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What kind of activites will be helpful for the students?
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Hi Alondra,
I am a preservice teacher at the University of Northern Iowa currently taking Science Methods. We have recently been talking about STEM and the importance of engineering in science. There are many activities out there for all ages, but it can be difficult to find what is right for your students. My class recently visited a classroom that had many different activities for students to do. A few included playing with building blocks, creating harmonicas, pouring water into tiered cups with holes, shaped blocks that fit into a design, and many more. The important things to remember when doing a STEM activity is that there doesn't need to be specfic directions. Students will start creating things on their own with the materials provided. They will start to challenge themselves to see if they can make it better or bigger. Here is a website that has 10 simple STEM activities that are simple and inexpensive.
https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/simple-stem-activities-for-kids/
I hope this helps!
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Alondra,
It is helpful to start a unit or lesson with a phenomena that intrigues students to want to know moore. It is most beneficial to also have it correllate with their prior knowledge. For example, you could ask your students if they think a watermelon or a grape will float in water and then ask why they think the way they do. Give a demonstration and then discuss why they think the watermelon floats while the grae sinks. By using common fruit, they will have a frame of reference for how much each weighs and they get to have another look at them before you place them in the water. By doing the demonstration, you are giving them a phenomena to discuss and inquire about. You don't necessarily have to use this example, but I hope if helps spark an idea. Hope this helps!
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Hi Alondra,
I am a preservice teacher at the University of Northern Iowa, and in my Science Methods course we have been talking a lot about the importance of STEM in the classroom. I like that you are thinking about different ways and activities that will be helpful for the kindergarten students. One thing that I have learned in my class that I believe to be critical is to present the students with a phenomena at the beginning. This way they have something that will keep them engaged, and they will be able to explore. There are so many different types of phenomena that will be great for even the early childhood grades. By presenting them with this phenomena, an activity will come out of it when they are exploring and trying to figure out the phenomena. Good luck!
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Hello Alondra,
I am a preservice teacher at the University of Northern Iowa in an Elementary Science Methods class. The importance of incorporating STEM within the classroom is immense and could potentially make the topic more interesting, insightful and memorable. I believe that almost every activity that you do with your students in the classroom can be related to STEM in one way or more. I have done some online research and experienced many STEM activities in the classroom and this website linked at the bottom of my reply seems to be the most helpful!
https://thestemlaboratory.com/preschool-stem-activities/
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Hi Alondra,
I am a pre service teacher learning all sorts of things about how to incorporate STEM in the classroom and I love how you are wanting to start incorporating this in the kindergarten classroom. It is such a great way for students to develop problem solving skills while getting to be engaged in hands on activities and learning. Here is a website that I found that has a bunch of fun ideas that children will love learning about that incorporate STEM inside and outside of the classroom.
https://www.schoolingamonkey.com/stem-activities-for-kindergarten/
Wartburg College
Waverly, IA
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Alondra,
I am a preservice teacher studying at the University of Northern Iowa. In my science methods course this semester we have talked a lot about incorporating STEM in the classroom. Recently, my class visited a STEM classroom that involved many differnt activities anywhere from legos to making muffins. A lot of the projects in the classroom had to deal with building blocks and even had a center space where students could play with sound to create a harmonic. Overall, the best way to incorporate STEM is to really know what your students are interested in and give them great phenomena to play with and work with to make their own unique thing. Most of them will learn best by doing the things that interest them.
Hope this helps!
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Hi Sarah,
I am majoring in early childhood education so I am very interested in this topic! When STEM was first introduced to me in class I thought it would be very difficult. I think that there are good ways to incorporate science into the curriculum. For children of this age it's important to help them formulate their thinking. Asking questions is a great way to get the children to dig deeper. I recently did a physical science lesson with 4 year olds. We decided to work with ramps and let the children play with different materials/shapes to put down the ramp and see what happened. I was able to be with the students and ask questions to help scaffold their learning and thinking while 'playing'. This children didn't feel like they were working or learning, they just were at center time and playing with the ramps and blocks. This was a very successful experience for the children. It's easy to incorporate science into everyday things the children do.
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Alondra,
I am in a Science Methods class at the University of Northern Iowa. In our class we just recently learned about STEM in prek-2nd grade! In an article that I recently read fpr class, it talked about STEM, more specifically engeineering. You can use blocks to find physcial science and engineering design! By creating a center and having high quality materials students will naturally graviate to design and build block structures. While building, students are thinking about stability, balance, property of materials, and number and spatial reasoning. Playing in the blocks is not just a center or play, it is children's work. You do not need to to necessarily create a whole new science center or lesson, you can incorporate science properties into centers or activites that you already have! I hope this helps!
https://s3.amazonaws.com/NSTA1/1439619/05_Revealing_the_Work_of_Young_Engineers_in_Early_Childhood_Education.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIMRSQAV7P6X4QIKQ&Expires=1541581086&Signature=750SuJFHikEx%2bFTFgULTHQCDDYo%3d
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Hi Alondra!
I am a preservice teacher at the University of Northern Iowa currently enrolled in a Science Methods course. We have been talking a lot about STEM in the classroom and why it is important for students. Last week we were able to visit a classroom at our university that had multiple activities for students to engage in. Some of the activities included wooden blocks and marble ramps, nature blocks, a water table with tiered cups (some had holes), making harmonicas out of different materials, and experimenting with air flow (PVC pipes, pom poms, vacuum to blow out air). At each activity there were a limited amount of directions which allows children to be creative and think deeply about how they are going to manipulate each activity to make it their own piece of work.
Here is a picture of one of my creations with the nature blocks:
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Hello!
A great way to incorporate stem in early childhood education is through ramps. Provide children with different sizes and shapes of wooden blocks and different balls and other objects to roll down the ramps that they created. I didn't think that preschoolers would be interested in this or would be able to make many different things, but they can and they love it just as much as the second and third graders do! This is a great lesson in critical thinking, cause and effect, and physics. This website ( https://regentsctr.uni.edu/ramps-pathways ) provides more explanation and ways to scaffold ramps and pathways for children of different ages and abilities.
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Hi,
A fun STEM activity for preschool is having the student learn how to make a harmonica using craft sticks! You can easily find the directions online. The students will need: craft sticks, straws, scissors, and rubber bands. You can print off the directions for students to use and challenge them to figure out how to make these themselves. I am a student at UNI and this is a project that we were experimenting with last week. The students are learning to build and get to take a fun musical instrument home. This website provides great visual directions for students to use: https://frugalfun4boys.com/sound-science-kids-make-craft-stick-harmonica/
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