Connecting with the Library to Get Outside Resources

Do yourself a favor and get in touch with your local library!

OF COURSE the library would have a ton of resources!!!

I regret not getting in touch with our library sooner....I wish I knew about the resources that they offer to schools and teachers!

Our local library has phenomenal resources like:

• Resource Bags - Just fill out a short form about what you will be studying...and in a week, you will have a bag of goodies (books, digital resources, and more!) all about the topic!

• STEM Kits - What!? I had no idea! In the last week, I was able to check out Arduinos, Makey-Makeys, and Finch Robots! 

• Tours/Visits - The library will host tours of its facilities OR come to your school to do book talks, story time, database demonstrations, or more!

• Partnerships - Our library has a lot of great makerspace resources like 3D printers and Makey-Makeys! A middle school teacher in our district partnered with the library to have his students learn about the different resources...then collaborated with our elementary school!

• Host Events - Ready to celebrate your kids' hard work or show off genius hour/makers' projects, see if your library would be willing to host! It would be neat to have community members and students presenting alongside each other! We also hosted our celebration of our 3D printing project collaborations there!

Contact your library as soon as you can before you find yourself doing this...

3D Printing Collaboration - Connecting with Other Schools!

3D Printing Collaboration - Elementary School & Middle School

WOW! We just finished collaborating with some 8th graders on a 3D printing project...and I was blown away by the process!

If you are at an elementary school, check out the courses offered at your local middle school and reach out to the teachers to see if you can collaborate! Or vice versa...

At the middle school level, our district offers Creative Arts options for students. These include: World Culture, Industrial Technology, and Career Connections.

We were fortunate to have our Industrial Technology teacher reach out to us to form a partnership. Four of his eighth grade students worked with four of our 5th graders to plan, design, and create 3D printed projects!

Our PHENOMENAL local library then hosted an event where people shared their projects with the community. What a great way to celebrate their hard-work and creativity!



What did our students learn from this process:

• Communication Skills: Students communicated using Google HangOuts and Google Docs. This gave students a chance to practice communicating in different ways...and to do something similar to what engineers who are working together across the world do!

• Technical Skills: Students worked with Tinkercad (a free online software program that can be used to 

 

Thingiverse.com is a great site that allows you to upload and download projects that you can then tweak.

• Habits of Mind: Designing a 3D project is hard. Really hard. It requires a lot of trial and error...and collaboration! Want to do more with Habits of Mind? Check this out!

Check out the "finished" projects. We still have some tweaks to do!

Part of a Desk Organizer
We need to re-print one of the pieces. 

3D Globe Puzzle
We still need to problem-solve on how to make it so the pieces fit on the globe.

Merging STEAM/STEM with Reading - Novel Engineering

This. Will. Change. Your. Life.

Merging STEAM/STEM with Reading...

by Engineering Solutions for Books!

So, you're students are already superstars at identifying the main problem of a story...but have they have had the chance to actually DESIGN & CREATE different solutions for those problems!? You need to do this with your kiddos.

      

This can be done with picture books like these....










or novels  (even during literature circles!) like these...














With this easy-to-use guide, your students will be identifying problems, brainstorming solutions, working collaboratively, MAKING, giving feedback, and improving their designs using the 5 EASY STEPS OF ENGINEERING DESIGN:

1. Ask
2. Imagine
3. Plan
4. Create
5. Improve

Check out some of the creations that students came up!

An under-ground storage area!

A hover board!

A way to prevent forest fires!

The nitty gritty of it...

Merging STEAM/STEM with Social Studies

In our Social Studies curriculum students learn about the different Native American Cultural Regions, but students had a hard time internalizing and understanding the big ideas. To help students empathize with Native Americans and better understand how Native Americans relied on resources and adapted to their environments, they really needed a hands-on experience.

This is the Native American STEAM/STEM Lesson I used! 

Here's how it went! 

We defined natural resources and I showed them a map of the United States. We discussed what we knew about the natural resources that can be found in these areas as well as possible environmental challenges. 

I then revealed that we were going to be designing a house to withstand these environmental challenges using only natural resources available. 

Cue the party music.

I split students into each Native American Cultural Region group and allowed them to read about what resources they would have available to them as well as which environmental challenges they would have to learn to adapt to. 

Purchase HERE!

I showed them the spread of goodies they would get to use: 

Please note that some of the materials don't resemble the natural resource (ie. tape = soil). The reason is that Native Americans used soil as an adhesive.   Also, if resources were "scarce," there was a limit to how much they could take, otherwise I did not limit them. 

AND...Cue the frustrations.

"WHAT?! We don't even get SOIL?!" 

"HEY! That group gets more resources than we do!!" 

Keep calm and use this as a teachable moment. 

Through this students will learn that based on where these Native Americans lived, they were limited to their surroundings. This helped them develop their culture. Plus, once students get to creating and problem-solving, they'll be all smiles. 

After students have ample amount of time to build, let them test! You can either have students come up with appropriate ways to test environmental challenges, or you can have tests pre-made. I had all materials sitting out which made testing pretty self-explanatory. 

After testing, provide students with time to share their designs with the class and reflect. Allow students to share feedback. An important part to the process is letting students actually make changes to their original design. Students should then go back and redesign then retest. I had students retest a different day. 

This lesson was not only a blast to do and watch, but students really did get the big ideas. We went to the museum later that month to see the Native American exhibit, and the connections made.....well...