It’s easy enough to decide to focus more on a specific topic or skill, such as STEM, in the classroom, but it’s sometimes more difficult to find tools and resources to support that skill.
Teachers have limited time, and it’s often a challenge to search for and evaluate the tools and resources found in search results or blog posts.
Here, we’ve gathered some resources and tools focusing on STEM, STEAM, and makerspaces. Some may be familiar to you, while others may be new to you–but we hope they all inspire you to explore STEM or STEAM in your classroom.
1. STEM Like a Girl knows that girls can’t become excited about something if they aren’t exposed to it. This resouce-rich site emphasizes the critical role parents and other caregivers, as well as positive female mentors, play in helping girls grow their interest in STEM. Resources include workshops, at-home activities, and links to other top STEM education tools.
Related Content:
eSchool News STEM, STEAM, & Makerspaces Guide
The eSchool News STEM, STEAM, & Makerspaces Guide is here! It features strategies to help you integrate STEM, STEAM, and makerspace education into classrooms, and it offers a look at how these tools engage students and give them valuable skills. A new eSchool News Guide will launch each month–don’t miss a single one!
2. Makey Makey works through opening and closing circuits, just like any other button. Instead of the circuit being closed underneath your keyboard, the circuit is closed through the conductive objects you connect with alligator clips, like your hand or your lunch or some tinfoil. When the circuit is closed, the Makey Makey sends a command to your computer, just like a button pressed on a keyboard. Educators will find a teacher’s guide and sample lesson plans online as well.
3. RobotLAB‘s offerings include the NAO Robot and tools that focus on coding, engineering, virtual reality, and makerspaces. RobotLAB’s Online Learning Platform is an interactive and hands-on learning experience organized by eye-catching themes (such as soccer-playing robots or autonomous cars). Students and teachers can access the browser-based learning ecosystem from any device. RobotLAB’s STEM Lab features resources such as courses and lessons, apps, for different products, including an autonomous car, Ozobot, Sphero, 3D printers, and more. Educators also can search for lessons for any subject, age group, or robot–or they can create their own lessons.
4. MakerBot‘s 3D printers help educators advance STEM education and help students bring ideas and projects to life. The Replicator+ 3D printer comes with an educator’s guidebook and a MakerBot certification program for teachers. MakerBot’s Thingiverse Education provides over a hundred free lessons that make teaching with a 3D printer easier and more effective for a variety of grade levels and subjects. It also provides a community where educators can exchange best practices or remix projects.
5. Teach Engineering offers NGSS-aligned STEM curriculum for elementary through high schools. Some of the most popular curricular units, lessons, activities, and challenges include “Potato Power,” creating an electromagnet, building roller coasters, and designing bridges.
6. Project Noah is a global citizen science platform used to help people connect with the natural world and identify and learn about wildlife. Project Noah enables amateurs and professionals alike to create and share multimedia nature journals. On the site, educators will find project missions to complete with students.
7. Kid Weather App is a true weather app for kids designed by a 6 year old boy (and his meteorologist dad). The interactive app is power-packed with real-time weather conditions, forecasts, science, and fun facts about the weather. It’s designed with STEM in mind to make parents and teachers happy as well.
8. Maker Ed provides insight, resources, and professional learning in order to ensure maker education is transformational for students and teachers, meeting the real-world learning needs of students and focusing on student agency.
9. Dr. Universe is here to answer questions. Dr. Wendy Sue Universe is a very smart cat who investigates tough questions from curious elementary and middle school students. Based out of Washington State University, Dr. Universe teams up with professors, researchers, and experts in the field, to tackle big questions like: What is fire? Why does soda fizz? Why is the ocean salty? Why is liquid nitrogen so cold?
10. Girl Powered is supported by Google, and was launched by The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation and VEX Robotics. It is committed to showing how exciting it is to be involved with STEM, showcasing examples of how women are changing the world, providing tools for success, and enabling comfortable environments where all students confidence and abilities can flourish. These real-life examples and hands-on opportunities can help motivate more girls in STEM education.
11. Kid Spark Education‘s hands-on, easy-to-teach STEM program for kids will prepare your elementary and middle school students for a lifetime of interest in science and technology. The program is so much more than a STEM kit that teaches just one or two concepts—we provide you with a comprehensive preK-8 STEM curriculum, teacher training, and robust and reusable Mobile STEM Labs that encourage collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving.
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