STEM Family Nights are awesome! They generate excitement for STEM in your school and community by allowing students, teachers, and families to explore STEM together in a fun way! I planned my first STEM Night this past November, and after a big success, we planned three more! We worked with each middle school campus to create a family night that best fit the school culture, and we were excited to have over 400 participants engaged in activities each night. We got the whole school involved from administrators, teachers, coaches, student organizations, and parents to put on a meaningful night of STEM exploration. Want to plan your own night? Read on to learn how! 

When you hear the word “FAILURE”, what comes to mind? What feelings surface? Failure is something adults face often; for example, in our jobs when we fail to meet a deadline, in our relationships when we fail to act appropriately to situations, and in our homes when we fail to get chores accomplished or items fixed, to name a few. How a person responds to failure, and more importantly, how one goes on to succeed may be based on how he or she is conditioned at a young age.

With days until Christmas, kids can be bundles of restless energy! We can help you channel all that craziness with a fun Christmas themed engineering challenge that will keep your child or students entertained while learning! 

Many families across the country participate in the fun tradition of the Elf on a Shelf. The elf is a magical helper that manages his naughty and nice lists by reporting back to the North Pole each night. Parents have fun placing the elf in all sorts of crazy positions each night, and kids wake up each morning looking for the elf. 

Organizing classrooms, writing lesson plans, attending long professional development workshops...it is back to school season! School supply signs are everywhere, and kids are trying to squeeze in every bit of fun into the remaining summer hours. Some already started on Monday, and many more return to school next week. Read on for a back to school Vivify products and a one day sale!

It is Back to School Sale time on TeachersPayTeachers.com!  August 3-4 only, save up to 28% off site-wide! For a treasure trove of products to boost your students’ knowledge of all things S.T.E.M., head over to our store and check out all that we have to offer.

I’ll give you a brief tour of five of our best sellers that you and your students will love:

Last year, I started a new Space Club program at four middle schools. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I searched the web for ideas and curriculum to implement. I soon became excited to find great resources like NASA and TeachEngineering, but I was also overwhelmed as a simple Google search for "Space STEM activities" gives you a mere 89 million hits. Wading through a lot of junk eventually brought some gems that I could implement, and I leave it to another post to rant about the lack of quality in many activities that claim to be "STEM." 

Are you looking for STEM activities, but don’t know where to begin? Does engineering or science seem like a foreign subject?  These thoughts often prevent teachers and parents from using STEM activities, but STEM is not difficult to implement! All parents and teachers can use STEM activities for an engaging way to practice math and science skills. STEM is all about connecting academics to the real world to awaken a passion in students for learning and discovery!

After years of STEM activities, including towers, bridges, race cars, and rockets, one of my favorites is the classic catapult challenge! It incorporates all aspects of a quality STEM activity: easy math connection, engineering design process, student-driven learning, and hands-on fun! Read on to see my ideas to incorporate into your classroom.

Heart Rate Math is one of our first TeachersPayTeachers products and continues to be our best seller. I think the popularity is due to the ease of incorporating into the classroom with minimal prep and supplies. Here is the story behind our first product--  

The Pipe Cleaner (aka "Fuzzy Sticks") Challenge is one of my favorite STEM activities to introduce students to STEM learning. This is a fun, inexpensive, and engaging challenge that can be tailored to different ages, settings, and time-frames.  This challenge is also an excellent team icebreaker.

Just in time for the winter holidays, we have created a STEM winter-themed calendar! Students will pop frozen bubbles, make fake snow, design a new Santa sleigh, build a wrapping paper bridge, and much more. The calendar is jam-packed with ideas to keep the learning going during these holiday months. This calendar is recommended as a STEM challenge to students for the holiday break!