STEM Class Choices: Build or Code?

I had a completely different blog post in draft but when I looked through my photos from the past two weeks, the dominant subject was from my recent STEM lessons. The other post can wait.

STEM Class can be wonderfully open-ended. There are STEM expectations in the curriculum, under the subject of Science, but they are not as narrow as the other Science strands. You aren't required to make, build, or code specific things. This is what the Ontario Ministry of Education has to say about STEM on its website:

K–12 STEM education is the study of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, including cross-curricular and/or integrative study, and the application of those subjects in real-world contexts. As students engage in STEM education, they develop transferable skills that they need to meet the demands of today’s global economy and society.

STEM education helps students develop an understanding and appreciation of each of the core subjects of mathematics, science, and technological education. At the same time, it supports a more holistic understanding and application of skills and knowledge related to engineering design and innovation. STEM learning integrates and applies concepts, processes, and ways of thinking associated with these subjects to design solutions to real-world problems.

Engineering design and innovation engages students in applying the principles of science, technology, and mathematics to develop economical and sustainable solutions to technical and complex societal problems to meet human needs.

Among the transferable skills developed through STEM education are computational thinking, coding, design thinking, innovating, use of the scientific method, scientific inquiry skills, and engineering design skills. These skills are in high demand in today’s globally connected world, with its unprecedented advancements in technology.

Approaches to STEM education may vary across Ontario schools. STEM subjects may be taught separately, but with an effort to make cross-curricular connections a part of student learning. Problem-solving application projects may be designed to combine two or more STEM subjects. Alternatively, content from all four STEM subjects might be fully integrated to reinforce students' understanding of each subject, by enhancing their understanding of the interrelationships among them, and by providing the opportunity to apply a spectrum of knowledge and skills in novel ways in real-world contexts. As STEM education is implemented, it is important to engage diverse perspectives and ways of thinking. including those inherent in the arts and humanities. Diverse perspectives engage students in a  variety of creative and critical thinking processes that are essential for developing innovative and effective solutions that impact communities or ecosystems.

A robust K–12 STEM education enables Ontario educators and students to become innovators and leaders of change in society and the workforce, and creates opportunities in our diverse communities to foster integrative thinking and problem solving.

So, how does an educator prioritize a particular approach? For Term 2, the Grade 3 team in particular requested that I focus on coding. The reason was that there are coding-related questions in EQAO that the students sometimes stumble on, and the teachers really wanted to address that need early with targeted lessons on coding concepts.

Coding

When I last mentioned my coding lessons, my students were struggling a bit with describing and recording their coding for their robot coding mice. They like using the technology, but they tend to rush through their thinking without remembering or properly documenting the process. I've bought some more Botleys and Coding Mice so that we can have smaller groups to practice.

I'm also partnering with the Grade 1 class for an integrated coding and social studies unit involving Ozobots. In two weeks, this partnering unit will be part of the Demonstration / Observation class I'm hosting for other teacher-librarians in my school board. Thankfully, we have enough Ozobots that every student has their own (thank you Macklin P.S. for the loan!) and the immediate feedback based on the actions the robots take based on the code helps us shape subsequent lessons. For instance, we realized the students needed more practice with their line drawing before we got into the color coding sequences.

Photos from 1st Week Together

Photos from 2nd Week Together

Building

We recently installed storage shelving in the STEM lab for projects, and the students missed using the Chomp Saws. What I thought would be a single-class challenge turned into a month-long investigation. Inspired by the book stand one of the teachers made at my cardboard session at the TDSB Eureka conference, I asked my students to build a book stand using only cardboard. I had to finally tell the students that they were no longer allowed to modify their designs, even if it wasn't yet working. 

Here are some of the designs that worked.

I need to return to my coding lessons as EQAO nears, especially to review the idea of repeating loops and different coding directions. It's tricky to find the right balance between the math-heavy coding and the engineer-influenced building, since it takes a long time to do either. Ideally, I'd design a challenge that includes both coding and building simultaneously, so it isn't an either-or dilemma.