4 Ways to Set Students Up for Success During a STEM Challenge
The following is a guest post from Dr. Jacie Maslyk.
While we certainly recognize that failure is a natural part of STEM learning, we ultimately want our students to be successful. In this post, you will learn about four simple things you can do to set your students up for success in your next STEM challenge.
What Exactly is Your Definition of Success?
Is a successful lesson one that every student completes in the time allotted? Does success mean that every student demonstrated some understanding of the content? Maybe success means that every student attempted to complete the task?
Success doesn’t necessarily mean meeting the build requirements. It also doesn’t mean getting all the answers right. You and your students should construct your definition of success together so that they understand the purpose of the challenge and your expectations for their work.
4 Ways to Set Students Up for Success During STEM Challenges
Ask Questions Before
Plan Ahead
Allow Time for Redesign
Provide a Purpose
Misconceptions of Success
Feeling like your lesson failed because students ran into a lot of roadblocks? This happens to everyone! Reframe the situation and consider the learning that students were able to gain through their challenges.
Maybe they learned how to use a new material. Perhaps they figured out that they should have sketched their design first. Maybe they gained some insight into who they should NOT work with in a future challenge. These are all valuable lessons for students to learn.
Let’s say, you really wanted students to apply their knowledge of angles in the design of their simple machines, yet none of the groups talked about angles or seemed to access this information. This does not mean that the lesson was a failure. Reiterate the content to students after the challenge. You’ll likely hear a lot of “Oh, right!” and “I forgot about that.”
Dos and Don’ts for Success
There are a few things to consider if you want to set up students for success, including some dos and don’ts. These four ideas may not apply to every single lesson, but they will provide a great start as you plan for your next STEM challenge.
1. Ask prompting questions BEFORE the challenge.
Think about what students will struggle with most and craft questions around those parts of the challenge. For example, if students are designing a table, help them to consider ways to ensure that the table will be level. Talk about symmetry and balance and encourage them to think about that within their designs.
If we show students a potential finished project, we know that they will be eager to copy it. Remember, helping them to grapple with the design process is an important learning process in the STEM classroom.
2. Plan ahead.
Consider the factors that will help your lesson run smoothly. Organizing the learning environment and setting aside some materials ahead of time will help. For some students, they may need assistance when it comes to choosing materials that will work well for the intended challenge.
Other students may think outside the box and want to use something different. That’s OK! If students can articulate what materials they need and how they think it will help their design, then give them the opportunity to try.
3. Build in time for redesign.
Consider including some aspects of differentiation, especially for students who find success quickly within a challenge. Adding another layer to the challenge and then offering additional time for redesign provides a real world career connection, as designers often create multiple iterations for projects.
Many classroom teachers only have a designated amount of time allocated for a lesson. If you know that you need to complete a lesson in 45 minutes (and that includes set-up and clean-up) then you must be mindful of time.
· Give students guidelines. “Today, you will have 5 minutes to plan, 15 minutes to build, 5 minutes for feedback, 10 minutes for redesign, and 5 minutes for reflection.”
· Set a timer. If you want to ensure that you have enough time for everything, set a timer. This will help to guide you (and your students) when time is tight.
· Try “Feedback Fridays”. Set aside time on Fridays for students to revisit unfinished projects or incomplete designs. Allow them to get feedback from teachers and peers and redesign their work based on the feedback.
There will be lessons that need to extend beyond one class period. It may be because of the nature of the challenge or the fact that students are on the verge of a creative solution.
Try to build in time for redesign. Whether you incorporate it within your lesson or invite students to reflect and revisit the next day, the extra time will help students to think like designers.
4. Provide a purpose.
There are a lot of great STEM challenges out there, but choosing the right ones for your students can be challenging. Select challenges that connect to the content students are learning, in your class or others.
Have a clear purpose for why you are engaging in this challenge. If you are learning about sounds and vibrations, then it makes sense for students to design musical instruments. If you are studying force and motion, then constructing vehicles would be the perfect challenge.
Provide students with background knowledge. Show them videos, read articles, and share examples. All these strategies will help students to understand the content and prepare them to apply it within a STEM challenge.
Connecting your challenges to the content that you are teaching in math, science, or ELA will help to reinforce that learning while also helping students to better understand the purpose of the challenge. Share the purpose with your students! Nurture their STEM thinking by ensuring that they know what they are doing AND why.
Prepare for Success
Just as we prepare our students to learn their math facts or practices for a spelling test, we must also prepare them for STEM challenges, too. Planning ahead, with both our questions and our materials helps to get us organized prior to the lesson. When we provide background knowledge and share the purpose for the challenge, we are helping to set students up for success during the lesson. After our lessons, we can reflect on the challenge and allow time for redesign, so that students see the design process as an ongoing learning experience.
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An educator for the last 23 years, Dr. Jacie Maslyk, has served as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, elementary principal, and assistant superintendent. She is the author of STEAM Makers: Fostering Creativity and Innovation in the Elementary Classroom, Connect to Lead: Power Up Your Learning Network to Move Your School Forward (ISTE), Remaking Literacy: Innovative Instructional Strategies for Maker Learning and Unlock Creativity: Opening a World of Imagination With Your Students. You can read more on her blog, Creativity in the Making, at www.jaciemaslyk.blogspot.com. Connect with Jacie on Twitter @DrJacieMaslyk or email her at jaciemaslyk@gmail.com .