STE(A)M Activities Help Children Solve Problems

STEAM - Thinking 'How To"

  STE(A)M teaching is a way of helping children think like scientists, technologists, engineers, artists (architects), and mathematicians as they solve meaningful and interesting real world problems. When children use STE(A)M they are making hands- on projects and following the problem solving model real engineers use: Talk about and define the problem with a team, research it, talk about and draw possible solutions, talk about and choose a plan, talk and create, talk, test, and evaluate, talk and improve, talk and redesign until the problem is solved. 

  Families can help their children by using the STE(A)M model and vocabulary while doing everyday chores like cleaning, cooking, or doing a family STE(A)M activity.

Family STE(A)M Fun

  With family holidays coming

Define A Problem

 up here is a cheap STE(A)M activity for young cousins: making drinking straw structures. You’ll need box of drinking straws with the flexible bend cut off, a roll of masking tape, child scissors, and a piece of paper for a base.

  Define the problem and talk about it. You can choose a problem like building sturdy a bridge, playground structure like a swing set or climbing dome that will hold many action figures.

  Research and talk about it. What kind of structures do the children have at school? What kinds of shapes are they? Triangles, rectangles, circles? What makes them sturdy? Do they have reinforcing bars that make triangles? Triangles distribute the weight and stress.

  Draw pictures of ideas for structures based on the discussion. Choose a plan, and create it with straws and tape. Help young children cut the straws, tape and wrap it around the straws. Are there triangles?

  Test the structure and evaluate. You can use action figures to test for strength. Look for parts that bend under the weight.

  Talk and improve the design. Do you need more reinforcement straws to make more triangles? Is the structure able to hold more weight now?

  Redesign and talk until the design works and the children like it.

Start With Shapes

  Very young children can start with a square pyramid structure.  Cut a straw into four equal parts and tape them to a paper to make a flat square. Then cut four more straw pieces of equal size. Anchor them on each corner and the top with tape to make a pyramid.

   Smaller straw pieces can reinforce the pyramid until there are many triangles and trapezoids.  When they look through it can they count the shapes? Is the structure sturdy? How can you test it? If the top is made like a little basket or platform will it hold a small gourd or little animal without collapsing? What other sturdy structures can children design? For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fofos

Apples are the Stars of Fall

Many Kinds of Apples

  Apples can help teach children to observe, use their senses, make choices and predict. All are skills used in STEAM (science, technology, engineering art, and math). Then discussing food costs is a beginning of teaching economic principles.

Apple Shopping

   At the grocery help children pick out four different kinds of apples. Note their names, farm location and weigh the apples. Which one weighs the most? At the checkout look at the prices to see which apple costs the most. Talk about why some apples might cost more. At home look up where apples are grown and find the places on a map.

Select Apples

  Before working with the apples, teach children to wash apples and hands. Carefully cut the different colored apples in half from the stem through the core. Discuss halves as two equal pieces. Have children predict the apple they think will taste the best.  Then taste pieces of each color. After they decide which apple they like best, discuss words like sweet, sour, and crunchy. Match the words to the different apples.

Use a Cider Press - Make Apple Cider

  Cut the extra apple so the stem is at the top of the first half.  Children are always excited to see the seeds in the center in the shape of a five pointed star.

 Then cut a thin slice from each. Use red, yellow and green poster paint to paint each thin slice and press the painted slices carefully on paper to make star apple prints.

Apple Snacks

  Making cider is a wonderful family activity as you can see from these photos. Don't have a press? Visit a cider mill in your area. 
Apples make a nutritious snacks and Halloween monsters.  Cut very thin wedges and add a little cinnamon for something different. Peel, slice, sprinkle with cinnamon and place in the microwave for a few minutes. Cover with whipped cream.

Add Apples & Grind

  For apples monsters, cut an apple in half then cut a wedge out of the half so as one looks at the half it looks like a mouth. Stuff the mouth with peanut butter or cream cheese. Place a half strawberry for a tongue sticking out. Poke holes for two two eyes and a nose and stick chocolate points or pretzel sticks in the holes.  Pretzels and seeds can also be teeth. Whipped cream can be frothy hair.

Cider is the Juice of Crushed Apples! Enjoy!!!

 Baked apples in a microwave are easy and quick. Children can wash and use a table knife to core a two apples. In a bowl mix two

 tablespoons brown sugar and one teaspoon cinnamon and stuff the center of the apples. Place a teaspoon of butter on top of that mixture. Then adults can microwave cook in a safe dish for about 3 minutes until tender. Cool and test before giving to children. While eating you can tell the Johnny Appleseed story. 

photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

For more science and math STEM adventures go to -  grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons live Tuesdays at 4:30pm and Saturdays at 8:30 am and pod casts archived on the site.

Arachnids Fascinate Young Children

What's Your Favorite Spider Story? 

