click here for STEAM site
Design Process
What it is:
The engineering and design process is a series of steps that engineers follow to come up with a solution to a problem. Steps include: Ask, Imagine, Design, Create and Improve.
Why it matters:
This introduces students as problem solvers who must create answers to real world questions.
The engineering and design process is a series of steps that engineers follow to come up with a solution to a problem. Steps include: Ask, Imagine, Design, Create and Improve.
Why it matters:
This introduces students as problem solvers who must create answers to real world questions.
teachers.egfi-k12.org/save-our-shore/?utm_source=Teachers+Newsletter+May+2017&utm_campaign=eGFI+Teachers+June+2017&utm_medium=emailn this activity, students in grades 3 to 8 learn about coastal erosion and the role of engineers in protecting shorelines by applying the engineering design process to devise ways to mitigate erosion that take public concerns into account – and use both structures and policies.
Five-step Engineering Design Process developed by the Museum of Science in Boston to guide most STEM lessons and activities
Free STEM Mini Journals Use these to help guide students through the STEM process
Design Process PosterDesign
Lessons on Design Thinking The Tech of Innovation helps teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make engaging and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers. The site includes single-session lessons of less than an hour, such as “Balloon Astronaut” (grades 2–8) and “Circle of Pong” (grades 3–12); single-session lessons of one to two hours, such as “Fire Brigade” (grades 3–6) and “Pump It Up” (grades 4–6), as well as multisession lessons, such as “Bobsled Blitz” (grades 3–12) and “Farming in Ancient Mesopotamia” (grades 6–8).
Real-World STEM Problems
More Real-World STEM Problems
Oil Spill: Connecting STEM activities to real world problems
How to create real-world STEM lessons Having students solve real-world problems builds their empathy along with their science, technology, engineering and math skills, former middle-grades science teacher Anne Jolly writes. She outlines criteria teachers can use for developing such lessons and offers a list of online resources
Save Our Shores In this activity, students in grades 3 to 8 learn about coastal erosion and the role of engineers in protecting shorelines by applying the engineering design process to devise ways to mitigate erosion that take public concerns into account – and use both structures and policies.
DiscoverE Real-world challenges like surviving a storm surge, cleaning our rivers, devise ruberband rovers, endangered speciies, and more
Five-step Engineering Design Process developed by the Museum of Science in Boston to guide most STEM lessons and activities
Free STEM Mini Journals Use these to help guide students through the STEM process
Design Process PosterDesign
Lessons on Design Thinking The Tech of Innovation helps teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make engaging and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers. The site includes single-session lessons of less than an hour, such as “Balloon Astronaut” (grades 2–8) and “Circle of Pong” (grades 3–12); single-session lessons of one to two hours, such as “Fire Brigade” (grades 3–6) and “Pump It Up” (grades 4–6), as well as multisession lessons, such as “Bobsled Blitz” (grades 3–12) and “Farming in Ancient Mesopotamia” (grades 6–8).
Real-World STEM Problems
More Real-World STEM Problems
Oil Spill: Connecting STEM activities to real world problems
How to create real-world STEM lessons Having students solve real-world problems builds their empathy along with their science, technology, engineering and math skills, former middle-grades science teacher Anne Jolly writes. She outlines criteria teachers can use for developing such lessons and offers a list of online resources
Save Our Shores In this activity, students in grades 3 to 8 learn about coastal erosion and the role of engineers in protecting shorelines by applying the engineering design process to devise ways to mitigate erosion that take public concerns into account – and use both structures and policies.
DiscoverE Real-world challenges like surviving a storm surge, cleaning our rivers, devise ruberband rovers, endangered speciies, and more
Design Education in all Disciplines The Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum offers several resources on how to integrate design-thinking connections into the K–12 classroom. Features more than 400 design-based lessons written by educators from all disciplines. In addition to the K–12 lessons, the website offers best practices, videos, and other design resources that allow educators to be fully equipped to implement design education across any subject. Three sample lessons illustrate how design thinking can be integrated into mathematics, science, and English language arts learning: “Using Design to Solve Math Problems in the Real World,” “Connecting the Scientific Method to Design,” and “Learning Paragraph Structure Through Design.
Design Squad Nation | Grades 3-8
Use the resources in this collection to help students gain a stronger understanding of the design process, and a better sense for the role of engineering in everyday life. View Collection
Plus: Developed by the Boston Museum of Science’s Engineering is Elementary program, the Engineering Design Process is a series of steps for developing a new product or system. Engineers use this process again and again to create a new design or improve an existing one. Educators are encouraged to explain this five-step process to students, as well as display it in their classrooms. A poster describing the five steps in the Engineering Design Process may be downloaded, at no charge, from The Engineering Place website.Web: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/theengineeringplace/educators/#process
Design Challenge Learning? It’s a combination of project-based learning, design thinking and the engineering design process that develops the innovator’s mindset through iteration.
The lessons on this page, developed over the years by educators at The Tech, will help teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make fun and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers.
Paradigm Challenge gr K -12 is intended to inspire youth to use science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills, as well as kindness, creativity, and collaboration to make a difference. Conceived by Project Paradigm in collaboration with the American Red Cross, the challenge encourages youth to generate new ideas to reduce waste in homes, schools, communities, and around the world. Students are invited to submit posters, videos, inventions, public messages, community events, websites, mobile apps, or anything else that will help reduce waste.
Short maker challenge videos
Design Thinking Toolkit - includes challenge lessons, videos and slide shows
my.SketchUp is the web version of the popular desktop application SketchUp. my.SketchUp is an excellent tool students can use to create anything they want in 3D.
Design-based Learning for Environmental Stewardship
NEXT.cc is an eco web that develops ethical imagination and environmental stewardship through activities and links to cultural heritage institutions. The site introduces what design is, what design does, and why design is important. It offers activities across nine scales—nano, pattern, object, space, architecture, neighborhood, urban, region, and world. NEXT.cc’s journeys introduce activities online, in the classroom, in the community, and globally. The journeys and activities are supported with links to museums, institutions, and contemporary practices. Place-based design activities that address the five goals of environmental education: Awareness, Knowledge, Attitudes and Environmental Ethics, Citizen Action Skills, and Citizen Action Experiences.
TeachEngineering developed a curricular unit that engages students in a pyramid-building experience that parallels the modern-day engineering design and construction process. You might use that as a basis for creating an engaging, hands-on unit while building in the cultural content.
3DC.io is an iPad app that lets you easily build, share and 3D print various designs.’3DC uses basic shapes (cube, sphere, cylinder, cone etc.) to create any 3D models. From the simplest design to the most complex objects – you can build anything by simply moving, rotating and scaling primitive objects.'
Makers Empire 3D - Easy 3D Modeling is a powerful but simple to use 3D modelling app that rewards you for creating! Level up as you design, socialise with other makers and complete daily design challenges. Unlock new design tools as you go…Makers Empire 3D is capable of incredibly detailed 3D designs yet is so simple anyone can use it! Pick a design module like BLOCKER, our feature rich voxel editor, CHARACTER, our avatar builder or SHAPER, our traditional free form 3D modelling module.
Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student
Design Squad Nation | Grades 3-8
Use the resources in this collection to help students gain a stronger understanding of the design process, and a better sense for the role of engineering in everyday life. View Collection
Plus: Developed by the Boston Museum of Science’s Engineering is Elementary program, the Engineering Design Process is a series of steps for developing a new product or system. Engineers use this process again and again to create a new design or improve an existing one. Educators are encouraged to explain this five-step process to students, as well as display it in their classrooms. A poster describing the five steps in the Engineering Design Process may be downloaded, at no charge, from The Engineering Place website.Web: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/theengineeringplace/educators/#process
Design Challenge Learning? It’s a combination of project-based learning, design thinking and the engineering design process that develops the innovator’s mindset through iteration.
The lessons on this page, developed over the years by educators at The Tech, will help teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make fun and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers.
Paradigm Challenge gr K -12 is intended to inspire youth to use science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills, as well as kindness, creativity, and collaboration to make a difference. Conceived by Project Paradigm in collaboration with the American Red Cross, the challenge encourages youth to generate new ideas to reduce waste in homes, schools, communities, and around the world. Students are invited to submit posters, videos, inventions, public messages, community events, websites, mobile apps, or anything else that will help reduce waste.
Short maker challenge videos
Design Thinking Toolkit - includes challenge lessons, videos and slide shows
my.SketchUp is the web version of the popular desktop application SketchUp. my.SketchUp is an excellent tool students can use to create anything they want in 3D.
Design-based Learning for Environmental Stewardship
NEXT.cc is an eco web that develops ethical imagination and environmental stewardship through activities and links to cultural heritage institutions. The site introduces what design is, what design does, and why design is important. It offers activities across nine scales—nano, pattern, object, space, architecture, neighborhood, urban, region, and world. NEXT.cc’s journeys introduce activities online, in the classroom, in the community, and globally. The journeys and activities are supported with links to museums, institutions, and contemporary practices. Place-based design activities that address the five goals of environmental education: Awareness, Knowledge, Attitudes and Environmental Ethics, Citizen Action Skills, and Citizen Action Experiences.
TeachEngineering developed a curricular unit that engages students in a pyramid-building experience that parallels the modern-day engineering design and construction process. You might use that as a basis for creating an engaging, hands-on unit while building in the cultural content.
3DC.io is an iPad app that lets you easily build, share and 3D print various designs.’3DC uses basic shapes (cube, sphere, cylinder, cone etc.) to create any 3D models. From the simplest design to the most complex objects – you can build anything by simply moving, rotating and scaling primitive objects.'
Makers Empire 3D - Easy 3D Modeling is a powerful but simple to use 3D modelling app that rewards you for creating! Level up as you design, socialise with other makers and complete daily design challenges. Unlock new design tools as you go…Makers Empire 3D is capable of incredibly detailed 3D designs yet is so simple anyone can use it! Pick a design module like BLOCKER, our feature rich voxel editor, CHARACTER, our avatar builder or SHAPER, our traditional free form 3D modelling module.
Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student
Maker Movement
The maker movement is a contemporary STEAM culture that encourages invention and prototyping. It includes engineering activities such as electronics, robotics, and 3-D printing, as well as more traditional crafts such as metalworking, and woodworking. It stresses the creative use of DIY, technology, and learning In contrast to the scientific method, people build and test prototypes.
Book: Your Starter Guide to Makerspaces
Book K - 5: STEAM Kids: 50+ Science / Technology / Engineering / Art / Math Hands-On Projects for Kids
Book: Smithsonian Maker Lab: You can conduct some interesting science experiments with this book including how to make a jungle in a bottle and how to turn a lemon into a battery.
Book: Why Design? Activities and Projects From the National Building Museum by Anna Slafer which, though published in 1995 has a persistently relevant approach and format. It helps kids investigate existing designs and identify potential improvements, and also challenges them to identify problems that trouble them to inspire ground-up innovation.
Book: Amazing Rubber Band Cars: Easy-to-Build Wind-Up Racers, Models, and Toys
Book The Robot Book: Build & Control 20 Electric Gizmos, Moving Machines, and Hacked Toys (Science in Motion)
Book: Stomp Rockets, Catapults, and Kaleidoscopes: 30+ Amazing Science Projects You Can Build for Less than $1
Book K - 5: STEAM Kids: 50+ Science / Technology / Engineering / Art / Math Hands-On Projects for Kids
Book: Smithsonian Maker Lab: You can conduct some interesting science experiments with this book including how to make a jungle in a bottle and how to turn a lemon into a battery.
Book: Why Design? Activities and Projects From the National Building Museum by Anna Slafer which, though published in 1995 has a persistently relevant approach and format. It helps kids investigate existing designs and identify potential improvements, and also challenges them to identify problems that trouble them to inspire ground-up innovation.
Book: Amazing Rubber Band Cars: Easy-to-Build Wind-Up Racers, Models, and Toys
Book The Robot Book: Build & Control 20 Electric Gizmos, Moving Machines, and Hacked Toys (Science in Motion)
Book: Stomp Rockets, Catapults, and Kaleidoscopes: 30+ Amazing Science Projects You Can Build for Less than $1
Articles
Maker Space In Education Series… 10 Sites To Start Making In The Classroom
Maker Space In Education Series… 10 More Sites….Making With Technology
Cultivating Accountability and Motivation in the Makerspace
30 Ways to Create the Conditions to Inspire in a Makerspace
Maker Space In Education Series… Making It With Raspberry Pi
Maker Space In Education Series… 10 Sites To Start Making In The Classroom
Maker Space In Education Series… 10 More Sites….Making With Technology
Cultivating Accountability and Motivation in the Makerspace
30 Ways to Create the Conditions to Inspire in a Makerspace
Maker Space In Education Series… Making It With Raspberry Pi
Five-step Engineering Design Process developed by the Museum of Science in Boston to guide most STEM lessons and activities
Projects for Makers provides a simple, enjoyable projects for students to get involved in making.
Maker Space Agreement rules and procedures for students
Maker Spaces in Action recorded webinar that features several teachers explaining the set up of their maker space, logistics, and issues.
Short maker challenge videos
Design Thinking Toolkit - includes maker challenge lessons, videos and slide shows
Design Education in all Disciplines The Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum offers several resources on how to integrate design-thinking connections into the K–12 classroom. Features more than 400 design-based lessons written by educators from all disciplines. In addition to the K–12 lessons, the website offers best practices, videos, and other design resources that allow educators to be fully equipped to implement design education across any subject. Three sample lessons illustrate how design thinking can be integrated into mathematics, science, and English language arts learning: “Using Design to Solve Math Problems in the Real World,” “Connecting the Scientific Method to Design,” and “Learning Paragraph Structure Through Design.
Ready, Set, Design is a quick group activity. It uses simple, inexpensive materials and is an effective tool for problem solving, creative thinking and team building. Ready, Set, Design is not just for designers but can be used by any audience as a way to engage in design thinking.
Design Challenge Learning? It’s a combination of project-based learning, design thinking and the engineering design process that develops the innovator’s mindset through iteration.
The lessons on this page, developed over the years by educators at The Tech, will help teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make fun and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers.
Windmill Challenges gr 3 - 8
Projects for Makers provides a simple, enjoyable projects for students to get involved in making.
Maker Space Agreement rules and procedures for students
Maker Spaces in Action recorded webinar that features several teachers explaining the set up of their maker space, logistics, and issues.
Short maker challenge videos
Design Thinking Toolkit - includes maker challenge lessons, videos and slide shows
Design Education in all Disciplines The Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum offers several resources on how to integrate design-thinking connections into the K–12 classroom. Features more than 400 design-based lessons written by educators from all disciplines. In addition to the K–12 lessons, the website offers best practices, videos, and other design resources that allow educators to be fully equipped to implement design education across any subject. Three sample lessons illustrate how design thinking can be integrated into mathematics, science, and English language arts learning: “Using Design to Solve Math Problems in the Real World,” “Connecting the Scientific Method to Design,” and “Learning Paragraph Structure Through Design.
Ready, Set, Design is a quick group activity. It uses simple, inexpensive materials and is an effective tool for problem solving, creative thinking and team building. Ready, Set, Design is not just for designers but can be used by any audience as a way to engage in design thinking.
Design Challenge Learning? It’s a combination of project-based learning, design thinking and the engineering design process that develops the innovator’s mindset through iteration.
The lessons on this page, developed over the years by educators at The Tech, will help teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make fun and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers.
Windmill Challenges gr 3 - 8
Apps
- Pixel Press Floors (iPad) allows anyone to use just pencil and paper to create her own video game level. Teachers use the app to teach design thinking to students. The app and lesson plans are available for free.
- Apparatus android is a game where you build simple mechanical structures to make a path for one or several marbles to the goal. Use the laws of classical mechanics to complete each level.
Build a space rocket, connect cables from batteries to motors, build bridges, set up teeter totters, swing with ropes, build vehicles, or just let the marble have a happy roller coaster ride to the goal! - Fix the Factory (android) develops problem solving skills, logics sequencing and programming abilities. Also play on the web
- Green Screen for creating green screen videos 2.99
- Every Circuit – (android) Circuit Builder
- Snapguide App easy way to create and share how-to guides. Discover new recipes, DIY projects, fashion ideas, make-up tricks, tech tips and lifehacks. Create your own guides and share what you love doing.
- 3DC.io is an iPad app that lets you easily build, share and 3D print various designs.’3DC uses basic shapes (cube, sphere, cylinder, cone etc.) to create any 3D models. From the simplest design to the most complex objects – you can build anything by simply moving, rotating and scaling primitive objects.'
- Makers Empire 3D - Easy 3D Modeling is a powerful but simple to use 3D modelling app that rewards you for creating! Level up as you design, socialize with other makers and complete daily design challenges. Unlock new design tools as you go…Makers Empire 3D is capable of incredibly detailed 3D designs yet is so simple anyone can use it! Pick a design module like BLOCKER, our feature rich voxel editor, CHARACTER, our avatar builder or SHAPER, our traditional free form 3D modelling module.
Websites
- Magazine for Makers Make: publishes tested projects, skill-building tutorials, in-depth reviews, and inspirational stories, accessible by all ages and skill ranges. Project categories include craft and design, digital fabrication, drones and vehicles, science, technology, and more. The Make: website provides an online 3D Printer Buyer’s Guide (updated for 2017), as well as an online Boards Guide and Drones Guide.
- Make: Maker Media is a global platform for connecting Makers with each other, with products and services, and with our partners. Make Projects can serve as a resource for science and mathematics teachers. Teachers can search for projects that support their curriculum standards.
- Ready, Set, Design is a quick group activity. It uses simple, inexpensive materials and is an effective tool for problem solving, creative thinking and team building. Ready, Set, Design is not just for designers but can be used by any audience as a way to engage in design thinking.
- Making & Science website
- Eurekus STEAM Curriculum some units are free Others range from $10 - $25
- How strong is a piece of paper? K - 3
- Design thinking process During the school year we “grade” students based on their use of our design thinking process rather than grading students solely on their final products.
- Anthony's Kite Workshop for dozens of kite plans suitable for families and classroom projects, along with General Kite Hints and Tips.
- NASA Kites students to gain a feel for aerodynamic forces is to fly a kite. " This NASA site starts with a short history of kites, and then introduces the forces that act on kites.
- National Kite Month resources under the For Teachers link in the main horizontal menu. This page tells the history of kites, starting with the legend that a "Chinese farmer tied a string to his hat to keep it from blowing away in a strong wind." Other links include "Why Kites Fly", "How to Fly a Kite", and kite games and projects for use in a classroom.
- Professor Kite and the Secrets of Kites teaches us how to pick the right kite for different days. "Deltas, Diamonds and Dragon kites fly well in light to medium winds (approximately 6-15 mph) while Box Kites and stickless Parafoil kites fly better when the winds get a little stronger (approximately 8-25 mph)."
- Virtual Kite Zoo sketches and descriptions of kites of every shape and size, many of them also including historical, anecdotal, allegorical or aeronautical snippets of information."
- Green Screen Resources
- STEAM Makerspace - 114 tips, ideas, resources and even lesson ideas for creating your very own STEAM Makerspace.
- DIY is a place for kids to share what they do, meet others who love the same skills, and be awesome. The big idea is that anyone can become anything just by trying - we all learn by doing." Fashioned after scouting badges, skills are learned by completing challenges, and patches are earned along the way. For example, the Game Dev skill includes 7 challenges, the first of which is creating an image sprite.
- Howtoons - Learn how to build things, like pinewood derby race cars, with this detailed and engaging online comic book.
- Maker Education Initiative in Oakland, California, supports educators and communities—particularly those in underserved areas—to facilitate meaningful making and learning experiences with youth. The “Getting Started” section of the Maker Ed website provides a set of curated, introductory resources for those new to making or interested in learning more about making. It also provides practical, concrete ways for integrating making into educational settings. The “Tools & Materials” section contains lists and examples of useful tools and materials for making activities and makerspaces. This section also offers guidance or tutorials on specific tools or skills. The “Projects & Learning Approaches” section includes a wide variety of information to provide educators and facilitators with ideas for short-term activities, as well as open-ended, long-term projects, curriculum samples, examples of facilitation methods and practices, and the pedagogies and values aligned with making.
Click Here to Visit Website - Curriculum for makerspaces K-12 Microsoft Makerspaces has a great resource for Middle School/High School level. docs.com/MicrosoftinEducation/9289/
- 3D Printing Resources
- Lightworks free video editor with novice to advanced tools
- Makerbot in the Classroom: an introduction to 3D printing and Design Guide
- MakerBot Educators program aims to unite teachers who use 3D printing so they can share content and best practices and further the adoption of 3D printing in schools.
- Foldscope Instruments the Foldscope, an ultra-low-cost microscope made from common materials such as paper. It is designed to be produced affordably, to be durable, and to give optical quality similar to conventional research microscopes. Click Here to Visit Website
- Rube Goldberg Projects
- Simple Machine Challenge
- Engineering Kids includes video
- Goldburger To Go comes from PBS.
- How to Build a Homemade Rube Goldberg Machine
- Web-based Rube Goldberg Applications
- How to Make a pinball game from a cardboard box
- You can sort of build a Rube Goldberg-like machine at Tinker Ball.
- Make Your Own VR Headset: The Google Cardboard website has templates that you can print and follow to build your own virtual reality viewers (scroll past the items listed for sale). Instructables also offers a template and directions for making your own VR viewers. The following video covers the process from start to finish.
- 3D Printing getting started and projects and lessons
- Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show! has more than 20 free episodes in which Sylvia shows children—and adults—that making things can be fun, easy, and more rewarding than just buying something. During the episodes, Sylvia provides step-by-step instructions with detailed explanations as she makes and creates.
- Maker Education
Find resources and tools to help bring elements of maker culture into schools and classrooms, and encourage students to explore STEAM subjects within the context of maker projects.
- The Maker Education Initiative (Maker Ed) The goal of “Educate to Innovate” is to move American students from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next decade. By building a maker network dedicated to providing creative learning opportunities to youth nationwide. Note the Resource section.
- Maker Camp – This was created as a summer-time learning opportunity by Google. The units that are part of this program are awesome and can be brought into the educational curriculum. Take your time browsing because you are going to find some engaging possibilities
- Instructables Instructables is an educational website and mobile app where you can have access to a treasure trove of instructional videos and how-to guides covering a wide variety of topics from science experiments to amazing inventions. If you need some new ideas for your next classroom maker project, Instructables offers a library of over 100k of do-it-yourself projects
- The Invent To Learn Guide to 3D Printing in the Classroom: Recipes for Success
- Activities for Science Making The free Science Journal app for Android lets students use their smartphones or external sensors to conduct experiments and record findings.
- littleBits kits are at the intersection of STEM/STEAM and the Maker Movement. The kit includes easy-to-use electronic building blocks (or “Bits”) that empower youth to invent anything, from their own remote-controlled car to a smart home device. The Bits snap together with magnets, requiring no soldering, wiring, or programming.
- Design a Car
- Design Squad Nation
- Making in English Language Arts
- Making in Math
- Engaging Students in the STEM Classroom Through "Making"An engineering professor and former executive director of the Maker Education Initiative describes how the Maker Movement is engaging STEM students in new ways.
- Maker Movement: Bridging the Gap Between Girls and STEM
- SciGirls television show, website, and educational outreach program draws on research about what engages girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning and careers. . Each episode of SciGirls follows a group of middle school girls who are eager to find answers to their questions about science and technology. With the help of scientific mentors, the girls design their own investigations on topics ranging from the environment to engineering and nutrition. The show’s website is integrated into the episodes, with archived projects from the site being featured on the show.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to View Program Videos - Engineer Girl Designed "to bring national attention to the exciting opportunities that engineering represents for girls and women," Engineer Girl features interviews, fun facts ("Mary Anderson invented the windshield wiper in 1903, years before Henry Ford industrialized automobile production."), videos, quizzes, a scholarship section, and a look at some women who were engineering pioneers of the 20th century.
