End of The Year Science and STEM Ideas

This weekend, we took a little trip to the top of one of the  highest spots here in Wisconsin. We trekked up flights and flights of stairs to finally reach the top. There I was overlooking miles and miles of forests, watching the sway of trees as they danced to the music of the wind. It game me a totally different perspective. 

I guess it reminds it reminds me so much of the last few months of virtual learning. I have always seen the importance of adding subjects such as science into a schedule because science and STEM  can reach students differently through creativity and problem solving...different that reading, math, and writing...we need to take a look at that perspective, too.

• I now have a whole new perspective of what I do for my students when I am in school. 

• I have a new perspective of the impact we have as educators and the way we can help our students learn in new ways.

• I also have a totally different perspective of the tools that I can utilize to meet the needs of my students. 

• I bet that you have a different perspective of teaching as well! There are aspects that work and also some that do not!

Let's find a new perspective on end of the year celebrations then...head on over to my blog for some great end of the year tips and tricks as well as a free resource! Home learning/distance learning/remote learning/virtual learning just to name a few...whatever you are calling it these days, it is all new territory to most of the classroom teachers out there.  It is definitely new territory to me. Now, it is time to reflect and finish up the school year, from the confines of our own homes. Let's find some spectacular Science and STEM opportunities to connect with our kiddos!

Virtual End of The Year Ideas For the Science and STEM Classroom

Have A Virtual Field Day Event

We are hosting ours on flipgrid by making copilots so that more than one person can host on a grid where kids can add their field day event. Perfect for sharing and watching other friends in one spot!

We are housing our ideas and videos in flipgrid along with five challenges for our students and families. The five challenges we included are:

1. Sock Toss
2. 3 Legged Race
3. Book Balance
4. Spoon Walk
5. Cup Toss and Catch

Have A Virtual Field Trip

What a great way to end the school year by taking a field trip. Virtual field trips are amazing! There are lots of different online field trips, which I am sharing my go to's down below:

25+ Virtual Learning Ideas

Yellowstone

Carlsbad Caverns

Hawaiian Volcanos

Great Wall of China

The Pyramids

International Space Station

Houston Zoo

San Diego Zoo

Virtual Farm Tours

STEM/Science Tic Tac Toe Board

This was a fun way to host a weekly event this last few months. Students were given a tic tac toe board that allowed for Science concept reinforcements. This share out can be digital as well! 

Free SCIENCE and STEM Tic Tac Toe Boards

Virtual Award Ceremony

Students can get an award from you through a a google slide celebration. You can utilize google slides in order for each student to get a special science award to showcase what they have shown this year in class or at home. 

I made a free science reward pack for you if you sign up for my newsletter!  I will be sending each child a special slide within the awards that when they click on the link it goes right to their personal award. You can also send a page directly through email, when you copy a specific page a new file with that child's name. 

STEM Connection Celebration

I hosted several STEM events during virtual learning this last quarter. I asked students to bring certain supplies to the meet which can be on ZOOM or google meet. 

The first week: make something to share

• paper, spoon, fork, cup and one item of your choice ...the goal was to make something to share out

The second week: the tallest tower

• we used two pieces of paper and tape...the goal was to create the tallest tower

The third week:  Building Bridges

• Legos, building blocks, cardboard boxes saved ...the goal is to build a bridge for a small stuffed animal or figurine

Find a great STEM challenge that you can host on a virtual meeting. The kids can build right in the meet and share out individually within the meet. It is engaging and the supplies that you suggest can be easily accessible around the house. Want to find your set of Google Slide Packs for your students? Find them here!

Outdoor STEM Pack

Diversity and Equity Themed STEM

Making Connections STEM

Digital Science and STEM Packs

Enjoy your end of the year. It wasn't easy, but when we can celebrate, show how to persevere and be resilient it will help model for our families that we can get through this together and we do have lots to celebrate!

Let's Make Science Child's Play!

Renee

The Power of Using Boom Decks In Science

Digital Resources such as Boom provide students easy access for learning science concepts. If you are in search of an app or digital option for self-checking task cards Boom Learning decks are self-checking, interactive, digital task cards. Going virtual this year has upped my game in terms of finding ways to assess my virtual lessons and which students comprehend the new concepts. There were several tools and apps that I found very capable of helping my students and me be excited for the next lesson! Boom did not fail me. Once I figured out how to create them and post them for my kiddos, I got Boom Fever!

