Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: Rapunzel

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, lay down your long hair to me!  In the story, Rapunzel is taken as a child and forced to live alone in a tower.   In this challenge, students will design a zip line that will help Rapunzel to escape her tower.

Materials
Kite String
Yarn
Paperclips
 Scissors
Tape
Straws
Cargo
Other Found Objects

During this challenge, students may work in teams or pairs to design a zip line to help Rapunzel.  Students may create any design they want as long as they only use the provided items.

Download the design brief for details: TeachingSTEM through Fairy Tales- Rapunzel

Merry Christmas 2014!

Join me next week to continue our series on Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales with tales such as:
The Three Little Pigs
The Billy Goats Gruff
Henny Penny
Stone Soup
The Princess and the Pea

...And more! Until then, Merry Christmas!

STEM Skills Challenge- 10 Challenges to Build STEM Skills Employers Value

In this series, we're focused on the soft skills that employers desire in top candidates.  Otherwise known as 21st century skills or the 4C's- collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and communication- these skills rank consistently at the top of the list.

Here's a recaps of the STEM Skills Challenges that will help students to further develop their soft skills.

• Gum Drop Bridge
• Paperclip Airplanes
• Newspaper Table
• Plastic Cup Pyramid
• Crazy Catapults
• Spacesuit Spuds
• Build a Better Boat
• Souper Structures
• Smooth Sailing
• Save Fred

With these skills, students will no doubt land themselves at the top of the list when going out into the workforce!

Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: The Princess and the Pea

In the Princess and the Pea, the princess must climb up twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds and to try to get a good night's rest.  In this challenge, students will design a parachute to return the princess safely back to the ground in the morning.

Materials
Tissue Paper
Glue Sticks
Scissors
Measuring Tape
String or Yarn
Cargo

When testing their parachutes, students should take care not to stand on tables of chairs.  In order to test from a higher height, a stairwell or balcony can be used.  If neither are available, a parachute dropper like this that clips onto the ceiling or onto a basketball hoop may be used.

Download the design brief for details: Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: The Princess and the Pea

STEM Skills Challenge- Save Fred

With employers valuing soft skills like the 4C's (creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking), students need to develop these skills to be good competitors in the workplace.

This week's challenge stresses teamwork and collaboration as students work in teams to rescue a gummy worm named Fred and outfit him with a life preserver to keep him from falling into the water. 

STEM Skills Challenge Handout: Save Fred

Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: Stone Soup

In the story of Stone Soup, a weary traveler wanders into the village and is told that there is no food to eat.  So, the traveler brings out his cooking pot and, with the unwitting help of the villagers, makes stone soup.  In this challenge, students will design and build a cooking pot that will hold the most soup.

Materials
Tissue Paper
Making Tape
Straws
Mini-Marshmallows

The teacher can choose for student to work in teams, pairs, or complete the challenge individually (if you have enough mini-marshmallows!). This is also a great lesson to incorporate estimation and/or volume calculations.

Download the design brief for details: Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales- Stone Soup

STEM Skills Challenge- Smooth Sailing

Throughout this series, we've been talking about the importance of soft skills and how many employers are looking for these key skills when interviewing and hiring.

Recently, a Gallup poll conducted a survey asking Americans whether soft skills should be taught in K-12 schools.  When it comes to teaching critical thinking skills, an overwhelming 80% of those surveyed believe they should be taught.  The other 4C's communication, collaboration, and creativity were highly rated as well.

This week's STEM Skills Challenge will help to build those skills as students design and build a sailboat that will "sail" at least four feet in under one minute.  The catch?  Students will only be allowed to use paperclips, index cards, aluminum foil and tape.  Once teams have designed their boats, students will test them on a table top or a tile floor by placing them in front of a fan. Hopefully, the team has collaborated on a successful design and it's smooth sailing!

STEM Skills Challenge Handout: Smooth Sailing

Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: Henny Penny

In the tale of Henny Penny, Chicken Little is convinced that the sky is falling.  In this challenge, students work in teams to design a device that will protect Chicken Little in the event that the sky begins falling.

Materials
Bean Bags
Frosted Wheat Cereal (or similar)
Yardsticks (one per team)
Found Objects

After reading and/or reviewing the story of Henny Penny, students work in teams to design a device that will keep Henny Penny (one piece of frosted wheat cereal) safe when the sky (bean bag) starts falling.  

Students will construct their devices and test them by dropping a bean bag from different heights.  Bean bags can be grouped together for more weight if needed. 

Download the design brief for details: Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: Henny Penny

STEM Skills Challenge- Souper Structures

USA Today College and other leading publications report that employers strongly value soft skills.  The reason?  Many employers say that they can teach the content that is required for a particular position, but can't teach those skills that take time to develop and mature like: teamwork and interpersonal skills, problem solving and analytical skills, and written and verbal communication.

In this week's STEM Skills Challenge, students are challenged to build a structure that will support a full can of soup.  It may sound like an easier challenge, but with only craft sticks, paper, paperclips and glue at their disposal, students will need to work effectively as a team and use their problem solving skills  to plan, design and build their structures.