- Build Cardboard Toys with Kids
- Makered numerous maker resources curated by an educator. “Tools and Materials” section contains lists and examples of useful tools and resources in making activities and makerspaces, including suggestions for consumables, hardware, machines, open source software, and other technologies. This category also includes guidance or tutorials on specific tools or skills.
- Makedo cardboard construction
- Make: is a digital and paper magazine, the producer of Maker Faire, and a website. "The site features breaking DIY news and information, original content on building, repairing, and modifying the technology that surrounds us, and step-by-step project articles on a broad range of topics." Start your exploration with Projects (look for it on the secondary horizontal menu) for a "cookbook of DIY projects for the workshop, kitchen, garage, and backyard.
- SparkFun "We think everyone should have the hardware and resources to learn and play with cool electronic gadgetry." SparkFun supports their vision with online tutorials, curriculum for electronics classes, and a national bus tour "to spread innovation at schools, libraries, and hackerspaces throughout the country!" Tutorials cover concepts (polarity, electric power), skills (how to read a schematic), projects, and technology (GPS basics).
- Sylvia's Show Sylvia and her dad (producer) produce "Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show!" about "everything cool and worth making". Recent videos include Lilypad Heartbeat Pendant (using an Arduino and a pulse sensor), and Sylvia's Squishy Circuits (a pliable dough you can make in your kitchen).
- PBS Learning Makers Party - Thus initiative encourages people around the world meet up, learn to make things, and share what they've made online. This wonderful collection is designed to support the Maker Party by providing a one-stop shop of STEM and digital making resources that focus on the problem, technology, or process behind object creation.
- Making Stuff
Grades 6-12 | Collection | Materials Science
Join technology columnist David Pogue as he delves hands-first into the field of materials science. Find out which materials he thinks will play a role in shaping the future.
- Playful Learning - We bring hands-on lessons to your fingertips, complete with inspiring videos and engaging printables. Try a free lesson on us, use code: FREE.
- Rugged Rovers is a free iPad app in which students can create simple designs for space rovers. Students draw a design for their rovers then add up eight wheels to it before taking it for a virtual test drive. Students test their rover designs by driving them across a Mars spacescape. To help their rovers over obstacles students can use a small power booster. The power booster must be used in moderation because it cannot instantly recharge. The object of the activity is to design a rover that can travel as far as possible. When students get their rovers stuck, they can go back and try a new design.
Math
Gizmos (gr 3 - 12) has hundreds of math and science interactive simulations that allow students to graph, measure, compare and make predictions. video overview
Choreo Graph (iPad app free ) arts-meets-math creation tool engaging (and silly), and coordinating lessons support learning.
WeUseMath.org: Answers the age-old question: How will I ever use (fill in the blank with a math skill) in everyday life?
Angles in Art Lesson includes downloads
Galileo website is a starting place for teaching with inquiry. The website has articles and resources to learn about inquiry-based education, as well as plenty of research. Start on the home page and then check out the full set of classroom lessons and examples. The site offers plans for specific high school, middle school, and primary school math investigations. You can also download the Focus on Inquiry eBook and read about what inquiry means, learn how to construct essential questions, and much more.Click Here to Visit Website
Expii Solve is a series of more than fifty sets of mathematics word problems. Within each set there are five problems aligned to a theme.
Curriculum and Lessons Develop a Core of Math Problems Opus is a free math problem bank that aims to help middle school mathematics teachers build math assignments aligned to the Common Core standards. To find problems on Opus, search by entering a topic and selecting a grade. You can also find problems by clicking the “browse the Core directly” link on the Opus home page. Either way, when you find a problem, you can save it to your free Opus account where you can then generate a Word doc or Google Document of all of your saved problems. You can also create an answer sheet in your Opus account. Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Search Common Core Problem Bank
CK-12 Real World Math Applications
themint.org offers interactive economic challenges for students in grades 6–12. Dozens of real-life activities deal with spending, saving and borrowing. The Ideas for Teachers section contains activities to illustrate sound money-management concepts. The Parents section provides tips for mentoring and nurturing children, to help them grow in financial respon-sibility. Some of these tips lay very simple groundwork and can be used before children start elementary school. A glossary of economics terms—from allowance to withdrawal—presents clear, concise explanations. The Northwestern Mutual Foundation partnered with the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) in the development of the site.Web: http://www.themint.org/try-it/
TeachEngineering developed a curricular unit that engages students in a pyramid-building experience that parallels the modern-day engineering design and construction process. You might use that as a basis for creating an engaging, hands-on unit while building in the cultural content.
MathScienceMusic.org is a free web-based toolkit for teachers, bringing together the best resources in math, science and music. Designed for students, kindergarten through college.
Real Life Math ( gr. 6 - 8) Make the math connection with four interactive online learning adventures for middle school classrooms. Students will enjoy these brain-boosting explorations that use digital media in innovative and creative ways. Virtual environments, simulations, videos and interactive math activities challenge and motivate students to actively engage in learning.
Amaziograph iPad app for ways to integrate math and art through symmetry.
Math Is AweSum!
Grades PreK-13+ | Collection
Use this jam-packed, NEW collection of videos, lesson plans, and interactive games to help your students engage with curriculum and tap into the true power of numbers.
Function Carnival Students watch a video and graph the motion they observe
Math at the Core: Middle School
Grades 5-8 | Collection
Fractions, statistics, and ratios - oh my! Find math-focused media aligned with the CCSS in this fantastic collection for middle school
Graphing Calculator by Mathlab - See this graphing scientific calculator's computations visually.
Alabama Public Television’s ProportionLand invites middle school students to reason their way through eight interactive attractions in a virtual amusement park. As students hop on and enjoy the rides, they must explore and apply proportional reasoning skills to solve a variety of science-based, real-world problems. The interactive experiences get students into the “5E” learning cycle: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend and Evaluate. Each area of the amusement park includes lesson plans, student resources, video clips and online assessment.Web: http://www.aptv.org/aptplus/flashlibrary/
Design Mathematics Models With MathDisk’s Math Builder tool, you can design mathematics models that your students can use online. You can also download the models and worksheets to use offline if you install the MiBook software on your desktop or on your Android or iOS device. If you don’t have time to create new materials, the MathDisk gallery has pages of models and worksheets from which you can choose. Everything in the gallery, like everything you create through MathDisk, can be downloaded and/or embedded into your website or blog.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Gallery
Sector 33 - Want to show your students real world math? They can become air traffic controllers and solve math problems with this game from NASA.
Mathalicious Teach math using real-world topics, like baseball games, slices of pizza, and popular songs. All exercises are mapped to Common Core State Standards.
Real Wold Math PBL - Small selection of projects based on math skills.
The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - alas, does NOT work on Chromebooks... yet. I am hopeful, as this is an awesome resource.
ART IN STEM: Teacher Vision allows students to enjoy participating in math class using art activities. You’ll find lessons here for encouraging measuring, geometry and much more!
Mathematical Circles are a form of education enrichment and outreach that bring mathematicians and mathematical scientists into direct contact with precollege students. These students, and sometimes their teachers, meet with mathematical professionals in an informal setting, after school or on weekends, to work on interesting problems or topics in mathematics. which to do so. To find a Math Circle near you, visit the website of the National Association of Math Circles (NAMC). The website also provides a tutorial that will assist you in the process of learning how to contribute to the National Association of Math Circles Wiki. You’ll also find a listing of Math Circle activities, problem sets and lesson plans.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Find a Math Circle Near You
Improving Math Performance with Inside Math (videos and lessons) - The Noyce Foundation created Inside Mathematics to help educators transform their math practices and to help students better understand the meaning behind the math.
MathSite – interactive journey in math. The exhibits found at MathSite are intended for people of all ages who are interested in or are curious about mathematics. No specialized mathematical knowledge or special expertise is assumed.
Emergent Math – Looking for ideas that just might spark a PBL math idea? Emergent Math is dedicated to brainstorming interesting and dynamic math problems and projects. As stated in the blog, “interesting math problem/project can come in the form of a picture, a video, a tweet, something your child says, etc”. The posts generate ideas on how these concepts just might fit in the classroom and/or provide some driving/guiding questions. The best place to begin your exploration is at the first page of the blog and read the index.
Exploring Space Through Math – promotes inquiry through real world applications. Students assume the role of NASA scientists, engineers and researchers who work in teams to accomplish tasks. The projects cover the scope of Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, and Precalculus.
Annenberg Learner Math Lessons – uses media and telecommunications to advance excellent teaching in American schools. This mandate is carried out chiefly by the funding and broad distribution of educational video programs with coordinated Web and print materials for the professional development of K-12 teachers. While at the site… take a look at the interactives.
Figure This – the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in cooperation with the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Widmeyer Communications, and the Learning First Alliance. Its mission is to challenge middle school mathematics. While it was created to allow for family interaction, it is also figures into the Math PBL classroom. The site allows students to have the opportunity to face some every day real life math challenges.
Teacher Vision Art and Math –Students will enjoy participating in math class with our art activities for teachers of any grade level, from elementary to high school.
Mathematical Moments – Authenticity is important in Math PBL. It seems that Math educators are always looking for ways they can show how math is used in the world around us. It contains free printable posters that are 8.5″ x 11″ PDF documents.
MIT Blossoms – All of the lessons in the MIT Blossoms library have been contributed by BLOSSOMS partners from around the world. There is a watch the Teacher’s Guide Video Segment included with each lesson to learn more about it. The final segment of each BLOSSOMS video lesson is a one-on-one conversation between the teacher and the “virtual teacher.”
Get The Math – is about algebra in the real world. See how professionals use math in music, fashion, video games, restaurants, basketball, and special effects. Then take on interactive challenges related to those careers.
Mathalicious – While this is a paid site you will find several free projects on the homepage. Perhaps you will find that the paid lessons are really well worth it! This site does demonstrate that math is about more than just numbers and equations. Students find that math is a tool to explore the world around us. Mathalicious provides teachers with lessons that help them teach math in a way that engages their students– Lessons are aligned to Common Core Standards and explore real life questions.
Masterpieces to Math – A wonderful article that focuses on how to incorporate art in math. Learn how to use Art to teach fractions, decimals, and percent equivalents.
How to Smile – Discover this group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world. Find new ways to teach kids about math and science. Discover activities that meet you where you live, whether your “classroom” is an active volcano, the shark tank at the local aquarium, or your own kitchen table. SMILE is collecting the best educational materials on the web and creating learning activities, tools, and services
CIESE Online – CIESE (Center for Innovation and Science Education) sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. Each project has a brief description and links to the National Science Standards and NCTM math standards it supports
Interactivate- Common Core Aligned Lessons - Interactivate (part of Shodor.org) includes activities (online practice) and lessons (a series of well-defined and understandable chunks that do seem to be a complete lesson). Activities and lessons are based upon Common Core, other state standards and NCTM as well.
Learn Zillion - Common Core Aligned Lessons has a growing compilation of Common Core aligned lesson plans and other resources. It appears the lessons start in volume at 3rd grade and up.
Opus Math Problem Bank - Teachers can search by grade level and subject area, and Opus will produce a series of problem, with the associated Common Core standard.
Eureka Math - Common Core Math Maps - Eureka Math provides a complete map curriculum for grades PK to 12, including lessons, videos and scaffolding. Created for the teachers in New York, these comprehensive math plans are aligned to the Common Core and can supplement whatever math curriculum your school has currently adopted.
Math Matter Geometry - Selection of 10 Geometry projects developed in Indiana and hosted by Indiana University.
Math Matter Algebra 1 - Selection of about 20 Algebra 1 Projects from Math Matters at Indiana University designed for middle school.
Math Matters Algebra 2 - Selection of over 20 Algebra 2 Projects from Math Matters at Indiana University designed for high school.
Gizmos (gr 3 - 12) has hundreds of math and science interactive simulations that allow students to graph, measure, compare and make predictions. video overview
Choreo Graph (iPad app free ) arts-meets-math creation tool engaging (and silly), and coordinating lessons support learning.
WeUseMath.org: Answers the age-old question: How will I ever use (fill in the blank with a math skill) in everyday life?
Angles in Art Lesson includes downloads
Galileo website is a starting place for teaching with inquiry. The website has articles and resources to learn about inquiry-based education, as well as plenty of research. Start on the home page and then check out the full set of classroom lessons and examples. The site offers plans for specific high school, middle school, and primary school math investigations. You can also download the Focus on Inquiry eBook and read about what inquiry means, learn how to construct essential questions, and much more.Click Here to Visit Website
Expii Solve is a series of more than fifty sets of mathematics word problems. Within each set there are five problems aligned to a theme.
Curriculum and Lessons Develop a Core of Math Problems Opus is a free math problem bank that aims to help middle school mathematics teachers build math assignments aligned to the Common Core standards. To find problems on Opus, search by entering a topic and selecting a grade. You can also find problems by clicking the “browse the Core directly” link on the Opus home page. Either way, when you find a problem, you can save it to your free Opus account where you can then generate a Word doc or Google Document of all of your saved problems. You can also create an answer sheet in your Opus account. Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Search Common Core Problem Bank
CK-12 Real World Math Applications
themint.org offers interactive economic challenges for students in grades 6–12. Dozens of real-life activities deal with spending, saving and borrowing. The Ideas for Teachers section contains activities to illustrate sound money-management concepts. The Parents section provides tips for mentoring and nurturing children, to help them grow in financial respon-sibility. Some of these tips lay very simple groundwork and can be used before children start elementary school. A glossary of economics terms—from allowance to withdrawal—presents clear, concise explanations. The Northwestern Mutual Foundation partnered with the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) in the development of the site.Web: http://www.themint.org/try-it/
TeachEngineering developed a curricular unit that engages students in a pyramid-building experience that parallels the modern-day engineering design and construction process. You might use that as a basis for creating an engaging, hands-on unit while building in the cultural content.
MathScienceMusic.org is a free web-based toolkit for teachers, bringing together the best resources in math, science and music. Designed for students, kindergarten through college.
Real Life Math ( gr. 6 - 8) Make the math connection with four interactive online learning adventures for middle school classrooms. Students will enjoy these brain-boosting explorations that use digital media in innovative and creative ways. Virtual environments, simulations, videos and interactive math activities challenge and motivate students to actively engage in learning.
Amaziograph iPad app for ways to integrate math and art through symmetry.
Math Is AweSum!
Grades PreK-13+ | Collection
Use this jam-packed, NEW collection of videos, lesson plans, and interactive games to help your students engage with curriculum and tap into the true power of numbers.
Function Carnival Students watch a video and graph the motion they observe
Math at the Core: Middle School
Grades 5-8 | Collection
Fractions, statistics, and ratios - oh my! Find math-focused media aligned with the CCSS in this fantastic collection for middle school
Graphing Calculator by Mathlab - See this graphing scientific calculator's computations visually.
Alabama Public Television’s ProportionLand invites middle school students to reason their way through eight interactive attractions in a virtual amusement park. As students hop on and enjoy the rides, they must explore and apply proportional reasoning skills to solve a variety of science-based, real-world problems. The interactive experiences get students into the “5E” learning cycle: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend and Evaluate. Each area of the amusement park includes lesson plans, student resources, video clips and online assessment.Web: http://www.aptv.org/aptplus/flashlibrary/
Design Mathematics Models With MathDisk’s Math Builder tool, you can design mathematics models that your students can use online. You can also download the models and worksheets to use offline if you install the MiBook software on your desktop or on your Android or iOS device. If you don’t have time to create new materials, the MathDisk gallery has pages of models and worksheets from which you can choose. Everything in the gallery, like everything you create through MathDisk, can be downloaded and/or embedded into your website or blog.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Gallery
Sector 33 - Want to show your students real world math? They can become air traffic controllers and solve math problems with this game from NASA.
Mathalicious Teach math using real-world topics, like baseball games, slices of pizza, and popular songs. All exercises are mapped to Common Core State Standards.
Real Wold Math PBL - Small selection of projects based on math skills.
The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - alas, does NOT work on Chromebooks... yet. I am hopeful, as this is an awesome resource.
ART IN STEM: Teacher Vision allows students to enjoy participating in math class using art activities. You’ll find lessons here for encouraging measuring, geometry and much more!
Mathematical Circles are a form of education enrichment and outreach that bring mathematicians and mathematical scientists into direct contact with precollege students. These students, and sometimes their teachers, meet with mathematical professionals in an informal setting, after school or on weekends, to work on interesting problems or topics in mathematics. which to do so. To find a Math Circle near you, visit the website of the National Association of Math Circles (NAMC). The website also provides a tutorial that will assist you in the process of learning how to contribute to the National Association of Math Circles Wiki. You’ll also find a listing of Math Circle activities, problem sets and lesson plans.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Find a Math Circle Near You
Improving Math Performance with Inside Math (videos and lessons) - The Noyce Foundation created Inside Mathematics to help educators transform their math practices and to help students better understand the meaning behind the math.
MathSite – interactive journey in math. The exhibits found at MathSite are intended for people of all ages who are interested in or are curious about mathematics. No specialized mathematical knowledge or special expertise is assumed.
Emergent Math – Looking for ideas that just might spark a PBL math idea? Emergent Math is dedicated to brainstorming interesting and dynamic math problems and projects. As stated in the blog, “interesting math problem/project can come in the form of a picture, a video, a tweet, something your child says, etc”. The posts generate ideas on how these concepts just might fit in the classroom and/or provide some driving/guiding questions. The best place to begin your exploration is at the first page of the blog and read the index.
Exploring Space Through Math – promotes inquiry through real world applications. Students assume the role of NASA scientists, engineers and researchers who work in teams to accomplish tasks. The projects cover the scope of Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, and Precalculus.
Annenberg Learner Math Lessons – uses media and telecommunications to advance excellent teaching in American schools. This mandate is carried out chiefly by the funding and broad distribution of educational video programs with coordinated Web and print materials for the professional development of K-12 teachers. While at the site… take a look at the interactives.
Figure This – the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in cooperation with the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Widmeyer Communications, and the Learning First Alliance. Its mission is to challenge middle school mathematics. While it was created to allow for family interaction, it is also figures into the Math PBL classroom. The site allows students to have the opportunity to face some every day real life math challenges.
Teacher Vision Art and Math –Students will enjoy participating in math class with our art activities for teachers of any grade level, from elementary to high school.
Mathematical Moments – Authenticity is important in Math PBL. It seems that Math educators are always looking for ways they can show how math is used in the world around us. It contains free printable posters that are 8.5″ x 11″ PDF documents.
MIT Blossoms – All of the lessons in the MIT Blossoms library have been contributed by BLOSSOMS partners from around the world. There is a watch the Teacher’s Guide Video Segment included with each lesson to learn more about it. The final segment of each BLOSSOMS video lesson is a one-on-one conversation between the teacher and the “virtual teacher.”
Get The Math – is about algebra in the real world. See how professionals use math in music, fashion, video games, restaurants, basketball, and special effects. Then take on interactive challenges related to those careers.
Mathalicious – While this is a paid site you will find several free projects on the homepage. Perhaps you will find that the paid lessons are really well worth it! This site does demonstrate that math is about more than just numbers and equations. Students find that math is a tool to explore the world around us. Mathalicious provides teachers with lessons that help them teach math in a way that engages their students– Lessons are aligned to Common Core Standards and explore real life questions.
Masterpieces to Math – A wonderful article that focuses on how to incorporate art in math. Learn how to use Art to teach fractions, decimals, and percent equivalents.
How to Smile – Discover this group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world. Find new ways to teach kids about math and science. Discover activities that meet you where you live, whether your “classroom” is an active volcano, the shark tank at the local aquarium, or your own kitchen table. SMILE is collecting the best educational materials on the web and creating learning activities, tools, and services
CIESE Online – CIESE (Center for Innovation and Science Education) sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. Each project has a brief description and links to the National Science Standards and NCTM math standards it supports
Interactivate- Common Core Aligned Lessons - Interactivate (part of Shodor.org) includes activities (online practice) and lessons (a series of well-defined and understandable chunks that do seem to be a complete lesson). Activities and lessons are based upon Common Core, other state standards and NCTM as well.
Learn Zillion - Common Core Aligned Lessons has a growing compilation of Common Core aligned lesson plans and other resources. It appears the lessons start in volume at 3rd grade and up.
Opus Math Problem Bank - Teachers can search by grade level and subject area, and Opus will produce a series of problem, with the associated Common Core standard.
Eureka Math - Common Core Math Maps - Eureka Math provides a complete map curriculum for grades PK to 12, including lessons, videos and scaffolding. Created for the teachers in New York, these comprehensive math plans are aligned to the Common Core and can supplement whatever math curriculum your school has currently adopted.
Math Matter Geometry - Selection of 10 Geometry projects developed in Indiana and hosted by Indiana University.
Math Matter Algebra 1 - Selection of about 20 Algebra 1 Projects from Math Matters at Indiana University designed for middle school.
Math Matters Algebra 2 - Selection of over 20 Algebra 2 Projects from Math Matters at Indiana University designed for high school.
Engineering
14 Fun Engineering Video: What is an Engineer? - (K - 5) Takes a problem solving approach to explain engineering
Five-step Engineering Design Process developed by the Museum of Science in Boston to guide most STEM lessons and activities
Engineering Starter Kit collection of resources for getting started with STEM
Dollar Store Engineering Supplies List
Ready, Set, Design is a quick group activity. It uses simple, inexpensive materials and is an effective tool for problem solving, creative thinking and team building. Ready, Set, Design is not just for designers but can be used by any audience as a way to engage in design thinking.
Engineering is Elementary The mission of Engineering is Elementary (EiE) is to foster engineering and technological literacy among ALL elementary-aged children. EiE's 20 units present fun, engaging engineering challenges that allow students to apply science knowledge. Engineering Adventures gr. 1-5 free and paid resources. Engineering is Elementary offers “How-To Videos”—short segments you can stream from our website. Each video walks you through some lesson prep for the unit you’ll be teaching.
Children's Engineering, A Teacher Resource Guide for Design and Technology in Grades K-5 includes 24 ready-to-use activities, four at each grade level.
Try Engineering is a site that hosts lesson plans and games designed to get students interested in engineering. The lesson plans, more than 100 of them, are arranged according age and engineering topic. The lesson plans can be downloaded as PDFs.
my.SketchUp is the web version of the popular desktop application SketchUp. my.SketchUp is an excellent tool students can use to create anything they want in 3D.
DiscoverE Engineering and science activities categorized by grades Videos accompany the lessons. Most of the lessons are challenge activities.
Veritasium is a channel of science and engineering videos featuring experiments, expert interviews, cool demos, and discussions with the public about everything science.’
Vsauce YouTube channel featuring a wide variety of educational video content. It has playlists on knowledge, physics, human behaviour, space, earth and many more.
Engineering Like Ancient Greeks gr. 3 - 6
Engineering Games Web-based gr. 1-4
14 Fun Engineering Projects for Kids
Family Science programs offer opportunities for parents and children to work and learn together. Hands-on activities that use easy-to-find, inexpensive materials let families explore the ways in which science and engineering plays a role in daily life.
Simple Activities for Little Engineers
Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom
Get Caught Engineering
35 Engineering Projects K - 6
4 Engineering Challenges for Kids K - 4
12 Engineering Projects K - 5
Newspaper Structures K - 5
Newspaper Engineering Challenges
Paper Engineering Challenges
Paper Toys and Video Creation
Five engineering challenges for kids – with wooden clothespins, binder clips, and craft sticks!
