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If you've spent ANY time homeschooling, then you probably have found an amazing website that features teaching products designed BY teachers, to be used both in classrooms and at home, and I'm thrilled to be able to share one of my favorites with you today:
Tied 2 Teaching is a resource that if you are teaching elementary ages through middle school ones, you MUST have! Because they have over 7 years of experience, teaching 4th through 8th grade, their products not only appeal to this age range, but WORK. We were thrilled to be able to check out one of their year round products recently, STEM Activities, Full Year of Challenges with Close Reading!
STEM Activities, Full Year of Challenges with Close Reading features 65 (!!) challenges, so that you can cover one a week, for the full school year! Many of the challenges coincide with holidays (like Valentine's Day, President's Day, St Patrick's Day, Easter, etc), and are a fun way to merge holiday fun and learning in a simple lesson. Others feature topics that kids in this age range really like, like Legos and natural phenomenon, and are interested in, so they'll WANT to do the reading and experiments! And because they are made by a current teacher, they fit into just about everyone's lesson plans, quite nicely!
When you order this set, you get all of the projects in a zip file, and then you can download and extract/save to where you need them, ie on a student use computer. The projects are in alphabetical order, so you might need to go through them all and decide where they fit into your lesson plan. For example, we already covered quite a bit of the topics already in this year, thanks Miss Grace's rabbit trails, so I did have to go with more of the holiday ones to add into her lesson plans. Most of the projects are really meant to be team based, but you can let one child take them on, without too much alteration.
Each project has a cover sheet, so you can print it and the included sheets together, into a laminated packet, or make copies for individual use.
The first page in the packet is the answer page, for the required close reading. The reading selection itself can be accessed by any smart device using a QR code reader (!!), or by selecting it from the Wonderopolis website (link to the required reading provided in each project). When we were having internet speed issues, it was easier for me to download the reading and have her read it with me, before answering the questions on her own. But for the one above, she did the reading on her iPad. The answer sheet works as a short quiz, which helps is you need some more grades as well.
As you can see, your student is given the Challenged, directions for it, and some photo examples of what is meant to be done.For the project above, we had actually already done that one last year, as part of her science class experiments. So we took the Rainbow bridge project and combined it with this one- she had to find a way to suspend the cup, via some sort of bridge, keeping to the 4 inches off of the bottom, but it had to hold more pennies. That's what is great about these projects- while they are individually designed, you CAN combine some of them, as the feature some of the same principles of learning.
I did print out the Design Challenged worksheets for her, so it would be easier for her to plan and design. For this project, she used these 6 sheets as her primary worksheets. The Mission pages are like overview sheets, asking what the student already knows about the objects being used, what they think their structure will look like and how it will work, and then to explain what they did and how it could be improved. Page 1 was written, and page 2 was where she did her blueprints and base drawings. The Explanation page was where she showed her steps (aka how she tested her scientific theory), and again she chose to use drawings. The second Explanation sheet is made to be written, with answers to questions like 'what did you do first", and "How can you improve your design?".The last STEM page asked about the scientific principles behind her design, what research she did, and the data she discovered. Again, finishing out the Scientific Theory, without her directly realizing that was what she was doing!
So for her design she kept with the original pipe cleaner concept, but limited herself to only using 6 piper cleaners, one cup and a roll of pennies (50 cents). She quickly discovered that using a single pipe cleaner tied to another one did not provide the same strength as ones that were twisted completely together and then used. So by changing her pipe cleaners around multiple times, she was able to record 3 different sets of data, and determine the method that provided the longest hang time, with no sag (FYI, this is a easy experiment, but not quite so easy to explain to dishwasher repairman, LOL). Big thinker that she is, she quickly found a video showing how pennies are actually made out of multiple metals now, not simply copper, as it makes them stronger AND cheaper, and then found a video we had saved about how twisted fibers make for stronger cables, that can be used in high winds safely! Thus, showing outside research to backup her theory! And she doesn't want to be an engineer, LOL.
Going through the remaining projects, she's looking forward to working on these 2 Easter ones, and redoing her birdhouse project, as the severe weather and the squirrels killed her first one before we would get pictures and data from it! We've been watching a certain history show featuring UFOS, so that's her next new obsession, so she was thrilled to see one on the list (I was just happy it would utilize all those stray legos, LOL).
I really love how each projects works on her weaknesses (reading and writing) and also allows her to shine on her strengths (science, mathematics and research), and utilizes technology in such a way to make each project interesting for her! I can see where in a classroom setting these would be really FUN STEM projects and breaks for kids from boring textbooks! Homeschoolers will also love how they can skip having to plan experiments, and just get what is needed for these different projects (which they will probably already have around the house- a HUGE plus for the product!), and set the kids loose each week on one! You just might find out how much your kid loves engineering and science too!
But don't just take my word for how much fun these STEM Activities, Full Year of Challenges with Close Reading are! Check out my fellow homeschoolers and their reviews, by clicking on the picture below:
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