STEM Skills Challenge Handout: Souper Structures

Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: The Billy Goats Gruff

As students recall the fairy tale of the The Billy Goats Gruff, they will remember that the goats attempt to cross a bridge to seek out a greener pasture. In this challenge, students will design a bridge that will hold all three billy goats for more than 30 seconds.

Materials
Books
Ruler (1 per team)
Toothpicks
Gumdrops or Mini Marshmallows
Large Marshmallows (3 per team)
Tape
Stopwatches
Billy Goats

First, students will "build" their billy goats by cutting out the patterns and taping each one to a large marshmallow.   Students will then work in pairs to build their bridge using the toothpicks and gumdrops/mini-marshmallows.

Download the design brief for details: TeachingSTEM through Fairy Tales- The Billy Goats Gruff

STEM Skills Challenge- Build a Better Boat

In a recent article by CNBC on Job Skills Gap: The Basics Become a Problem a survey of 500 top executives was conducted.

Of those surveyed, 92% agree that there is a job skills gap and 44% of respondents say the gap is in "soft skills". (And not to digress, but the second most common answer at 22% was lack of technical skills.)

Specifically, the article defines soft skills as communication, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration.  They didn't use the phrase "21st century skills", but I'm sure you recognize them as such.

So, for this week's STEM Skills Challenge, we're going to build a better boat and build our 4C's (soft skills).  In this challenge, students will use the provided supplies (plastic wrap, straws, tape, and washers) to design and build a boat that will hold 10 one inch diameter washers for at least 30 seconds without sinking. Water will be required to test the boats, but with inquisitive scientists who are focusing on the 4C's, you shouldn't get wet on this ride!

STEM Skills Challenge Handout: Build a Better Boat

Teaching STEM Through Fairy Tales: The Three Little Pigs

I'll Huff and I'll Puff and I'll Blow Your House Down! In the story of The Three Little Pigs, kids follow the story as our endearing pigs build different houses to try to escape the Big Bad Wolf.  In this challenge, students help the three pigs by building a well-designed house that will keep them safe!

Materials
Paper or Styrofoam Plates (1 per student)
Cotton Balls (3 per student)
Painter's Tape (1 roll for the class)
Measuring tape (1+ for the class)
Other Found Objects
Hair Dryer or Fan

 After reading or reviewing the story for The Three Little Pigs, students work to design and build a house for their three pigs (cotton balls) that will withstand huffs and puffs from the Big Bad Wolf (hairdryer or fan).


Download the design brief for details: Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales- The Three Little Pigs

STEM Skills Challenge- Spacesuit Spuds

As we focus on STEM skills that can be achieved through short (or long) duration projects, we're aiming to develop skills that employers are seeking.

According to The 9 Attributes Every Employer Desperately Wants, Forbes magazine examines the skills that make a candidate great.  Among the list, some great core STEM skills like natural curiosity, uncompromising excellence, unlimited versatility, self-awareness, and creative problem solving.

This week's challenge allows students to explore the thee core STEM skills as the explore high-impact space debris by designing and building a spacesuit for their astronaut (potato) and testing its effectiveness.

STEM Skills Challenge Handout: Spacesuit Spuds

STEM Skills Challenge- Crazy Catapults

Even though the STEM acronym stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, there are a wide range of skills that this acronym encompasses.

Employers are quick to mention that these are the core skills that they are starting to look for in well qualified candidates. Those "soft skills" are the focus of the STEM Skills Challenges.

This week, students will work with partners to design and build a catapult that will launch mini marshmallows towards a designated target.  In this challenge, students will need to make good materials choices as they can only use three of the four materials provided.  As students experiment, they will work to build a reliable and well-designed catapult, but also establish consistency in hitting a designated target like a bulls eye.  (Teachers may also wish to use small pom poms instead of mini marshmallows.)

STEM Skills Challenge Handout: Crazy Catapults

STEM Skills Challenge- Newspaper Table

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been sharing the importance of teaching STEM skills and weaving them through your curriculum.  They teach our students how to be persistent problem solvers, how to deepen 21st century skills and how to become leading contenders in the workforce.

Forbes Magazine researched the 10 most critical skills that employers are looking for in candidates and found that the majority of these critical skills are STEM skills. The top three skills? Critical Thinking, Complex Problem Solving, and Judgement and Decision Making.

This week, students will get to practice all three of those skills as they work on this week's Skills Challenge.  Students will work with a team to build a sturdy table out of nothing more than newspaper and masking tape that will hold the most weight.  Much like the real world, teams will be challenged to use only the resources provided and work within design and time requirements.  May the best team of designers win!

STEM Skills Challenge Handout: Newspaper Table

STEM Skills Challenge- Gumdrop Bridge

Employers today are looking for students who have learned how to think and how to problem-solve.  With the adoption of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), we are getting closer to making that a reality, but so many states and districts are still focused on standardized testing (which- surprise-  did not make the list of qualities that employers are looking for in qualified candidates.)

