Sunday, April 2, 2017

STEM & iPads!

First of all what is STEM? STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math, and the combination of these opportunities provide excellent leaning experiences for students. STEM activities are great for any grade, because they can be as simple or complex as the teacher needs them to be. They also can be implemented across all areas of the curriculum, because it combines so many skills and learning occasions that students need to be exposed to in the classroom. STEM activities can be implemented in the classroom for early finishers, center time, morning work, behavior incentives, and fine motor practice. Students absolutely love having STEM challenges implemented in their classroom schedule. There are also various ways to incorporate the use of iPads into STEM challenges. Just a few ideas consist of the Seesaw app, using the infrared feature on the camera, using the slow motion feature on the camera, the Pic Collage app, digital story telling apps to explain the process that was used for the STEM challenge, the timer or stopwatch feature, and the level feature on the compass. I have already incorporated STEM challenges in the classroom before, and I absolutely love the learning experience that it gives the students. These challenges provide endless opportunities for the students, and I am very excited to implement STEM challenges and the use of iPads in my own classroom. Implementing the use of iPads in STEM challenges allows students to use critical thinking, creativeness, communication, and collaboration. The students use critical thinking and creativeness throughout the entire STEM challenge while using the engineering design process. This process consists of the steps of asking, imagining, planning, creating, and improving. The students are able to communicate and collaborate with their peers are they work in their cooperative groups to solve the STEM challenge. There is so much learning built up in this one activity, and I believe that STEM challenges should be implemented in all classrooms of all grade levels. We all know that there is so much to get done during the school day, and yet there does not feel like there is nearly enough time to get all of the curriculum taught and for students to enjoy the process of learning. Well, STEM challenges makes all of this happen. By STEM challenges combining science, technology, engineering, and math, teachers are able to teach the many areas of the curriculum and combine it into one lesson. This allows the teachers to make the lesson more engaging and interactive for the students. STEM challenges and iPads provide endless learning opportunities for students, and the students are eager to be exposed to these learning experiences. It is the teacher’s responsibility to take notice to the need that students have for these types of learning experiences, and implement them whenever and wherever they can have a beneficial purpose in the classroom’s schedule. There are more STEM jobs today than ever before, and there will be more when these students are going to college and getting jobs. Teachers need to help better prepare their students for the STEM enriched job opportunities in the future.

This link provides 50 of the best iPad apps for STEM challenges! For example Seismograph, 3D Sun, 3D Brain, and much more!


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