collect some things at home. you would be surprised how quickly things add up in your own home when it comes to cardboard or different cardboard tubes. They add up really, really fast. Another way I really liked collecting

materials that also added up very quickly was I put a box in our teacher's lounge and especially at the time here, you have no time to cook, you know, energy. There's so many things happening in school and also out of school at this time that freezer meals are great staple. And so I would put a box in the teacher's lounge and I wrote a little sign like put

your empty boxes in here. I'll collect them. And those freezer meal boxes are perfect for building with because kids can use their regular scissors to cut and they are small manageable size and you didn't really have

to do much, send another letter home or anything. And this is also a really good way for kids to use up their school supplies before taking them home. So when you are planning a Maker Space Challenge, you can keep it very simple.

They don't have to be overly complicated. One way to do this is to look at the standards that you have and the standards that lend themselves perfectly for building. So look for keywords that say, create a model, demonstrate, show the process.

And it's okay if this is a review time of science concepts or maybe there's something you did teach, but it wasn't very hands on. There is so much to learn about science and look at it in a different way. I still taught with all of the standards in my STEM classroom, even though I knew the

kids are learning it in their classroom, but they knew they weren't doing it in STEM ways. So don't feel like, oh, we already did it. No, there's so much to learn about science.

Who knows if kids grasped it the first time? Do it again in a new way. You can also do this on the flip side, so we have that nonfiction way.

Think about STEM and stories. This is a really great way where kids can build and solve a problem in the story or create an alternate ending.

They can create a new solution. One way, I know this isn't summer, but this is one that came off the top of my head. But think about the story of the gingerbread man.

traditional story where the gingerbread man goes to the water and the wolf is like, oh, I'll help, or the fox will help you. I'll help you. And sadly, the gingerbread man didn't exist.

So what if the gingerbread man was a little bit smart, had some engineering skills and students can build a boat to help the gingerbread man get across.

So just a quick example there, pretty, pretty fun. Another way that you can do this makerspace is I actually did this at the end of the year. I purposely tried it out, brand new,

at the end of the year, because I wanted to do a makerspace, and it was a great success. And I did a whole STEM usement park theme.

So every grade level was exploring force and motion, and had a different makerspace challenge of a different area of the park, and they were building to solve that problem.

It was amazing, kids were engaged. It was a great way to clean out my supplies and get it all restocked and cleaned out and ready to go for the next year.

So I'm telling you, Magerspace is so much fun at the end of the year. Another way that you can keep kids engaged during this busy time is take them outside.

Yes to play, we know that. We want to enjoy the air, fresh air. Here in Colorado, our weather is so crazy in the spring. It's hit or miss.

But there's so much science outside. Maybe it do something, they have a nature journal where they're making observations and you go out at the same time every day

and see if there's things that they notice and it couldn't be even tracking the weather. I recently just got a bird feeder at my house and that could be something too.

You could build a bird feeder in maker space. Bonus lesson for you. I just got a bird feeder at my house and I actually had to move the bird feeder

because the first location, all the squirrels thought it was their own buffet and they were fighting over the food. So I had to move it where the squirrels can't get it. And I got so excited when I got my first two birds in my little feeder and I could even,

I'm really trying to figure out what kind of birds they are. I need to look a little bit closer. So you could do the same thing with your kids. Also along with that, if you're making observations, you can explore shadows,

bring some chalk out there.