Paper Building Blocks
Build With Straws and Paper Towel Rolls
Building With Paper Engineering Challenge
Homemade Cardboard Construction Kit
Gumdrop Engineering Challenge
K’nex Building Set
Keva Structures Set
Learning Engineering is a nice website offering dozens of short video lessons about machines, materials, and energy. The site is organized into three primary sections; electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and civil engineering. Within each category you will find sub-categories and topics for further exploration. Each topic is explained with a video along with a set of diagrams and text explanations.
A Year of the Best Engineering Projects for Kids
Create a Prosthetic Limb Challenge
Introduce a Girl to Engineering K - 6 video
Engineering is Elementary The mission of Engineering is Elementary (EiE) is to foster engineering and technological literacy among ALL elementary-aged children. EiE's 20 units present fun, engaging engineering challenges that allow students to apply science knowledge. Engineering Adventures gr. 1-5 free
- EiE's Engineering Adventures and Engineering Everywhere, with a focus on protecting our planet! Lesson plans are FREE to download
How strong is a piece of paper? K - 3
Paper Engineering Challenges
Engineering curriculum and lessons K - 12
Fidgit Factory Games
Invention at Play
SciGirls is changing how girls think about science, technology, engineering, and math! Each episode of SciGirls highlights the processes of science and engineering, following a different group of middle school girls who work with mentors to design their own inquiry-based investigations on a variety of topics. Explore the Collection
Lend a Hand! Middle school students learn about types of forces, the relationship between form and function, and the structure of the hand by working as biomedical engineers to design, build, and test their own hand "gripper" prototypes that can grasp and lift a 200 ml cup of sand.
RELATED LESSONS
- Build A Prosthetic Device (Grades 4-7)
- A Different Lens (Grades 6-9)
- Build a Robotic Arm (Grades 3-12)
- 1,2 Robo-Hand, Please Tie My Shoe (Grades K-12)
8 Science and Engineering Practices Every Kid Should Learn
Top 10 Summer Engineering Projects for Kids
Water Slide Challenge
Engineering the Perfect Egg Drop Project
Build a Peeps Catapult
Create DIY Soda Rockets
Building with Jelly Beans
Build a DIY Rocket Station
Travel-Sized Cup Stacking
Building Igloos with Marshmallows
Peeps Stacking Engineering Challenge for Kids
Building with Playdough
Building with Straws
Design Challenge Learning? It’s a combination of project-based learning, design thinking and the engineering design process that develops the innovator’s mindset through iteration.
The lessons on this page, developed over the years by educators at The Tech, will help teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make fun and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers.
Novel Engineering ( gr. 5 - 12) initiative, in which engineering challenges are plucked from the plots of assigned books. The goal of Novel Engineering is to bolster reading comprehension through hands-on projects while teaching students the engineering process and linking it to the human problems it helps to solve. They have also stocked an online repository with sample projects and a list of books, by grade level, which have mixed well with engineering in the past, including Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach.
Mosa Mack provides students with a variety of short animated mysteries that they have to solve using knowledge gleaned from videos they watch. Mosa Mack adopts an inquiry-based approach to science learning. Mosa Mack arranges its science content into units each of which is comprised of three lessons that ‘progress upwards on Blooms Taxonomy and the the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) chart.’ The units include:
Lesson 1 The Solve: An animated science mystery and vocabulary manipulative
Lesson 2 The Make: A hands-on lab
Lesson 3 The Engineer: An engineering challenge that allows students to apply what they’ve learned to solve real world scenarios.’
Engineering Interact is a great site to introduce engineering concepts and processes to 9-11 year olds. The site has 5 different games based on different science topics that give students a chance to learn while playing. The games teach students about the concepts. The concepts are: Light, Sound, Forces and Motion, Earth and Beyond, Electricity. There are also links to other resources about science and engineering.
This is a great resource for younger students, but the games can be used with older students also. DiscoverE promotes engineering education to K-12 students and the general public. From 10 Reasons to Love Engineering (starting with "Love your work, and live your life too!") to information about education and career opportunities, DiscoverE is a treasure trove of hands-on activities, videos, games, and advice.
Curiosity Machine ( 2 - 12) Visit Website: https://www.curiositymachine.org
Kids build, share, receive pro feedback with engineering site
Novel Engineering, in which engineering challenges are plucked from the plots of assigned books. The goal of Novel Engineering is to bolster reading comprehension through hands-on projects while teaching students the engineering process and linking it to the human problems it helps to solve. They have also stocked an online repository with sample projects and a list of books, by grade level, which have mixed well with engineering in the past, including Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. In addition, the website presents examples of books that some Novel Engineering classrooms have used. Click the cover image to view the problems identified by students in those classrooms and the solutions they designed and built.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to Access Examples of Books
Imagination Playground 3D Builder, children can build, stack, channel and connect blue building blocks. Build endlessly in the Quick Builder mode, and then flip on the Gravity button to watch your blocks take on physical properties. Imagination Playground 3D Builder encourages open ended, unstructured free play. The benefits of this kind of play include creativity, self-expression, communication, collaboration, problem solving, motor-skills development.
Engineering Is... | QUEST | Grades 6-12
Find out how scientists and engineers are working together across disciplines to investigate issues, make discoveries, and develop solutions. View Collection
Design Squad Nation | Grades 3-8
Use the resources in this collection to help students gain a stronger understanding of the design process, and a better sense for the role of engineering in everyday life. View Collection
Generating Ideas Lesson Plan | NOVA | Grades 6-12
In this lesson plan, students learn to generate ideas for innovation using two different approaches. All ideas generated by this lesson contribute to the design thinking process for creating innovative solutions to complex problems in today's world. View Lesson Plan
Inventioneers is a physics engineering game iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. Using given tools and helpers, students design, test, and revise fun, crazy inventions that will meet challenges and help special characters achieve success. A “Create” mode allows students to create and share their inventions with others. A free version of the app includes only the first chapter with 14 inventions and 40 different objects to use in creating the inventions. The full version, at a cost of $2.99, includes eight chapters with a total of 112 inventions and 100-plus objects that students can use.
Teach Engineering – This is a comprehensive collaborative project between faculty, students, and teachers associated with five founding partner universities, with NSF National Science Foundation funding. This real world collection continues to grow and evolve with new additions submitted from more than 50 additional contributors, a cadre of volunteer teacher and engineer reviewers, and feedback from teachers who use the curricula in their classrooms.
eGFI Dream Up The Future – Be ready to discover a variety of tools to boost your students’ math and science skills, enliven the classroom with engineering projects, expand your own professional horizons and stay informed. There is also an amazing free newsletter with updated features that will arrive in your in-box every month. This is a site that is a must visit for any STEM teacher.
The Lemlinson Center -Take a moment to visit this center that showcases the study of invention and innovation. It is part of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, the center documents, interprets, and disseminates information about invention and innovation; encourages inventive creativity in young people; and fosters an appreciation for the central role that invention and innovation play in the history of the United States.
Cooper Hewitt Lesson Plans - Take a look at the design possibilities covering all subject areas and grade levels.
The Engineering Place - This might be the right place to get the idea you need. There are lesson plans for K-8 student
NASA at Home and City is a great site from NASA that shows examples of how technologies developed for space exploration are used and applied on Earth.
The site is graphic based, easy to use, and very informative. It's a great resource to share with students to show them how developments for one thing can apply to another.
PreK-12 Engineering is a site with free resources for educators to integrate engineering concepts and activities into preK through 12th grade classrooms. The activities are linked to the Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework.
The activities are really well thought out and developed and I have used many of them.
Things are sorted by grade level for easy searching.
For more resources on engineering: http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2009/10/engineering-resources.html
American Society for Engineering Education - great resource with information about all types of engineering, educator resources, and more.
Engineering Games Here is a collection of games categorized as Engineering Games, Logic Games, Robot Games and Electricity Games. You'll find yourself building a wind turbine, flying an airplane, learning about electrical circuits, or putting simple machines to work.
Engineering - Go For It! - this site is produced by the ASEE (see above) and is completely devoted to promoting engineering. It has resources for educators and students, as well as lessons and career exploration resources.
Crossing a Chasm Challenge gr. 4-8
Design Squad Nation Highly interactive resources drive home the skills and processes of engineering and design. There is an app also, but the flash-based projects cannot be used on it.
American Society of Engineering Education Lessons K-12 catergorized by grade levels promoting and enhancing efforts to improve K-12 STEM and engineering education.
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics - has resources for aerospace engineering careers. Educators can join for free and get even more resources.
Society of Automotive Engineers - has resources about engineers dealing with the automotive industry.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer - resources about engineers in the electronics and electrical engineering.
Engineering Challenges - this site lists and explores the greatest challenges facing engineers in regards to world issues. This is a great site to use as a starting point for your own classroom projects.
Discover Engineering - another great site that explores engineering as a career.
Tech Museum of Innovation - Check out these challenges available from an amazing museum. While you are at the site check out all the other possible resources that might just work for your classroom.
Tech Rockets - Students ages 10 to 18 can create a Tech Rocket account and gain access to amazing tech courses. These include Python, iOS, Java, Minecraft, 3D printing. Each course contains lessons, support materials, and interactive challenges. Students can even gain points and badges along the way.
NASA Kids Club - Students take part in technology based missions as they engage in various missions. This is a place where students learn and enjoy as they possibly even blaze through space.
CT Business and Industry Association - CBIA has an education section. They have a great resource about Engineering. The site also has videos you can show to your students.
Next Generation Manufacturing Center - this is a cooperative group of manufacturers, CBIA and CT's Community Colleges. They work to get more students interested in engineering and manufacturing. There are some great videos on the site, too. They have a lot of great programs, including the Engineering Challenge. They also sponsor summer externships for teachers. These externships pay teachers to spend the summer at a local manufacturing company learning about their industry and coming up with ways to get more students involved in engineering and manufacturing. I was able to participate two years ago and found it to be a great experience.
Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom provides both the background and a path for educators to create engaging learning opportunities to help students not only develop skills and strategies that will prepare them for a complex world, but empower them to use their creativity to solve problems, ask questions and continually learn.
Engineer Your Life – This engaging website is the centerpiece of a national campaign, and is meant for high school girls and the adults in their lives (parents, counselors, teachers, and other educators) who want to learn more about what life and work are like for engineers. It is a great place to explore outstanding engineering possibilities.
Design Squad Nation ( gr 2-4) is a PBS Kids site that teaches kids about science and engineering through fun games and activities. It's free and there are no ads.
Discover Engineering - Let your students discover engineering in some very exciting and engaging ways. From skateboards to roller coasters the activities and videos will bring you back for more.
Roller coasters out of straws gr. K - 5
Marble Run
STEAM and Straws
100 Awesome Engineering Projects for Kids offers ways to make engineering, physics and design fun as well as challenging for students. The projects engage students in constructing, playing, learning and growing, all while they are studying the fundamentals of engineering. The projects focus on the basics (motion, force and other essentials of physics) and on light and energy, structures and materials as well as travel and movement, harnessing nature, the environment, understanding the everyday and more.
Five engineering challenges for kids – with wooden clothespins, binder clips, and craft sticks!
FIVE BEST STEM CHALLENGES according to a teacher includes mystery build, pipeline, and rescue devices
Teach Engineering – This is a comprehensive collaborative project between faculty, students and teachers associated with five founding partner universities, with NSF National Science Foundation funding. This real world collection continues to grow and evolve with new additions submitted from more than 50 additional contributors, a cadre of volunteer teacher and engineer reviewers, and feedback from teachers who use the curricula in their classrooms.
Rocket Science 101 You don't have to be a rocket scientist to launch a NASA spacecraft with NASA's Rocket Science 101 (RS101)! Select your favorite NASA mission and build a rocket to send the spacecraft into orbit. As you take the RS101 challenge, you can learn more about thrilling missions and the various components of the launch vehicles, how they are configured and how they work together to successfully launch a NASA spacecraft. NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP) does the same things for real rockets and exciting spacecraft missions every day - now it's your turn!
Making Stuff
Grades 6-12 | Collection | Materials Science
Join technology columnist David Pogue as he delves hands-first into the field of materials science. Find out which materials he thinks will play a role in shaping the future.
Create an Engineering Mystery Bag Challenge for Kids
The Engineering Place provides tools and information to help students explore how engineering is, and can be, a part of their lives. The site includes activity lesson plans for bringing engineering to life for students in elemen-tary and middle school. Most of the lesson plans were developed or used in The Engineering Place’s Engineering Teaching Fellows program. The detailed interactive lessons cover earth science, electricity and magnetism, engineering, human body, insects, mathematics, matter, plants, and weather and climate. Favorite activities involve students in constructing roller coasters (grades 3–7) and pipe-cleaner towers (grades 6 and above).Web: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/theengineeringplace/educators/index.php
Trace Professional Paths in Engineering Created by the American Society for Engineering Education, Engineering, Go For It (eGFI) aims to foster educational and pre-professional interest in engineering and other STEM subjects from kindergarten through high school. In addition to information on the myriad branches of the engineering field—from biomedical to computer to mechanical and beyond—the site features descriptions of professional paths for each, including profiles of real people at work in the field.
Click Here to Visit Website
Plus: Developed by the Boston Museum of Science’s Engineering is Elementary program, the Engineering Design Process is a series of steps for developing a new product or system. Engineers use this process again and again to create a new design or improve an existing one. Educators are encouraged to explain this five-step process to students, as well as display it in their classrooms. A poster describing the five steps in the Engineering Design Process may be downloaded, at no charge, from The Engineering Place website.Web: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/theengineeringplace/educators/#process
Engineering Adventures gr 1 - 5(EA) is an engaging, hands-on design curriculum created by the Engineering is Elementary team at Museum of Science, Boston for use in out-of-school-time settings, such as after-school and camp programs. EA challenges children to solve design problems using creativity, teamwork, science and engineering. EA is arranged as a series of thematic units, each focusing on a field of engineering.Hop to It: Safe Removal of Invasive Species is a mechanical engineering unit that introduces students to the problems the invasive cane toads have created in Australia. In the culminating project, students design a machine to humanely trap the cane toad. Bubble Bonanza: Engineering Bubble Wands is a materials engineering unit that gives students the chance to explore how bubbles behave and investigate properties of materials they can use to create bubble wands.
- A Slippery Slope gr 3-5 Jacob and India are in Peru exploring the Andes Mountains when they learn a town is in danger from a potential avalanche. Kids use what they learn from designing barriers and catches to engineer an avalanche protection system.
Rescue Challenge build a contraption to rescue a toy character
Balloon Car
Balloon Car II
Engineering Interact is a site for elementary school students designed by the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Engineering Interact offers five games designed to teach students physics concepts. The games address concepts related to light, sound, motion, electricity, and space travel. Each of the five games presents students with a scenario in which they have to "help" someone solve a problem. The games require students to learn and analyze the information presented to them.
Float My Boat is just one of the hands-on activities from PBS KIDS GO! for students aged 6–11. This activity is science, engineering, problem solving and fun all rolled into one. Students’ challenge is to build tinfoil boats and test different designs to see how many pennies can be loaded without sinking the boat. The activity has step-by-step instructions and age-appropriate explanations of the main ideas. Teachers can download a free activity guide and view the related video episode from the PBS KIDS GO! TV program Fetch!Web: http://www.pbs.org/parents/fetch/activities/act/act-floatmyboat.html
Fun-Engineering is an educational blog with suggestions for stories and activities that teach different aspects of engineering appropriate for students aged 10–14. Teachers will find such resources as an aeronautical engineering drama entitled Just Let Me Fly; a free ebook about symmetry; a demonstrator that reflects the disciplines of civil and structural engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and electronic engineering; and an online story about the principles behind the steam engine. Web: http://fun-engineering.net/
National Engineer Week: Future City – Great Project Based Learning Activity incorporating STEAM along with Language Arts and Social Studies. Engage students with Sim City Software, model building, and a new curriculum designed to integrate disciplines.
Art - Humanities
Book K - 5: STEAM Kids: 50+ Science / Technology / Engineering / Art / Math Hands-On Projects for Kids
Article Music Merger Drexel program blends music and science
Book Science Arts: Discovering Science Through Art Experiences (K - 5) unique approach to science education! This book is jammed full of one-page "art experiments." The key is to use art projects to learn some science principles. Among many of the ideas to learn are dissolving, symmetry, reflecting light, gravity and friction.
This is Not a Math Book. Inside the pages, kids are invited to draw and explore cool and creative mathematical principles. They draw things in perspective, fool around with illusions and puzzles, create mesmerizing spirals and tessellations. There is plenty of blank paper and graph paper in the back for kids to experiment on their own. I highly recommend this book!
Amazing Math Projects You Can Build Yourself. If you want to include engineering into your math art mix, this is the book for you. I love the 3D building shapes, especially the geodesic dome. There are templates to explore cool topology projects. The text also includes a lot of information about the mathematical concepts in everyday life to ensure kids never look at snowflakes, bridges or patterns the same way again.
Math Arts: Exploring Math Through Art for 3 to 6 Year Olds by MaryAnn Kohl. Most of the math art activity books on this list are aimed at kids in the upper elementary grades. But Kohl’s book lets you start early. Explore patterns, make numbers, play with shapes and prepare your kids for a lifetime appreciation of the STEAM subjects.
MathART Projects and Activities. The ideas in this book focus more on making art with simple math concepts, such as using geometry to create flags, making quilt patterns, exploring symmetry and fractions. Since the math concepts are not advanced, even though it is recommended for grades 3-5, a lot of the projects can easily be adapted for younger kids.
Teacher Vision Art and Math Enhance math understanding with art activities for teachers of any grade level, from elementary to high school. Mix numbers with creativity with art activities that your students will love. You'll find lessons for creating counting books, crafts that encourage measuring, geometry printables to color, sculpting activities, and much more! You can use these resources to introduce new concepts or reinforce topics your students have already learned.
NPR Where Science Meets Art - Some exceptional podcasts integrating Science and Art.
Arts Edge- A fantastic resource from the Kennedy Center hosting numerous lessons that integrate Art in the curriculum
Edsitement - vast collection of Art related resources aimed at the Social Studies and Language Arts areas.
Cool Art with Math and Science by Anders Hanson. This is a series of hands-on math art books, which, to be honest, I think are overpriced. However, the projects in each of them are fantastic, so see if your library has them because they are worth checking out. The series includes flexagons, string art, tessellations and structures.
Math + Art = Fun. This has a lot of projects you would expect to see, like tessellations, spirals and graphing. There are also 3D activities and seasonal art projects. I liked the symmetry pop-up cards. It is written in lesson plan form and is aimed at teachers.
Book MathArts contains a wealth of easy-to-do, creative art experiments that encourage children's natural development of math concepts. K - 2
Book Art Lab for Kids: This easy to follow art guide shows kids simple art techniques that will inspire them to be more creative.
Article: Full STEAM Ahead K - 8 10 tips for incorporating art into your STEM class.
Article: Growing from STEM to STEAM Tips to team up the arts and sciences in your classroom
Article 4 Educators' Keys to Connecting STEM and Social Studies
STEM to STEAM - This organization is an advocate for STEAM education. It contains resources and information that allows educators to promote the Arts in STEM education (STEAM). An objective of the STEAM movement is to transform research policy with a goal place Art + Design at the center of STEM.
Math Art is a great way to get kids who love art to appreciate math, and kids who love math to learn about the importance of art. Archives like pi city skylines, spirolaterlas, parabolic curves, tessellations, Fibonacci curves and more. Many of our projects include handy videos to show you how utterly amazing the math art projects truly are.
Math in Art 18 STEAM Projects
Pebdulum Art
Pendulum Painting – The kids can explore the force of gravity while painting, too, with this pendulum painting activity.
Golden Ratio for Kids Art to Math
5 Reasons Why Origami Improves Students' Skills: Explore ways to use origami, the ancient art of paper folding, as a STEAM engine for teaching geometry, thinking skills, fractions, problem solving, and fun science.
The math and magic of origami is a TED Talk featuring Robert Lang - a pioneer of the newest kind of origami. Watch as he uses math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful.
Architecture for Kids projects and curriculum
Ancient Egypt STEAM Projects
Singing Fingers It invites whimsical creativity by combining drawing and sound. video demo
Angles in Art Lesson includes downloads
Art Bot Make a simple robot with electric toothbrush that draws. more options one | two | three
Explore Symmetry.
Eurekus STEAM Curriculum some units are free Others range from $10 - $25
ART IN STEM: Teacher Vision allows students to enjoy participating in math class using art activities. You’ll find lessons here for encouraging measuring, geometry and much more!
Use Art to illustrate STEM ideas Understanding STEM ideas can be tough. Luckily, many concepts are more easily understood with accompanying visual explanations. We can use art projects to help teach or clarify these difficult ideas for kids. (scroll down page)
Make Art Materials with Kids did you know that there's a TON of science involved in making these materials? (Side note- I recently read this book and cannot recommend it enough. History, science, intrigue... !) To help give kids a firsthand experience to this process, try making your own art supplies together! Cutting, mixing, melting, cooking, combining, problem solving..... they get to be a color scientist!
STEAM Enrichment Opportunity
Nonprofit NTC Research Foundation is joining forces with FIRST LEGO League Jr. and The National Theatre for Children to launch a first-of-its-kind national program that provides proven STEAM learning experiences for elementary school students. The program, dubbed Bee on the Team (BOTT), whose aim of reaching more than 200,000 students in 500 elementary schools in need of hands-on STEAM enrichment education opportunities—in school, after school, and at home. BOTT will feature professional actors portraying bees, a bear, and an ant in an age-specific live theatrical event.
Evaporation Art – Let kids explore the properties of water and evaporation with this open-ended art activity.
Choreo Graph (iPad app free ) arts-meets-math creation tool engaging (and silly), and coordinating lessons support learning.
Science4Us K-2 integrates language arts activities that help children practice a number of literacy skills such as: understanding of the relationship and meanings of words and the ability to determine the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words.
Curriculum and Lessons K -12
MathScienceMusic.org is a free web-basedd toolkit for teachers, bringing together the best resources in math, science and music. Designed for students, kindergarten through college.
Sing About Science and Math website is a free database of lesson plans for incorporating music into STEM classes.
WildMusic Experiment online with nature and its sounds
The math and magic of origami is a TED Talk featuring Robert Lang - a pioneer of the newest kind of origami. Watch as he uses math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful.
Ancient Greek Architecture STEM Challenge
Rhyme 'n Learn is a series of math and science lessons presented in short rap music form. About half of the raps are provided in video format with visuals to support the lesson. The other half of the lessons are audio only, but do have transcripts available to help your students or you follow along
STEAM to STEM - This organization is an advocate for STEAM education. It contains resources and information that allows educators to promote the Arts in STEM education (STEAM). An objective of the STEAM movement is to transform research policy with a goal place Art + Design at the center of STEM.
STEAM Makerspace - 114 tips, ideas, resources and even lesson ideas for creating your very own STEAM Makerspace.
Over 25 STEAM Links Filled With Resources and Information: Find articles, project ideas, programs, and lesson plans to help inform STEAM curriculum planning.
STEAM Portal – STEAM Resources for Any Classroom
NPR Where Science Meets Art – Some exceptional Podcasts integrating Science and Art. Many of these titles will allow for student reflection and questions as they begin to see how the Arts and Science can be integrated.
Smithsonian Resource Lab applications for the arts, especially STEAM lesson plans. The site is developed around the themes of Discover, Create and Share.
STEM/STEAM and the Movies
STEAM ELA Lessons
Google Art Project. If you’re an art lover, you should not miss this app. Take a chance to discover and view famous artworks online in extraordinary detail.