Here's How They Work: 

Boom Cards are also compatible with Google Classroom and Google Apps, so, if you use those platforms, this is a resource for added science learning. A set of Boom Cards is called a Boom Deck. Boom Cards may contain fill in the Blank Answers, multiple choice, move-able pieces, clickable answer choices and more.

Creating student logins is quick and easy! In your dashboard, you’ll click "Add Many Students," and enter nicknames for each student. Boom Learning will automatically generate passwords, but you can create personalized passwords too! {Often times, students already have a login and password for another account—like Google Apps/Google Classroom so you can just use the same ones!} With older students, you can share the classroom username and password and let them set up their own account details.

How My Students Can Play:

Boom Decks can be played in two ways: Fast Play: With your free account, you have unlimited access to playing any purchased or free Boom Cards through an interactive whiteboard, tablet, or other device. In Fast Play, you are unable to record student progress (however, Boom Learning regularly offers free trials of the student data component for new users, so be sure to check the latest info on that!) With a free account, you can create 5 students (think, 5 groups with differentiated assignments assigned to each. This works well in stations where you can have students access the activities they need to practice).

Once you access a Boom Deck, it is in your "library". You will always have free access to assign and play your Boom Decks in "Fast Play" mode. In Fast Play mode, student data is not recorded, but students receive instant feedback. Fast Play mode is perfect for modeling on an interactive whiteboard, and playing whole group, in partners, or small groups. Fast Pins expire after 5 days. These are for practice or instruction only and don’t record student progress. To assign on any site with a Fast Pin, go to your Library, find the Boom Cards deck to be assign, click the blue Action button and select Fast Pin. 

The second way to use Boom Decks is by sending Hyperplay Links or assigning decks to Students. You can send Boom Cards to individual students or groups of students. Hyperplay is available with the Basic, Power, and Ultimate Accounts. When I want to gather data I will then use Hyperplay Links which prompt students to sign in and they result in student progress being recorded. To assign on any site with a Hyperplay Link, go to Library, find the Boom Cards deck to assign, click the blue Action button and select Hyperplay Link.

                                                                   

What Can Students Use: 

BOOM Learning is app available for Apple products, Chrome Books/android devices, and Kindle. Boom Learning can also work within Google Classroom. I tend to use a fast play for practice which my students on their ipads and hyperplay when I need to assess progress. 

How Can I use Boom Cards?

*with a group on an interactive whiteboard.
* beginning and end of the year assessment tools
* allow fast finishers computer time and practice time
*use them as part of your science stations/centers
* assign specific decks to students, so they can master specific content or review a concept that they might be struggling with 
* as homework assignments for students. Students have a login of their own, so they can login to Boom Learning from any computer or device anywhere, but they will need internet access. 

Can I see how it works?

I've included a link for you to practice any of the first four pages of any of my resources. Give it a try!

Boom Learning Science Decks

TPT Science Decks

Give Boom Decks a try...I am so glad that I did. My students love the "game" like feel of review and assessment!

6 Ways To Fit Science Into Your Day

Trying to teach intermediate students science isn’t always easy. There are a lot of supplies to often set up and the concepts at times are much harder to explain. Often, science can even get put on the back burner. I am asked by other educators how do I find that extra time that is needed to give quality science curriculum? So, I want to share with you today a few quick tips to finding that time and making it count!

Targeting Standards

1.      Make sure that you are pinpointing the exact standard that you want to cover. whether it is 

NGSS or your districts requirements. Utilize the NGSS cross cutting strategies within their plans. 

That is a great guide to how you can even add the required concepts within your reading and writing 

lessons.

Non-Fiction Science Connections

2.      Non-fiction reading in common core and in NGSS cross cutting … is a perfect way to add 

science concepts. For example, having a hard time fitting in ecosystems or food chains because the 

supplies needed seem a little out of reach? Then, a non fiction book and science/reading station is a 

perfect way to add a concept that seems out of reach. I purposely utilize Epic books which has a ton 

of great non-fiction science themed books that are perfect for your reading lesson. They even have a 

variety that can be read to students in order for you to differentiate learning. 

Tie that in with digital resources and are set to go! Digital resources come in so many different 
options. From Boom Cards to Google Slides it also allows for teachers to find ways to add science 
into their day! 

Science Stations in Reading/Writing

3.      Science Stations during your reading/writing block is another way to use your time wisely. If 

you incorporate a non fiction book along with a small experiment that has easy to follow step by step 

directions, this is another way to use your time wisely. Allowing students to share their learning with 

an app or internet tool is way to assess for understanding. My new go to for this is flipgrid. 

