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I am taking a STEM course through my university currently and would like to know how to better in cooperate other subjects into the lesson. I never really thought STEM was for me until I took this introductory course. I now realize I love STEM and hope to inspire my students to love it just as much. I think adding in other subjects like history can get a wider range of students interested in what we are doing. What are some ways I can add a history lesson or background into my STEM activities?

I always find it easy to integrate a fiction or non fiction book into the lesson, start with a book that you enjoy, think of the problem in the book and have your students come up with solutions to the problem! Ex: nonfiction about spiders-have your students create a web, fiction about the movie Cars-have your students create a vehicle

Last year I integrated STEM into the 2nd grade curriculum. The 2nd grade students had already learned about the regions of Georgia. I integrated literacy (The Three Little Pigs). Students had to build a house for the 4th little pig (the Three Little Pigs' cousin), and determine which region would be the best region to build the house. Various materials from the class was priced at (STEM Depot) or the classroom store. Students had a budget of $20. Then, then they had to advertise their house on the market. The students had a ball.

The Picture Perfect Science series does a great job of using fiction books to introduce science concepts. I have also asked librarians to pull a bunch of books, both fiction and non-fiction on a topic to have for students to read in centers or when there is time for self selected reading.

I agree with Deborah! The Picture Perfect Science series gives you lesson outlines that are very hands-on and tells you which book can be incorporated as a read-aloud or close reading.  I also like to find "expert" scientists in the different fields which we study and learn about those scientists. One example is from our recent electricity unit. We studied Nikola Tesla through books like "Nikko and Macak" and "Electrical Wizard". The kids were fascinated, and it was a great cross-curricular way to increase buy-in for an already interesting subject.