Coding and the Arts
Arts Edge – A resource from the Kennedy Center hosting numerous lessons that integrate Art in the curriculum.You will discover a focus on ways to support innovative teaching with the arts, and meet changing trends in education and to accommodate the ever-evolving impact of technology in our lives.
24 Apps, Games, and Websites Teachers are Using in STEAM Classrooms: Browse a teacher-sourced list of teaching tools for various grade levels and subjects.
Amaziograph iPad app for ways to integrate math and art through symmetry.
STEAM Art Projects with iPad apps
BIE.org - The people at the BUCK Institute For Education have a great area where you can search for activities and projects already made. Note how many projects include both math and science. Want an extra bonus? Include the arts and make STEAM
PBS Design Squad Nation – Turn the innovation on in your classroom. Use Design Squad Nation activities, animations, video profiles, and episodes in classrooms and after-school programs, in libraries and museums, at events and at home. This will engage your students in some amazing activities.
National Gallery of Art – You will find organized into thematic units, each grade-level-specific lesson plan focuses on a single work of art and can be executed within one to two class periods. These lessons meet the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Visual Arts curriculum standards
Exploratorium – Take a look at the entire site, but especially explore the Art related material. You will find lessons that allow you to connect with other subject areas including the STEM disciplines. You will get a new definition of exploring through the Exploratorium,
The Art Institute of Chicago – Explore these wonderful lessons that cover Science and the Arts. It just might have you and your students look at Art in a whole different way. Best of all you will discover some STEAM possibilities.
Lesson Plans and resources for Art Integration – This Edutopia Article has a rich assortment of lessons and resources to integrate Art into curricular areas including Math, Science, and Design. A great read that will lead to some wonderful opportunities.
Masterpieces to Math – A wonderful article that focuses on how to incorporate art in math. Learn how to use Art to teach fractions, decimals, and percent equivalents.
Maker Education Find resources and tools to help bring elements of maker culture into schools and classrooms, and encourage students to explore STEAM subjects within the context of maker projects.
National Engineer Week: Future City – Great Project Based Learning Activity incorporating STEAM along with Language Arts and Social Studies. Engage students with Sim City Software, model building, and a new curriculum designed to integrate disciplines.
Autodesk Digital Steam Workshop - Digital STEAM projects are designed by Autodesk’s network of expert educators, designers and student alumni as exciting complements to core Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Art (STEAM) curriculum. Each project aligns with common core and national standards, and delivers measurable learning while using free software.
Kids Like Blues: Using Music and Video to Rock Your Classroom
A teacher and musician, tells the amusing and inspiring story (with generous video examples) of how he turned the blues into an effective pedagogy in his first grade class.
MathScienceMusic.org is a free toolkit for teachers, bringing together the best resources in math, science and music. Designed for students, kindergarten through college.
Teacher Vision Art and Math –Students will enjoy participating in math class with our art activities for teachers of any grade level, from elementary to high school.
Engaging Students in the STEM Classroom Through "Making"An engineering professor and former executive director of the Maker Education Initiative describes how the Maker Movement is engaging STEM students in new ways.
PBL and STEAM Education: A Natural Fit Miller looks at the enhanced possibilities of using 21st-century skills to engage students with real-world challenges through combining the pedagogical model of PBL with the rich content area of STEAM.
Article Music Merger Drexel program blends music and science
Book Science Arts: Discovering Science Through Art Experiences (K - 5) unique approach to science education! This book is jammed full of one-page "art experiments." The key is to use art projects to learn some science principles. Among many of the ideas to learn are dissolving, symmetry, reflecting light, gravity and friction.
This is Not a Math Book. Inside the pages, kids are invited to draw and explore cool and creative mathematical principles. They draw things in perspective, fool around with illusions and puzzles, create mesmerizing spirals and tessellations. There is plenty of blank paper and graph paper in the back for kids to experiment on their own. I highly recommend this book!
Amazing Math Projects You Can Build Yourself. If you want to include engineering into your math art mix, this is the book for you. I love the 3D building shapes, especially the geodesic dome. There are templates to explore cool topology projects. The text also includes a lot of information about the mathematical concepts in everyday life to ensure kids never look at snowflakes, bridges or patterns the same way again.
Math Arts: Exploring Math Through Art for 3 to 6 Year Olds by MaryAnn Kohl. Most of the math art activity books on this list are aimed at kids in the upper elementary grades. But Kohl’s book lets you start early. Explore patterns, make numbers, play with shapes and prepare your kids for a lifetime appreciation of the STEAM subjects.
MathART Projects and Activities. The ideas in this book focus more on making art with simple math concepts, such as using geometry to create flags, making quilt patterns, exploring symmetry and fractions. Since the math concepts are not advanced, even though it is recommended for grades 3-5, a lot of the projects can easily be adapted for younger kids.
Teacher Vision Art and Math Enhance math understanding with art activities for teachers of any grade level, from elementary to high school. Mix numbers with creativity with art activities that your students will love. You'll find lessons for creating counting books, crafts that encourage measuring, geometry printables to color, sculpting activities, and much more! You can use these resources to introduce new concepts or reinforce topics your students have already learned.
NPR Where Science Meets Art - Some exceptional podcasts integrating Science and Art.
Arts Edge- A fantastic resource from the Kennedy Center hosting numerous lessons that integrate Art in the curriculum
Edsitement - vast collection of Art related resources aimed at the Social Studies and Language Arts areas.
Cool Art with Math and Science by Anders Hanson. This is a series of hands-on math art books, which, to be honest, I think are overpriced. However, the projects in each of them are fantastic, so see if your library has them because they are worth checking out. The series includes flexagons, string art, tessellations and structures.
Math + Art = Fun. This has a lot of projects you would expect to see, like tessellations, spirals and graphing. There are also 3D activities and seasonal art projects. I liked the symmetry pop-up cards. It is written in lesson plan form and is aimed at teachers.
Book MathArts contains a wealth of easy-to-do, creative art experiments that encourage children's natural development of math concepts. K - 2
Book Art Lab for Kids: This easy to follow art guide shows kids simple art techniques that will inspire them to be more creative.
Article: Full STEAM Ahead K - 8 10 tips for incorporating art into your STEM class.
Article: Growing from STEM to STEAM Tips to team up the arts and sciences in your classroom
Article 4 Educators' Keys to Connecting STEM and Social Studies
STEM to STEAM - This organization is an advocate for STEAM education. It contains resources and information that allows educators to promote the Arts in STEM education (STEAM). An objective of the STEAM movement is to transform research policy with a goal place Art + Design at the center of STEM.
Math Art is a great way to get kids who love art to appreciate math, and kids who love math to learn about the importance of art. Archives like pi city skylines, spirolaterlas, parabolic curves, tessellations, Fibonacci curves and more. Many of our projects include handy videos to show you how utterly amazing the math art projects truly are.
Math in Art 18 STEAM Projects
Pebdulum Art
Pendulum Painting – The kids can explore the force of gravity while painting, too, with this pendulum painting activity.
Golden Ratio for Kids Art to Math
5 Reasons Why Origami Improves Students' Skills: Explore ways to use origami, the ancient art of paper folding, as a STEAM engine for teaching geometry, thinking skills, fractions, problem solving, and fun science.
The math and magic of origami is a TED Talk featuring Robert Lang - a pioneer of the newest kind of origami. Watch as he uses math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful.
Architecture for Kids projects and curriculum
- Architecture is Elementary gr. 3 - 8 Students learn the importantce of Ancient Greek Architecture and discover how society has been inspired by its art, law, literature and architecture.
- Fantastic Pinterest collection of building idea for kids.
Ancient Egypt STEAM Projects
Singing Fingers It invites whimsical creativity by combining drawing and sound. video demo
Angles in Art Lesson includes downloads
Art Bot Make a simple robot with electric toothbrush that draws. more options one | two | three
Explore Symmetry.
- This is great for younger kids. You’re probably familiar with the ol’ fold the paper in half and smoosh trick. You can make symmetry art free style, like we did.
- Create gorgeous math art with parabolic curves. My son designed his own eyeball!!
- Create gorgeous objects like these butterflies from Buggy and Buddy.
- These symmetry art aliens make me smile.
- We did this when we turned pi into a cityscape
- Spirolaterals will help your kids practice their multiplication tables.
- Create Fibonacci art with circles.
- This Fibonacci valentine from Math Four could be adapted for any time of the year.
- It can be really simple, like simply giving your kids a ruler, compass and protractor and see what they come up with. If using a compass is tricky, see my tip for drawing with a compass.
- I love this protractor art project that evokes Frank Stella’s artwork.
- Use a ruler to create sunburst paintings, like these at Art Bar.
- The boys love to play around with our homemade Montessori triangles. They don’t even think about the fact that they are creating artistic designs!
- Explore Möbius strips.
- Paint a Mondrian window.
- We also had a great time with these Hexi cards to print out from Picklebums.
- E is for Explore has a few ways kids can use Kandinsky inspired art to think about about circles and relative size.
- Make mandalas. like this idea at NurtureStore. I’ve always wanted to do this.
- Use a geoboard. We were gifted a cheesy plastic geoboard, but Crayon Box Chronicles has instructions so you can make your own.
Eurekus STEAM Curriculum some units are free Others range from $10 - $25
ART IN STEM: Teacher Vision allows students to enjoy participating in math class using art activities. You’ll find lessons here for encouraging measuring, geometry and much more!
Use Art to illustrate STEM ideas Understanding STEM ideas can be tough. Luckily, many concepts are more easily understood with accompanying visual explanations. We can use art projects to help teach or clarify these difficult ideas for kids. (scroll down page)
Make Art Materials with Kids did you know that there's a TON of science involved in making these materials? (Side note- I recently read this book and cannot recommend it enough. History, science, intrigue... !) To help give kids a firsthand experience to this process, try making your own art supplies together! Cutting, mixing, melting, cooking, combining, problem solving..... they get to be a color scientist!
STEAM Enrichment Opportunity
Nonprofit NTC Research Foundation is joining forces with FIRST LEGO League Jr. and The National Theatre for Children to launch a first-of-its-kind national program that provides proven STEAM learning experiences for elementary school students. The program, dubbed Bee on the Team (BOTT), whose aim of reaching more than 200,000 students in 500 elementary schools in need of hands-on STEAM enrichment education opportunities—in school, after school, and at home. BOTT will feature professional actors portraying bees, a bear, and an ant in an age-specific live theatrical event.
Evaporation Art – Let kids explore the properties of water and evaporation with this open-ended art activity.
Choreo Graph (iPad app free ) arts-meets-math creation tool engaging (and silly), and coordinating lessons support learning.
Science4Us K-2 integrates language arts activities that help children practice a number of literacy skills such as: understanding of the relationship and meanings of words and the ability to determine the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words.
Curriculum and Lessons K -12
MathScienceMusic.org is a free web-basedd toolkit for teachers, bringing together the best resources in math, science and music. Designed for students, kindergarten through college.
Sing About Science and Math website is a free database of lesson plans for incorporating music into STEM classes.
WildMusic Experiment online with nature and its sounds
The math and magic of origami is a TED Talk featuring Robert Lang - a pioneer of the newest kind of origami. Watch as he uses math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful.
Ancient Greek Architecture STEM Challenge
Rhyme 'n Learn is a series of math and science lessons presented in short rap music form. About half of the raps are provided in video format with visuals to support the lesson. The other half of the lessons are audio only, but do have transcripts available to help your students or you follow along
STEAM to STEM - This organization is an advocate for STEAM education. It contains resources and information that allows educators to promote the Arts in STEM education (STEAM). An objective of the STEAM movement is to transform research policy with a goal place Art + Design at the center of STEM.
STEAM Makerspace - 114 tips, ideas, resources and even lesson ideas for creating your very own STEAM Makerspace.
Over 25 STEAM Links Filled With Resources and Information: Find articles, project ideas, programs, and lesson plans to help inform STEAM curriculum planning.
STEAM Portal – STEAM Resources for Any Classroom
NPR Where Science Meets Art – Some exceptional Podcasts integrating Science and Art. Many of these titles will allow for student reflection and questions as they begin to see how the Arts and Science can be integrated.
Smithsonian Resource Lab applications for the arts, especially STEAM lesson plans. The site is developed around the themes of Discover, Create and Share.
STEM/STEAM and the Movies
STEAM ELA Lessons
Google Art Project. If you’re an art lover, you should not miss this app. Take a chance to discover and view famous artworks online in extraordinary detail.
Coding and the Arts
- Codeable Crafts K-3 Android app is a clever reworking of introductory coding, combining simple crafting (coloring, stickers, cut-out shapes) with visual block-based coding to get kids making animations and telling stories. The best thing about Codeable Crafts is how easy it is to create a short simple animated story. Kids need only to drag simple, puzzle-shaped coding blocks together in different ways to experiment with programming concepts like movement, repetition, and more. They can also just have fun telling a story.
- Google CS First is a free program launched by Google to help students enhance their computer science education through a variety of after-school, in-school, and summer programs. The materials provided by Google CS First are free and available online and each of these materials include lesson plans to help you use them with your students. (article)each students to learn by doing with Google school coding clubseamch students to learn by doing with Google school coding cl
- Teach students to learn by doing with Google school coding clubs These materials include: Play musical notes, create a music video, and build an interactive music display. Learn how programming is used to create music. Check out lesson plans. Learn how computer science and technology are used in the fashion industry while building fashion-themed programs, like: a fashion walk, a stylist tool, and a pattern maker. Check out lesson plans. Use computer science to tell fun and interactive stories. Storytelling emphasizes creativity, with club members telling a unique story each day. Check out lesson plans. Create animations, interactive artwork, photograph filters, and other exciting, artistic projects. Check out lesson plans. Learn basic video game coding concepts by making different types of games, like: racing, platform, launching and more! Check out lesson plans.
- Scratch gr 4- 12 Before starting with Scratch try Made With Code. Scratch is a simple drop and drag programming Great support and tutorial lessons Workshop Resources | Scratch curriculum page of Wesley Fryer | algebra connections (compare to Snap below) How to Upload and download scratch projects| Share Projects on the Web
- MathScienceMusic.org is a free web-basedd toolkit for teachers, bringing together the best resources in math, science and music. Designed for students, kindergarten through college. Use Scratch to code music.
- Scratch Jr. (K-3) Website for resources The Scratch Jr app is for iPad and Android a PBS Kids version of Scratch Jr
- CS Unplugged (gr. 4-10) A collection of free learning activities that teach computer science through engaging games and puzzles that use cards, string, crayons, and allows students to move.
- StoryCode. Computer Programming Through Literature. StoryCode is curriculum and training for using short stories, novels and film to teach the fundamentals of computer programming to diverse learners
- Code Gym A Google-supported open source coding laboratory using drawing, music and creative fiction to introduce coding concepts
- Alice gr 6 -12 is a 3-dimensional interactive animation program visualization environment. Novice programmers build animated 3-D movies and author games as they learn introductory object-oriented programming concepts. Alice provides a drag-and-drop development environment, to prevent students from making syntax errors. Resources for Alice 3 |
- Storybricks innovative way to tell a story through the use of RPG MMO characters. The way this is done is similar to creating a game in Scratch/Alice Storytelling by dragging-n-dropping commands on top of each other to build commands.
Arts Edge – A resource from the Kennedy Center hosting numerous lessons that integrate Art in the curriculum.You will discover a focus on ways to support innovative teaching with the arts, and meet changing trends in education and to accommodate the ever-evolving impact of technology in our lives.
24 Apps, Games, and Websites Teachers are Using in STEAM Classrooms: Browse a teacher-sourced list of teaching tools for various grade levels and subjects.
Amaziograph iPad app for ways to integrate math and art through symmetry.
STEAM Art Projects with iPad apps
BIE.org - The people at the BUCK Institute For Education have a great area where you can search for activities and projects already made. Note how many projects include both math and science. Want an extra bonus? Include the arts and make STEAM
PBS Design Squad Nation – Turn the innovation on in your classroom. Use Design Squad Nation activities, animations, video profiles, and episodes in classrooms and after-school programs, in libraries and museums, at events and at home. This will engage your students in some amazing activities.
National Gallery of Art – You will find organized into thematic units, each grade-level-specific lesson plan focuses on a single work of art and can be executed within one to two class periods. These lessons meet the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Visual Arts curriculum standards
Exploratorium – Take a look at the entire site, but especially explore the Art related material. You will find lessons that allow you to connect with other subject areas including the STEM disciplines. You will get a new definition of exploring through the Exploratorium,
The Art Institute of Chicago – Explore these wonderful lessons that cover Science and the Arts. It just might have you and your students look at Art in a whole different way. Best of all you will discover some STEAM possibilities.
Lesson Plans and resources for Art Integration – This Edutopia Article has a rich assortment of lessons and resources to integrate Art into curricular areas including Math, Science, and Design. A great read that will lead to some wonderful opportunities.
Masterpieces to Math – A wonderful article that focuses on how to incorporate art in math. Learn how to use Art to teach fractions, decimals, and percent equivalents.
Maker Education Find resources and tools to help bring elements of maker culture into schools and classrooms, and encourage students to explore STEAM subjects within the context of maker projects.
National Engineer Week: Future City – Great Project Based Learning Activity incorporating STEAM along with Language Arts and Social Studies. Engage students with Sim City Software, model building, and a new curriculum designed to integrate disciplines.
Autodesk Digital Steam Workshop - Digital STEAM projects are designed by Autodesk’s network of expert educators, designers and student alumni as exciting complements to core Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Art (STEAM) curriculum. Each project aligns with common core and national standards, and delivers measurable learning while using free software.
Kids Like Blues: Using Music and Video to Rock Your Classroom
A teacher and musician, tells the amusing and inspiring story (with generous video examples) of how he turned the blues into an effective pedagogy in his first grade class.
MathScienceMusic.org is a free toolkit for teachers, bringing together the best resources in math, science and music. Designed for students, kindergarten through college.
Teacher Vision Art and Math –Students will enjoy participating in math class with our art activities for teachers of any grade level, from elementary to high school.
Engaging Students in the STEM Classroom Through "Making"An engineering professor and former executive director of the Maker Education Initiative describes how the Maker Movement is engaging STEM students in new ways.
PBL and STEAM Education: A Natural Fit Miller looks at the enhanced possibilities of using 21st-century skills to engage students with real-world challenges through combining the pedagogical model of PBL with the rich content area of STEAM.
Animation
Animaker Simple to use drag and drop animation for all ages.
Stop Frame Animator from Culture Street is a neat tool for creating animated stop motion movies. Creating your animated stop motion video is a simple drag and drop process on Stop Frame Animator.
Animatron students can create short animations that can be played back on any device. The tool is a great alternative to creating static presentations, and would work well for upper elementary through high school students.
Rawshorts creating whiteboard animation videos in three simple steps: ‘First, choose from dozens of professionally designed templates across every category to make a video scribe for your business.Second, add your own media, text, transitions, effects and audio and create something totally original, and third promote your new sketch video on YouTube, Facebook, a landing page and more
BiteableBiteable boasts to be the simplest animated video creator. This tool lets you add text, photos, colors, and sound to customize your video in a drag-and-drop timeline. It also offers plenty of scenes like animation, live action, and photo in numerous styles, and you can even use its ready-made templates.
Licecap Gif animator Can capture video or individual pictures. You can insert title frames.
Video tutorial. Tutorial does not show how to insert text. Just click the Insert button after first clicking the pause button.
Free Course to Help Teachers and Students Learn The Basics of Animation Pixar in A Box is a free online course created out of a partnership between Khan Academy and Pixar Animation Studios. The course introduces learners to the fundamentals of the art of animation. More specifically, learners get to experience first-hand knowledge of the techniques and methods Pixar engineers use to create movies and animations. Video overview
Draw Island is a free online tool (tablet-friendly) for creating drawings and simple GIF animations. Draw Island offers you your choice of four canvas sizes on which you can draw. Draw Island offers two canvas sizes for creating simple GIF animations.
Parapara Animation is a free animation creation tool developed and hosted by Mozilla. The tool is easy to use and it does not require registration in order to use it. To get started simply visit the Parapara Animation website, select a digital crayon, then start drawing. Click the large "+" icon in the top of the screen to add a new frame to your animation. You can playback your frames at any time in the creation process. When you're done making your animation it will be assigned a unique URL that can be shared via email. A QR code for your animation will also be generated for you.
Devolver streamlines the animation process into a quick, six-step multiple choice project. Choose your background, characters and one of four plots; type in some dialog; choose some music; and — voila! — you have an animated movie. Despite the extremely limited customization options, it's actually not a bad looking cartoon.
Gifckr animated gif maker This is an easy to use site that lets a user upload up to 10 images to create the gif. Then a user selects the size and speed for the transitions. Once finished the animated gif can then be downloaded.
ABCya Animate allows students to create animated GIFs containing up to 100 frames.
Students build their animation creations by drawing, typing, and inserting images. Students can change the background of each frame, include new pictures in each frame, and change the text in each frame of their animations. The feature that I like best about ABCya Animate is that students can see the previous frames of their animations while working on a current frame. This helps students know where to position items in each frame in order to make their animations as smooth as possible. Students do not need to register on ABCya Animate in order to use the tool or to save their animations. When students click "save" on ABCya Animate their creations are downloaded as GIFs.
Maya Innovative tools for 3D modeling, animation, effects, and rendering.
Sketch Toy - a web-based drawing tool and Chrome App that allows you to quickly create and share drawings from any browser. What makes Sketch Toy different from other tools is the ability to not only draw, but also automatically convert your drawings into step-by-step animations that can be shared with a link (only when you view through link will yousee step-by step animation). Additionally, anyone who accesses your drawing can then add on to it and generate a new link to share, allowing students to quickly iterate on each others' drawings WITHOUT needing an account!
Sketch Toy also lets you rotate your drawings as 3D models and includes a "vibration" setting which makes your drawings appear slightly animated - much like Squigglevision. You can also drag any image from your desktop onto the screen and incorporate it into your drawing.
Teacher’s Guides that explore the art and science of motion pictures. The free Teacher’s Guides address Animation, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costumes and Makeup, Documentaries, Film Editing, Media Literacy, Screenwriting, Sound and Music, and Visual Effects. The activities are designed to capitalize on students’ natural interest in current films and the excitement generated by the Academy Awards to teach valuable lessons in critical thinking and creative writing, and to develop visual literacy skills. Each Teacher’s Guide is available in its entirety to download and print at no charge. The guides are made available to high sch ools throughout the United States.Click Here to Download Free Teacher’s Guides
Blender - free 3D software animator
Stop Frame Animator from Culture Street is a neat tool for creating animated stop motion movies. Creating your animated stop motion video is a simple drag and drop process on Stop Frame Animator.
Animatron students can create short animations that can be played back on any device. The tool is a great alternative to creating static presentations, and would work well for upper elementary through high school students.
Rawshorts creating whiteboard animation videos in three simple steps: ‘First, choose from dozens of professionally designed templates across every category to make a video scribe for your business.Second, add your own media, text, transitions, effects and audio and create something totally original, and third promote your new sketch video on YouTube, Facebook, a landing page and more
BiteableBiteable boasts to be the simplest animated video creator. This tool lets you add text, photos, colors, and sound to customize your video in a drag-and-drop timeline. It also offers plenty of scenes like animation, live action, and photo in numerous styles, and you can even use its ready-made templates.
Licecap Gif animator Can capture video or individual pictures. You can insert title frames.
Video tutorial. Tutorial does not show how to insert text. Just click the Insert button after first clicking the pause button.
