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Engineering in the Science Classroom
Help! I am a science teacher, and I am trying to figure out how to integrate engineering in my classroom! Which engineering challenges best support science learning? What about engineering practices? Why should I even integrate engineering into science instruction?
Using the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as a guide, we break down the best ways to add engineering design to enhance science in your elementary and middle school classroom. It’s a big topic to tackle, but we try to provide simple strategies, recommended lessons, and more resources to get you started.
Do you see what I see? Pinhole Camera STEM Challenge
Are you looking to add more science to your engineering design challenges? Watch the video below for some cool demos to share with your students followed by an engineering design challenge on how to construct a pinhole camera that demonstrates "camera obscure.” We also have a complete lesson plan connecting the challenge to the innovation of the light bulb in England!
Go on a Mission to Mars!
I am a science teacher for grades 5- 8, and last fall, my students went on an epic adventure as we tested out Space Club’s Mission to Mars curriculum! Read below for our experience and two space-themed engineering design challenges you can try in your classroom!
10 Tips for Managing a STEM Classroom
STEM is an inventive, creative, thought-provoking process. But it also involves a lot of supplies, choice of partners (who we may or may not enjoy working with), and open-ended projects that lead to a sometimes chaotic environment! How do we manage all of this as a teacher trying to foster a creative STEM process yet maintain learning objectives and behavioral order in our classrooms? Here are our top 10 tips for classroom management for a STEM learning environment!
A Neuroscientist’s Top 5 STEM Activities for Kids and Families!
Do you have kids interested in life sciences? We asked Maria Garza, a graduate student in neurobiology at the University of Texas at San Antonio to share her favorite activities! Read on for some toys, apps, and games to delight your students followed by some Vivify STEM lessons!
Some background on our guest blogger: Maria works with animal models to study how molecular mechanisms in the brain impact behavior and cognition. As a scientist, wife, and mother, she hopes to encourage other women and girls interested in STEM. Maria is also the founder of Women In Neuroscience, a public platform where women share their experiences in neuroscience, in order to create an atmosphere of support.
Mission to the Moon: Virtual STEM Program
Are you looking for a low-prep STEM curriculum that supports distance learning, engages students, and involves engineering design and careers?
With a live leaderboard, weekly raffle prizes, and career chats with NASA engineers, Vivify presents Mission to Moon, a hands-on STEM program delivered virtually for classroom or at-home learning. Your students will design robot hands, rovers, roller coasters, and more while learning about real-world STEM, meeting real STEM professionals, and connecting with schools across the world!
Bring Space Club to Your School!
From space suit design to growing plants in space, Space Club is an interactive virtual program with weekly engineering design challenges, sessions with NASA engineers, and students from across the country! Students will upload videos of completed designs for the chance to win epic prizes like telescopes and robots! Learn how to bring it to your middle school this fall!
12 Valentine's Day STEM Activities
It’s February and Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. Seize the opportunity to turn this candy-filled holiday of hearts into STEM activity love. We’ve compiled some of our favorite Valentine’s Day themed STEM activities for kids that are perfect for the classroom or to do at home!
How to Launch Model Rockets & Amaze Your Students! (Pt 2)
Learn everything you need to know about launching rockets with your students! I put together all my resources from four years of rocketry to help you bring this exciting STEM activity into your classroom.
This post is part two of a three part series over model rocketry in the classroom.
Summer STEM: 10 Ideas for Fun in the Pool
Are you staying cool in the pool this summer? Take advantage of those long summer days at the pool by adding some fun STEM challenges! Read on to learn how to turn play into learning including 10 ideas for STEM at the pool.