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STEM Curriculum includes the 4 C's of 21st Century Skills: Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Communication
http://cosee.umaine.edu/files/coseeos/21st_century_skills.pdf

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Source:
https://peer.asee.org/fun-innovative-computer-science-activities-for-the-classroom-and-outreach.pdf

Activity:
Help students understand the science behind computers and how data is saved and lists are formed. Have students work together, using their bodies, or pieces of yarn, to link to and unlink from each other. As computer scientists add data, "add to front of list," "add to end of list," "delete from front of list," and "delete from end of list," students can envision how data structures are amended. Following commands from the teacher (the computer scientist) students can make the changes to the data structure, modeling the digital process. This activity is perfect for computer science lessons and the discovery of how our digital world is designed and functions!

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Source:
https://twoteachingtaylors.com/easy-ways-to-add-movement-to-your-science-lessons/

Activity:
As an entire class, this activity drives home the idea of collaboration and communication. The entire group must participate and add to discussion for the element to work, supporting the development of 21st century skills and interpersonal skills.

Challenge students to model the 3 different states of water. The entire class represents the water molecule. With their body, they must model the energy found in each state - liquid, water, or solid. Students must talk to each other and decide how to move and space out to correctly represent the energy level. This activity is perfect to get kids up and moving, being paired well with review of the concept and to help kids learn to communicate their ideas.

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Encouraging students to thinking differently seek new ways to explore and connect ideas.
https://www.siemens-stiftung.org/en/foundation/education/stem-and-creativity/

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Source:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/blog/sound-science-lessons

Activity:
Provide students with scissors and a variety of plastic straws of different sizes. Students are challenged to create different pitches with the straws, by cutting them at different lengths. Invite students to consider the correlation between length and the sound that it makes. Challenge students to match pitches, thinking about how they can make them sound the same, even when they aren't cut to the same length. This can be paired with math instruction, charting the lengths of the straws, and classifying them by their length and width.

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Source:
https://inventorsoftomorrow.com/2018/08/18/scientific-method-songs/

Activity:
Provide students with the lyrics to the song, singing for them the line for them to follow. Sing to the tune This Little Light Of Mine. Help students remember the key to scientific thinking, inquiry, and the role of a scientist! This activity can be used as a precursor for any discovery lesson, showing students how we think, investigate, and learn.

Lyrics:
The scientific method – I want to test it out (3x) Test it out, test it out, test it out
With this little brain of mine, I keep asking why (3x). Asking why (3x)
I observe and I research – I want to learn some more (3x) Learn some more (3x)
I form a hypothesis, an educated guess (3x). My best guess (3x)
I do my experiment – I wanna test it out. (3x)  Test it out (3x)
Record my data and report results – sharing what I learned (3x). What I learned (3x)
The scientific method – I want to test it out (3x) Test it out, test it out, test it out

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Activities specifically designed with a content area in mind.

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Activities centered on designing, testing, and brainstorming until coming up with an answer.
https://www.vivifystem.com/blog/2019/11/7/scientific-method-vs-engineering-design-process-which-is-used-in-stem-learning

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Source:
https://cmase.uark.edu/_resources/pdf/gems/rock_cycle_song.pdf

Activity:
Following the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat, students can learn the 3 types of rocks. Aligning with 6.ESS.2, this activity pairs well with creative writing as students can create descriptive poems and narrative about the features characteristics of rocks. This musical number is also a great feature for concert or assembly.

Lyrics:
SEDIMENTARY rock
Has been formed in layers
Often found near water sources
With fossils from decayers.

Then there's IGNEOUS rock
Here since Earth was born
Molten Lava, cooled and hardened
That's how it is formed.

These two types of rocks
Can also be transformed
With pressure, heat and chemicals
METAMORPHIC they'll become.

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Source: http://pwhite228.weebly.com/sciencecreative-movement.html

Activity:
Students will explore the idea of orbits, tilt, speed, and direction through theatrical play. Representing different planets with their bodies, students will orbit around the sun (the teacher) who is in the center of the carpet. Using their research of the various planets, students will model the rotation around the sun. This can be paired well with independent research and study of planets and their orbit (5.ESS.1). This activity works well to be paired with math concepts, studying the rate of rotation, the degree of tilt, and the miles traveled by the different planets.

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Source:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-ways-explore-science-concepts-through-movement

Activity:
Have students run an obstacle course. Set up in the classroom, having students cut corners, jump over pillows, and spin around - two times, etc. The course can be built collaboratively by the class. Have students perform it with socks on, and then without. Invite students to discuss if there is a change in speed. Present the question "What do the socks do? Where do we see friction?" This activity is great in the study of forces and friction! This activity can be paired well with math concepts and timing the relays.

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When classroom resources are limited because of the pandemic, students still have access to helpful learning materials-their bodies.

Highwaystarz-Photography / iStock

Prior to Covid-19, science teachers had many opportunities to immerse students in hands-on learning, utilizing facilities and materials provided by their schools. While virtual learning was challenging for science labs, instruction is now hybridized or back in the classroom with restrictions. It is important to find ways for students to be hands-on and visualize their learning. New safety regulations limit the ways in which students can interact with materials, each other, and even the educator in the classroom. This leaves educators questioning how they can still provide opportunities for students to model their learning, or experience a concept, with few or no materials.