Free Course to Help Teachers and Students Learn The Basics of Animation Pixar in A Box is a free online course created out of a partnership between Khan Academy and Pixar Animation Studios. The course introduces learners to the fundamentals of the art of animation. More specifically, learners get to experience first-hand knowledge of the techniques and methods Pixar engineers use to create movies and animations. Video overview
Draw Island is a free online tool (tablet-friendly) for creating drawings and simple GIF animations. Draw Island offers you your choice of four canvas sizes on which you can draw. Draw Island offers two canvas sizes for creating simple GIF animations.
Parapara Animation is a free animation creation tool developed and hosted by Mozilla. The tool is easy to use and it does not require registration in order to use it. To get started simply visit the Parapara Animation website, select a digital crayon, then start drawing. Click the large "+" icon in the top of the screen to add a new frame to your animation. You can playback your frames at any time in the creation process. When you're done making your animation it will be assigned a unique URL that can be shared via email. A QR code for your animation will also be generated for you.
Devolver streamlines the animation process into a quick, six-step multiple choice project. Choose your background, characters and one of four plots; type in some dialog; choose some music; and — voila! — you have an animated movie. Despite the extremely limited customization options, it's actually not a bad looking cartoon.
Gifckr animated gif maker This is an easy to use site that lets a user upload up to 10 images to create the gif. Then a user selects the size and speed for the transitions. Once finished the animated gif can then be downloaded.
ABCya Animate allows students to create animated GIFs containing up to 100 frames.
Students build their animation creations by drawing, typing, and inserting images. Students can change the background of each frame, include new pictures in each frame, and change the text in each frame of their animations. The feature that I like best about ABCya Animate is that students can see the previous frames of their animations while working on a current frame. This helps students know where to position items in each frame in order to make their animations as smooth as possible. Students do not need to register on ABCya Animate in order to use the tool or to save their animations. When students click "save" on ABCya Animate their creations are downloaded as GIFs.
Maya Innovative tools for 3D modeling, animation, effects, and rendering.
Sketch Toy - a web-based drawing tool and Chrome App that allows you to quickly create and share drawings from any browser. What makes Sketch Toy different from other tools is the ability to not only draw, but also automatically convert your drawings into step-by-step animations that can be shared with a link (only when you view through link will yousee step-by step animation). Additionally, anyone who accesses your drawing can then add on to it and generate a new link to share, allowing students to quickly iterate on each others' drawings WITHOUT needing an account!
Sketch Toy also lets you rotate your drawings as 3D models and includes a "vibration" setting which makes your drawings appear slightly animated - much like Squigglevision. You can also drag any image from your desktop onto the screen and incorporate it into your drawing.
Teacher’s Guides that explore the art and science of motion pictures. The free Teacher’s Guides address Animation, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costumes and Makeup, Documentaries, Film Editing, Media Literacy, Screenwriting, Sound and Music, and Visual Effects. The activities are designed to capitalize on students’ natural interest in current films and the excitement generated by the Academy Awards to teach valuable lessons in critical thinking and creative writing, and to develop visual literacy skills. Each Teacher’s Guide is available in its entirety to download and print at no charge. The guides are made available to high sch ools throughout the United States.Click Here to Download Free Teacher’s Guides
Blender - free 3D software animator
Projects
Ready, Set, Design is a quick group activity. It uses simple, inexpensive materials and is an effective tool for problem solving, creative thinking and team building. Ready, Set, Design is not just for designers but can be used by any audience as a way to engage in design thinking.
Real-World STEM Problems
More Real-World STEM Problems
Global SchoolNet’s Online Registry Coming up with new projects is not always easy, especially for teachers new to PBL. This site offers 3,000 annotated projects, which are searchable by date, age level, geographic location, collaboration type, technology tools or keyword, and created by educators and youth from around the world.
Design Challenge Learning? It’s a combination of project-based learning, design thinking and the engineering design process that develops the innovator’s mindset through iteration.
The lessons on this page, developed over the years by educators at The Tech, will help teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make fun and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers.
FIVE BEST STEM CHALLENGES according to a teacher includes mystery build, pipeline, and rescue devices
STEAM Event Ideas
NextLesson offers Common Core aligned projects and performance tasks for K-12 students in math, science, social studies, and English language arts.
BIE’s website has project planning forms as well as an online project planner
CIESE Online – CIESE (Center for Innovation and Science Education) sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. Each project has a brief description and links to the National Science Standards and NCTM math standards it supports
InterestID The basis of their coaching comes from an understanding of each student’s strengths, weakness, and interests. NextLesson makes it easy for teachers find out what interests students. K-12 students can share their likes and dislikes for interests in over 30 categories, ranging from careers to amusement parks. Teachers can determine student interests as a class and find interest-aligned projects in NextLesson’s bank of projects.
Educurious This is a non-profit organization that provides training and support tailored to the needs of teachers and students. The courses it offered to students are PBL-based and are geared towards empowering them to develop solutions to challenges they care about.
Trello visual platform that allows you to organize and manage your projects the way you like. You can create and add as many projects as you want and then organize them on Trello’s visual board so you can easily keep track of everything you are working on. You can invite friends and colleagues to your boards and start working collaboratively. ‘Post comments for instant feedback. Upload files from your computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive. Add checklists, labels, due dates, and more. Notifications make sure you always know when important stuff happens.’ Troll works across different devices (iOS, Android, Kindle Fire and the Web) and is supported by the four major browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari).
PBL and STEAM Education: A Natural Fit Miller looks at the enhanced possibilities of using 21st-century skills to engage students with real-world challenges through combining the pedagogical model of PBL with the rich content area of STEAM.
Connect, Communicate, and Collaborate Around the Globe
How do the traits of hummingbirds, geckos, and other animals help scientists design robots? What does bird’s nest soup tell about Chinese culture? How do images, color, and text work together to communicate ideas that can change the world? These are just a few examples of the high-interest Experiences, or explorations, that students can work on collaboratively with peers in Afghanistan, Greece, Iceland, India, Italy, and other countries around the world through the free ePals Global Community. STEAM, English language arts, and social studies are among the core curricular skills students practice within the larger context of cultural investigations on topics such as growing up in Turkey or Cambodia, the causes and effects of poverty globally, and recipes from Spain, Russia, Holland, and the American South that reflect regional beliefs and customs. Teacher materials include Experience descriptions, standards-aligned objectives, step-by-step tasks, thought questions, collaborative activities, and homework suggestions. Marginal notes provide tips on grouping students and setting goals, and suggest ways students can contribute their ideas and solutions to charities and other real-world organizations.
Click Here to Visit Website
Planners and Trackers set up and monitor projects.
KidsThinkDesign Visit Website: http://www.kidsthinkdesign.org/index.html
Projects inspire creativity; a place for kids' sharing would boost fun
West Virginia PBL Project Data Base – This is a wonderful site where teachers can search through the subjects of reading, language arts, math, science, social studies, dance, visual arts, theater, and music. You can select from grade two all the way through grade twelve.
Learning Reviews – This website claims to connect kids to learning on the web. It really connects kids to awesome, engaging, rigorous, and relevant projects. Be sure to check out all of the subjects and grade levels.
PBL Language Arts Projects by grade level
PBL Science Lesson Ideas by topic
PBL Math Project Ideas by topic
PBL Social Studies Project Ideas by grade level
Remind Using this web-based tool, teachers can send messages to individuals and groups about project updates and deadlines using instant messaging with photo and document sharing features.
The Edible Schoolyard project can be a great way to introduce agriculture and its complexities to students. You don't have to plant a garden to participate; the site has many lessons and ideas for all grade levels. There are similar, local programs you may be able to find in your area.
Roots and Shoots –Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots is a youth-led community action and learning program of the Jane Goodall Institute. This amazing website builds on the power and responsibility for creating community-based solutions to big challenges. Through the program, young people map their community to identify specific challenges their neighborhoods face. From there, they prioritize the problems, develop a plan for a solution, and take action which engages students in authentic learning.
Too Noisy is an iPad app (free and pro versions available) designed to help students learn to recognize the appropriate volume for conversations. The app measures the volume of the noise in a room and displays a meter indicating whether or not the the room is too noisy. Too Noisy has four situation settings that you can use in your classroom; silent, quiet, group, and class. You can adjust the sensitivity of the meter for each situation.
Teach 21 - The educators in the state of West Virginia at Global 21 have provided this amazing PBL site. Just pick a grade level and subject area. You will find projects that encompass the STEM areas.
Imagination Playground 3D Builder, children can build, stack, channel and connect blue building blocks. Build endlessly in the Quick Builder mode, and then flip on the Gravity button to watch your blocks take on physical properties. Imagination Playground 3D Builder encourages open ended, unstructured free play. The benefits of this kind of play include creativity, self-expression, communication, collaboration, problem solving, motor-skills development.
WeLearnedIt is an easy to use project-based learning platform that allows teachers to create and share dynamic assignments, leave meaningful feedback on student work, and allows learners to capture and track their academic growth and achievement over time in digital learning portfolios.
Science Buddies It “ empowers K-12 students, parents, and teachers to quickly and easily find free project ideas and help in all areas of science from physics to food science and music to microbiology. Whether your goal is to find a fun science activity for your kids or win the international science fair, Science Buddies puts comprehensive, scientist-authored tools, tips, and techniques at your fingertips.”
Paper Toys and Video Creation Use Foldify and Paper Toys site
BIE.org - The people at the BUCK Institute For Education have a great area where you can search for activities and projects already made. Note how many projects include both math and science. Want an extra bonus? Include the arts and make STEAM
National Service Learning Clearing House - Hundreds of ideas. While not all may be PBL… they could sure be remixed to have all the components!
iEarn - Projects based on contemporary issues with an emphasis towards collaboration beyond your district, state, and country.community of high schools
DIY.org Students find dozens of DIY projects to do on their own or with their parents. DIY.org provides videos and instructions on how to do the projects. After going through the directions kids then try to complete the project. When they've completed the project they can take a picture and upload it to their DIY.org portfolios. Kids can share examples of their projects through DIY.org. Kids cannot register on DIY.org without a parent's permission. Parents have their own DIY.org dashboards that they can use to track the activities of their children. Children registered on DIY.org have aliases and cartoon avatar pictures.
Real Wold Math PBL - Small selection of projects based on math skills.
Math Matter Geometry - Selection of 10 Geometry projects developed in Indiana and hosted by Indiana University.
Math Matter Algebra 1 - Selection of about 20 Algebra 1 Projects from Math Matters at Indiana University designed for middle school.
Math Matters Algebra 2 - Selection of over 20 Algebra 2 Projects from Math Matters at Indiana University designed for high school..
The Catapult Project
Grades 5-12 | Video | Engineering Design
IDEA ALERT: This 6-week catapult design project introduces students to engineering design, probability, and the laws of motion and forces. Watch how it unfolds!
BIE.org – The people at the BUCK Institute For Education have a great area where you can search for activities and projects already made. Note how many projects include both math and science. Want an extra bonus? Include the arts and make STEAM!
Teach 21 – The educators in the state of West Virginia at Global 21 have provided this amazing PBL site. Just pick a grade level and subject area. You will find projects that encompass the STEM area
Advertising Project gr. 4- 6
Brochure Project gr. 4-6
West Point Bridge Project - Whether it be math, science, or engineering... students will enjoy this free program from the West Point Academy. Watch students compete in collaborative groups as they learn valuable content and understand the world of math and science through simulations and modeling.
CuriositySchool focuses on solving engineering problems, including Biology, Chemistry, and Physics all in one, simple to use app.
High Tech High School - Seven projects that have been successful at this PBL based school.
National Service Learning Clearing House - Hundreds of ideas. While not all may be PBL... they could sure be remixed to have all the components!
Exemplary Projects - While there are not a lot of projects... there are some cool ideas.
The Science of Cooking Explore recipes, activities, and Webcasts that will enhance your understanding of the science behind food and cooking
The Accidental Scientist: Science of Cooking from Exploratorium provides recipes, activities and webcasts that will enhance students’ understanding of the science behind food and cooking. The cooking categories are candy, bread, eggs, pickles, meat and seasoning. Each category includes a Kitchen Lab for exploring recipes and activities, the Science behind each food topic, a Share & Discuss feature and an interactive learning game. Check out Live@Exploratorium, a series of live webcasts that explore the science and culture of cooking. The guests include noted chefs, food chemists and nutritionists. Web: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/-
Real-World STEM Problems
More Real-World STEM Problems
Global SchoolNet’s Online Registry Coming up with new projects is not always easy, especially for teachers new to PBL. This site offers 3,000 annotated projects, which are searchable by date, age level, geographic location, collaboration type, technology tools or keyword, and created by educators and youth from around the world.
Design Challenge Learning? It’s a combination of project-based learning, design thinking and the engineering design process that develops the innovator’s mindset through iteration.
The lessons on this page, developed over the years by educators at The Tech, will help teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make fun and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers.
FIVE BEST STEM CHALLENGES according to a teacher includes mystery build, pipeline, and rescue devices
STEAM Event Ideas
NextLesson offers Common Core aligned projects and performance tasks for K-12 students in math, science, social studies, and English language arts.
BIE’s website has project planning forms as well as an online project planner
CIESE Online – CIESE (Center for Innovation and Science Education) sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. Each project has a brief description and links to the National Science Standards and NCTM math standards it supports
InterestID The basis of their coaching comes from an understanding of each student’s strengths, weakness, and interests. NextLesson makes it easy for teachers find out what interests students. K-12 students can share their likes and dislikes for interests in over 30 categories, ranging from careers to amusement parks. Teachers can determine student interests as a class and find interest-aligned projects in NextLesson’s bank of projects.
Educurious This is a non-profit organization that provides training and support tailored to the needs of teachers and students. The courses it offered to students are PBL-based and are geared towards empowering them to develop solutions to challenges they care about.
Trello visual platform that allows you to organize and manage your projects the way you like. You can create and add as many projects as you want and then organize them on Trello’s visual board so you can easily keep track of everything you are working on. You can invite friends and colleagues to your boards and start working collaboratively. ‘Post comments for instant feedback. Upload files from your computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive. Add checklists, labels, due dates, and more. Notifications make sure you always know when important stuff happens.’ Troll works across different devices (iOS, Android, Kindle Fire and the Web) and is supported by the four major browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari).
PBL and STEAM Education: A Natural Fit Miller looks at the enhanced possibilities of using 21st-century skills to engage students with real-world challenges through combining the pedagogical model of PBL with the rich content area of STEAM.
Connect, Communicate, and Collaborate Around the Globe
How do the traits of hummingbirds, geckos, and other animals help scientists design robots? What does bird’s nest soup tell about Chinese culture? How do images, color, and text work together to communicate ideas that can change the world? These are just a few examples of the high-interest Experiences, or explorations, that students can work on collaboratively with peers in Afghanistan, Greece, Iceland, India, Italy, and other countries around the world through the free ePals Global Community. STEAM, English language arts, and social studies are among the core curricular skills students practice within the larger context of cultural investigations on topics such as growing up in Turkey or Cambodia, the causes and effects of poverty globally, and recipes from Spain, Russia, Holland, and the American South that reflect regional beliefs and customs. Teacher materials include Experience descriptions, standards-aligned objectives, step-by-step tasks, thought questions, collaborative activities, and homework suggestions. Marginal notes provide tips on grouping students and setting goals, and suggest ways students can contribute their ideas and solutions to charities and other real-world organizations.
Click Here to Visit Website
Planners and Trackers set up and monitor projects.
KidsThinkDesign Visit Website: http://www.kidsthinkdesign.org/index.html
Projects inspire creativity; a place for kids' sharing would boost fun
West Virginia PBL Project Data Base – This is a wonderful site where teachers can search through the subjects of reading, language arts, math, science, social studies, dance, visual arts, theater, and music. You can select from grade two all the way through grade twelve.
Learning Reviews – This website claims to connect kids to learning on the web. It really connects kids to awesome, engaging, rigorous, and relevant projects. Be sure to check out all of the subjects and grade levels.
PBL Language Arts Projects by grade level
PBL Science Lesson Ideas by topic
PBL Math Project Ideas by topic
PBL Social Studies Project Ideas by grade level
Remind Using this web-based tool, teachers can send messages to individuals and groups about project updates and deadlines using instant messaging with photo and document sharing features.
The Edible Schoolyard project can be a great way to introduce agriculture and its complexities to students. You don't have to plant a garden to participate; the site has many lessons and ideas for all grade levels. There are similar, local programs you may be able to find in your area.
Roots and Shoots –Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots is a youth-led community action and learning program of the Jane Goodall Institute. This amazing website builds on the power and responsibility for creating community-based solutions to big challenges. Through the program, young people map their community to identify specific challenges their neighborhoods face. From there, they prioritize the problems, develop a plan for a solution, and take action which engages students in authentic learning.
Too Noisy is an iPad app (free and pro versions available) designed to help students learn to recognize the appropriate volume for conversations. The app measures the volume of the noise in a room and displays a meter indicating whether or not the the room is too noisy. Too Noisy has four situation settings that you can use in your classroom; silent, quiet, group, and class. You can adjust the sensitivity of the meter for each situation.
Teach 21 - The educators in the state of West Virginia at Global 21 have provided this amazing PBL site. Just pick a grade level and subject area. You will find projects that encompass the STEM areas.
Imagination Playground 3D Builder, children can build, stack, channel and connect blue building blocks. Build endlessly in the Quick Builder mode, and then flip on the Gravity button to watch your blocks take on physical properties. Imagination Playground 3D Builder encourages open ended, unstructured free play. The benefits of this kind of play include creativity, self-expression, communication, collaboration, problem solving, motor-skills development.
WeLearnedIt is an easy to use project-based learning platform that allows teachers to create and share dynamic assignments, leave meaningful feedback on student work, and allows learners to capture and track their academic growth and achievement over time in digital learning portfolios.
Science Buddies It “ empowers K-12 students, parents, and teachers to quickly and easily find free project ideas and help in all areas of science from physics to food science and music to microbiology. Whether your goal is to find a fun science activity for your kids or win the international science fair, Science Buddies puts comprehensive, scientist-authored tools, tips, and techniques at your fingertips.”
Paper Toys and Video Creation Use Foldify and Paper Toys site
BIE.org - The people at the BUCK Institute For Education have a great area where you can search for activities and projects already made. Note how many projects include both math and science. Want an extra bonus? Include the arts and make STEAM
National Service Learning Clearing House - Hundreds of ideas. While not all may be PBL… they could sure be remixed to have all the components!
iEarn - Projects based on contemporary issues with an emphasis towards collaboration beyond your district, state, and country.community of high schools
DIY.org Students find dozens of DIY projects to do on their own or with their parents. DIY.org provides videos and instructions on how to do the projects. After going through the directions kids then try to complete the project. When they've completed the project they can take a picture and upload it to their DIY.org portfolios. Kids can share examples of their projects through DIY.org. Kids cannot register on DIY.org without a parent's permission. Parents have their own DIY.org dashboards that they can use to track the activities of their children. Children registered on DIY.org have aliases and cartoon avatar pictures.
Real Wold Math PBL - Small selection of projects based on math skills.
Math Matter Geometry - Selection of 10 Geometry projects developed in Indiana and hosted by Indiana University.
Math Matter Algebra 1 - Selection of about 20 Algebra 1 Projects from Math Matters at Indiana University designed for middle school.
Math Matters Algebra 2 - Selection of over 20 Algebra 2 Projects from Math Matters at Indiana University designed for high school..
The Catapult Project
Grades 5-12 | Video | Engineering Design
IDEA ALERT: This 6-week catapult design project introduces students to engineering design, probability, and the laws of motion and forces. Watch how it unfolds!
BIE.org – The people at the BUCK Institute For Education have a great area where you can search for activities and projects already made. Note how many projects include both math and science. Want an extra bonus? Include the arts and make STEAM!
Teach 21 – The educators in the state of West Virginia at Global 21 have provided this amazing PBL site. Just pick a grade level and subject area. You will find projects that encompass the STEM area
Advertising Project gr. 4- 6
Brochure Project gr. 4-6
West Point Bridge Project - Whether it be math, science, or engineering... students will enjoy this free program from the West Point Academy. Watch students compete in collaborative groups as they learn valuable content and understand the world of math and science through simulations and modeling.
CuriositySchool focuses on solving engineering problems, including Biology, Chemistry, and Physics all in one, simple to use app.
High Tech High School - Seven projects that have been successful at this PBL based school.
National Service Learning Clearing House - Hundreds of ideas. While not all may be PBL... they could sure be remixed to have all the components!
Exemplary Projects - While there are not a lot of projects... there are some cool ideas.
The Science of Cooking Explore recipes, activities, and Webcasts that will enhance your understanding of the science behind food and cooking
The Accidental Scientist: Science of Cooking from Exploratorium provides recipes, activities and webcasts that will enhance students’ understanding of the science behind food and cooking. The cooking categories are candy, bread, eggs, pickles, meat and seasoning. Each category includes a Kitchen Lab for exploring recipes and activities, the Science behind each food topic, a Share & Discuss feature and an interactive learning game. Check out Live@Exploratorium, a series of live webcasts that explore the science and culture of cooking. The guests include noted chefs, food chemists and nutritionists. Web: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/-
Assessment
Why Reflect within the Design Process?
Reflection in STEAM is essential to both student understanding and teacher evaluation of students' learning. Reflecting helps students make connections, understand their successes and failures, and become aware of their learning. Reflections help teachers identify where students are in their learning process.
- Five-step Engineering Design Process developed by the Museum of Science in Boston to guide most STEM lessons and activities.
- Explanation of this process
STEAM Grading Rubric
How to Grade STEM
How to Introduce S.T.E.M. Expectations
Free STEM Mini Journals Use these to help guide students through the STEM process
Writing like a Scientis K-5
Lab Sheets gr. 3-6
Socrative 2.0 includes a brand new design and great new features. Here is an introductory video about the new features. It is a system that uses cell phones and or laptops (user's choice) for gathering feedback from students. You can post as many questions as you like in a variety of formats. step by step guide
Back-Channeling with Socrative | Socrative Garden-
Socrative has class backchannel capabilities.
Socrative for iPad
Socrative is an app that turns any device into part of a student response system. If you have BYOD or iPad or any type of 1:1 technology, Socrative is a must use so you don't have to buy a separate response system. Socrative now allows you to add images to your questions and have short answer quizzes graded for you. Additionally, the short answer activity now allows you to display your question on your audience's devices. See Infuse learning below for a comparative program.
ThatMathQuiz iPad app is a simple website with more power than meets the eye. A first glance, it's a menu of mostly math skills for students to practice. But keep exploring video
Biz Movie is an engaging way to assess student learning in a project. Students in grades 3-6 show what they know and can do by creating animated movies. Students also learn the basics of entrepreneurship and business as they create and run movie companies.
Blubbr quiz creation service. Using Blubbr you can create interactive quizzes that are based on YouTube clips. The structure of the quizzes has a viewer watch a short clip then answer a multiple choice question about the clip. Viewers know right away if they chose the correct answer or not. To create a quiz on Blubbr start by entering a topic for your quiz. After entering your topic enter a search for a video about that topic. Blubbr will generate a list of videos that you can select from to use in your quiz. When you find a video that works for you, trim the clip to a length that you like then write out your question and answer choices. Click here to try a short Blubbr quiz about the human heart.
Nearpod iOS app and/or website that teachers can use to create quizzes, polls, and multimedia presentations. Those materials can be shared directly to students who have the Nearpod student app installed. Teachers can view students' responses individually or as a whole class. video
Spiral free lets teachers and students create free virtual classrooms where students can create collaborative presentations, view and respond to presentations, and/or watch YouTube videos with easily-created teacher questions. It has other features as well.
