A STEM Resource for Teachers
From Rick McMaster
Earlier this year I wrote about the 6Rs of Informal Education and the wealth of Resources (one of the 6Rs) that are available. This month I would like to highlight one of the free resources that are available to educators both in and out of classroom, Teachers TryScience. This website was developed as a partnership among The New York Hall of Science, teachengineering.org and IBM. The advisory committee had worldwide participation.

The site has as its mission to support teacher instruction in project-based learning through hands-on lessons integrated with multimedia and engineering as the context in which to teach STEM topics connected to real world experiences. An additional function beyond the lessons and teaching strategies is its social networking tools for collaboration among educators - more about that aspect later.

I have had the opportunity to use a number of the lessons and with great success (and fun). Take a look at Build Your Own Robot Arm, contributed by IEEE. It can be used with a wide range of ages and, while the topic is listed as Computer Science, it can be used in a number of places in science and engineering curricula. The first tab lists the lesson itself, from goals through external resources. The materials needed are easy to find and inexpensive and the students will have fun. The second tab collects all the resources available. In this case it includes a presentation to introduce the project, a video and a student worksheet. If the lesson has been mapped to any state or national standards, you’ll find that on the third tab. And as the new national science standards are approved and implemented, those can be included.

Another activity that I have used is Suck It Up: Finding Lung Capacity. This one is biology-related and can be used beyond just 7th grade. (I’ve found that teachers are very resourceful in adapting and using activities for younger or older students.) Again, the materials needed are easy to find and inexpensive.

With so many lessons available, a filter function is available so you don’t need to search the whole list for what you need. You can look by topic, grade and time required. My recommendation is to keep your search reasonably broad to make sure you don’t miss anything interesting.

Let’s get back to the collaboration aspect of the site. As you look through the lesson plans and strategies, you’ll see a star rating and comments. These are from educators who have registered for the site. You don’t have to register to use any of the materials but if you do, you can provide feedback on the lesson, provide additional resources, form a group to communicate with others, and submit your own lesson plans and strategies to help the site grow.

It’s all about STEM and project-based learning. Please take a look at Teachers TryScience and give it a try ☺.

Next month, a great example of STEM for K-2. Yes, we need to start early.

As always, your comments are welcome, @drkold.

Rick McMaster is the STEM Advocate at IBM’s University Programs Worldwide.

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