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Resource: Family Science-Engineering Nights

Description: This site gives different activities to use during a family STEM night.

Community Connections: This provides tools to bring the community together for STEM purposes.

Classroom Implementation: You could even have a family STEM day in your classroom and use these projects.

Standard Alignment: NGSS: 2-ETS1-1 Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.

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Family Science-Engineering Nights – Community Resources for Science

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Family Science-Engineering Nights are a great opportunity to bring the whole school community together to play and learn. Schools can hire outside organizations to bring the activities and train the volunteers that you will need to provide or you can plan the event yourself with the help of the activities below.

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Resource: Community Connections: Celebrating Helpers in STEAM

Description: This site shows the importance of investigating community helpers.

Community Connection: This shows students how active community members contribute to their lives.

Classroom implementation: You could bring in members in the community that have the professions you highlight in class.

Standard Alignment: NGSS: 1-ETS1-2 Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem.

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Community Connections: Celebrating Helpers in STEAM - Preschool STEAM -

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Community helpers are everyday heroes who show us how connection makes our neighborhoods stronger. February is a wonderful time to introduce preschoolers to the importance of these roles and explore them through STEAM activities. Why Learn About Community Helpers?Understanding the roles of firefighters, nurses, teachers, and more helps children feel connected to their community and […]

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Resource: Seven NSF-supported STEM resources

Description: This site breaks down seven resources and projects that encourage STEM

Real-world Connection: This site teaches students how to use technology to engage in STEM. This will prepare them to use technology in an educational way.

Classroom Implementation: You could share one of the PBS videos in class.

Standard Alignment: NGSS 2-ETS1-1: Ask questionsk, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved the development of a new or improved object or tool.

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Seven NSF-supported STEM resources that are perfect for at-home learning

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With schools across the country closing their doors to restrict the spread of the COVID-19 virus, nearly 30 million students in almost every state are facing disruption to their daily education. NSF has long supported innovative STEM education programs that supplement classroom learning and draw from existing best practices in education theory. Here are a few activities for learners of all ages that can be practiced at an appropriate social distance.

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Resource: Free Science and STEM Printables

Description: This resource has about a hundred STEM printouts to display around your classroom.

Real-world Connections: These printouts have a lot of images that students would see pretty frequently, such as the anatomy of an apple.

Classroom Implementation: This resource has different worksheets that you could use in a classroom setting to build lesson plans off of.

Standard Alignment: NGSS: 2-PS1-1 Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties. Students can use these printouts to refer to these observable properties.

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Free Science & STEM Printables | Teaching Supplies & Classroom Decorations

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Spark kids’ passions for science, math and technology with a wide array of free engaging hands-on science & STEM free activities.

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Resource: Free STEM resources for after school programs

Description: This resource gives over 100 small activities to use during after school programs to get students engaging with STEM.

Real-world connection: Most of the activities, such as circuit boards, tie directly to engineering concepts used in real life.

Classroom implementation: You could do a STEM activity from this list, such as elephant toothpaste, once or twice a week in your classroom.

Academic Standard: NGSS: K-2 ETS1-1 Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want. While these activities will fit a lot of standards, a lot of them involve designing a solution to a problem.

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By Amy Cowen, online community manager at Science Buddies.
Science Buddies, a non-profit organization providing free K-12 STEM education resources, strives to build STEM literacy by delivering fun and engaging STEM activities to all students, whether it is in school, out of school, or at home. Science Buddies offers a library of free, high-quality, K-12 STEM resources that can be utilized in afterschool and summer programs.
Investigating science and engineering design in out-of-school settings gives kids the chance to do and explore enriching science that won't be graded and doesn't require multiple trials or formal analysis. Out-of-school science can be especially powerful because it encourages kids to ask STEM questions and experiment to discover answers for the fun of it. Our mission at Science Buddies is to help students everywhere become excited about STEM and to assist educators in creating meaningful STEM learning opportunities for their students.

For almost two decades, Science Buddies' scientists have been taking science and engineering concepts and making them accessible, while still helping kids learn and connect the value of STEM to their everyday lives. These three types of resources from Science Buddies are ideal for exploring STEM in afterschool programs:

STEM Activities: Explore our library of more than a hundred hands-on activities that can be done in a short amount of time, use everyday materials, work for a wide range of ages, and require no prior experience. Activities include a paper roller coaster, toy sailboats made from corks, homemade thermometers, a colorful milk rainbow, and more!