Student Evaluation - Self reflection often is insightful for all stakeholders. This simple form cuts to the chase for differentiated instruction.
Frolyc a tool for teachers looking to design their own lesson-based activities. Teachers can create activities for students like: completing a graphic organizer, identify cause and effect in a passage, draw a response to a question or take a quiz. Students can access activities that are assigned to them by a teacher using Frolyc’s iPad app
Nimbus screenshot - Chrome extension Rather than answering the same question dozens of times, create a screencast video to explain how to use a website. Or use the extension to make a flipped classroom video.
Learnclick Easily create Cloze Quizzes with this app. Choose between blank fields, dropdowns, drag&drop as well as multiple choice quizzes. See detailed statistics on how well your students performed.
FlipGrid allows students to reply to instructor prompts/questions with short videos.
Seesaw is a student-driven digital portfolio that empowers students of any age to independently document what they are learning at school and share it with their teachers, parents, classmates, and even the world. IOS, Android and website
Creatubbles video Share links to your artwork with family and friends. Start galleries and invite others to join. Explore art made by other young artists from around the world.
Leave comments and Bubbles on the pieces you like.
GoClass is a free iPad application for creating short lessons and delivering them to your students. The lessons can include annotated images, free hand sketches, text, and video. GoClass gives teachers tools for creating class rosters that they can use to keep track of which students are using the lessons when. Teachers also have the option to ask questions and poll their students. After the students' response have been gathered teachers can project those responses without showing individual student's names.
Activity Spot. As students complete the activity, teachers will receive feedback on student progress in real time! You can access a library filled with Common Core aligned activities created and shared by other teachers. You can create a unique learning experience for your students. a learning and assessment tool, Froylc is a powerful platform for increasing student engagement and monitoring student progress. Since Froylc lets users assign activities to students individually, it’s easy to differentiate student tasks.
Kahoot is a new service for delivering online quizzes and surveys to your students. The premise of Kahoot is similar to that of Socrative and Infuse Learning. On Kahoot you create a quiz or survey that your students respond to through any device that has a web browser (iPad, Android device, Chromebook). Your Kahoot questions can include pictures and videos.
Answer Garden - Sometimes you may wish to just ask a question and let your students give their creative answer. Answer Garden allows you to do this on the web. You can show the interaction on a website, print the results, or even put the results into a Word Cloud for the class to analyze!
Mentimeter is a free service that allows you to pose a question to your audience and get instant feedback on that question through cell phones, tablets, and any other Internet-connected device. Includes open-ended response format. Mentimeter allows you to create an unlimited amount of questions and collect unlimited responses. The user interface is clean and simple and your students don't need to create accounts in order to respond to your questions. video demo
OpenEd is a service that has created a huge catalog of educational videos and games that you can browse by topic, grade level, or Common Core standard. Recently, assessments were added to the OpenEd catalog. Assessments can be found in the same manner as videos and games. To find an assessment select a topic, grade level, or standard then search.
Geddit This site allows students to use any mobile device to gauge their understanding of any given topic/lesson. The way this works as a lesson is being given they click/tap a on bar (think bar graph increasing vertically) to show their understanding (i.e., 1 bar - not very - 4 bars - very). On the the teacher's device they will receive instant real-time feedback and be able to see which students are doing good and which ones are struggling. This is a great way for teachers to differentiate instruction and adjust their lessons to meet individual needs.
15 Assessments That Don't Suck
eQuizShow, an easy way for teachers or students to create Jeopardy-style review games. Unlike similar tools you do not have to download or upload any PowerPoint files to use eQuizShow. On eQuizShow you can build and display your quiz completely online.
Gooru is a place to find and or create collections of educational videos, texts, and images. Gooru's new interface includes the option to search for materials according to ELA Common Core standards. Another new feature of the revamped Gooru interface is dragging and dropping items from your search results to your collections. Now you can also create quizzes to go along with each of your collections.
EQuizzer Create a variety of quiz types. Fill in the Blank, Multiple Choice, True or False. Multi-Marked, Matching, Short Answer
ProProfs Quiz Maker Can add videos to your quizzes. tutorial
EDpuzzle - How about turning a video into an interactive lesson? With this free website, add audio notes and quizzes at any point to a video.
QuizBean is a platform for creating simple image-based quizzes that your students can complete online. You can create QuizBean accounts for students that do not have email addresses. You can assign quizzes to students on a class-by-class or individual basis. Quiz results are automatically sent to your teacher dashboard when students have completed a quiz.
Authentic Assessment Toolbox
ImageQuiz This tool allows you to create quizzes around images. ImageQuiz has several predefined quizzes that you can use with images but you can also create your own quizzes based on images you want.
Quipper is an iOS/Android app for finding or creating quizzes. This app already has a large repository of quizzes but a user can create their own as well. A nice feature is the ability to track your progress on a quiz/subject as well as the detailed explanations around each topic
Quiz Revolution - create interactive online assessments and analyze the data It is an easy way to make a multimedia quiz for your website or blog. With Quiz Revolution you can include video, audio, and image file in your quiz. Each
question in your quiz can have a different media format. There are two options for
answer format, multiple choice or open-ended response. Quizzes are easy to create and easy to embed into a website or blog. If your students register for a Quiz Revolution account before they take your quiz, you can monitor their quiz results.
QuizStar web based testing manager that allows educators to create a class, quizzes, administer quizzes and view results. Unique Feature: Multimedia files can be included in quizzes. There is also a unique student log in page with a tutorial.
Studiyo- Allows you create quizzes and customize them
Gnowledge is a free site designed for creating and sharing tests, done through an innovative, easy-to-use interface. Anyone familiar with test creation sites or PowerGrade will feel right at home. Also, there is a definite social networking aspect that is ideal for 21st Century learning through collaboration and the sharing of tests and answers.hands-on tutorials and a great FAQ page.Fifty Sneakers A service for cataloging content that you quiz your students on. Your catalog of quiz materials can include a variety of text questions, images, and videos. Fifty Sneakers makes it easy to create quizzes and other assessment tools from your catalog. When it comes time to create a quiz, open your Fifty Sneakers content then select the questions and materials that you want to include in your quiz then print out your quiz. Fifty Sneakers provides detailed tutorials to get you started building your content library and quizzes. Understoodit web app for quickly gauging your students' understanding of information that you have shared with them. Just open your account and open the simple poll of "understand" or "confused." Students can vote using any internet-connected device. Students can vote whenever you have the poll open. They can vote multiple times too. So if they are confused at the beginning of class, but understand ten minutes later they can change their votes.
The Answer Pad . allows you to set up an electronic answer sheet to a test you’ve already created. Students can then “fill in” their multiple-choice answers by using the TAPit app or The Answer Pad website Ability to assign a Common Core Standard to each question. Also, w/ their latest feature, Go Interactive, it turns an iPad or mobile device into a Student Response "clicker" system. This takes the whole "clicker" system that most schools use w/ an interactive whiteboard to a whole new level. Now teachers can engage students and assess their learning in real-time w/ no prep work.
19 Pencils - A site for creating quizzes and websites with student tracking.
Back-Channeling with Socrative | Socrative Garden-
Socrative has class backchannel capabilities.
Socrative for iPad
Socrative is an app that turns any device into part of a student response system. If you have BYOD or iPad or any type of 1:1 technology, Socrative is a must use so you don't have to buy a separate response system. Socrative now allows you to add images to your questions and have short answer quizzes graded for you. Additionally, the short answer activity now allows you to display your question on your audience's devices. See Infuse learning below for a comparative program.
ThatMathQuiz iPad app is a simple website with more power than meets the eye. A first glance, it's a menu of mostly math skills for students to practice. But keep exploring video
Biz Movie is an engaging way to assess student learning in a project. Students in grades 3-6 show what they know and can do by creating animated movies. Students also learn the basics of entrepreneurship and business as they create and run movie companies.
Blubbr quiz creation service. Using Blubbr you can create interactive quizzes that are based on YouTube clips. The structure of the quizzes has a viewer watch a short clip then answer a multiple choice question about the clip. Viewers know right away if they chose the correct answer or not. To create a quiz on Blubbr start by entering a topic for your quiz. After entering your topic enter a search for a video about that topic. Blubbr will generate a list of videos that you can select from to use in your quiz. When you find a video that works for you, trim the clip to a length that you like then write out your question and answer choices. Click here to try a short Blubbr quiz about the human heart.
Nearpod iOS app and/or website that teachers can use to create quizzes, polls, and multimedia presentations. Those materials can be shared directly to students who have the Nearpod student app installed. Teachers can view students' responses individually or as a whole class. video
Spiral free lets teachers and students create free virtual classrooms where students can create collaborative presentations, view and respond to presentations, and/or watch YouTube videos with easily-created teacher questions. It has other features as well.
Student Evaluation - Self reflection often is insightful for all stakeholders. This simple form cuts to the chase for differentiated instruction.
Frolyc a tool for teachers looking to design their own lesson-based activities. Teachers can create activities for students like: completing a graphic organizer, identify cause and effect in a passage, draw a response to a question or take a quiz. Students can access activities that are assigned to them by a teacher using Frolyc’s iPad app
Nimbus screenshot - Chrome extension Rather than answering the same question dozens of times, create a screencast video to explain how to use a website. Or use the extension to make a flipped classroom video.
Learnclick Easily create Cloze Quizzes with this app. Choose between blank fields, dropdowns, drag&drop as well as multiple choice quizzes. See detailed statistics on how well your students performed.
FlipGrid allows students to reply to instructor prompts/questions with short videos.
Seesaw is a student-driven digital portfolio that empowers students of any age to independently document what they are learning at school and share it with their teachers, parents, classmates, and even the world. IOS, Android and website
Creatubbles video Share links to your artwork with family and friends. Start galleries and invite others to join. Explore art made by other young artists from around the world.
Leave comments and Bubbles on the pieces you like.
GoClass is a free iPad application for creating short lessons and delivering them to your students. The lessons can include annotated images, free hand sketches, text, and video. GoClass gives teachers tools for creating class rosters that they can use to keep track of which students are using the lessons when. Teachers also have the option to ask questions and poll their students. After the students' response have been gathered teachers can project those responses without showing individual student's names.
Activity Spot. As students complete the activity, teachers will receive feedback on student progress in real time! You can access a library filled with Common Core aligned activities created and shared by other teachers. You can create a unique learning experience for your students. a learning and assessment tool, Froylc is a powerful platform for increasing student engagement and monitoring student progress. Since Froylc lets users assign activities to students individually, it’s easy to differentiate student tasks.
Kahoot is a new service for delivering online quizzes and surveys to your students. The premise of Kahoot is similar to that of Socrative and Infuse Learning. On Kahoot you create a quiz or survey that your students respond to through any device that has a web browser (iPad, Android device, Chromebook). Your Kahoot questions can include pictures and videos.
Answer Garden - Sometimes you may wish to just ask a question and let your students give their creative answer. Answer Garden allows you to do this on the web. You can show the interaction on a website, print the results, or even put the results into a Word Cloud for the class to analyze!
Mentimeter is a free service that allows you to pose a question to your audience and get instant feedback on that question through cell phones, tablets, and any other Internet-connected device. Includes open-ended response format. Mentimeter allows you to create an unlimited amount of questions and collect unlimited responses. The user interface is clean and simple and your students don't need to create accounts in order to respond to your questions. video demo
OpenEd is a service that has created a huge catalog of educational videos and games that you can browse by topic, grade level, or Common Core standard. Recently, assessments were added to the OpenEd catalog. Assessments can be found in the same manner as videos and games. To find an assessment select a topic, grade level, or standard then search.
Geddit This site allows students to use any mobile device to gauge their understanding of any given topic/lesson. The way this works as a lesson is being given they click/tap a on bar (think bar graph increasing vertically) to show their understanding (i.e., 1 bar - not very - 4 bars - very). On the the teacher's device they will receive instant real-time feedback and be able to see which students are doing good and which ones are struggling. This is a great way for teachers to differentiate instruction and adjust their lessons to meet individual needs.
15 Assessments That Don't Suck
eQuizShow, an easy way for teachers or students to create Jeopardy-style review games. Unlike similar tools you do not have to download or upload any PowerPoint files to use eQuizShow. On eQuizShow you can build and display your quiz completely online.
Gooru is a place to find and or create collections of educational videos, texts, and images. Gooru's new interface includes the option to search for materials according to ELA Common Core standards. Another new feature of the revamped Gooru interface is dragging and dropping items from your search results to your collections. Now you can also create quizzes to go along with each of your collections.
EQuizzer Create a variety of quiz types. Fill in the Blank, Multiple Choice, True or False. Multi-Marked, Matching, Short Answer
ProProfs Quiz Maker Can add videos to your quizzes. tutorial
EDpuzzle - How about turning a video into an interactive lesson? With this free website, add audio notes and quizzes at any point to a video.
QuizBean is a platform for creating simple image-based quizzes that your students can complete online. You can create QuizBean accounts for students that do not have email addresses. You can assign quizzes to students on a class-by-class or individual basis. Quiz results are automatically sent to your teacher dashboard when students have completed a quiz.
Authentic Assessment Toolbox
ImageQuiz This tool allows you to create quizzes around images. ImageQuiz has several predefined quizzes that you can use with images but you can also create your own quizzes based on images you want.
Quipper is an iOS/Android app for finding or creating quizzes. This app already has a large repository of quizzes but a user can create their own as well. A nice feature is the ability to track your progress on a quiz/subject as well as the detailed explanations around each topic
Quiz Revolution - create interactive online assessments and analyze the data It is an easy way to make a multimedia quiz for your website or blog. With Quiz Revolution you can include video, audio, and image file in your quiz. Each
question in your quiz can have a different media format. There are two options for
answer format, multiple choice or open-ended response. Quizzes are easy to create and easy to embed into a website or blog. If your students register for a Quiz Revolution account before they take your quiz, you can monitor their quiz results.
QuizStar web based testing manager that allows educators to create a class, quizzes, administer quizzes and view results. Unique Feature: Multimedia files can be included in quizzes. There is also a unique student log in page with a tutorial.
Studiyo- Allows you create quizzes and customize them
Gnowledge is a free site designed for creating and sharing tests, done through an innovative, easy-to-use interface. Anyone familiar with test creation sites or PowerGrade will feel right at home. Also, there is a definite social networking aspect that is ideal for 21st Century learning through collaboration and the sharing of tests and answers.hands-on tutorials and a great FAQ page.Fifty Sneakers A service for cataloging content that you quiz your students on. Your catalog of quiz materials can include a variety of text questions, images, and videos. Fifty Sneakers makes it easy to create quizzes and other assessment tools from your catalog. When it comes time to create a quiz, open your Fifty Sneakers content then select the questions and materials that you want to include in your quiz then print out your quiz. Fifty Sneakers provides detailed tutorials to get you started building your content library and quizzes. Understoodit web app for quickly gauging your students' understanding of information that you have shared with them. Just open your account and open the simple poll of "understand" or "confused." Students can vote using any internet-connected device. Students can vote whenever you have the poll open. They can vote multiple times too. So if they are confused at the beginning of class, but understand ten minutes later they can change their votes.
The Answer Pad . allows you to set up an electronic answer sheet to a test you’ve already created. Students can then “fill in” their multiple-choice answers by using the TAPit app or The Answer Pad website Ability to assign a Common Core Standard to each question. Also, w/ their latest feature, Go Interactive, it turns an iPad or mobile device into a Student Response "clicker" system. This takes the whole "clicker" system that most schools use w/ an interactive whiteboard to a whole new level. Now teachers can engage students and assess their learning in real-time w/ no prep work.
19 Pencils - A site for creating quizzes and websites with student tracking.
Girls
Girls and STEM Education: still waiting for liftoff
Girls + STEM + Twitter = Awesome! Jim Forde shares some of the many “Girls and STEM” twitter resources he connects with on his twitter feed
A Mighty Girl collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls
STEM for Girls
SciGirls television show, website, and educational outreach program draws on research about what engages girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning and careers. . Each episode of SciGirls follows a group of middle school girls who are eager to find answers to their questions about science and technology. With the help of scientific mentors, the girls design their own investigations on topics ranging from the environment to engineering and nutrition. The show’s website is integrated into the episodes, with archived projects from the site being featured on the show.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to View Program Videos
Engineer Girl Designed "to bring national attention to the exciting opportunities that engineering represents for girls and women," Engineer Girl features interviews, fun facts ("Mary Anderson invented the windshield wiper in 1903, years before Henry Ford industrialized automobile production."), videos, quizzes, a scholarship section, and a look at some women who were engineering pioneers of the 20th century.
Engineer Your Life – This engaging website is the centerpiece of a national campaign, and is meant for high school girls and the adults in their lives (parents, counselors, teachers, and other educators) who want to learn more about what life and work are like for engineers. It is a great place to explore outstanding engineering possibilities.
Article "Stem graduate shortage?" computer science is where the jobs are"
Engineering is Elementary EiE's 20 units present fun, engaging engineering challenges that allow students to apply science knowledge
Girls + STEM + Twitter = Awesome! Jim Forde shares some of the many “Girls and STEM” twitter resources he connects with on his twitter feed
A Mighty Girl collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls
STEM for Girls
SciGirls television show, website, and educational outreach program draws on research about what engages girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning and careers. . Each episode of SciGirls follows a group of middle school girls who are eager to find answers to their questions about science and technology. With the help of scientific mentors, the girls design their own investigations on topics ranging from the environment to engineering and nutrition. The show’s website is integrated into the episodes, with archived projects from the site being featured on the show.
Click Here to Visit Website
Click Here to View Program Videos
Engineer Girl Designed "to bring national attention to the exciting opportunities that engineering represents for girls and women," Engineer Girl features interviews, fun facts ("Mary Anderson invented the windshield wiper in 1903, years before Henry Ford industrialized automobile production."), videos, quizzes, a scholarship section, and a look at some women who were engineering pioneers of the 20th century.
Engineer Your Life – This engaging website is the centerpiece of a national campaign, and is meant for high school girls and the adults in their lives (parents, counselors, teachers, and other educators) who want to learn more about what life and work are like for engineers. It is a great place to explore outstanding engineering possibilities.
Article "Stem graduate shortage?" computer science is where the jobs are"
Engineering is Elementary EiE's 20 units present fun, engaging engineering challenges that allow students to apply science knowledge
Videos Math, Science, Engineering and Technology
Gizmodo:This channel will introduce young engineers, computer specialists, and technicians to the programming behind today’s hottest gadgets.
Glean - Ever feel overwhelmed by all the educational videos online? Aided by a team of teachers, this service chooses and catalogs the best videos.
Wired:The Wired channel concerns itself with the invention of the future, illuminating how technology is changing every aspect of our lives from culture to business, science to design. Learn about electric cars, the composition of Play-Doh, or how to hack a telegram.
STEM in 30 is a neat webcast produced by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The series featured 30 minute live webcasts about a variety of topics related to air and space travel and science. During the live webcasts students can submit questions to the show's hosts. Students can also submit questions in advance of each show.
You can access the recording of the shows. Past show topics include kites, WWII and the Tuskegee Airmen, Mars exploration, and hot air balloons.
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory: Computer science and engineering students and teachers should check here for some seriously cool news on the latest artificial intelligence developments.
This Week in Tech: For an educator who wants to stay up on all the day’s and week’s tech news, this is the place to be. Entertaining, informative, fun. Full broadcasts.
MIT-K12 promotes STEM education by engaging MIT students in creating videos that teach basic scientific and engineering concepts to primary school students in an entertaining way. The site is comprised of tools and systems that allow educators from anywhere in the world to submit requests for demonstrations of scientific principles or experiments. MIT-K12 also provides educators with an environment where they can learn from one another about ways in which to improve pedagogical practices and techniques.Click Here to Visit Website
Plus: If you want to watch the MIT-K12 videos in your classroom, but your school blocks YouTube, you can view them on TechTV instead. Click Here to Access TechTV
MIT BLOSSOMS - This incredible Video Library contains over 50 math and science lessons, all freely available to teachers as streaming video, Internet downloads, DVDs and videotapes.
Mr. Robb’s Math Videos: This channel originally started out as a means for students to remember their lessons after class has been dismissed, but grew into an exceptionally comprehensive resource on almost all things mathematical.
Mathademics: Mathademics is a community learning tool based out of Northern Illinois. Mathcast video tutorials are created by certified teachers who are dedicated to improving and making learning accessible to all students.
KhanAcademy - Ready to flip the STEM classroom? Then check out these thousands of videos from Khan! Every area of Science and Math can be explored in short informative video clips. Either do a total flip or just reinforce skills in a short student controlled lesson.
Top YouTube Channels for Science and Math Teachers and Students
The Video Math Tutor: This is a useful channel that provides several tutoring math videos covering different topics including basic math lessons, calculator tips, and brain teasers.
Wideo allows you to create short, animated videos and Common Craft like videos in your web browser. Also you can upload your own audio files,e.g., viceovers, into your video projects.
Popcorn Maker is a free tool for crafting videos that incorporate images, remixed video clips, links, and social feeds. video tutorial
Metta (formerly known as Soo Meta) is a new digital presentation tool that allows you to combine videos from YouTube, pictures from the web or from your desktop, text, and voice recordings to create a presentation. You can also pull-in content from Pinterest and Twitter to use in your final presentation. Metta also allows you to insert a quiz into your projects. This means that people viewing your Metta projects can watch a short video clip then answer questions about it before moving onto the next part of the presentation.
Science360 - You & your students can look at actual science images & video taken by the US National Science Foundation with this app.
Numberphile: If you are a math teacher who wants to teach numbers differently, this channel has some videos to help you do it.
PatrickJMT Free Math Videos: With nearly 200,000 subscribers, this channel is considered to be one of the best math channels on YouTube. It has videos on different topics such as calculus, derivatives, differential equations, limits, integrals, and more.
Mathematics Online: For geometry formula derivations and more.
Statistics Learning Center: With clear, short, entertaining videos, learn the basics of statistics from an expert teacher.
Glean - Ever feel overwhelmed by all the educational videos online? Aided by a team of teachers, this service chooses and catalogs the best videos.
Wired:The Wired channel concerns itself with the invention of the future, illuminating how technology is changing every aspect of our lives from culture to business, science to design. Learn about electric cars, the composition of Play-Doh, or how to hack a telegram.
STEM in 30 is a neat webcast produced by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The series featured 30 minute live webcasts about a variety of topics related to air and space travel and science. During the live webcasts students can submit questions to the show's hosts. Students can also submit questions in advance of each show.
You can access the recording of the shows. Past show topics include kites, WWII and the Tuskegee Airmen, Mars exploration, and hot air balloons.
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory: Computer science and engineering students and teachers should check here for some seriously cool news on the latest artificial intelligence developments.
This Week in Tech: For an educator who wants to stay up on all the day’s and week’s tech news, this is the place to be. Entertaining, informative, fun. Full broadcasts.
MIT-K12 promotes STEM education by engaging MIT students in creating videos that teach basic scientific and engineering concepts to primary school students in an entertaining way. The site is comprised of tools and systems that allow educators from anywhere in the world to submit requests for demonstrations of scientific principles or experiments. MIT-K12 also provides educators with an environment where they can learn from one another about ways in which to improve pedagogical practices and techniques.Click Here to Visit Website
Plus: If you want to watch the MIT-K12 videos in your classroom, but your school blocks YouTube, you can view them on TechTV instead. Click Here to Access TechTV
MIT BLOSSOMS - This incredible Video Library contains over 50 math and science lessons, all freely available to teachers as streaming video, Internet downloads, DVDs and videotapes.
Mr. Robb’s Math Videos: This channel originally started out as a means for students to remember their lessons after class has been dismissed, but grew into an exceptionally comprehensive resource on almost all things mathematical.
