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. 

Need some winter-themed STEM challenges for those last school days of December? Engineering challenges are the perfect way to channel the high energy of students before the holidays. Students can pop frozen bubbles, make fake snow, design a new Santa sleigh, or build a wrapping paper bridge!

In continuation of our series exploring and reviewing products relating to science, technology, engineering, and math, today we will make a quick dive into the world of computer programming and learning to code! 

Last year, I helped organize four middle school Robotics Clubs that participated in GEAR and First Lego League competitions. While I believe robotics is an amazing component of STEM education, I wanted to highlight some of the challenges we faced in creating a quality after school program. I also outlined some possible solutions to help overcome these challenges, which I am implementing this year.  

Exciting videos are a great hook for engaging students into a STEM lesson. Videos can allow students to meet STEM professionals, tour a STEM facility, learn about exciting STEM real-world applications, and really help bring STEM to life. Below are the top 10 more useful STEM video resources for your classroom or after school program. Most include videos with short duration of 1 - 3 minutes to fit easily into a classroom lesson. 

This is the first post of a new series that will explore and review products relating to science, technology, engineering, and math. With “STEM” becoming a highly sought-after buzzword, there are so many products advertising its membership in the exclusive world of STEM. But do they really belong? We will help you navigate the stores and internet to find products that live up to their STEM claims.

 First up: the Augmenter App - by Trendyworks Technologies

Once students get over the initial hurdle of learning the basics of programming and building, they can quickly feel a sense of accomplishment and a boost in confidence. Robotics in the real-world may only be a part of the wide world of engineering, but participating in robotics allows students to authentically experience the engineering design process.

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!

“To Claire, we are going to need more astronauts”

 These are the words that Cady Coleman wrote on the autographed picture that was given to me in grade school. The picture has graced the walls of my childhood bedroom as I dreamed of becoming an astronaut like herself, then in college as I pursued my degree in Aerospace Engineering, and now in the office at my home where I am raising my daughters to dream big and be inspired by people like her.

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." 

After moving from engineering to education, I had a lot to learn about teaching! I was used to speaking to a group of middle-aged male engineers, and now I had a classroom full of sixth graders arguing over a bag of Takis (popular San Antonio snacks). I had decided to start an after school Space Club, and to my surprise, I had over fifty students crammed into the classroom on day one. Now what?!