I set up a class grid, allow for students to go there for my pre-recorded instructions that I video for 

them, or you can even insert a youtube video  showing an experiment that you find online. If you just 

want them to learn more background knowledge about a science topic allow for that video to be 

inserted on flipgrid as well! Many of my colleagues are able to utilize google classroom which I wish 

I was able to use as well. Our district required their own paid version to house lessons in, but another 

great way to add science lessons in an app for them to utilize can be stored in google classroom.

Flipped Lessons

4. Flipped lessons are my new favorite way to teach science after going virtual this year. A flipped       lesson allows you to prerecord a lesson, a concept, and/or background information that you would have used class time for. As students view the video before class, they are getting the needed information that you would have used class time for. This frees up time for you to do demonstrations and experiments and not use the time in class to do that. I still need to review the concepts for friends that didn’t watch ahead of time, but if a student misses out on the experiment, because now they must first watch the video and do the follow-up questions, they don’t want to miss the “fun” stuff. The amount of students not watching the prerecorded lessons declines.  I also find that if I record my demonstration then the students that miss out can now see that or review if they missed something.

You might be saying that is  a lot of time that is used to create those videos, but once you have them and you label them, you are set for years to come. I use screen-cast-omatic. There are other video sites such as screencastify that work perfectly well, too.  Not sure you can know what to say on your video? Use a teleprompter program on your computer and read what you would like to say. you can see how I do that in my video link here:

Supply Short Cuts and Quick Lessons

5. Find lessons, that are already made for you. If you have a kit such as FOSS, which we use, bag up the lessons for easy year after year accessibility. When we went into quarantine mode, it was a bit easier for me to grab my lessons out of the box, because they were all labeled and prepackaged. I put mine in plastic ziplocked baggies and label them with permanent markers and place them in the kit along with the sheets I used for the lessons if I utilized printed versions. If you have no kits, then make sure that you find a storage system that works best for you. I tub my kindergarten lessons along with the picture books and supplies I even use for it. This really does save a ton of time. If you don’t already do that then you will thank me!

Boom Learning Decks

6.Boom learning decks are another go to for easily checking my students for understanding! I create decks that focus on my big ideas. I can give my students a boom deck right after I teach conductors and insulators to see if they got my lesson and the concept I was teaching.   It allow my students immediate feedback to their learning and if you utilize the data you can use it for grading purposes.

Take a look at these science boom decks that can make adding science to your day a little bit easier!
Science School Yard Science Boom Decks

I hope you can find ways to add science to your busy day...your kids will thank you!

Top 4 Tools To Help Teach Science Remotely

Remote learning by any means has not been easy for anyone. We all had quite a learning curve dealt to us, but it is how we have been able to adapt and find new ways to get to your students that is key to everyone's success! What I have found in the last six weeks, is that I keep evolving and finding new ways to implement my lessons. To help you find new ways, too, I am sharing with you my favorite finds. Here are my top 4 teaching tools that have got me through teaching remotely. 

Flipgrid

I have been using flipgrid for a meeting place for my Science Lessons and classrooms. This has allowed me a site that I can see my students, check for understanding, as well as have the accountability that I need.  I am able to star the assignments that I have looked at and even comment back through an email setting, or even create a video for them! I also utilize the ability to host a five minute or less video review lesson or even share a video from youtube for them to watch. You Tube might be a great place to house your video lessons that are over 5 minutes then for them. Students can showcase an assignment by showing you what they did and explain their thinking. 

Flipgrid are the meeting place for your classroom, your school, your department or any learning community to discuss topics or lessons. Flipgrid sets up an  icebreaker. For science you can have students add lesson/experiment reflections, share their thinking, explore STEM principles, give mini-presentations, and showcase their learning. Setting up a rubric so that the students can see what they need to do to show you what they know can be utilized by adding a document to flipgrid.

 How I use it:

• I voice record my lesson
• I can star the students I graded so when new ones come in, I know where to start
• I use the mixed tapes to store the science stars of the week 
• I use the mixed tapes to store students that still need my help
• I have students share their thinking and then I can check for understanding using a rubric
• I share videos I want them to view from youtube
• I email back to the students a personal message
• It allow students to view their friends and make comments on what they liked and learned

Screencastify or Screen-cast-omatic

Screen Casts are designed from the ground up to be the safest, simplest video creation tool for teachers and students. I can  make learning more personal for my students and can provide my science lessons each week for distance learning. In the future I can use them for flipped classrooms lessons, by recording lessons, assignment explanations, and giving my students verbal feedback. I can tape myself incorporating a lesson, and use the teleprompter to write my lessons and then choose web cam and screen, make my cam the smallest it can go then teleprompt above so it looks like I am looking at the camera! I just start the prompter and it allows a space at the bottom for me to put the web cam! 