Spiders are often over feared and misunderstood. When a spider web and huge “Charlotte” appear in the yard you might turn them into family STEAM activities at home (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math).

Observe Spiders

 Adults and children can observe a spider with a magnifying glass for several days while it adds to its web, collects insects, and encases them. Check on spiders working at night with your flashlights. How much progress do they make by morning?  Observe spiders around the neighborhood to compare spider webs. Warn children to look and not  touch because they will bite.
   Check out some other nonfiction spider books from the library like “I Love Spiders” by John Parker and “Anansi the Spider” by Gerald McDermott. Search for “Spiders: children videos” on You tube. Here's one find: 

https://www.pinterest.com/snowangel7781/theme-spiders/ 

"Isty Bitsy Spider” song and many other finger plays are also found on the Internet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLi_tCSJyAA

 Children can discuss how spiders help the ecosystem by catching harmful insects like mosquitoes and flies.

Anansi the Spider - McDermott

 Are there female spiders carrying white sacs of eggs? Research if Daddy Long Legs are really spiders.

   Adults and children may discuss what facts they learn and use different geometric shapes to illustrate a few pages about spiders. Children may dictate sentences for captions under the pictures and help staple the pages together.

Making Spiders

  With adult help, children may create their own spiders.  Children can cut out two circles (head and body), eight long 

FINGER-PLAYS Online!! 

skinny rectangles for legs. Circles for eyes, and tape them together to make a spider. Hang a string and thread it through a short straw taped on the back so the spider can climb and drop down from the string.

  With help children may make edible spiders.  Cut two circles from bread, spread peanut butter, add eight pretzel legs and eight raisins for eyes.

   Children can also go outside to make spider web mazes in sand or on the sidewalk. Spread out stones in the sand to make points for a pentagon, hexagon, and octagon. With a stick or chalk make lines like spokes in a wheel to connect each stone with the center of the shape

  To catch an intricate web, spray one with a

I Love Spiders - Parker

 light coating of white paint and carefully swish a large black piece of construction paper made by taping several pieces together. What geometric shapes are in the web? How do spiders store their meals? Which web has captured the most insects? How strong is a web?

Family STEAM activities help young children observe, form questions, increase vocabulary, do quick sketches and writ stories of what they see for science journals.

For more science and math STEM adventures go to -  grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons live Tuesdays at 4:30pm and Saturdays at 8:30 am and pod casts archived on the site.

S.T.E.M. Perfect for Families

STEM Opens Conversation Channels

S.T.E.M.  opens up many new opportunities for conversation and learning  during family time like taking walks. The acronym stands for having fun with science, technology, engineering, and math.  Most states have now added “A” for art making the acronym S.T.E.A.M. It’s a way of organizing learning and families can participate.

A Way of Thinking

  How does S.T.E.M. work in the family?  Whenever a family is doing an activity, adults can add a little learning. For example, if grandpa is taking a walk with young children he can stop to watch a few ants working around their anthill. He might even pack a magnifying glass, a

How Does STEM Work?

 real handy tool.  Maybe they’ll pick up a stick to watch an ant crawl. Gramps can add a few interesting science facts he knows about ants, like they bite and may sting.  They crawl down many feet below the frost line to survive the winter. What happens if we leave a little honey, cheese, or a dead fly by the ant hole?  What is the prediction?

  When they get home they might look up information about ants and images on Google or You Tube educational movies.  They might take a picture with their camera. This picture can be inspiration for some sketches, models of ants, or a library visit.  

How Does STEM Work?

  To get the “E” for engineering, grandpa might talk about now the ants make their home. What happens when their house on the sidewalk gets washed out?  How long will it take to rebuild? How is their home like ours—ant farm anyone?

  Let’s count how many ants we see on the way to the park?  Are they all the same color and size?  Is there a pattern to the ant holes on the sidewalk?  There is your math.

  Counting, finding likenesses and differences, looking for patterns, asking questions, figuring out answers, putting in groups, and classifying them are activities kids love to do. Adults can sneak them in anytime anyplace.

Seaborg Center

  Families can talk about the weather, gravity, animals, plants, tracks, mud, gardens, water, 

Sign up for Summer STEM!

food, signs, 

camping, or playing sports, all with S.T.E.M. or S.T.E.A.M. in mind. It’s a way of thinking that just takes a little practice.

  According to the National Science 

Foundation “Over 50% of the fastest growing jobs in the U.S. are math, science, engineering, or technology related” and with families helping, grandkids can get those jobs.

  

All Free Home Materials!

Northern Michigan University offers many exciting summer S.T.E.M. classes for young children at the Seaborg Center that are S.T.E.M. related.

  Many libraries, nature centers, Y’s, and summer camps use the S.T.E.M. model for organizing their programs.  There are also many on-line ideas to easily work S.T.E.M. into your family’s summer life.  

It’s all free with materials in homes, parks, and backyards. 

photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

More Vocabulary Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’

website: Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio, 90; Youtube