Encouraging STEAM at Home

STEAM does not have to be the latest technology or most expensive building materials. In fact, all of STEAM is rooted in the basics - finding random materials and building.

My 15 month old son is the perfect reminder of this!

Just the other day he grabbed his wooden blocks and coasters off of our coffee table and just starting building. In this moment I did not discourage him. There was no reason he couldn’t use the coasters and I knew he was about to make an amazing discovery! In fact, he learned that the coasters have a larger surface area to stack blocks. Now you’re right, a toddler is not going to remember the term surface area (which I definitely shouted in excitement!), but he is definitely going to remember that moment of building. It’s up to us as teachers and parents to encourage moments, both small and large!

Our children are born engineers! They are inquisitive. Constantly testing how to make an object fit inside of another object, or throwing books (probably not want we want at the moment) to see what happens when they fall. Ok, not your kids, just mine? That’s ok he’s a toddler and he’s still learning! I want to help you build these engineering moments in your home. Whether your children are pros at building, or they’re still getting used to the idea, this resource is for you! I have put together 8 easy STEAM activities to get you started. In fact, you don’t even need a lot of resources to be successful. All of the STEAM challenges in this free resource require materials that are just laying around your house. I bet there’s a lot of materials hanging around your living room that you don’t even realize can be used to help you children learn and grow as engineers! So download this free resource, grab a pencil and paper, and let your children start planning their next great adventure!

Free Resource: STEAM at Home

Are you in need of more ideas? Check out these blog posts to get your gears moving! STEM Movies and Building Materials

Engineering Design Cycle for Elementary Students

You are probably wondering what this title even means. Unless you’re an engineer by trade or a STEAM teacher, like myself, you may not have even heard of this before. In short, it’s a way of teaching students to solve real-world problems. Any time they are given a challenge we go through each step of the Engineering Design Cycle in order to find a solution.

Have you ever heard of the Scientific Method? I’m sure you have. Think back to the days you did science experiments in school. You started by asking questions, creating a hypothesis, testing your hypothesis, and reporting your results. It’s a linear approach, while the Engineering Design Cycle is cyclical and allows the problem solver to revisit the problem and continue to improve it. You have probably heard of the saying “Practice makes perfect!” Well I prefer “Practice makes better,” because the Engineering Design Cycle teaches students that there is always room for improvement in their design.

So how can you use this with your students or kids at home an in school?

Start small. Don’t try to throw every step at them at once because it can feel overwhelming, especially to our youngest learners. Start with having them plan their design. Give them a challenge, paper, and pencil and have them brainstorm what they want to build. This gives them time to think it through and be intentional about the resources they have available to build with. Then let them build. Their design will probably fail at first and that’s ok. That’s why the Engineering Design Cycle is a cycle. There’s room for improvement and they can always go back to the drawing board and start over!

Are you ready to get your engineers building? Check out this free resource to walk them through a challenge!

Basic Engineering Design Cycle!

If you’re hooked and looking for more ideas to get your students building, then look at these blog posts: K-2 Can Too and STEAM on a Budget

Innovation in Technology

Over the past few months I had the honor of going through the process for the RVA Tech Innovation in Education Award sponsored by Trillium Technical. I was first nominated in January 2019, and was announced as a finalist on April 24th. All of the finalist were invited to the RVA Tech Gala on May 8th, which was held at the Richmond Convention Center. While, I did not receive the Innovation in Education Award, I left with a very valuable experience.

Most educators only go to events that are education-based. However, The RVA Technology Council predominately works with and recognizes a variety of businesses, but one award is presented to an educator. During the RVA Tech Gala I was surrounded by men and women in the technology business world. It was fascinating to hear how they are applying technology in a variety of business sectors. I met a start-up business that researched how to make and use biodegradable packaging for shipping products, a non-profit that created a website to help those in need, augmented reality being used by Dominion Energy to “place” and “move” utility boxes for power lines, and so much more.

On the flip-side, they were enthralled with how I work with my elementary students using the Engineering Design Cycle to implement projects. The common statements to me were, “Wow. I wish that I had something like that when I was in school!,” as well as, “And wait, you’re doing this with kindergarten through fifth graders?! Your students are going to be so much further ahead than I ever was.” You see, the thought holds true - we are preparing our students for jobs that don’t even exist yet.

In order to prepare them for these careers, we have to get them hooked onto STEM careers from the beginning. There’s nothing that says a kindergartner can’t learn how to code, and if someone tries to tell you that, I’m here to prove them wrong. Because, I have 150 kindergartners who can explain that a robot is able to follow directions in the order in which you give it, they can code sequences, and by the time they leave fifth grade they will be able to code even more advanced robots and script on Chromebooks.

Technology is an ever-changing field and it is our job as educators to navigate the expanding landscape for our students. We cannot be stuck in our ways just because it worked in the past. We have to be willing to try new things, expose our students to a variety of technologies, and bring to light the numerous STEM jobs that are available to them.

I always leave my students with a challenge, so I will challenge you with this - even though the school year is nearing the end, how can you find a new way to incorporate technology into a lesson, STEM challenge, or project in your classroom?

Breakout EDU Game Designer

I published my very first Breakout EDU game - Searching for the Sea!

You maybe wondering, what is Breakout EDU? A quick rundown is that it’s an escape room for the classroom! It gets students out of their seats and collaborating together to solves puzzles to breakout of a box.

Starting in February, Breakout EDU ran their first cohort of teachers to learn how to make a Breakout EDU game from scratch! We shared ideas, critiqued each others’ puzzles, learned how to screencast, and eventually left the cohort with a published game. I absolutely loved the experience because it connected me with other like-minded educators as well as learning the skills to create a game that is puzzle-based and not worksheet based. I always say, “DITCH the worksheets!’ and this really put me to the test. The puzzles for each lock are not meant to be a worksheet hidden in a different format, but rather a true puzzle that will make students think and collaborate together.

Going into the process I knew it would be time consuming, but I found that generating the puzzles was easier as you started to create a few because I learned how to think differently. Now for me, personally, it took me longer than I would have liked because I was juggling learning how to balance my time between work and taking care of my newborn. However, when I clicked submit - boy did it feel empowering. Here I am a new mother, of a now five month old, and I created a Breakout EDU game from scratch in between feedings, diaper changes, snuggles, and oh yeah, my actual teaching job too!

While I have a lot more ideas running around in my head, I will definitely sit on them a bit, so I can enjoy more snuggles and finish out the school year. If you’re interested in learning how to design your own Breakout EDU game be sure to checkout the Game Design Tutorials.

And if you want your own class to play Searching for the Sea, get Breakout EDU’s paid-for platform. I promise, you won’t be sorry! It has transformed learning at my school!

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Want to learn more about Breakout EDU?! Click the link to learn all the ins-and-outs of why you need it at your school!