Drive them to Think! My Favorite STEM Challenges

One of the key elements of a PBL is to provide a driving question.  That driving question provides the open-ended challenge or problem that we want our children to work on.  Bottom line, the question should be open-ended, require collaboration, critical thinking and teach students new skills.  These building blocks of inquiry are why STEM education goes with problem-based learning like macaroni goes with cheese! 

Driving Questions

Driving questions can, among other things, challenge students to solve a problem, design a better way to do something, build something useful or educate others.  Build, design, create and make are all verbs that bring the element of engineering into your classroom.  Adding constraints to a problem (things that students may or may not use, size/weight limitations, safety rules, etc.) not only adds to the challenge but reflects the reality of every day problem solving.

One of my all-time favorite examples of constraints in problem solving is the square peg in a round hole problem that was given to the Engineers at NASA to help Apollo 13 astronauts.  It has all the makings of a great problem:  It’s real and has real constraints. I use this great  video clip from the movie to have students practice defining a problem and listing the constraints

My Favorite STEM Challenges

Here are some of my favorite STEM challenges that I have used with kids to cover a variety of content:

1.       Build a better ________________.  Your students come across design flaws every day.  Ask them to listen to the complaints of their peers or parents about something that “just doesn’t work right” and develop a solution to the problem.  It could be a machine (like a mousetrap), law (like immigration), toy, or whatever.  They should gather information about the product, propose a solution, build a prototype, and present it to the class.  Example:  I recently had to use an airline travel toothbrush for a week – it collapsed into two pieces every time I brushed. Surely someone can come up with a better design!

2.       Rube Goldberg Contraptions.  The best engineering programs in the world participate in Rube Goldberg challenges.  Share a few Rube Goldberg cartoons, a couple of great YouTube videos and challenge your students to design and build a Rube Goldberg contraption that can do any or all of the following:

a.       Uses both a chemical change and a physical change.

b.      Uses 4 different simple machines.

c.       Uses both a mixture and a solution.

d.      Uses 4 different energy transfers.

e.      There is a whole lot of physics and chemistry that can be learned here.  Video tape their demonstrations and explanations to share with parents and post them to share with the rest of the world.

3.       Build a solar cooker with recyclable materials.  Food is a great motivator!  (and S’mores demonstrate both chemical and physical changes -burnt marshmallow, melted chocolate, broken graham crackers).  Have students research, design and build a cooker that will melt the chocolate for your s’more.  (Just saw that they now sell flat square marshmallows just for s’mores in the microwave-build a better marshmallow?)

4.       Build a SCALE Model of a large object (NASA’s latest MMS satellite, the solar system, the continents) or a small object (a life size lego man, cell, the Jolly Green Giant’s cell phone) using tape on the floor or string outside.  Lots of math involved!

5.       Make a model with moving parts using just paper (research paper engineering), Legos or recyclables of any science concept:  life, water or nutrient cycles, mitosis, meiosis, laws of thermodynamics, etc.  

Build, design, create, make, are all words that are key to putting engineering in your STEM lesson and developing problem solving, collaboration, creativity and communication.   Put the learning in their hands!

What are your favorite engaging STEM Challenges?

5 Great Resources that ask: Should Students Give Up their (Video) guns?

5 Great Resources that ask:  Should students give up their (video) guns? 

In response to the violence in his hometown, twelve year old Max Goldstein, urged his classmates to toss out their violent video games.  He started a movement called “played out” and urged his peers to “put down their guns” or turn the games in for store credit, similar to the real gun buyback programs that were going on in his town.  This brings the debate right to our students’ level. 

If, in fact, as Annie Murphy Paul states “arguing is the best way to learn,” this debate is sure to get kids thinking and engaged in a relevant topic that directly affects them.

Do you think that violent video games have influenced teens to become more violent?  What should be done about violent video games?

Common Core Standards come alive

There are some great resources that point out the pros and cons of this debate and will enable your students to “make a claim and support it with evidence, as well as evaluate the arguments of others” hitting right on Core Content Standards.  Give them the opportunity to read these informational texts to develop arguments of their own.

You can start with this youtube news video of Max Goldstein and his campaign to get his friends to throw out their games. 

Researching the Pros and Cons

Video games ProCon gives students great statistics and facts that can support arguments for and against on whether video games promote teen violence. 

The International Debate Education Association also provides arguments on whether video games should be outlawed or controlled. 

At readwrite.com you will find five basic facts that can be used to support arguments on whether violent video games really cause violent behavior.

A more scholarly approach can be found in the article by the American Psychological Association “Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions”.

All of these resources can be used to help your students think critically about a topic and develop their own arguments.  To help students see other perspectives to develop and deepen their argument, you can assign them one of the built in perspectives- student, parent, game maker or lawmaker- in the free SCAN lesson “Video Games and Youth Violence.”  The SCAN tool will help them develop their arguments by listing issues, clarifying, assessing, and collaborating to come up with a plan of what should be done. 

Gun control is a hot topic that many teachers will avoid.  Focusing on the guns that most students have held in their hands via video games gives them a change to think critically and write argumentatively.