55. How to Teach STEM During Women's History Month
March is Women’s History Month! Can you name something invented by a woman? How about windshield wipers, Wite-OutⓇ, heating with solar power, the Brooklyn Bridge, the step trash can, and even every kid’s favorite fish-shaped snack? In this episode, Natasha and Claire discuss how to celebrate the contributions of women through hands-on STEM activities for your classroom.
54. HELP! My Students Are Struggling With TEAMWORK!
This week, we respond to an email from Robert, a STEM teacher, who told us, “I have been a teacher for 11 years, and this is my second as our school's STEM teacher. I am STRUGGLING with teams working together. So much arguing, fighting, crying…I need all the teamwork advice I can get!” How do you facilitate good teamwork in your classroom? Join us as we discuss all things teamwork plus a creativity bellringer that Claire tried with her PreK - 7th grade students. The difference in responses was incredible and eye opening!
53: Getting Data From Our Poop? Career Chat with Dr. Olesen
Featuring questions from Space Club students, Natasha chats with Dr. Scott Olesen, a biological engineer from MIT who now works in wastewater surveillance at Biobot Analytics! This episode is the audio recording of a Career Chat episode, streamed on Vivify’s YouTube channel, as a way to share the story of STEM professionals to inspire elementary and middle school students. Listen in as Dr. Olesen gives advice on STEM careers and his pathway from an Eagle Scout with an interest in physics, a venture to France for archeology, and now tackling COVID-19 through wastewater surveillance!
52: How to Host a STEM Family Night
With things finally starting to return to “normal,” how can you get families excited for STEM? HOST A STEM FAMILY NIGHT! But how do you do that? How far in advance should you start planning all of this and recruiting your help? What kind of STEM activities should you include? Planning and executing a STEM family night doesn’t have to be difficult. Tune in as Natasha walks Claire through her proven steps to make STEM family night truly EPIC and divulges some of her favorite activities to include!
51. How Do You Get Every Student to Speak?
Time to put on our Thinking Hats! I am light as a feather, yet the strongest person in the world can’t hold me for five minutes. What am I?
Unsure of the answer? How do you facilitate brainstorming and get your students to ask questions? How do you give your students a voice? Do you have any brain teasers or riddles you use to get your students’ creative minds going? Tune in to this episode of The STEM Space where Claire tells Natasha all about how she helps take the pressure off of students who might be hesitant to chime in and boost both their confidence and creativity while adding voice to your classroom. (You’ll also hear the answer to the riddle above!)
50. How to Involve Girls in After-School STEM
How do we break stereotypes? More specifically the ones where our students tell us the picture of the guy in the white lab coat is “definitely” a scientist, but the picture of the beautiful lady standing next to a telescope is “just a model”. In this episode of The STEM Space, Claire and Natasha share a listener’s email asking how to be inclusive of boys and girls within an after-school STEM program. Tune in to learn how to start an exciting program and convince your students that they, too, can be successful engineers, scientists, or whatever else they aspire to be.