As we start the new school year I’d like to show you how I set up my STEM classroom ready for my STEM or STEAM activities.
For the first STEM lesson of the year I don’t start with my units of work, which I’ve planned out and aligned to the curriculum.
Instead, start out with some fun stem activities. Let’s excite students with STEM! Years ago when I was first asked to teach STEM my Principal left this statement with me ‘I want STEM to be every students favourite subject!’ So it was my challenge to do just that.
How do I set up my STEM activities?
Task Cards
Keep the activities concise and clear by using task cards. This way the expectations of the challenges are explained on each card and student teams can work independently.
I always print them, cut them out and laminate them. Printing the task cards to half a standard size page means I can fit two on each page. Because I teach 13 classes over two days this ensures the task cards last all of the rotations and for future lessons.
On a side note keeping task cards ready for any sub days is an easy solution in any STEM space. It can be stressful getting a sub to take over any ongoing projects.
It doesn’t matter if students have already completed that task. Repeating a STEM challenge is not a sign of bad or lazy teaching. It’s actually giving the students a chance to improve and get better on what they did last time.
What to include in each STEM activity basket
To keep everything organised I use small baskets. Depending on how many teams of students I have, I set up that many baskets.
For example the start of this year, we are doing our PAPER STEM challenges. I like to use these as they require minimal amount of supplies, paper and tape!
I fill the basket with the supplies that each challenge will need and pop the task card in there too. Spreading the baskets out on tables gives each group plenty of space to work.
By allocating approximately 20 minutes to complete each challenge it allows me to rotate through a few different challenges in the time I have.
Students know to pack up their challenge into the basket, just the way they found it.
At the end of the lesson
We’ll come back together and discuss what challenges and achievements the teams made. This gives us a chance test the designs and reflect on what went well and what could have been done better.
I always feel that the coming together time is very important step in the STEM process. It’s good like to highlight teams who have worked hard to problem solve. This way I have students going home with a really positive attitude after having a really fun time whilst learning along the way. This is always my goal!
Your Homework
Print some task cards. Use them with your students. Leave me a comment about how this worked for you as a teacher and for your students.