This series focuses on those skills as well as the other "soft-skills" that aren't necessarily spelled our in the curriculum, but make students well-rounded problem solvers.

This week's challenge is the Gumdrop Bridge.  In  this challenge, students work in teams to design and build a bridge that will span 10 inches.  Sounds like a pretty easy challenge, but as students start experimenting with their materials of gum drops and toothpicks, they will find that there is more there than beats the eye.

This fun little challenge encourages students to work on team building, collaboration and communication skills- more of those soft skills- that help students become successful in a workplace environment.

STEM Skills Challenge Handout: Gumdrop Bridge

STEM Skills Challenge Series

What if STEM stood for something different? As you know, the actual acronym stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, but aside from content, the concept encompasses many more essential skills like: problem solving, critical thinking, team-building, self-esteem, self-motivation and more.

At a recent symposium in the Seattle area, business leaders were surveyed regarding the skills, attitudes, attributes, and aspirations that they feel are the most important to the success of students in the future. Among the results?

• Critical thinking, learning, and analytical problem solving
• Communication
• Adaptability
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Self-direction and self-awareness
• Technical skills and computer literacy
• Fundamentals of education including math, science, and English
• Creativity
• Cultural competence and global awareness
• Emotional intelligence

This series on STEM Skills Challenges will harness the power of STEM challenges and focus on these essential success skills that our students need to be effective in the STEM workforce.

STEM Essentials- Developing Effective STEM Units

In this series we have learned how to plan and develop an effective STEM unit.  Planning a unit like this is very time-consuming if done right, but the outcomes and student progress will be well worth the effort!

Here are the basic steps in the process:

• Develop a Plan for your STEM unit
• Craft Different Types of Assessments for before, during and after your project
• Create a Rubric (at least one!) for assessing students throughout the project and at the conclusion of it
• Use the Engineering Design Process to plan the remaining lessons that fit with your curriculum objectives
• Communicate Results through written reports as well as oral presentations
• Redesign and Debrief to assess student understanding and any misconceptions

Each step contains a basic explanation...and a free handout to help you plan your own effective STEM unit!

STEM Essentials- Redesigning and Debriefing

In this series, we're learning how to plan a proper STEM unit.  If you've been following along, you'll note that there are many moving parts!  So far, we have discussed how to develop a plan, craft different types of assessments, create a rubric, use the Engineering Design Process to plan the remaining lessons, and how to communicate results.

The last two steps that we'll talk about is Redesigning and Debriefing.  These are separate steps focusing on different goals, but because they share some common elements and they both NEED to take place at the end of the unit, we'll talk about them together.

Redesigning
After students have communicated their results and shared them with the class, it's important for students to have time to redesign.  This doesn't need to be a whole unit withing itself, but they should at least have an hour or so to work on improvements to their design.  This allows for a couple of things.  It allows:

• Students to process what other teams have shared and leverage that new information into the redesign of their own product.  
• Any team that was unsuccessful to implement a workable solution based on new information shared (and thus generate some success)
• Students a chance to take some risks that they wouldn't have taken prior to presenting the project to the class.  They can push the envelope without any ramifications.  (This is where some GREAT learning can take place.)

And as a side benefit, giving students the opportunity to redesign their products shows the importance of collaboration and communication amongst the different teams (and also usually sparks more creativity!)

Debriefing
Debriefing shares some of these same elements, but it is not the same.  Debriefing takes place at the end of the project and allows the teacher to pull everyone together to talk turkey.  This is an opportunity for students to:

• Share any new information that they have learned and discuss how it relates to the project
• Ask clarifying questions that may help them further their learning or connect the dots
• Discuss possible next steps or extensions of the project

This is an opportunity for teachers to:

• Review key findings and objectives for the project
• Clarify any misunderstandings that still may exist
• Further tie the learning to real-life (I like to talk about STEM careers that would contribute to a project like the one just completed)

As an aside, the debriefing can provide the teacher with key information such as insight on how to make the project better the next time and informal assessment based on discussion.

STEM Essentials Handout: Debriefing Strategies

STEM Essentials- Decision Making

In this series, we've been investigating how to best plan a STEM unit.  We have developed a plan, crafted different types of assessments, created a rubric, and used the Engineering Design Process in planning the remainder of the lessons.

We've also discussed some of the non-linear steps that will help put some structure into your STEM project  like creating and using STEM Role Cards and teaching students how to develop great ideas.

After students generate a list of possible ideas, how should they determine which one is the best one to use?  Most student groups are likely to take a vote, flip a coin, or even come to a deadlock if no one wants to budge from their own idea.  Arming students with best-practice ways to make decisions is key and will help them with the project at hand as well as with life decisions.

One strategy that students can use to help make decisions is is simple Pro/Con Chart.  Requiring students to write down pros and cons will help them to clarify their idea more fully and communicate their data through writing.

Another great strategy is a Decision Matrix.  In this model, students are asked to think through their top ideas by answering key questions that will help them to determine which idea is the best solution.

STEM Essentials Handout: Decision Making Pro/Con Chart, Decision Matrix