Lesson Plans: Our lesson plans are NGSS-aligned and contain background information for educators, guided discussion prompts, supplemental resources, and worksheets.

Engineering Challenges: Participating in our annual K-12 Fluor Engineering Challenge is a great way to get kids engaged with engineering and innovation. Projects like the Balloon Car, Ball Launcher, Marble Machine, and Volleyball Machine make excellent choices for creative and collaborative hands-on STEM.

Educators in a range of out-of-school programs use our resources to create memorable STEM experiences for their students. From libraries to 4-H programs, our tools help educators gain the STEM confidence they need to engage their students in high-quality STEM learning.

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Free STEM resources for afterschool programs from Science Buddies

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By Amy Cowen, online community manager at Science Buddies. Science Buddies, a non-profit organization providing free K-12 STEM education resources, strives to build STEM literacy by delivering fun and engaging STEM activities to all students, whether it is in school, out of school, or at home.

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The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos.

Description: This biography of a famous mathematician shows how a love for problem-solving and numbers led him to become a great mathematician.

Why Highlight: CCSS Math Practice 1: Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving Them. Students will learn that problem-solving can be fun!

Classroom Implementation: Have students play a number game that they have to solve to show them that math can actually be very fun, like Paul saw it!

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NASA Kid's Club - NASA

Description: This interactive site allows students to investigate different careers that happen involving space.

Why Highlight: 2-ESS1-1 - Use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly. Students can explore this site to see that there are careers out there that can help answer questions about Earth events.

Classroom Implementation: Have a spaceship craft where students can pretend to fly around the room, describing what they might be seeing in space.

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NASA encourages you to visit NASA Kids' Club and use its games and activities to inspire the next generation.

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What's an Engineer? From Crash Course Kids

Description: This resource shows students what a career as an engineer can be. This walks through what engineers may do for work.

Why Highlight: K-2-ETS1-1 - Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool. This video will make students ask questions about solving problems they commonly come in contact with

Classroom Implementation: Have students brainstorm one thing they wish they could change in the world and make posters about their solutions.

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What's an Engineer? Crash Course Kids #12.1

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Careers: Veterinarian for Kids

Description: This video teaches students that veterinarians are basically animal doctors that care for many different kinds of pets. It also shows them ways that they provide care.

Why Highlight: K-LS1-1 - Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive. This video shows students how veterinarians can provide for and help meet animals needs.

Classroom Implementation: Students could pretend to be veterinarians for productive play with stuffed animals in the classroom.

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Careers: Veterinarian for Kids | Learn about the job of a veterinarian

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"Meet a Zoologist" by National Geographic Kids

Description: This resource gives a brief introduction into what zoologists do and how they interact with the animals they work with.

Why Highlight: K-ESS3-1 - Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live. This would show the importance that zoologists play on the animals they are learning about.

Classroom Implementation: After watching this short video, students could draw their favorite animals and write a way that they could care for and protect them.

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Jane Goodall

Resource: https://rootsandshoots.org

Description: This article helps students learn about Jane's life as well as her impact on chimpanzee's and animals.

Significance: Jane teaches respect for the world and the living beings in it.

Classroom Activity: Students can keep a nature journal like Jane did with her observations.

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Ada Lovelace

Resource: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/ada-lovelace

Description: This article shines light on Ada Lovelace's life, and how her curiosity and imagination inspired the first computers.

Significance: Ada shows that creativity and math can work together.

Classroom Activity: I would have students draw their own machine characters, like robots.

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Marie Curie

Resource: https://www.ducksters.com/biography/marie_curie.php

Description: This article shares more about Marie Curie who discovered new elements and experimented with energy.

Significance: She's an example of what curiosity, determination, and bravery in science.

Classroom Activity: I would let students explore an "element sensory bin"

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George Washington Carver

Resource: https://www.nps.gov/gwca/learn/kidsyouth/index.htm

Description: This source shows how George Washington Carver experimented with peanuts and plants to help farmers and protect soil.

Significance: Carver's work teaches students to care about the earth and to get creative in order to protect it.

Classroom Activity: Use during a plant unit, students could even plant their own plant and watch it grow.

