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Ecosystems Project Based Learning: Museum Project - Tarheelstate Teacher

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If you are looking for an ecosystems project for your 4th grade or 5th grade students, look no further than this ecosystems project based learning unit that I implemented with my students!

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As I have shared before, my students attend STEAM as a special during the week with a STEAM teacher. As a result, there is less of an emphasis on science in our actual classroom curriculum and routines. While classroom teachers at my school are still expected to incorporate science , I find it is often not prioritized and I have a hard time of making time to ensure it is done in a meaningful way. Even when my STEAM activities do include science, it does not typically correspond to what they are working on in their STEAM class and we do not spend an extended period of time learning about the science content it relates to.

I most frequently integrate STEAM activities into my third grade classroom during holidays or special occasions and find that a lot of the activities I do with my students focus more on the engineering or art part of STEAM.

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In third grade, students explore ecosystems, including plant and animal interactions, and investigate forces and motion through simple experiments. They also study matter and its properties, learn about weather and climate, and practice scientific inquiry by asking questions, making observations, and analyzing data. In third grade, students at my school also begin to get more hands-on with their learning in science through more advanced experiments and inquiry based activities.

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The National Inventors Hall of Fame® takes a closer look at the value of STEAM learning by examining its science component.

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Science in STEAM education is a cornerstone of the idea of integrating technical subjects with the arts into a more complete education system. STEAM education refers to initiatives that group the subjects of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics together. The first part of this acronym, science, can be crucial for providing learners with problem-solving skills and teaching them to embrace the quest for knowledge and understanding. Keep reading to learn about the importance of science within the STEAM framework, or visit our education solutions page for more valuable insights into the modern classroom.
Within academic circles, the concept of STEAM education has grown in popularity. While the acronym itself covers the core subjects that are involved - namely science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics - understanding the question of "What is STEAM education?" is important, and it goes beyond simply learning these subjects.

Essentially, STEAM education is an integrative education model not only focused on the importance of the individual subjects, but also how they come together to provide a rounded education. The subjects themselves were chosen partly because of this, but also because of their value within the workforce and their role in teaching crucial life skills.

In this article, we are going to focus on the importance of science and the value that a scientific education can provide students throughout their time at school and beyond.

What is Science?

Within the context of education, science refers to the act of teaching scientific information and processes. It is often broken down into the following three fields or branches:

Physics: The study of topics like energy, matter, force, space and time, etc.

Biology: The study of living organisms, their functions, evolution, etc.

Chemistry: The study of chemicals, the elements, substance composition, etc.

However, while this remains the case, modern definitions of science tend to also include social sciences along with the three natural sciences. This then introduces a whole range of additional subjects, with some of the most notable examples including psychology, sociology, and economics.

A significant part of science as an academic subject is focused on research and 'the scientific method', which involves formulating a question, coming up with a hypothesis or a proposed explanation, making a prediction, testing the initial hypothesis, and then evaluating the results. This is important because it places a strong emphasis on the need to back up claims or assumptions with clear evidence. Moreover, it allows the subject to appeal to people with all kinds of different learning styles, including logical learners, natural learners, visual learners, and social learners.

The Importance of Science

While the teaching of scientific principles has a range of benefits, the importance of science can perhaps be best summarized by the fact that it teaches important critical thinking skills, the search for truth, and highly transferable problem-solving skills. The basic scientific method can also be used to answer many non-scientific questions too.

Science can appeal to learners of all types because it includes active learning, writing, creating charts, visual demonstrations, observation of events, and a lot more. Additionally, science lessons can include individual and collaborative work, teaching students to adapt to different situations based on the requirements of the task.

Within the workforce, scientific knowledge and the skills to carry out scientific research and analysis are in high demand, which is one of the reasons science is included within the STEAM acronym. One of the challenges that is sometimes raised is that young children find it difficult to engage with science as a subject, so a key focus of many STEAM initiatives is finding ways to make the subject more interesting and engaging.