Mathademics: Mathademics is a community learning tool based out of Northern Illinois. Mathcast video tutorials are created by certified teachers who are dedicated to improving and making learning accessible to all students.
KhanAcademy - Ready to flip the STEM classroom? Then check out these thousands of videos from Khan! Every area of Science and Math can be explored in short informative video clips. Either do a total flip or just reinforce skills in a short student controlled lesson.
Top YouTube Channels for Science and Math Teachers and Students
The Video Math Tutor: This is a useful channel that provides several tutoring math videos covering different topics including basic math lessons, calculator tips, and brain teasers.
Wideo allows you to create short, animated videos and Common Craft like videos in your web browser. Also you can upload your own audio files,e.g., viceovers, into your video projects.
Popcorn Maker is a free tool for crafting videos that incorporate images, remixed video clips, links, and social feeds. video tutorial
Metta (formerly known as Soo Meta) is a new digital presentation tool that allows you to combine videos from YouTube, pictures from the web or from your desktop, text, and voice recordings to create a presentation. You can also pull-in content from Pinterest and Twitter to use in your final presentation. Metta also allows you to insert a quiz into your projects. This means that people viewing your Metta projects can watch a short video clip then answer questions about it before moving onto the next part of the presentation.
Science360 - You & your students can look at actual science images & video taken by the US National Science Foundation with this app.
Numberphile: If you are a math teacher who wants to teach numbers differently, this channel has some videos to help you do it.
PatrickJMT Free Math Videos: With nearly 200,000 subscribers, this channel is considered to be one of the best math channels on YouTube. It has videos on different topics such as calculus, derivatives, differential equations, limits, integrals, and more.
Mathematics Online: For geometry formula derivations and more.
Statistics Learning Center: With clear, short, entertaining videos, learn the basics of statistics from an expert teacher.
Tools
SketchUp - A great CAD style product from the people at Google. I like to call it "CAD that's fun!" Explore a world of educational resources that will engage students in the classroom allowing them to innovate and create
Tinkercad 3D Modeling Tinkercad is free platform from Autodesk that makes creating 3D models easy! You and your students can click on the "Learn" button at the top of the page to access great interactive tutorials. These tutorials are a step by step walk you through on how to create various designs. Once finished, Tinkercad allows you to download your creation for Minecraft, order a 3D Print, or upload it to Thingiverse. You also have the option to download your creation to 3D print in - See more at: http://www.twoguysandsomeipads.com/2014/11/5-design-tools-to-spark-imagination-and.html#sthash.r7LtcAIP.dpuf
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
Scratch - A program that allows student to design a computer program with integration into any subject area. Learn more by watching my archived webinar at Discovery!
Pixel Press Floors iPad app that allows students to draw their own video game without programming! Lesson Plans
Inkscape – Your free Adobe Illustrator alternative. Just as powerful. Just as awesome.
Gimp – Your free Adobe Photoshop alternative. Just as powerful. Just as awesome.
Fusion 360 – Autodesk has made all their software free for educators. Fusion 360 is the future of 3D design. Free.
Google Earth - Another free and amazing program that will excite your students in any STEM class. Make sure you visit this educator page filled with resources on how to use Google Earth in the classroom
Nearpod is a free iOS app and/or websitethat teachers can use to create quizzes, polls, and multimedia presentations. Those materials can be shared directly to students who have the Nearpod student app installed. Teachers can view students' responses individually or as a whole class. video
Nearpod Homework. Like the original Nearpod, Nearpod Homework allows you to distribute presentations and quizzes to your students' iPads. The neat feature of Nearpod Homework is that it allows students to work through presentations and quizzes at their own pace in your classroom or at home
GoClass is a free iPad application for creating short lessons and delivering them to your students. The lessons can include annotated images, free hand sketches, text, and video. GoClass gives teachers tools for creating class rosters that they can use to keep track of which students are using the lessons when. Teachers also have the option to ask questions and poll their students. After the students' response have been gathered teachers can project those responses without showing individual student's names.
Frolyc a tool for teachers looking to design their own lesson-based activities. Teachers can create activities for students like: completing a graphic organizer, identify cause and effect in a passage, draw a response to a question or take a quiz. Students can access activities that are assigned to them by a teacher using Frolyc’s iPad app Activity Spot. As students complete the activity, teachers will receive feedback on student progress in real time! You can access a library filled with Common Core aligned activities created and shared by other teachers. You can create a unique learning experience for your students. a learning and assessment tool, Froylc is a powerful platform for increasing student engagement and monitoring student progress. Since Froylc lets users assign activities to students individually, it’s easy to differentiate student tasks.
123D Make – 123D Make lets you turn 3D models into 2D build plans with animated assembly instructions. Make really shines if you have a laser cutter in your space. Free.
Modern Chalkboard is a free site for finding educational resources such as Smart Board files. These interactive lessons cover a wide range of topics from Math, to Science, and Social Studies. Right now this is a fairly new site and the majority of their resources are for
K-5th grade but more Smart Board resources are being added all the time.
Video Tools for Interactivity
Create Interactive videos with questions, discussions, images and links
Ted-Ed Lessons Use lessons already created by others or make your own with questions, links, images and discussions. How-to video tutorialsWatch2gether is a site through which you can watch YouTube videos and host text chats about them at the same time. It is really quite easy to use Watch2gether. To get started enter a nickname for yourself (it could be your real first name) then search for a video or enter the url of a video that you have previously bookmarked. When you have found the video you want a chat column will be present on the right side of your browser. You can invite others to chat with you by sending them the url assigned to your chat. Together you can watch a video and discuss it.
Viewbix A service to add some interactive enhancements to videos. Viewbix works with videos that are hosted on YouTube and it works with videos that are hosted on Facebook. To use Viewbix you first specify the url of the video that you want to work with. Then you can add a custom "button" to your video. Buttons can be linked to webpages or to another video. You can also link to maps and images. The function of Viewbix is similar to that of the spotlight annotation tool in YouTube's video editor. this post on spotlighteduCanon - A site similar to EDpuzzle that allows educators to edit a video and add quizzes.Teachem is a service that uses the TED Ed model of creating lessons based on video. On Teachem teachers can build courses that are composed of a series of videos hosted on YouTube. Teachers can write questions and comments in "flashcards" that are tied to specific parts of each video and display next to each video. Students can take notes while watching the videos using the Teachem SmartNote system. Creating a Teachem course a straight-forward process of choosing a video URL then writing corresponding questions.
The Mad Video is a service for creating interactive videos. The service is kind of likeThingLink for videos. Using The Mad Video you can take a video that is hosted on YouTube and insert interactive tags. The tags can link to websites, images, or other video clips. People can see your tags when they place their cursors over your video. You can add multiple tags to each video in your The Mad Video account.
Embed Plus is a tool for editing and annotating videos that you find on YouTube. Embed Plus allows you to start a video at any point you specify. You can also use Embed Plus to skip scenes in a video, play it in slow motion, zoom into an area of a video, and annotate a video.The annotation feature of Embed Plus is a nice complement to the real-time reactions feature offered by Embed Plus. Real-time reactions pulls in Twitter and YouTube comments about your chosen video. The annotation feature lets you comment on specific parts of a video. Your annotations can include links that you insert.
Blubbr is a quiz creation service that you can use to create video-based quizzes. Using Blubbr you can create interactive quizzes that are based on YouTube clips. Your quizzes can be about anything of your choosing. The structure of the quizzes has a viewer watch a short clip then answer a multiple choice question about the clip. Viewers know right away if they chose the correct answer or not. To create a quiz on Blubbr start by entering a topic for your quiz. After entering your topic enter a search for a video about that topic. Blubbr will generate a list of videos that you can select from to use in your quiz. When you find a video that works for you, trim the clip to a length that you like then write out your question and answer choices. Repeat the process for as many video clips as you like
Synchtube - Create a public or private room where users can view the same video and chat in real time.
VideoNotes is a tool for taking notes while watching videos. VideoNotes allows you to load any YouTube video on the left side of your screen and on the right side of the screen VideoNotes gives you a notepad to type on. VideoNotes integrates with your Google Drive account. By integrating with Google Drive VideoNotes allows you to share your notes and collaborate on your notes just as you can do with a Google Document. A good tool for students to use to take notes, ask questions, and answer questions while watching "flipped" instruction videos.
Grockit Answers - A great teaching tool to create a Q/A session for any YouTube video.
EDpuzzle - How about turning a video into an interactive lesson? With this free website, add audio notes and quizzes at any point to a video.
Vialogues is a website that is designed to enable users to host conversations around a video. Users can upload videos to Vialogues or use YouTube videos as the centerpieces of their conversations. After you have selected a video from YouTube or uploaded a video of your own, you can post poll questions and add comments that are tied to points in the video. Your Vialogue can be made public or private. Public Vialogue's can be embedded into your blog or website
Audio Cutter This site site allows users to edit/cut audio from YouTube and Sound Cloud clips by pasting in a URL.
SketchUp - A great CAD style product from the people at Google. I like to call it "CAD that's fun!" Explore a world of educational resources that will engage students in the classroom allowing them to innovate and create
Tinkercad 3D Modeling Tinkercad is free platform from Autodesk that makes creating 3D models easy! You and your students can click on the "Learn" button at the top of the page to access great interactive tutorials. These tutorials are a step by step walk you through on how to create various designs. Once finished, Tinkercad allows you to download your creation for Minecraft, order a 3D Print, or upload it to Thingiverse. You also have the option to download your creation to 3D print in - See more at: http://www.twoguysandsomeipads.com/2014/11/5-design-tools-to-spark-imagination-and.html#sthash.r7LtcAIP.dpuf
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
Scratch - A program that allows student to design a computer program with integration into any subject area. Learn more by watching my archived webinar at Discovery!
Pixel Press Floors iPad app that allows students to draw their own video game without programming! Lesson Plans
Inkscape – Your free Adobe Illustrator alternative. Just as powerful. Just as awesome.
Gimp – Your free Adobe Photoshop alternative. Just as powerful. Just as awesome.
Fusion 360 – Autodesk has made all their software free for educators. Fusion 360 is the future of 3D design. Free.
Google Earth - Another free and amazing program that will excite your students in any STEM class. Make sure you visit this educator page filled with resources on how to use Google Earth in the classroom
Nearpod is a free iOS app and/or websitethat teachers can use to create quizzes, polls, and multimedia presentations. Those materials can be shared directly to students who have the Nearpod student app installed. Teachers can view students' responses individually or as a whole class. video
Nearpod Homework. Like the original Nearpod, Nearpod Homework allows you to distribute presentations and quizzes to your students' iPads. The neat feature of Nearpod Homework is that it allows students to work through presentations and quizzes at their own pace in your classroom or at home
GoClass is a free iPad application for creating short lessons and delivering them to your students. The lessons can include annotated images, free hand sketches, text, and video. GoClass gives teachers tools for creating class rosters that they can use to keep track of which students are using the lessons when. Teachers also have the option to ask questions and poll their students. After the students' response have been gathered teachers can project those responses without showing individual student's names.
Frolyc a tool for teachers looking to design their own lesson-based activities. Teachers can create activities for students like: completing a graphic organizer, identify cause and effect in a passage, draw a response to a question or take a quiz. Students can access activities that are assigned to them by a teacher using Frolyc’s iPad app Activity Spot. As students complete the activity, teachers will receive feedback on student progress in real time! You can access a library filled with Common Core aligned activities created and shared by other teachers. You can create a unique learning experience for your students. a learning and assessment tool, Froylc is a powerful platform for increasing student engagement and monitoring student progress. Since Froylc lets users assign activities to students individually, it’s easy to differentiate student tasks.
123D Make – 123D Make lets you turn 3D models into 2D build plans with animated assembly instructions. Make really shines if you have a laser cutter in your space. Free.
Modern Chalkboard is a free site for finding educational resources such as Smart Board files. These interactive lessons cover a wide range of topics from Math, to Science, and Social Studies. Right now this is a fairly new site and the majority of their resources are for
K-5th grade but more Smart Board resources are being added all the time.
Video Tools for Interactivity
Create Interactive videos with questions, discussions, images and links
Ted-Ed Lessons Use lessons already created by others or make your own with questions, links, images and discussions. How-to video tutorialsWatch2gether is a site through which you can watch YouTube videos and host text chats about them at the same time. It is really quite easy to use Watch2gether. To get started enter a nickname for yourself (it could be your real first name) then search for a video or enter the url of a video that you have previously bookmarked. When you have found the video you want a chat column will be present on the right side of your browser. You can invite others to chat with you by sending them the url assigned to your chat. Together you can watch a video and discuss it.
Viewbix A service to add some interactive enhancements to videos. Viewbix works with videos that are hosted on YouTube and it works with videos that are hosted on Facebook. To use Viewbix you first specify the url of the video that you want to work with. Then you can add a custom "button" to your video. Buttons can be linked to webpages or to another video. You can also link to maps and images. The function of Viewbix is similar to that of the spotlight annotation tool in YouTube's video editor. this post on spotlighteduCanon - A site similar to EDpuzzle that allows educators to edit a video and add quizzes.Teachem is a service that uses the TED Ed model of creating lessons based on video. On Teachem teachers can build courses that are composed of a series of videos hosted on YouTube. Teachers can write questions and comments in "flashcards" that are tied to specific parts of each video and display next to each video. Students can take notes while watching the videos using the Teachem SmartNote system. Creating a Teachem course a straight-forward process of choosing a video URL then writing corresponding questions.
The Mad Video is a service for creating interactive videos. The service is kind of likeThingLink for videos. Using The Mad Video you can take a video that is hosted on YouTube and insert interactive tags. The tags can link to websites, images, or other video clips. People can see your tags when they place their cursors over your video. You can add multiple tags to each video in your The Mad Video account.
Embed Plus is a tool for editing and annotating videos that you find on YouTube. Embed Plus allows you to start a video at any point you specify. You can also use Embed Plus to skip scenes in a video, play it in slow motion, zoom into an area of a video, and annotate a video.The annotation feature of Embed Plus is a nice complement to the real-time reactions feature offered by Embed Plus. Real-time reactions pulls in Twitter and YouTube comments about your chosen video. The annotation feature lets you comment on specific parts of a video. Your annotations can include links that you insert.
Blubbr is a quiz creation service that you can use to create video-based quizzes. Using Blubbr you can create interactive quizzes that are based on YouTube clips. Your quizzes can be about anything of your choosing. The structure of the quizzes has a viewer watch a short clip then answer a multiple choice question about the clip. Viewers know right away if they chose the correct answer or not. To create a quiz on Blubbr start by entering a topic for your quiz. After entering your topic enter a search for a video about that topic. Blubbr will generate a list of videos that you can select from to use in your quiz. When you find a video that works for you, trim the clip to a length that you like then write out your question and answer choices. Repeat the process for as many video clips as you like
Synchtube - Create a public or private room where users can view the same video and chat in real time.
VideoNotes is a tool for taking notes while watching videos. VideoNotes allows you to load any YouTube video on the left side of your screen and on the right side of the screen VideoNotes gives you a notepad to type on. VideoNotes integrates with your Google Drive account. By integrating with Google Drive VideoNotes allows you to share your notes and collaborate on your notes just as you can do with a Google Document. A good tool for students to use to take notes, ask questions, and answer questions while watching "flipped" instruction videos.
Grockit Answers - A great teaching tool to create a Q/A session for any YouTube video.
EDpuzzle - How about turning a video into an interactive lesson? With this free website, add audio notes and quizzes at any point to a video.
Vialogues is a website that is designed to enable users to host conversations around a video. Users can upload videos to Vialogues or use YouTube videos as the centerpieces of their conversations. After you have selected a video from YouTube or uploaded a video of your own, you can post poll questions and add comments that are tied to points in the video. Your Vialogue can be made public or private. Public Vialogue's can be embedded into your blog or website
Audio Cutter This site site allows users to edit/cut audio from YouTube and Sound Cloud clips by pasting in a URL.
Coding
Go to Computational Thinking site here There are resources on teaching coding from primary to high school grades.
Go to Computational Thinking site here There are resources on teaching coding from primary to high school grades.
Robotics
More books and free teach Robotics
7 Ways to Use Drones in the Classroom
Robotics gr. 6 - 12 Challenge students to design, build, program, test, and redesign submersible robots made of LEGO and other components as they progress through a series of increasingly sophisticated missions.
Early Childhood Robotics Network links provide access to curriculum units specifically tailored for use with the LEGO® WeDo™, LEGO® RCX, and KIWI robotics kits. However, the powerful ideas they focus on are applicable to any other robotics construction kit and the activities can be easily adapted for use with different materials.
KIBO robot kit lets children build their own robot, program it to do what they want, and decorate it. Designed specifically for children aged 4–7, the kit is intended to appeal both to technically minded children and to those who connect more with arts and culture or physical activity.
Tickle app for programming drones and robots
Sphero Not only can you play with the robot, but there is a collection of high quality, common core aligned, STEM lessons designed for it as well. At its core, Sphero is a robotic ball that is controlled by an app on your smartphone. More than just roll around on the ground, both in the context of play, and in the context of the classroom.
SPRK Lightning Lab (Sphero) A hub to create, contribute, and learn with Sphero robots.
OzoBots - Comes in two versions - Ozobots original follows marker lines,, kids code the marks to give commands for the Ozobot. Ozobot 2 can do this and you can give it code to direct it. Look at the Ozobot iPad apps, games and puzzle to solve for the Ozobots. Check out the IOS Ozobot app.
Ozobot Groove The app comes with built-in dance demos, versatile dance choreography tools, and help resources. Start simple by checking out and loading your Ozobot with built-in demos and downloading dances created by Ozobot community.
Dot and Dash (more expensive than others) Dash and Dot are a pair of robots from Wonder Workshop with five accompanying apps that help kids program the robots. Lesson plans made to help K-5 educators approach coding with young students
Bee-Bot Bee-Bot floor robot. The app makes use of Bee-Bot's keypad functionality and enables children to improve their skills in directional language and programming
Blue-Bot the new addition to the TTS floor robot family. The app enables you to write an algorithm, send it and then Blue-Bot will follow your instructions. There are numerous features, which make writing algorithms both fun and educational.
LEGO MINDSTORMS Fix the Factory - Learn basic programming and logic skills while issuing commands to help a robot out of a factory maze.
Hummingbird Robotics Kit is a spin-off product of Carnegie Mellon's CREATE lab. Hummingbird is designed to enable engineering and robotics activities for ages 13 and up (8 with adult supervision) that involve the making of robots, kinetic sculptures, and animatronics built out of a combination of kit parts and crafting materials.
My Robotic Friends Using a pre-defined "Robot Vocabulary" students will figure out how to guide each other to accomplish specific tasks without discussing them first. This lesson teaches children the connection between symbols and actions, as well as the invaluable skill of debugging. "My Robotic Friends" works best as a group activity and includes a teacher workbook for classroom use. More books and free teacher guides
7 Ways to Use Drones in the Classroom
Robotics gr. 6 - 12 Challenge students to design, build, program, test, and redesign submersible robots made of LEGO and other components as they progress through a series of increasingly sophisticated missions.
Early Childhood Robotics Network links provide access to curriculum units specifically tailored for use with the LEGO® WeDo™, LEGO® RCX, and KIWI robotics kits. However, the powerful ideas they focus on are applicable to any other robotics construction kit and the activities can be easily adapted for use with different materials.
KIBO robot kit lets children build their own robot, program it to do what they want, and decorate it. Designed specifically for children aged 4–7, the kit is intended to appeal both to technically minded children and to those who connect more with arts and culture or physical activity.
Tickle app for programming drones and robots
Sphero Not only can you play with the robot, but there is a collection of high quality, common core aligned, STEM lessons designed for it as well. At its core, Sphero is a robotic ball that is controlled by an app on your smartphone. More than just roll around on the ground, both in the context of play, and in the context of the classroom.
SPRK Lightning Lab (Sphero) A hub to create, contribute, and learn with Sphero robots.
OzoBots - Comes in two versions - Ozobots original follows marker lines,, kids code the marks to give commands for the Ozobot. Ozobot 2 can do this and you can give it code to direct it. Look at the Ozobot iPad apps, games and puzzle to solve for the Ozobots. Check out the IOS Ozobot app.
Ozobot Groove The app comes with built-in dance demos, versatile dance choreography tools, and help resources. Start simple by checking out and loading your Ozobot with built-in demos and downloading dances created by Ozobot community.
Dot and Dash (more expensive than others) Dash and Dot are a pair of robots from Wonder Workshop with five accompanying apps that help kids program the robots. Lesson plans made to help K-5 educators approach coding with young students
Bee-Bot Bee-Bot floor robot. The app makes use of Bee-Bot's keypad functionality and enables children to improve their skills in directional language and programming
Blue-Bot the new addition to the TTS floor robot family. The app enables you to write an algorithm, send it and then Blue-Bot will follow your instructions. There are numerous features, which make writing algorithms both fun and educational.
LEGO MINDSTORMS Fix the Factory - Learn basic programming and logic skills while issuing commands to help a robot out of a factory maze.
Hummingbird Robotics Kit is a spin-off product of Carnegie Mellon's CREATE lab. Hummingbird is designed to enable engineering and robotics activities for ages 13 and up (8 with adult supervision) that involve the making of robots, kinetic sculptures, and animatronics built out of a combination of kit parts and crafting materials.
My Robotic Friends Using a pre-defined "Robot Vocabulary" students will figure out how to guide each other to accomplish specific tasks without discussing them first. This lesson teaches children the connection between symbols and actions, as well as the invaluable skill of debugging. "My Robotic Friends" works best as a group activity and includes a teacher workbook for classroom use. More books and free teacher guides
Literature - Keep in mind that STEAM concepts often can be found in books that do not have an obvious STEAM theme. Also note the current events options below.
Jack and the Parachute by More Than a Worksheet
A simple STEM engineering project where students make a parachute to help Jack escape the giant.
Marshmallow Catapult by Science Demo Guy
A STEM engineering project with a video where students design a popsicle stick catapult to launch marshmallows.
Saving Sam with STEM by Get Caught Engineering
A fun challenges where students must create a contraption to save Sam the gummy worm from drowning.
Picture Books and Books for young readers
The Water Princess K - 4 brings us to a different continent where water is a precious resource that is not easily gotten.
11 Experiments that Failed by Jenny Offill, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. A fun take on the scientific process that teaches kids that failure is a crucial part of learning.
CommonLit’s website full of fiction and non-fiction leveled passages for students in fifth through twelfth grade. It organizes texts into collections to make it easy for teachers to find a passage to share with their students.
Papa’s Mechanical Fish by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Boris Kulikov. This book was inspired by inventor Lodner Phillips, the creator of one of the first modern submarines. Lodner’s children observe their father inventing one “mechanical fish” after another. Determined to make a workable submarine, he tests each new invention out, adding improvements and starting over again.
Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Catherine Stock. A galimoto is simply a push toy crafted out of found material. Kondi wants to make a galimoto out of wire, he’s been saving up in his shoebox. Undeterred by his short supply he wanders around his village in search of more wire. His determination to make a galimoto is also admired by the others he meets during his search and that despite a few obstacles he remains persistent.
The Dot, Ish and Sky Color by Peter Reynolds. Turn STEM into STEAM with the “Creatrilogy” books. This best selling trio of books about the ability of small moments to transform into big creative endeavors. Each one encourages kids to look around them to find art in their own world.
