Te Ara Tuhura Toolkits
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. STEM is not just a group of curriculum areas but a trans-disciplinary approach that allows authentic and real contexts and situations, allowing 21st century learning to take place. Just like PBL, the focus is on developing skills such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity and problem solving.
Yesterday, I attended a STEM workshop where two teachers explained how they use STEM Problem Solving Challenges to teach a variety of different skills to their children in a multi year level setting. I left inspired and excited to introduce STEM challenges into our hub.
They discussed how they broke the lessons down and how they pitched the challenges to the children. There are certain steps that the children have to do before they can begin to create their objects. In groups of 4-5, they must plan (numerous examples), design, label and measure their designs. They also only have a limited amount of supplies. The children them have to check back with the teacher to make sure that their design meets the brief and then the creating can begin. Plenty of time is given for these challenges and at the end, the children share their final design with their peers and their design is 'tested' to see if it meets the brief.
What I took away from this workshop is that the learners in our hub are ready to begin STEM challenges. Since we have already explicitly taught them the skills of collaboration, communication etc, they are ready to be challenged! I can definitely see this being part of our PBL - it aligns perfectly...group skills, creating, critical thinking, problem solving and then sharing back with an authentic audience and purpose.
I also like the fact that the children can be exposed to Technology as I know that this is something that is not well covered in many learning environments.
It has got me thinking about our PBL for next term. What it might look like and where we might be headed and I'm excited!
Yesterday, I attended a STEM workshop where two teachers explained how they use STEM Problem Solving Challenges to teach a variety of different skills to their children in a multi year level setting. I left inspired and excited to introduce STEM challenges into our hub.
They discussed how they broke the lessons down and how they pitched the challenges to the children. There are certain steps that the children have to do before they can begin to create their objects. In groups of 4-5, they must plan (numerous examples), design, label and measure their designs. They also only have a limited amount of supplies. The children them have to check back with the teacher to make sure that their design meets the brief and then the creating can begin. Plenty of time is given for these challenges and at the end, the children share their final design with their peers and their design is 'tested' to see if it meets the brief.
What I took away from this workshop is that the learners in our hub are ready to begin STEM challenges. Since we have already explicitly taught them the skills of collaboration, communication etc, they are ready to be challenged! I can definitely see this being part of our PBL - it aligns perfectly...group skills, creating, critical thinking, problem solving and then sharing back with an authentic audience and purpose.
I also like the fact that the children can be exposed to Technology as I know that this is something that is not well covered in many learning environments.
It has got me thinking about our PBL for next term. What it might look like and where we might be headed and I'm excited!
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