STEM Bins

Posted: February 2, 2018

February K/1 STEM Challenge - The Olympic Games & 100th Day

The creativity we saw with the Snowman Challenge was incredible! Students designed and 3D printed snowmen; they used Lego to recreate snowmen; they attached Makey Makeys to make their playdough snowmen talk; they created incredible pieces of snowman art; and students wrote, collaborated, cooperated, and presented their snowmen to their peers to meet literacy outcomes.

To find out the winner of the January Challenge click here.

We hope to “up the ante” in February by combining the Olympic Games with our traditional 100^th Day Celebrations. We are challenging our K/1 classes to use their Maker Bins and their creative minds to link literacy, STEM, and the Olympic Games.

Some ideas could be to have students work in teams to:

- Use 50 toothpicks and 50 marshmallows (or other materials) to build a hockey net

- Use 100 linking cubes (or other materials) to build a bobsled track (See attached image)

- Keep a tally chart to see if Canada will reach 100 medals

A reminder of some literacy and math outcomes that may be assessed while students perform our monthly STEM Challenges at K-1:

- Students will be expected to participate in conversation and in small and whole-group discussion

- Respond to and give simple directions or instructions

- Engage in simple oral presentations and respond to oral presentations and other texts

- Count quantity using groups of 2s, 5s or 10s

To register for the February Challenge please click here.

Remember to post pictures and videos to your teacher page in order to be entered into the draw and so we can share your great ideas across ASD-N. As always, If you have any questions e-mail kelly.russell@nbed.nb.ca and if you require any assistance with taking photos/videos of student projects or uploading them to your teacher page e-mail adam.hayward@nbed.nb.ca

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Posted: January 8, 2018

January K/1 STEM Challenge - Snowman Structures

It looks like our deep freeze is over and it is now time to get out and enjoy winter in NB. For the January K/1 STEM Challenge we are encouraging your students to channel their inner engineers to build their very own snowman.

This could be done indoors, with items from your STEM Bins, other classroom materials (paper, marshmallows and toothpicks) or take your students to the great outdoors to build authentic snowmen; complete with corncob pipes and button noses!

As always, we encourage students to work in groups and be creative with their creations.

In order to bring literacy into this activity we suggest reading “Snowmen at Night”, “The Biggest Snowman”, “Frosty the Snowman” or any other snowman book you may have in your library, in order to inspire students’ structures.

This challenge will end on Tuesday, January 30^th. In order to enter this challenge please click on the following link and enter your information: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmv_Nz8HbMJnLmOTpZQJ5J-zqb-2-tDmAmtN0hLTjVK72e4Q/viewform?c=0&w=1

Please remember to post pictures and videos to your teacher page in order to be entered into the draw.

We have been overwhelmed by the number of classrooms entering the challenges each month. It is so inspiring to see students engaged in hands-on learning and using their imaginations while enhancing literacy and STEM.

Posted: November 30, 2017

Winner of November K-1 STEM Challenge

Click here to watch a video of highlights of our our first STEM Challenge; at the end the winning class is announced.

Posted: November 30, 2017

December K-1 STEM Challenge

For our December, Christmas themed STEM Challenge we want to see your class “make” their own Christmas tree. Your class tree can be as big or as small as you like. You can have your students work in teams to create several different trees, or create a class tree as a whole group. Your tree can be 2D or 3D. You can make your tree from paper, pipe insulation, carboard, pvc pipe, felt, wood, things from nature, or any materials of your choosing. It is totally up to the imagination of you and your students.

We have included examples of maker-trees and decorating ideas. (See the attachmed document below.)

We have chosen decorations that can help meet curriculum outcomes in math, however you may choose any outcomes throughout the build process. We encourage you to continue to have your students write and present about their designs to meet literacy outcomes.

The deadline for submissions is December 19th.

Don’t forget to e-mail kelly.russell@nbed.nb.ca to sign up for the December challenge and remember to post pictures of your students competing in the challenge on your teacher page. If you need help posting pictures, please email adam.hayward@nbed.nb.ca and he can assist with this process. We love to see pictures of the process of the build, the curriculum outcomes being met, and the finished product.