How to use it in your science classroom:

• screencast an experiment so they can watch it before, during, and after class
• tape your lessons for kids that are gone
• give directions for assignments to share out
• screencast a lesson introduction
• use for flipping lessons and saving time once they come to class if they view it ahead of time

Boom Learning

I have loved Boom decks for my students! Boom is a platform that allows teachers to purchase and/or create digital activities for students. Boom “decks” are made up of individual, digital task cards for students to complete.

I use Boom for...

• Differentiating my science instruction, different decks for different kiddos
• It gives students immediate feedback (dings for correct, oops for incorrect and they get to try again!)
• Students Get EXCITED about learning with badges and fun digital “rewards” for their work
• Holding students accountable for their independent work especially in stations or at home
• It saves me a ton of time because it automatically grades. 
• It also saves paper...it's paperless!

Find my boom decks here: K-5th Grade Science School Yard Boom Decks

What do I need in order to use Boom in my classroom?

• A computer, tablet, or interactive whiteboard
• An internet browser that is 3 or fewer years old (OR the free Boom app)
• A free or paid  Boom Account (if you open a new account and click a link you get from a TeachersPayTeachers Boom card purchase, you’ll get 3 months free btw)
• An internet connection that students can use on a computer/tablet to access the Boom decks
• you can have a free account which will let you utilize fast pins when purchase them, but won't grade them and keep data which a paid membership will do.

Option A: Copy and paste the complete link for students to play

Option B: Go to the Boom main page (boomlearning.com) on a computer (or on the Boom app). Click on the “FastPlay” button. Enter the pin and click “play.” A fast pin is only good for a certain amount of days (14 days) which will tell you on the fast pin button. 

You can create your own boom decks for your students, send the deck link to families or students and it is one of the simplest tools to use and the kids LOVE them! Boom Learning Site can be found HERE!

Google Classroom

Google Classroom  is a free service for schools, non-profits, and anyone with a personal Google account. The best part of this is that a teacher and student can use in and out  of schools. Classroom saves time and paper, and makes it easy to create classes, "hand out" assignments, communicate with each other, keep track of student assignments,  and be organized.

How to use it in science classrooms:

• Once set up, you can share a code with your class to join. Once they join they can find your assignments, videos, and class work inside the class.
• This is paperless, so it saves time with copies
• It allows everyone to one place for organized science lessons, google documents, flipped lesson videos and more!
• This allows for easy communication and can be used in class, in their homerooms, and at home on any device.
• Best yet, it's a google suites product so it connects with all your other google activities such as google slides and forms!

I would love to hear what tools have gotten you through this as well. Keep on keeping on!

Remote Science and STEM

As we are learning how to teach remotely, we find ourselves learning how to be even more flexible than before. We see our students and families struggling and may even be struggling a bit ourselves. Our district last week, asked us to take a step back from the rigor of what being in school is like. We stepped back to reflect on what is so very important right now, the mental health of our students and parents. To continue to provide learning opportunities, our encore team chose to celebrate this week through a STEM challenge! We are creating crazy hats and then wearing them at our google meet with our students!

This is just a start to the STEM challenges that can connect us all!  We want to find ways that students and families can do something fun and hands-on together with the supplies they have around the house.

Here are our challenges for the next few weeks:

1.  Crazy hat design and share with the focus on how we know that this is a big crazy, but how can we make the best of it? How can we support you? What do you need?

2. Make it move and dance party, connecting what we need to do to stay active for our health and our mind

3. Building Connections: blocks and Lego or recyclables and share your favorite virtual lesson so far

4. Tower Talk: building towers and talking about positives and how to make lemonade with lemons

5. Bridge Building problem solving session share what might be hard and what we can do together to support each other

6. Future's so bright I gotta wear shades sunglasses challenge and what we want to see for the future

7. It's getting warmer, let's make some summer shoes to share and have a virtual runway show and summer send off!


Supply List From Around the House:

• egg cartons
• junk mail for paper
• empty food boxes
• toilet paper rolls
• plastic cups, forks, spoons
• rocks
• sticks
• pencils
• cans
• toys
• Legos
• jars/bottles
• tissue
• plastic bags
• paper bags
• baggies
• aluminum foil
• plastic wrap
• wax paper
• paper towels/napkins

Want to find this distance learning pack already to go? Follow the link here for Distance Learning STEM pack 1.

