One of the obvious traits that Effective STEM Classrooms always have are hands-on challenges that relate or are realistic enough to relate to the real-world.
That’s what keeps students engaged- solving a real problem instead of moving on to page 27 of the text book. Â Relating a real-world problem with a hands-on element goes a looonnnnggg way in keeping students interested and learning.
So, where do you find real-world, hands-on, standards-based resources? Â Here are some suggestions:
NASA Wavelength– Â A couple of years ago, NASA sought out to collect all of their education resources under one virtual roof. Â At the Wavelength site, you can search by terms, audience, topics, etc. that will help you narrow down your search results. Â While most of these are stand-alone lessons, hopefully one of them will inspire your next STEM Challenge!
Pinterest– If you have self-control (which when it comes to Pinterest, I apparently do not) there are a lot of good STEM Challenges that can be found here. Â Look for challenges that would be interesting to your students and that are feasible and testable in your particular environment.
Starfish Education– So, of course, I had to put mine in the list 🙂 Among the most popular on my site: The Brown Bag STEM Challenge I and Brown Bag Challenge II, Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales, and STEM Skills Challenges to name a few.
Use Your (or your students’) Own Creativity- Â Your students are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to problems that need solving. Â Engage them in a discussion of what is feasible and testable and find a problem to investigate. Â Plus, by soliciting for their ideas, you’ll have tremendous buy-in since students contributed to selecting the problem.
Finding the right challenges is critical having a successful STEM classroom.  Where do you find great challenges for your students?
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