STEM(in) with Steph

  It's me again! This time, I'm bringing in some fun resources I've found for doing at home, Thanksgiving themed STEM activities! The best part? Many of these activities have ingredients you can get while doing your own Thanksgiving grocery shopping trip! I want to shout out "Little Bins for Little Hands" for providing the link to the materials for this Food Themed science project! You can find all activities and instructions at their website by simply following this link: Thanksgiving Fun! STEM-Giving Bread in a Bag Bread making is one of the most exciting and visually stimulating activities kids can do; not to mention the end product tastes and smells amazing! Pick up the simple ingredients of flour, sugar, yeast, salt, water, and oil and you're on your way to exploring chemical reactions! Kids can learn about the importance of following the recipe and get to mix ingredients in a zip lock bag by hand. After mixing, watch the dough triple in size and toss i...

  Animals and Spring Creek ! Third PBL panel sitting in three weeks, but I never get tired of watching kids present and listening to what they learned during their projects! This time around, 3rd graders shared with panel members what they have been learning about animals that use Spring Creek in the winter. This PBL was special to me because it's the first one I helped with solo (with PBL materials supplied by Dr. Barbara Shaw, STEM/K-12 Specialist). Sunflower Bird Feeder 3rd graders were definitely nervous going into presentations, but once they began to speak they showed they were confident about the information presented. Oct-Nov they had been learning about winter habits of animals and how they survive, experimented with bird diets (See Oct 21-22 Blog on Bird Feeder experiment), and learned how to ID birds by their silhouette's when we can't ID them with normal factors. Wild Turkey Silhouette The presentations used either photo slide shows or full power point presenta...

  Oak Grove 2nd and 5th grades present their results! Presentation time has arrived! Over the fall semester, Oak Grove Elementary has partnered with CSU Extension STEM/K-12 to provide learning materials and lessons to help students with their Problem Based Learning (PBL's) projects and final presentations. Soil Site Jar 2nd grade was charged with learning about soils around their schools and how soils might affect the water quality of Spring Creek? 5th grade had the exciting opportunity to study the creek itself to determine the overall water quality. Soil Layers October 30th was 2nd grade presentations and man oh man they delivered! Groups brought in soil sample jars from three locations around their school and explained the different soil layers and differences of the three mixes. Some groups also brought in a home made grass filter to demonstrate how soil can help filter water. All this helped to explain how soil around the school and creek accepts, filters,...