Welcome to Vivify’s Blog!
The ABCs of Kindergarten STEM
In this post, we discuss how to engage the youngest learners in meaningful STEM through our brand-new Alphabet STEM curriculum for Kindergarten! Alphabet STEM was a collaborative effort from the Vivify STEM team. Read on for our favorite letters, advice on teaching kinder STEM, and grab the free kinder STEM lesson!
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.
Rate Your STEM Lesson: What Stage is Your STEM Challenge?
What is the focus in your STEM classroom? Do you love teambuilding activities? Or perhaps you spend most of the year on engineering design? Take our quiz to find out what stage of STEM your lessons are! Then read below for more on the 3 Stages of STEM, example activities, and a free STEM lesson checklist to help plan your lesson!
Sub Plans for a STEM Classroom
Are you in need of sub plans for your STEM classroom? Whether it's planned ahead, the morning of, or a 2 week COVID quarantine, I try to always have low-prep STEM lesson plans ready if needed. But sometimes preparing for a sub can feel like more work than actually being there! So I got together with the Vivify team to brainstorm ideas and put together strategies and recommendations for how to run a successful STEM classroom with a substitute teacher!
Critical Issues in Engineering Education
Did you know that most state science standards now include engineering? But does engineering actually support science learning? Are teachers prepared to teach engineering effectively? This isn’t our typical STEM activity blog post, but I am excited to share some of what I am learning in graduate school!
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!
Get Your STEM Classroom Ready for Back to School!
August is here, and that means back to school season! But don’t stress, we have you covered with our favorite STEM icebreakers, activities to introduce STEM to your students, and even classroom posters and freebies!
Understanding a Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning
Are you struggling to define a scope and sequence for your STEM or engineering classroom? Read on to learn about the current landscape of engineering education and take a closer look at the recently released Framework for P-12 Engineering Learning to help plan your engineering curriculum!
How to Teach Growth Mindset and Failing Forward
Students need to experience failure in our classrooms. They may not think so, but learning from those failures is what helps them grow. Read on for ways to empower your students to learn from their failures, aka. fail forward, with a good dose of growth mindset!
7 Ideas for Teaching Social Studies with STEM
STEM by definition is a collaborative way of bringing subjects together to introduce students to higher-order thinking. So it shouldn’t be isolated to the science or specials classes. Bring STEM into your social studies lessons with the ideas and tips below.