Science in STEAM Education

Beyond the importance of science as a subject, it is also worth taking some time to think about how science relates to some of the other components of the STEAM acronym. After all, one of the aims of STEAM education is to achieve a level of integration between the different fields.

For instance, science and technology match up well because much of the technology we use and rely on has been the result of scientific discovery. The link with engineering is also clear in much the same way because engineering uses scientific ideas and concepts to design and create structures, machines, and objects. Similarly, science and mathematics go hand-in-hand, especially with physics, where numerical data is crucial.

Although the relationship between art and science may seem less clear, at least initially, it is worth considering things like depictions of the natural world. Not only does this link to biology, but there is also an element of science behind using a camera to capture an image or depicting perspective on a two-dimensional painting or drawing.

The Last Word

Science is a key part of STEAM education, teaching students important critical thinking skills, as well as a structured method for testing theories and evaluating evidence. Best of all, many of these skills are transferable, allowing them to be used not only in other STEAM fields but also in everyday life, too.

There is strong demand within the workforce for individuals with science-based qualifications and abilities, and this is another major reason why the importance of science should not be underestimated.

If you missed our introductory article on this topic, please feel free to read STEAM Education: Preparing All Students for the Future, or head to the ViewSonic Education page for further insights into education in the modern classroom.

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The Importance of Science in STEAM Education - ViewSonic Library

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Science in STEAM education is core component of a holistic education approach that integrates the physical and social sciences with the arts.

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Force and Motion STEAM Lesson for Third Grade

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Force and Motion STEAM Lesson for Third Grade

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We are having tons of fun with our new Force & Motion science unit. Today, I wanted to share a little about the Marshmallow Shooters I posted on Instagram. These were inexpensive and easy to make, but provided lots of fun learning opportunities!

Here's what you'll need:

Cups - I've seen others use paper cups, but I chose to use the cheap-o plastic cups. These were easy to cut and a little more sturdy. For added stability, I double stacked the cups for each shooter since there were 80 in my package.

My plan was just to squeeze the cups and cut the bottoms off. Yes, this would have left a little more of a jagged edge, but I have lots of cute duct tape and washi tape to take care of that.

However, Mr. Madden would not hear of it! So, he lovingly used a box cutter to cut the circle bottom out of all 48 cups we were using. #lovethatman

Balloons - Nothing special here. I picked up everything for this project at Target and the balloons in the party section were perfect. Just cut the top tip of the balloon off as seen in the photo below.

Marshmallows - Lots of mini marshmallows. Actually, you won't need too many - one bag was perfect since the marshmallows can be used over and over again.

**You could also use mini pom-poms if you have those at school already. Since they are less dense, they will not "shoot" as far, but that could be a good thing for this lesson. ;)

Here's what you'll do:

Tie a knot in the end of the balloon.Stretch the cut end of the balloon over the top of the cup...the lip of the cup will help hold the balloon in place.

Drop a marshmallow into the cup so that it falls into the little "hole" where the knot is. Pull the knot back, aim, and shoot! That's it!

Beware...these little shooters work better than I expected! My little scientists worked with a partner to use different strengths of force to shoot the marshmallows. Then, they used tape measures to measure the distance of their attempts. They didn't even know they were learning! ;)

When I do this lesson next year, I plan to do it outside so that I can draw "targets" on the sidewalk/pavement. This way students would be encouraged to use different strengths of force to reach the targets (with some being closer and some being farther away).

I would highly recommend this activity if you teach forces and motion. It was definitely a HIT!

Of course, we recorded all of our results in our science notebooks. Here's the cover that I promised some of my IG followers. I use a composition notebook with a tab to divide it - half for math and half for science - but I've included an all-science version, too. I hope you can use it!

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Marshmallow Shooters {Force & Motion} & a Freebie

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We are having tons of fun with our new Force & Motion science unit. Today, I wanted to share a little about the Marshmallow Shooters I post...