       

                   
What can your students do with simple supplies found around the house? Have fun finding ways to connect remotely with your students! If you want more virtual STEM ideas check out these packs, too!

Outdoor STEM Digital Resource
Diversity/Positive Growth Mindset STEM
Distance Learning STEM Volume 1

Germs, Bacteria, and Virus Science

Wow! What a week. I have to say that I typically don't research germs and viruses, but I can't stop watching the news or reading an article about the Coronavirus. This last week, a long term substitute who went to Italy for a few days, stepped into our school to help the newly hired teacher get ready for her new job before she arrived this next week. Needless to say, our school was heavily disinfected and it now has impacted us right in our classrooms and in our community. Thank goodness she didn't have contact with any children or adults! 

I wasn't going to address the virus in my class, but it has become so much a part of our school conversation Friday, so as the science teacher who works with each student in my school, it was time for me to make sure that we had lessons that could help our students with the understanding of what germs are and how to stay germ free. So, this weekend, I spent a ton of time organizing a new germ unit that I started right off the bat on Monday! 

We have been using Mystery Doug for the germs video. It is pretty good and I am using it for grades K-5th grade with supplemental activities and sheets included in the link below.

Extension Activities and Ideas...

K-1 Activity: Glitter Germs

1. Get a small bottle of hand sanitizer (good luck if you don't have any now, stores are getting sold out fast...). Fill the hand sanitizer with glitter. I use bigger pieces of glitter and not the small stuff. It is easier to wash off.
2. Describe how the glitter represents germs. We need to wash away the germs by washing our hands. 

We wash our hands with water first, then with soap and water. I line them up at the bathroom and practice as we wait for someone to finish

    K-5 Cinnamon Test:

1. I practice hand washing with the cinnamon test and petroleum jelly, too. This one isn't as messy. I ask for 3-4 volunteers, then on their hand they shake with I rub petroleum jelly on it. I sprinkle the hand with cinnamon which represents germs. 
2. We then shake and give high fives seeing how easy the germs spread. 
3. We then wash our hands for 20 seconds!

I have used this song to inspire them...

K-5 Activity: Black Pepper Activity

1.  Discuss the importance of washing hands
2. Get a flat tray and fill it almost full with water
3. Sprinkle black pepper on the surface of the water (enough so that the surface is filled with pepper)
4. Describe how the pepper represents germs and why it is important to use soap and water to wash our hands
5. Demonstrate by adding a couple of drops of dish soap to the surface and have students observe ( I use a dropper)
6. The germs will immediately cling to the side of the bowl to get away from the soap
7. Remind them of the importance of washing their hands (demonstrate hand washing techniques as well as the 20 second reminder of how long it should be! I say two ABC's, the chorus to Frozen, or two Happy Birthday's!)

I am sharing my germ science freebie for the 2020 school year as more and more schools go to elearning. Help your students learn how germs spread, and how to stay healthy with my Germ Science Resource for you found here. 

Stay healthy and safe! Please feel free to share your ideas below if you have any ideas to add to our germ free lessons! Literally, as I was writing this post, we got a call letting us know we are going virtual tomorrow. No time to train our kids or even give them their bags of supplies...wish me luck!

Leap Year STEM

In STEM club this week, we wanted to find a way to add some Leap Year Science and engineering to our hour. The funny thing is that no one really knew why leap year even exists. We generated some great ideas and then we headed over to Mystery Doug to find out the answers. We followed up with some great origami inspirations, which was taught by a student led team... and we finished it up with creating a game that needed to incorporate our frog in some way.

The criteria and constraints:

• the frog had to be part of the game
• you only have 15 minutes to prepare the game 
• the game must have written rules
• the frog doesn't have to jump as part of the game
• you must use what you see around the room as the supplies for the game

The science components that we included in day two of our STEM club Leap Frog Theme was to create a controlled experiment using our frogs.

We tested the following variables:

1. Does the size of the frog make the frog hop farther?
2. Does the type of paper used determine how far our frog jumps?
3. Does where we fold the bottom affect how far the frog jumps?
4. Does how/where we push on the back of the frog affect how far our frog jumps?

Mystery Doug has a great video all about Leap Year, which is a perfect springboard for your leapfrog lessons in science! Find the Mystery Doug video here. 

Want a quick Science and Engineering lesson? Hop on over to the Science School Yard for a leapfrog/leap year resource  on sale this week!

Leap Frog Leap Year Science and STEM Pack Found HERE.

I am hoppy that you joined me here in the Science School Yard! Happy February 29th!