Why All the Questions?

It's not hard to find the acronym STEM included in educational endeavors both in and out of school. I would dare to say that it has evolved into a term that is as broad as the word love because everyone has their own interpretation and uses it to describe a wide variety of classes, workshops and experiences. If this is the case, STEM is not really new, it's just been called something different up until now.

The STEM movement challenges leaders in educational thought to look deeper into what STEM really is and how it should look in the classroom. According to Live Science, STEM is a way to engages and involves students in the learning journey while meeting curriculum standards . The integrative approach promotes connectivity among the four disciplines and brings meaningful experiences to the classroom. This applied approach engages students with phenomena that associates to real world scenarios and challenges. As STEM practices are applied, students use the lens of scientist, technologist, engineer and mathematician to apply understanding and ultimately problem solve throughout the lesson to generate ideas, prototypes or experiments that could bring possible solutions.

During the learning process, students are using productive talk to discuss their ideas and findings. Through their collaboration, they are combining ideas, evaluating materials, and recording their evidence and data in a notebook, just like a real scientist or engineer would do. Students are using vocabulary in context, generating hypotheses and testing them out. A noisy classroom can be a healthy learning environment.

What the teacher is doing is just as valuable as what the students are doing. The teacher facilitates learning with questions that spur deeper thought and critical thinking about what is happening in the lesson. Without these questions, some students miss valuable and crucial information that helps them fully process the intent of the lesson and demonstrate mastery of curriculum standards.

If you are wondering where to start, no worries! Take a look at the following links for resources to help you implement the art of questioning in your classroom. Check out the NSTA blog to connect and network with other educators on this topic.

Talk Activities Flow Chart

Talk Resource Tools Doc

 STEM Teaching Tools PDF Collection

Valuing our students as thinkers is an important way to invest in our leaders of tomorrow. Involving students in their learning, building skill sets and critical thinkers is crucial to their individual success and collectively as a nation. Incorporating and cultivating the STEM mindset is a shift in education that benefits teachers and students.

Increasing Student Ownership in Your Classroom

Looking for ways to give students more ownership of their learning? Technology tools can support you and your students! Check out these tools to transfer and increase student ownership of procedures, routines and efficiency.

Have you tried Classroomscreen? This tool gives teachers and students access to all kinds of widgets to assist with time management, messages and visual reminders. For grades 2-5, students can also use this tool to help them learn how to manage their time on task, monitor their noise level (if using a Chromebook), sketch out answers on a whiteboard and more. I encourage teachers to make the link available through Google Classroom or simply bookmark it for quick access.

Have you checked out the dynamics of Google Keep? If you love sticky notes, this is the tool for you! It is available to you and your students in Google Apps. While in Slides or Docs, look for the icon on the right side of the screen to create a note right there with your document. Set up a reminder about the document or share the note with specific teachers or students to provide daily reminders or individual reminders. Organize notes with folders. It syncs with Google apps to help you and your students keep up with tasks, checklists or any type of note needed!

Increasing student ownership of the learning journey can be quite a feat! Classroomscreen and Google Keep are two must-have tools that allow teachers to transfer more responsibility to students by offering ease, convenience and visual stimulation to meet daily goals. It's a win-win for the classroom!

Developing The 4 C's in Students

       Today's students need regular opportunities to practice using the 4 C's. You might be wondering, what are the 4 C's and why bother? The 4 C's are communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity, key skills to build proficiency and provide meaningful learning experiences in the classroom. It also prompts students to use their imagination and let's them have FUN while they are thinking and learning! Incorporating the 4 C's skills sets are one way to help prepare students for the future that awaits them.

Wondering how to get started? Here are some great picture books that can spark discussions, identify problems and begin implementing structures for the 4 C's to become a regular practice in the learning environment.

         

One of my new favorite discoveries is found at novelengineering.com. This site has ready-made resources that correspond with books. Students are encouraged to look at problems in the story through the lens of an engineer or scientist while practicing and strengthening literacy skills. This is a fantastic way to start using the 4 C's framework in your classroom! This resource supports critical thinking, communication and collaboration.

Ready to connect to outside professionals to help students think about processes, help them find solutions or simply ask more questions, but having a hard time finding someone? Bringing in a scientist has never been easier! Sign up to Skype A Scientist! This activity supports communication in the 4 C's framework. Depending on the depth of the discussion, could also lend to critical thinking.

You might be wondering how to bring in creativity. When students participate regularly in activities that have already been mentioned, ideas begin to generate. When students have opportunities to make, design or create a prototype to solve a problem, innovation comes into play. This is one additional opportunity for students to use vocabulary words, explain their thinking, justify their design based on specific criteria and experience their learning! This type of activity fully supports the 4 C's framework.

If you are still hesitant about incorporating the 4 C's, I have one more just-released resource that will provide detailed lessons on topics in your curriculum. Have you ever heard of Picture Perfect Science? These lessons follow the 5 E model, and reading comprehension strategies to prompt engagement and thinking. You will also find a materials list, suggested amount of days for the lesson and ways to extend. Over the summer, Picture Perfect STEM Lessons were released to help teachers incorporate STEM and the design process in their classrooms. This resource is a must-see!

              

These resources have made folding the 4 C's in your classroom easier than ever! I hope you will find one or more of them that will help you along the way! The 4 C's is a classroom practice and framework that will help students connect their learning to real-life experiences while learning necessary skill sets that lead to success.