Students Learn Science Concepts Through Movement

After teaching middle school students from home for exactly one year, I realized that the only material I could count on all my students to have consistently was their physical body. To make the lesson stick, I had to find ways that students could use their own bodies to model movements, test phenomena, and engage with the curriculum. Requiring my students to move throughout the lesson also encouraged them to have their webcams on, boosted their engagement in the virtual world, and gave me another way to keep track of which students were keeping up with the learning outcomes.

While some students may shy away at first, seeing their peers take risks will promote their engagement. Alternatively, students who feel uncomfortable with physical participation can check off other students' demonstrations to ensure that they also know what the exemplar looks like. After participating in these human labs, my students continued to utilize the movements and reference the activities, which showed how they connected the concepts to them permanently. Their formative assessment scores also increased once I began to implement these hands-on opportunities.

I have identified topics across the middle grades science curriculum that allow students and teachers to demonstrate learning with their bodies. The following lab strategies can be continually utilized virtually or in the classroom to help students gain even deeper understanding of the concepts once materials are available.

1. Matter. Everything in the world is made from matter. This overarching topic spans through all the middle grades, and students are expected to know how particles of matter move around. Students can model and practice the concept of particle movement with their bodies. Give them directions to act like solids, liquids, or gases. Switch it up as in Simon Says until all students have sped up, slowed down, or vibrated in order to represent how matter moves.

Another way to get students involved with matter is by asking them to choose a body part and then describe all of its characteristics. This list could then be used as an outline to show how scientists assign properties to matter.

2. Force and motion. Force and motion are also widely covered in the middle grades. I found that I could have my students demonstrate Newton's laws of gravity, acceleration, friction, and more. Engaging my students in live experimentation allowed them to demonstrate their knowledge of friction, resistance, and mass by running an obstacle course around the house (this could also be done in the classroom) with and without socks on, keeping time to identify the change in speed. To identify Newton's third law of motion, students can bounce against the walls to show the equal and opposite reaction.

3. Energy. Students can demonstrate the transfer of energy through waves by making them with their arms. The more energy they apply, the higher the amplitude. This is a great activity to show frequency, wavelength, and parts of a wave.

Bring back a classic childhood experiment for students who are learning about thermal energy. Have students rub their hands together as fast as possible for an allotted amount of time. They will instantly understand the relationship between friction and heat.

For minimal additional material use, you can also show water as a good conductor of heat by filling a balloon with water and then holding it over a flame. Your students will be amazed at how the balloon will not pop.

4. Biological evolution. It can be difficult to get students to connect with Darwin's theory of evolution and how natural selection plays a role in it. Your students can mirror the wild adaptations of some organisms by altering what they already have as humans. Have them bend their limbs to shorten them, close their eyes to simulate a lack of day vision, or clench their hands as hooves. Then, ask them to connect adaptations and their benefits for a particular species.

On a related note, your students can also easily model the food chain. Place images of different organisms around the room and have them go on a hunt for the organisms that they consume-keeping the food chain in motion. For an added challenge, you can assign several students to be the same organism and then ask them to predict what could or will now go wrong in the ecosystem.

5. Earth systems. Gravity keeps the universe expanding, and it's also responsible for the Earth's formations slowly moving farther apart. Students can model this by closing their fist and slowly opening it, as gravity pulls matter away from the source of energy.

Convection currents drive movement in the mantle. To show this, have students lock their fingers, forming an arm circle. Then, ask them to apply force to pull their arms apart, causing the boundaries to crack.

Plate tectonics are also easy to model. Students can hold both of their arms horizontally as their "plates" and then model convergent, divergent, and transform boundary movements. As they visualize mountains, faults, and trenches using their plates, the Earth's crust and boundaries will make more sense to them.

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5 Ways to Explore Science Concepts Through Movement

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When classroom resources are limited because of the pandemic, students still have access to helpful learning materials-their bodies. Highwaystarz-Photography / iStock Prior to Covid-19, science teachers had many opportunities to immerse students in hands-on learning, utilizing facilities and materials provided by their schools.

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Source:
https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_soundandlight_lesson1_activity1

In this activity, students will discover and mimic the types of wavelengths. Students will explore the ways in which light and sound travel, as engineers must study this information to build new technology. Students stand in a circle and move their arms up and down, making a wave (it looks like you're at a sporting even), representing a transverse wave. Then, students use slinkys to see the motion of a longitudinal wave before attempting to mimic it with their own bodies.

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Source:
https://www.cbc.ca/parents/play/view/activity_musical_instruments

Activity:
Students are provided with materials: cardboard, rubber bands, ribbon, recycled plastic containers, sprinkles, old CDs, tape, glue, and paper. Students then are prompted to pick up some of the materials and try to make a musical instrument, considering the type of sound they want it to make, the size of the instrument, and the elements available. Let your imagination go wild! In this activity, students can learn about different ways to problem-solve, communicate with group members, and work together to present their idea and final product. A class concert or explanatory paper would work well to present each student's final project.

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Source: https://www.nps.gov/blca/learn/education/upload/water-2.pdf

Activity:
This Water Cycle Song and motions can be a great addition to lessons involving the water cycle. Specifically involving 2nd-grade science standard (2.ESS.2) and the ways that water is present in the atmosphere. After investigating condensation, precipitation, and evaporation, invite students to write their own poem about the cycle. This activity can be used well in writing, as students can write their own poems or author a longer work. By using this poem as a guide, students can easily memorize the flow of water in the cycle, using motions and an easy-to-learn tune (She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain) to set it to memory.