10 Tips for Managing a STEM Classroom
Post by Julie Lyons
Originally Posted: November 2, 2021
Updated: February 2024
Do you remember the scene in the movie Tangled where Rapunzel is reflecting on her recent actions and oscillating between joy and frustration? Take that scene and place Rapunzel in a STEM classroom. Sure, it’s a funny scene when it’s Rapunzel, but can you relate? That can be the range of teacher emotions in some STEM lessons.
Would you like to spend more time on the joy side and less on the frustration side of STEM teaching? Me too! Let’s talk about classroom management strategies in the STEM classroom. I hope you finish reading this feeling like you can “let your hair down” and truly enjoy all of your future STEM lessons!
Unique Challenges of Managing a STEM Classroom
STEM is an inventive, creative, thought-provoking process. Creative processes are usually not linear. They are curvy, winding, and often back-track again and again or take a tangent on a completely new path. In a STEM classroom, we take this creative process, throw into the mix a bunch of supplies, choice of partners (who we may or may not enjoy working with), and open-ended projects that lead to a sometimes chaotic environment!
How do we manage all of this as a teacher trying to foster a creative STEM process yet maintain learning objectives and behavioral order in our classrooms?
Here are my top 10 tips for classroom management!
Tip 1: Get to know your students
How good does it feel when a professor or teacher really knows you? We all like that feeling of belonging and being seen and heard. I have learned so much about football, not because I particularly like football, but many of my students do. Knowing what team won over the weekend connects you to them at the start of a lesson.
So many classroom management behaviors can be smoothed over or short-circuited by really connecting with our students. Learn your students’ personalities by finding out not only their strengths and weaknesses but also their interests. Cater lessons to their interests and be sure to give them opportunities to shine in their strengths.
One year I had a struggling reader, but she had impeccable scissor cutting skills. I asked her during a STEM challenge to be the scissor assistant. She shined in her strength and really helped her struggling classmates! When students feel like you “know-know” them and still enjoy teaching them, it creates buy-in to open their minds to learning and cooperating.
Vivify also has this great blog post on using students’ interests to connect to STEM careers. Many are also struggling with distance learning so I recommend these great activities here!
Tip 2: Give teacher-led choice.
Students love making decisions, but make sure you are in control. When you are offering several choices that all lead to the same outcome, students sense they have made their own decision. Most students really like that feeling and will work hard to continue to be allowed to choose.
Choice in selecting partners for STEM challenges can sometimes work. I usually reserve this choice for shorter STEM challenges. I always have pre-organized groups of 2 and 3 ready to go when I know we need to get some STEM learning done in a timely fashion.
When I choose partners, I try to give other choices like which STEM role they would like to have in their group or if they would like to test their challenge inside or outside. However, you decide to give choice, make sure to think through the options so that no matter what choice students pick, they will have a productive learning experience.
Tip 3: Positive words
Positive words. Always. That’s my classroom management style.
I squash the negative behaviors by calling out all of the good. It’s amazing how fast groups will get quiet for instructions or when I compliment a quiet group and sharing the positive behavior. In addition, I lollipop my “extra” helpers. The ones who go above and beyond and choose to help a classmate without me asking. I want students to become natural problem solvers and team players.
Tip 4: Model how to work as a team
I try to keep things humorous and demonstrate all of the behaviors that would make a team unsuccessful. Come up with names for those behaviors, like Can’t-stop-talking Cathy. Then I ask students to help me model great teamwork.
In addition, I give roles to each team member. I use these role names:
Supplier: supply gatherer, organizer & returner
Reader: read the task & read brainstorming
Recorder: record testing info
Videographer: video building, tests & any other points of interest.
For groups of 3, I combine Reader and Recorder. The whole group does brainstorming/blueprinting and records what the recorder wrote down. This often leads to some great discussion in the groups of what occurred during their tests.
Lastly, we take the next class period (or whenever we finish testing) to view every group's videos and share results along with glows and grows - things we did great and things we could work on.
Tip 5: Assign seats
Assign seats, tables, desks, whatever your STEM classroom set up looks like. Everyone needs a space to call home to feel comfortable in the classroom. Even if it’s shared with 14 other classes of students. Though we don’t sit in our assigned space for very long during each class, students know it’s there if they need a home base.
Tip 6: Portable Nametags
We create our name tags the first week of school. I like the simple name tag tents. Inside, we glue and write codes for all tech logins, apps, and our computer/iPad number. Everything stays organized in one place so it's easy to move seats if needed and great for when a substitute teacher is in the room!
A bonus activity is to turn it into a STEM challenge by creating these light-up name tags!
Tip 7: Signs everywhere
Anything that I have to repeat more than 3 times, I make into a sign!
Sounds silly, but once kids know where to look, they begin to help their classmates too. This is troubleshooting 101 - know where to find your info. I make signs for login information, passwords, pre-assigned groups per grade, STEM rules, and the STEM process. During a lesson, I will also display information digitally on my smartboard such as design constraints or a supply list.
Click here to download my STEM Activity rules poster!
Tip 8: Clear consistent routines.
The activities may change, but the flow of the class stays familiar. For example, I begin each class with kids sitting on the carpet for opening instruction. I close class the same way with a few moments of reflection on the lesson. We do this even on days when we are in the middle of a STEM project and the students want to just keep working. Routine is important and really helps with classroom management!
Tip 9: Build in clean up time
Set a timer for 5 - 10 minutes before class ends so you have built-in clean-up and re-cap time. We often get in the creative flow, and time just slips away. Then we are hurrying to clean up the mess of supplies before the next class.
Instead, introduce cleaning as a part of engineering. Engineers need to keep tidy workspaces when creating to keep track of supplies and for safety. Plus it helps set us up for success in the next STEM class if we know that all of the supplies are returned. Hurry always makes everyone’s behavior harder to tolerate.
Tip 10: Quiet think time
STEM can be exciting and loud. But, it is also okay to have a quiet break. It is okay to do independent activities. It’s okay to think in our own heads and not share right away. I like 15 minutes of silent think tank time for my older grades. I have even done independent STEM activities for one class and then brought groups together with their independent ideas for the next class. This really helps accommodate the different personalities and needs of my students!
Bonus: Tip 11 - Always have a plan B
My plan B is Legos. Sometimes lessons just do not go as we planned, and they turn into more chaos than creativity. So I punt on the lesson and pull out the Legos!
Ask students to build something related to the STEM challenge you were working on. I keep Legos pre-sorted into bins, ready to go if needed. I divide up the students into partners, spread them out around the room, and let them build. This gives me a few moments to reassess and see how best to proceed forward.
I hope these tips help in your classroom. I feel each year we start off with a rookie team, and it takes a bit to get our team playing the same STEM game. Here’s to a year full of joy-filled STEM a-ha moment classrooms!