Chapter Books
STEAM Science Books (K - 3) Includes STEAM Coonection activities
Books That Grow is a digital reading platform featuring fiction and non fiction texts that adapt to the student's reading ability, so that students of varied abilities can read and learn together. Video overview
Nonfiction eBooks Focusing on STEAM Unite for Literacy
Provides free access to more than 185 books available in approximately 35 language narrations. The ebooks, which are organized by topic, are mostly nonfiction with an emphasis on STEAM They include high-interest themes, such as animals and plants, and migrants
Love Science (android app) Kids Love Science series of stories are written for children of ages 3-10, with the aim entertaining these youngsters while introducing them to significant achievements in the history of science, exploration and adventure.
Wow in the World, NPR’s first podcasts aimed at K–6 students, guides curious children away from their screens and on a journey to connect and discover the wonders of the world around them. Through a combination of careful scientific research and fun, students go inside their brains, out into space, and deep into the coolest new stories in science and technology. For example, in the “Dinosaurs’ Puzzling Backbones” podcast, students discover how 170,000-pound dinosaurs walked around without collapsing under their own weight. In “It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s A … FLYING TAXI?!” students ponder where in the world we will see the first flying taxis, what the taxis will look like, and who will operate them.
STEM Challenge with the Novel, Hatchet
What to do with a Problem? video version
What do you do with an Idea? video version
Sleeping Beauty and Enchanted Engineering lesson plan
Save Sam with STEM! With a gummy worm, gummy lifesaver, a cup, and a paperclip, students will work in teams of two to solve a STEM challenge. Based on a popular STEM activity, we have added the engineering design process to this free activity. Good for an introduction to engineering in grades k-6 or a staff workshop
Jack and the Parachute A simple STEM engineering project where students make a parachute to help Jack escape the giant..
Class Activity: Make an Alarm
After reading the story Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary, students will build an alarm system for something in the classroom, as the main character Leigh does to protect his lunchbox from thieves. Students will learn about alarms and use their creativity to create an alarm system to protect their lockers, desk, or classroom door.
Current Events Readings
NEWSELA gr K-12 emphasis on nonfiction reading,provides daily current events articles written specifically for K–12 students. Each day the site adds three new articles to the collection. Categories include, Science, Health and Arts. For every article, there are versions written at different levels. Also an app
Breaking News - Are you looking for a site filled with great news articles? Discover this wonderful resource that allows you to assign a reading that provides same content at different reading levels.
Readworks.org should definitely be on your list. This website offers a wide range of lesson plans, comprehension units, and reading passages organized by skill and Lexile level.
DOGOnews a next-generation online network empowering kids to engage with digital media in a fun, safe and social environment. News section has current events and news from all around the world. Written for and in some cases by children. The Maps section is an interactive way for younger readers to read news headlines geotagged on a world map. Learn about the world and see where it’s happening. Also, teachers can set up their own DOGONews page and create a very personalized learning experience for their kids.
TeachUNICEF is an outreach project from UNICEF. The goal of the site is to provide lesson plans and other resources to help teachers teach about wide variety of global issues. The "explore" section of TeachUNICEF showcases materials for teaching about global issues with connections to social studies, science, math, English/language arts, foreign/world languages. Teachers can filter the results according to topic and grade level.
A simple STEM engineering project where students make a parachute to help Jack escape the giant.
Marshmallow Catapult by Science Demo Guy
A STEM engineering project with a video where students design a popsicle stick catapult to launch marshmallows.
Saving Sam with STEM by Get Caught Engineering
A fun challenges where students must create a contraption to save Sam the gummy worm from drowning.
Picture Books and Books for young readers
- More books and free teacher guides
- Add more picture books
- Engineering Challenges Through Fairy Tales gr K-5
- Enchanted Engineering gr. K-5
- Literacy Rich STEM Activities K - 2
- Fairytale STEM Challenges gr. K - 2
- Splat the Cat - Where the Wild Things Are - Music, Music for Everyone scroll down the page to see lessons
- Color Changing Lemonade (inspired by Ada Twist, Scientist) || Left Brain Craft Brain
- Rainbow Science (inspired by Rainbow of my Own) || Rhythms of Play
- Constellation Sun Prints (inspired by There’s No Place Like Space) || Figment Creative Labs
- STEAM / STEM Challenge (Inspired by Giraffes Can’t Dance) || Preschool Powol Packets
- Storytime LEGO Building Challenge || Left Brain Craft Brain
- Architectural STEM with the 3 Little Pigs (Inspired by The Three Little Pigs : An Architectural Tale || Little Bins for Little Hands
- Log Pile House Building Challenge (inspired by The Gruffalo) || Inspiration Laboratories
- Wiggle Pig (Inspired by Robot Army Rampage) || STEAM Powered Family
- 100 Invitations to Build (Inspired by Iggy Peck, Architect) || Left Brain Craft Brain
- Tinkering Station for Young Engineers || Left Brain Craft Brain
- Fantasy Structures (Inspired by Iggy Peck, Architect) || Flash Bugs Studio
- 10 Math Books and Tools to learn Measurement || Edventures with Kids
- Multiplication by 8 Spider Craft (inspired by Charlotte’s Web) || Thriving STEM
- Fun with Color Mixing (Inspired by Mix It Up) || Gift of Curiosity
- DIY Upcycled Guitar (inspired by Pete the Cat – Rocking in my School Shoes) || Preschool STEAM
- Simple Braille Slate and Stylus (inspired by Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille) || Pink Stripey Socks
- Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty
- Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale. Kids at play mirror great feats of engineering around the world. A fantastic book for preschoolers.
- Calpurnia Tate, Girl Vet (series) by Jacqueline Kelly. This is a spin off of the excellent middle grade novel about a budding young naturalist, Calpurnia (see below). In this series, Calpurnia and her younger brother learn to take care of the local wildlife.
- Zoey and Sassafras (series) by Asia Citro. This 3 book series about a can-do girl scientist who hones her skills by taking care of magical creatures will charm you. I especially love the winsome illustrations.
- 7 x 9 = Trouble! and Fractions = Trouble! by Claudia Mills Third grader, Wilson is embarrassed that he struggles with math in school. He dreads timed tests and fears his friends will find out he has a tutor.
- Trouble Next Door (Carver Chronicle series) by Karen English. This book thoughtfully presents a moral dilemma that Calvin must work through as he learns how to make the right decisions when his science fair data doesn’t connect the dots in the way he wants.
- The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill. The practical side of math is highlighted when sixth-graders Rufus and Kate decide to invent a superior toothpaste, sell it and make their fortunes. First published 40 years ago, Jean Merrill’s book (she also wrote The Pushcart War) is still a highly entertaining celebration of the imaginative spirit.
- Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Erupts!: The First Experiment (series) by Frances O’Roark Dowell. Phineas (aka “Mac”) is a fourth grader who goes through life looking at everything from a scientific angle. He observes, collects and applies data and when he is paired with the new kid at school for a science experiment they have to figure out how to work together. The end of the book even includes several experiments for readers to try at home.
- Sophie Simon Solves Them All by Lisa Graff. A “humorously brusque” heroine who is a genius in spite of her parents who aren’t quite sure why she would want to learn about calculus at the tender age of eight. Sophie, on the other hand, is still learning all about what it means to have friends.
- Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor (series) by Jon Scieska, is a very funny series that is great for so-called “reluctant readers.” Frank is a boy genius bent on winning a science competition with his robot inventions but his rival, T. Edison, is determined to thwart him.
- Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist by Jim Benton. Franny is a young mad scientist. but I Her problems are that of a normal kid. She just wants to fit in with the other kids at school. Since she is a scientist she makes observations about what the other kids are doing (playing with dolls, dressing “cute”) and eating (squishy white bread sandwiches instead of pumpkin ravioli) and then conducts experiments to see how best she can adapt.
The Water Princess K - 4 brings us to a different continent where water is a precious resource that is not easily gotten.
11 Experiments that Failed by Jenny Offill, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. A fun take on the scientific process that teaches kids that failure is a crucial part of learning.
CommonLit’s website full of fiction and non-fiction leveled passages for students in fifth through twelfth grade. It organizes texts into collections to make it easy for teachers to find a passage to share with their students.
Papa’s Mechanical Fish by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Boris Kulikov. This book was inspired by inventor Lodner Phillips, the creator of one of the first modern submarines. Lodner’s children observe their father inventing one “mechanical fish” after another. Determined to make a workable submarine, he tests each new invention out, adding improvements and starting over again.
Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Catherine Stock. A galimoto is simply a push toy crafted out of found material. Kondi wants to make a galimoto out of wire, he’s been saving up in his shoebox. Undeterred by his short supply he wanders around his village in search of more wire. His determination to make a galimoto is also admired by the others he meets during his search and that despite a few obstacles he remains persistent.
The Dot, Ish and Sky Color by Peter Reynolds. Turn STEM into STEAM with the “Creatrilogy” books. This best selling trio of books about the ability of small moments to transform into big creative endeavors. Each one encourages kids to look around them to find art in their own world.
Chapter Books
- Chasing Vermeer (series) by Blue Balliet, illustrated by Brett Helquist. This book is a tour de force! When a painting is stolen, friends Petra and Calder team up to find the thief. The thief leaves a series of clues in the newspaper and challenges the community to become art detectives. If they solve the mystery, he will return the painting. Illustrator Brett Helquist incorporates clues for the reader throughout the book’s illustrations. These clues revolve around pentominoes (a math puzzle).
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, illustrated by Jules Feiffer. Oh, you thought The Phantom Tollbooth was just about grammar and word play? Don’t forget Milo and Tock visit Digitopolis, chat up a Dodecahedron and explore curious mathematical concepts like infinity with a mathematician.
- The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, illustrated by Rotraut Susanne Berner. This is an odd sort of book, translated from the German. 12 year old Robert has trouble with math and each night in his dreams he meets the Number Devil who helps him understand various mathematical concepts, some of which are quite advanced. Illustrations are in color, which is unusual for a chapter book and math concepts are visually displayed.
- The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (series) by Jacqueline Kelly. In 1899, Calpurnia loathes the expectations set for 12 year old girls; she’d much rather read Darwin’s The Origin of Species and catch and study wildlife with her naturalist Granddaddy. I loved this tale of a girl coming of age at a time when natural science and engineering discoveries were changing the world.
- Secret Coders (series) by Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by Mike Holmes. Hopper is the new kid at school and she starts things off on the wrong foot. She gets her hackles up when she gets into a tussle on her first day at the strange and creepy Stately Academy but soon Hopper and another student, Eni, team up to solve the mystery of the school. There are binary numbers to figure out, coding puzzles to solve and computer programs to unravel. If your kids can spend hours on coding websites, convince them to enjoy some off-screen time while working on the same type of problems—but with a book.
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Hugo lives in the walls of a Paris train station when his secretive life is interrupted by the connections he makes with an unusual girl and an elderly toy vendor. A magical, marvelous, intricate, mysterious and stunning book that will inspire kids to tinker and build.
- The Friendship Experiment by Erin Teagan. Madeline is starting middle school. She misses her scientist grandfather and decides to apply her research formula, what she calls her “Standard Operating Formula,” to her social life. This is a great book for kids who might not naturally be drawn to science.
- Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself (series) by Bob Pflugfelder, illustrated by Steve Hockensmith. 12 year old twins, Nick and Tesla live with their mad scientist uncle. They spend their days building crazy inventions, conducting science experiments and trying to solve mysteries. Instructions for the projects are included in the books along withe the necessary safety precautions.
- The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages. In 1943, 10 year old Dewey works on her own inventive and scientific projects while her father lives and works in the secret scientific community working on the development of the atom bomb. After her father’s death and the testing of the bomb, Dewey and her friend struggle with the moral implications.
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Youth Edition) by William Kamkwamba, and Bryan Mealer, illustrated by Anna Hymas. Your children will be inspired by the true story of how William Kamkwamba brought wind power to his African village.
STEAM Science Books (K - 3) Includes STEAM Coonection activities
Books That Grow is a digital reading platform featuring fiction and non fiction texts that adapt to the student's reading ability, so that students of varied abilities can read and learn together. Video overview
Nonfiction eBooks Focusing on STEAM Unite for Literacy
Provides free access to more than 185 books available in approximately 35 language narrations. The ebooks, which are organized by topic, are mostly nonfiction with an emphasis on STEAM They include high-interest themes, such as animals and plants, and migrants
Love Science (android app) Kids Love Science series of stories are written for children of ages 3-10, with the aim entertaining these youngsters while introducing them to significant achievements in the history of science, exploration and adventure.
Wow in the World, NPR’s first podcasts aimed at K–6 students, guides curious children away from their screens and on a journey to connect and discover the wonders of the world around them. Through a combination of careful scientific research and fun, students go inside their brains, out into space, and deep into the coolest new stories in science and technology. For example, in the “Dinosaurs’ Puzzling Backbones” podcast, students discover how 170,000-pound dinosaurs walked around without collapsing under their own weight. In “It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s A … FLYING TAXI?!” students ponder where in the world we will see the first flying taxis, what the taxis will look like, and who will operate them.
STEM Challenge with the Novel, Hatchet
What to do with a Problem? video version
What do you do with an Idea? video version
Sleeping Beauty and Enchanted Engineering lesson plan
Save Sam with STEM! With a gummy worm, gummy lifesaver, a cup, and a paperclip, students will work in teams of two to solve a STEM challenge. Based on a popular STEM activity, we have added the engineering design process to this free activity. Good for an introduction to engineering in grades k-6 or a staff workshop
Jack and the Parachute A simple STEM engineering project where students make a parachute to help Jack escape the giant..
Class Activity: Make an Alarm
After reading the story Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary, students will build an alarm system for something in the classroom, as the main character Leigh does to protect his lunchbox from thieves. Students will learn about alarms and use their creativity to create an alarm system to protect their lockers, desk, or classroom door.
Current Events Readings
NEWSELA gr K-12 emphasis on nonfiction reading,provides daily current events articles written specifically for K–12 students. Each day the site adds three new articles to the collection. Categories include, Science, Health and Arts. For every article, there are versions written at different levels. Also an app
Breaking News - Are you looking for a site filled with great news articles? Discover this wonderful resource that allows you to assign a reading that provides same content at different reading levels.
Readworks.org should definitely be on your list. This website offers a wide range of lesson plans, comprehension units, and reading passages organized by skill and Lexile level.
DOGOnews a next-generation online network empowering kids to engage with digital media in a fun, safe and social environment. News section has current events and news from all around the world. Written for and in some cases by children. The Maps section is an interactive way for younger readers to read news headlines geotagged on a world map. Learn about the world and see where it’s happening. Also, teachers can set up their own DOGONews page and create a very personalized learning experience for their kids.
TeachUNICEF is an outreach project from UNICEF. The goal of the site is to provide lesson plans and other resources to help teachers teach about wide variety of global issues. The "explore" section of TeachUNICEF showcases materials for teaching about global issues with connections to social studies, science, math, English/language arts, foreign/world languages. Teachers can filter the results according to topic and grade level.
Screencasting
A Video About Making Screencast Videos
Screencast-o-matic.com free web-based. pro version $10/yr. Not work with Chromebook
Nimbus Screenshot Chromebook tool
Screencastify Chromebooks
mysimpleshow With this web-based video tool teachers and students can make their own animated explainer video. It’s free to use and teachers can create videos that show students how to complete a task, or use it as an option for students to record a video that demonstrates their understanding. It gives both teachers and students an opportunity to create a shareable product. mysimpleshow gives users the option to choose a storyline to structure their thoughts and add images to their video. There is also the option for users to add a voiceover by recording their voice or using a computer character. The new PowerPoint import feature makes the process quicker and easier than before. There’s no need to write a script from scratch anymore since users simply upload their PowerPoint to mysimpleshow and it extracts the most relevant text setting it up in a script format.
Jing free download. Includes a screenshot feature which you can annotate and then include in screencast.
Screencast-o-matic.com free web-based. pro version $10/yr. Not work with Chromebook
Nimbus Screenshot Chromebook tool
Screencastify Chromebooks
mysimpleshow With this web-based video tool teachers and students can make their own animated explainer video. It’s free to use and teachers can create videos that show students how to complete a task, or use it as an option for students to record a video that demonstrates their understanding. It gives both teachers and students an opportunity to create a shareable product. mysimpleshow gives users the option to choose a storyline to structure their thoughts and add images to their video. There is also the option for users to add a voiceover by recording their voice or using a computer character. The new PowerPoint import feature makes the process quicker and easier than before. There’s no need to write a script from scratch anymore since users simply upload their PowerPoint to mysimpleshow and it extracts the most relevant text setting it up in a script format.
Jing free download. Includes a screenshot feature which you can annotate and then include in screencast.
Primary Sources for STEAM
- Science & Technology Primary Sources: primarysourcenexus.org/psn-resources/themed-link-sets/science-technology/
- Science Primary Sources Activities
- Math Primary Sources: primarysourcenexus.org/tag/math
- The New York Times Learning pages:
www.nytimes.com/section/learning
www.nytimes.com/spotlight/learning-science-math
A collection of all the lesson plans they have posted from 2015-2016 to date:
learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/year-end-roundup-2015-16-all-our-lesson-plans-all-in-one-place/?rref=collection%2Fspotlightcollection%2Flearning-science-math&action=click&contentCollection=learning®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection - Historical Treasure Chests
This project provides a model for engaging students in an investigation of authentic materials from the past. The students will be provided with four primary sources and questions to guide their investigation. A wealth of other primary resources can be accessed on the websites listed in the reference section. gr 5-12 - Overview In this project students will report on a book by describing how they would turn that book into a motion picture. After reading and studying the main components of their novel (character, plot, conflict, climax and denouement), students will use their imaginations to explain how they would cast and direct the movie versions. This project also provides enrichment activities where in the students will access archived materials such as the Academy Awards Data Base, movie posters, and movie reviews. gr 5-12
- Population Growth Project This series of activities explores the mathematical and environmental aspects of population growth. Using archived census and demographic data as well as up-to-the-minute population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, students will learn how to model population growth and study the implications of a changing population. gr 6-12
STEAM Events and Project Resources
(This includes a monthly challenge for optional home assignments, for example, what can you make with straws, a box of crayons or what can you make with leaves?)
(This includes a monthly challenge for optional home assignments, for example, what can you make with straws, a box of crayons or what can you make with leaves?)
STEM CHALLENGES for the ENTIRE YEAR {A 9 MONTH BUNDLE!} $28
The Nuts and Bolts of a Family STEM Event
tips for planning a family STEM night at your school
Ultimate Guide to STEAM Boxes Whether you’re creating Makerspaces, STEM centers or early finisher activities, these tips and tricks make it so easy to pull together effective and engaging STEM boxes in your primary classroom
How to Organize a Schoolwide STEM Day
Getting Started with STEAM gr. 4-6 materials, challenges, lab sheets and more
5 Easy Ways to stow STEAM Materials
Also See Portals Above click here
Book STEAM Kids: 50+ Science / Technology / Engineering / Art / Math Hands-On Projects for Kids the projects in this book are no exception. All of the activities are beautifully-photographed and include the difficulty, the estimated project time, the STEAM behind it, materials, instructions, and project extensions.
Book Art Lab for Kids: This easy to follow art guide shows kids simple art techniques that will inspire them to be more creative.
STEM Challenges FREE Starter Pack K- 6
Free STEM Mini Journals Use these to help guide students through the STEM process
Create an Engineering Mystery Bag Challenge for Kids
Best STEM Challenges gr k - 5
A Week of free STEAM Challenges
Free STEAM Lessons These samplings are some excellent STEAM lesson seeds to give your program a boost. Touching on topics from fractions, poetry, the scientific method, engineering and digital arts initiatives, these lessons are a perfect way for you to get started with STEAM, or to enhance a program you already have in place
Lessons on Design Thinking The Tech of Innovation helps teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make engaging and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers. The site includes single-session lessons of less than an hour, such as “Balloon Astronaut” (grades 2–8) and “Circle of Pong” (grades 3–12); single-session lessons of one to two hours, such as “Fire Brigade” (grades 3–6) and “Pump It Up” (grades 4–6), as well as multisession lessons, such as “Bobsled Blitz” (grades 3–12) and “Farming in Ancient Mesopotamia” (grades 6–8).
STEM Activities for Kids Challenges, projects, tasks e.g., wind powered boats and cars
20+ Free and Fun STEAM for Kids Activities You Can Do Right Now
STEMMING Your Way Through the Year K - 5
Paper Bag STEM Challenges K - 4
4 Engineering Challenges for Kids K - 4
Build a Boat Challenge
Five engineering challenges for kids – with wooden clothespins, binder clips, and craft sticks!
Instructables Instructables is an educational website and mobile app where you can have access to a treasure trove of instructional videos and how-to guides covering a wide variety of topics from science experiments to amazing inventions. If you need some new ideas for your next classroom maker project, Instructables offers a library of over 100k of do-it-yourself projects
Projects for Makers provides a simple, enjoyable projects for students to get involved in making.
PBS Design Squad
DiscoveryE
4 Ingredient STEM Challenge Cookbook
STEM Projects categorized by subject area
The Nuts and Bolts of a Family STEM Event
tips for planning a family STEM night at your school
Ultimate Guide to STEAM Boxes Whether you’re creating Makerspaces, STEM centers or early finisher activities, these tips and tricks make it so easy to pull together effective and engaging STEM boxes in your primary classroom
How to Organize a Schoolwide STEM Day
Getting Started with STEAM gr. 4-6 materials, challenges, lab sheets and more
5 Easy Ways to stow STEAM Materials
Also See Portals Above click here
Book STEAM Kids: 50+ Science / Technology / Engineering / Art / Math Hands-On Projects for Kids the projects in this book are no exception. All of the activities are beautifully-photographed and include the difficulty, the estimated project time, the STEAM behind it, materials, instructions, and project extensions.
Book Art Lab for Kids: This easy to follow art guide shows kids simple art techniques that will inspire them to be more creative.
STEM Challenges FREE Starter Pack K- 6
Free STEM Mini Journals Use these to help guide students through the STEM process
Create an Engineering Mystery Bag Challenge for Kids
Best STEM Challenges gr k - 5
A Week of free STEAM Challenges
Free STEAM Lessons These samplings are some excellent STEAM lesson seeds to give your program a boost. Touching on topics from fractions, poetry, the scientific method, engineering and digital arts initiatives, these lessons are a perfect way for you to get started with STEAM, or to enhance a program you already have in place
Lessons on Design Thinking The Tech of Innovation helps teachers lead their students through science and engineering challenges. They also make engaging and effective team-building activities for groups of teachers. The site includes single-session lessons of less than an hour, such as “Balloon Astronaut” (grades 2–8) and “Circle of Pong” (grades 3–12); single-session lessons of one to two hours, such as “Fire Brigade” (grades 3–6) and “Pump It Up” (grades 4–6), as well as multisession lessons, such as “Bobsled Blitz” (grades 3–12) and “Farming in Ancient Mesopotamia” (grades 6–8).
STEM Activities for Kids Challenges, projects, tasks e.g., wind powered boats and cars
20+ Free and Fun STEAM for Kids Activities You Can Do Right Now
STEMMING Your Way Through the Year K - 5
Paper Bag STEM Challenges K - 4
4 Engineering Challenges for Kids K - 4
Build a Boat Challenge
Five engineering challenges for kids – with wooden clothespins, binder clips, and craft sticks!
Instructables Instructables is an educational website and mobile app where you can have access to a treasure trove of instructional videos and how-to guides covering a wide variety of topics from science experiments to amazing inventions. If you need some new ideas for your next classroom maker project, Instructables offers a library of over 100k of do-it-yourself projects
Projects for Makers provides a simple, enjoyable projects for students to get involved in making.
PBS Design Squad
DiscoveryE
4 Ingredient STEM Challenge Cookbook
STEM Projects categorized by subject area