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Mae Jemison

Resource: https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/home/F_Mae_Jemison.html

Description: This page describes the life of Mae Jensen who was the first African American woman to travel to space

Significance: Mae's life shows students that scientists can be creative and that hard work pays off.

Classroom Activity: After reading, students could draw themselves as astronauts or even in a broad way as scientists.

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Author: Nina Laden

Illustrator:

Summary: This book is about a boy who's creations aren't very supported or believed in. As Roberto continues, he begins creating things that have an impact in his community.

Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSABUTl7hQU

Relation: This book would encourage students to create things that can impact the world around them and can create real-world connections to STEAM.

Implementation: After reading this book, I would have students create a list of problems we see in the world around us so that we can start to brainstorm solutions.

Standard: 1-PS4-4

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Author: Nell Cross Beckerman

Illustrator: David Litchfield

Summary: This book invites reader's to wonder about the phenomena's we see in the sky.

Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaflkvvqyOU

Relation: This book prompts students to ask questions about the world they are seeing around them and things that might be happening that they can't explain

Implementation: I would read this book and then have students make a list of things in the world that they can't explain

Standard: 1-ESS1-1

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Author: Emily Hunt and Michelle Pantoya

Illustrator: Holly D. Steward

Summary: This book follows elephants who explore engineering topics to find out what engineering is.

Read-Aloud: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Engineering_Elephants/MGCupRT3yqAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

Relation: This book would help students to understand what makes up engineering.

Implementation: I would read this book when introducing engineering and have students do a KWL

Standard: 2-PS1-3

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Author: Ashley Spires

Illustrator:

Summary: This is a story about perseverance and trying again when we fail and get frustrated.

Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy3JCNBgb94

Relation: This book would help students learn what perseverance is and how to try again when we make mistakes

Implementation: I would read this book and then have students brainstorm questions they could ask to restart a problem.

Standard: K-PS2-1

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Author: Barney Saltzberg

Illustrator:

Summary: This book shows the message that mistakes can be beautiful.

Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JsnciXX7CE

Relation: This book would help students to find beauty in their mistakes.

Implementation: I would read this book and then have students crumple up a piece of paper and turn it into art.

Standard: K-PS2-1

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Author: Andrea Beaty

Illustrator: David Roberts

Summary: This book shows how creativity can be used for good. Iggy's invention end up saving the day when he finds himself stranded.

Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7FXbGn-jKc

Relation: This encourages students to have pride in their creations.

Implementation: After reading this book, I would ask them what their proudest creation is.

Standard: K-PS2-1

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Author: Andrea Beaty

Illustrator: David Roberts

Summary: This book is about a girl who asks a lot of "why" questions and loves to experiment

Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lElwWC1kBF0

Relation: This book would encourage students to keep asking the question "why".

Implementation: After reading this book, I would have students brainstorm "why" questions we could ask about our classroom.

Standard: K-PS2-2

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Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions

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Author: Chris Barton

Illustrator: Don Tate

Summary: This book explores Lonnie's experiences in engineering and math, and shows his perseverance through rejection.

Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL99Ky6fjas

Relation: This book relates to the idea of perseverance in the classroom.

Implementation: I would read this book and then create a question board about how we might experience rejection in science.

Standard: 1-LS1-1

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Author: Andrea Beaty

Illustrator: David Roberts

Summary: Rosie is a girl who loves to explore engineering, but is afraid of making mistakes. She learns throughout the story that mistakes aren't a bad thing and can be used for good!

Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK0jBBRpzSk

Relation: This can be used in a classroom to inspire students to embrace mistakes. It may help students to gain confidence and courage in the classrooms.

Implementation: I would brainstorm after reading this book with my class about what mistakes we may make in the classroom, then talk about how these can be helpful.

Standard: K-PS2-2

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Author: Kimberly Derting & Shelli R. Johannes

Illustrator: Vashti Harrison

Summary: This book displays the scientific method through a fun storyline. The characters learn how to form a hypothesis, perform experiments, and record observations.

Read-Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysnf0gZuVWo

Relation: This book demonstrates to students how to dig deeper with their questions. Even at a pre-k age, students can see this book model deeper question investigation.

Implementation: Before starting an experiment in Kindergarten, read students this book. Your experiment can be partnered with the same questions found in the book.

Standard: K-PS2-2