STEM Conversions Transforming Regular Classroom Lessons and Design Briefs into Integrated STEM Lessons

Where to Start? When designing a STEM lesson, you can start from any of these places.

Grade 1 Lesson Plan: Sound Introduction The teacher gave us this:  Solve problem of communicating over distance  Social Studies- composers and inventors (Now and Ben) STEM Lesson Ideas:  Straw kazoos Straw kazoos  Rice bouncing on a drum  Have different groups design an instrument that makes an assigned sound (low, medium, and high pitched)  Design a device to communicate a message from one group to another Our big ideas:  Vibrating materials make sound  Sound makes materials vibrate

Grade 2 Lesson Plan: Slip-Sliding Away The teacher gave us this:  Erosion  How to slow or prevent erosion by using dikes, windbreaks, landscaping, etc. STEM Lesson Ideas:  Build a small sand test area and have groups of students design an anti- erosion structure or system. Have them place it in the sand pit and introduce water to the area (Like a hurricane)  Discuss what worked and what did not work  Measure the amount of erosion caused to determine what methods were most effective Our big ideas:  Matter and its interactions  Measurement  Gathering data

Grade 3 Lesson Plan: Charlotte’s Web The teacher gave us this:  Ask and answer questions to demonstrate an understanding of the text STEM Lesson Ideas:  Any problem in the story can be turned into a narrative curriculum design challenge  For example:  A new product to make the farmer’s job easier  An anti- stink device for the bad egg  Engineer a spider web that can communicate a message, handle a certain amount of force, etc. Our big ideas:  Forces and motion  Design solutions  Fractions (using a spider web)

Grade 3 Lesson Plan: Trapped by the Ice! The teacher gave us this:  Polar region  Demonstrate a knowledge of the text STEM Lesson Ideas:  Determine what needs must be met in order to survive the environment  Design a survival apparatus to meet this need. This could be one for the whole class or each group could have a different assignment (Examples: food, water, heat, shelter, etc.) Our big ideas:  Earth systems (display of typical weather conditions)  Climates  Reducing the impact of a weather hazard  Scaled graphs

Grade 4 Lesson Plan: What came first, the frog or the egg? The teacher gave us this:  Life cycles STEM Lesson Ideas:  Design and build a tadpole habitat to be used to house the tadpoles. Design must allow for easy and accurate observation of the growing tadpoles  Could also use butterflies and develop a habitat for each stage of metamorphosis Our big ideas:  Engineering design  Using designs generated following design loop, identify points, lines, rays, angles, perpendicular, and parallel lines

Grade 4 Lesson Plan: Fossil Detectives The teacher gave us this:  Identify rock patterns and fossils in rocks  Transfer of thermal energy between the atmosphere and the land or oceans influences climate patterns STEM Lesson Ideas:  Add in a discussion of extinct animals and what caused their extinction (include pictures of fossil evidence of these animals)  What could we do to protect them if they were alive today?  Pick an animal and “find” one last living specimen. Design and build a trap to protect this specimen from its predators  Create your own fossils  Fossil “dig” Our big ideas:  Literacy tie-in- How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World  Identify lines of symmetry

Grade 5 Lesson Plan: Who Polluted the Watershed? The teacher gave us this:  Renewable and nonrenewable resources  Environmental responsibility  Maryland’s natural resources STEM Lesson Ideas:  Crumpled Watershed Activity Crumpled Watershed Activity  Solar Smore’s Ovens  Water filters to use after the watershed has been polluted Water filters Our big ideas:  Literacy tie-in- Energy Makes Things Happen  Quadrilaterals (identify all quadrilaterals in your solar oven)  Engineering design

Lesson Plan: Survival Acts The teacher gave us this:  Context  How animals adapt for survival STEM Lesson Ideas:  The animals are being moved from their nice, comfortable zoo in San Diego to the newly built Zoo of Difficult Domain in Antarctica. What adaptations could you make to their habitat to help make the adjustment survivable? Our big ideas:  Measurement  Data

Lesson Plans:Fractional Relationships The teacher gave us this:  Use area model to prove that 2/3 = 8/12  Show how fractions can be applied to time, money, and measurement STEM Lesson Ideas:  Choose a page of Math Curse and re-write using equivalent fractions  Design balloon powered cars and race them on a track which shows both 3rds and 12ths; prove which care went the farthest using fractions Our big ideas:  Literacy tie-in- Math Curse  Forces  Energy  Converting energy from one form to another

Lesson Plan: Area and Perimeter of Rectangles The teacher gave us this:  Area stays the same even though the perimeter may change  Calculating the area of an irregular figure STEM Lesson Ideas:  Design a floor plan for your new classroom. It must have an area of X.  How many different shapes were created? What was the most common shape created? How many different perimeters were there? Can two shapes have the same area but different perimeters Graph your results!  The school was donated this irregular shape of land on which to build the new gymnasium. Design and build a model of the gym that makes the best use of space. What is the final square footage of your gym? What environmental concerns should you be aware of before building? Our big ideas:  Environmental resources  Earth and human activity- design your building so that it reduces the impact of a weather hazard  Engineering design

Steps to Success with STEM Step 1 Big Ideas- What’s the point? Step 2 Use the standards Step 3 Leave room for multiple solutions to a problem (How would you design… not build a rocket) Step 4 Develop an engaging scenario to get your students’ attention Step 5 Be creative!