Stem Projects Ideas for Family and Community Engagement
Engaging Families and Communities
The central goal of Engaging Families and Communities is to increase student accomplishment, aptitude, and interest in scientific discipline by involving families in the learning process and making the near of community resources. Specific content goals will vary depending on the activity.
Practice in Action
What Is Information technology?
Engaging Families and Communities involves parents in afterschool and makes the nearly of community-based partnerships and resources. Actively engaging families in science learning fosters positive attitudes and enhances science literacy. Community partnerships help build innovative curriculum through local and relevant scientific discipline activities. When afterschool programs collaborate with families and community partners, they promote social, emotional, cultural, and bookish growth.
What Do I Do?
Engage families in afterschool science projects, family scientific discipline nights, and career fairs. Family events can appoint parents and students in a typical afterschool scientific discipline activity, or can be led by a science expert in the customs. Proceed in mind that some parents may need to be encouraged and welcomed more than than others, based on their familiarity with science content. Consider parents who piece of work in a science-related field; invite them to speak, or involve them in planning an effect or project.
Program activities that are realistic for your students to deport, such as cleaning out a department of stream banks, collecting water for testing by local government, testing water with sensors or water-testing kits, removing non-native plants, and replanting native species. Begin with a pocket-sized project; you can always expand the scope of the project equally you and your students become more experienced and as you get additional resources.
Apply community resources by contacting public relations officers or other key people at science museums, science centers, nature gardens, zoos, waste-treatment plants, parks and recycling centers, engineering organizations, chemical plants, power companies, or hospitals and other health agencies. Once y'all have a sense of parental and community resource, plan a projection such as restoring a stream or natural habitat, recycling, improving county trails and parks, or a health projection such as a nutrition and practice fair. Be certain to include parents and community science experts as y'all plan, identify learning goals, and evaluate the effect or activeness afterwards.
Why Does Information technology Work?
Children whose parents are involved in their educational activity perform at college levels than those whose parents are non involved. Parents pass on to their children their attitudes toward science and math. Positive science and math experiences can stimulate enthusiasm and curiosity in both parents and children. Using community resource engages students in real-world activities and emphasizes the relevance of learning scientific discipline, and introduces students to careers in science, engineering science, engineering, and mathematics.
Planning Your Lesson
Cracking afterschool lessons beginning with having a clear intention nearly who your students are, what they are learning or need to work on, and crafting activities that engage students while supporting their academic growth. Great afterschool lessons also require planning and preparation, equally there is a lot of work involved in successfully managing kids, materials, and fourth dimension.
Below are suggested questions to consider while preparing your afterschool lessons. The questions are grouped into topics that stand for to the Lesson Planning Template. You lot can impress out the template and use information technology every bit a worksheet to plan and refine your afterschool lessons, to share lesson ideas with colleagues, or to assistance in professional development sessions with staff.
- Lesson Planning Template (PDF)
- Lesson Planning Template (Word document)
Lesson Planning Template Questions
Form Level
What course level(south) is this lesson geared to?
Elapsing
How long will information technology accept to complete the lesson? I hour? One and a one-half hours? Will information technology exist divided into two or more parts, over a week, or over several weeks?
Learning Goals
What do you want students to learn or be able to do after completing this activity? What skills do you want students to develop or hone? What tasks do they need to accomplish?
Materials Needed
List all of the materials needed that volition be needed to complete the activity. Include materials that each pupil volition demand, as well as materials that students may need to share (such as books or a figurer). Besides include any materials that students or instructors will need for tape keeping or evaluation. Volition y'all need to store materials for future sessions? If so, how will y'all do this?
Grooming
What do you demand to practise to prepare for this action? Will yous need to gather materials? Will the materials need to be sorted for students or will yous assign students to be "materials managers"? Are there whatsoever books or instructions that you need to read in order to prepare? Do yous need a refresher in a content area? Are there questions y'all need to develop to help students explore or discuss the action? Are there props that yous need to have assembled in advance of the activity? Practise yous need to enlist another adult to help run the action?
Think virtually how you might split upward groups―who works well together? Which students could assist other peers? What roles will yous assign to different members of the group so that each pupil participates?
Now, call up well-nigh the Practice that you are basing your lesson on. Reread the Practice. Are in that location ways in which you demand to improve your lesson plan to better address the fundamental goal(s) of the Do? If this is your first time doing the action, consider doing a "run through" with friends or colleagues to run into what works and what you lot may need to change. Alternatively, you could ask a colleague to read over your lesson programme and give you feedback and suggestions for revisions.
What to Do
Think about the progression of the activity from start to finish. One model that might exist useful—and which was originally developed for science education—is the 5E'south instructional model. Each phrase of the learning sequence can exist described using 5 words that brainstorm with "E": engage, explore, explicate, extend, and evaluate. For more information, see the 5E's Instructional Model.
Outcomes to Look For
How will you know that students learned what you intended them to acquire through this action? What volition be your signs or benchmarks of learning? What questions might yous ask to appraise their understanding? What, if whatsoever, product volition they produce?
Cocky-Evaluation
Afterwards you comport the activity, take a few minutes to reflect on what took place. How practise you think the lesson went? Are there things that you wish you had done differently? What will y'all change next time? Would you practise this activity again?
Sample Lessons
Family unit Science Dark (K-ii)
Students and parents work together with different materials to investigate what makes a practiced bubble-blower.
Duration: i-2 hours
Learning Goals
- Practice scientific research: question, hypothesize, observe, tape, analyze, communicate results, and plan further investigations
- Keep journals or records of scientific investigations
- Compare results from multiple groups and draw conclusions
- Parents and students work together to understand the relevance of scientific discipline in their lives
Materials Needed
- Gallon of bubble solution (1 gallon of water with 1 cup of h2o removed, one loving cup of dishwashing liquid, fifty to threescore drops of glycerin)
- Plastic table cloths or large trash bags
- Newspapers (to cover floor and tables)
- Bucket, squeegees, sponges, paper towels, and vinegar (for cleanup)
- Bubble-blower materials such every bit straws, wire mesh, strainers, scissors, spools, plastic/Styrofoam cups, funnels, slotted spoons, spatulas, paper towel and tissue rolls, wire of different gauges, pipage cleaners, different-sized washers, condom bands, safety rings for glass jars, turkey basters
- Aluminum pie pans or flat plastic containers (for bubble solution, i per table)
- Signs that say "Objects that work" and "Objects that don't work"
Preparation
2-3 weeks before the event
- Piece of work with parents and staff to plan the action and create a plan.
- Collect and organize materials.
- Write and distribute invitations to families or have students write personal invitations.
- Notify school-day teachers and administrators and ask them for back up.
Day of the event
- Identify containers of bubble solution, plastic table clothes (if necessary), and newspapers on each table.
- Accept bubble blowers and make clean-up materials in central surface area that'south easy to access.
- Mail signs on side tables or have two boxes with "Works" and "Doesn't work" signs.
Rubber Considerations
- Participants may wear safe goggles or spectacles to protect their eyes.
- Participants should wearable clothing that can get wet and skid-resistant shoes.
- If solution gets in a participant'southward eyes, instructors should wash the eyes with clear water.
- Instructors should have a bottle of vinegar and a mop or towel handy to clean up whatever spills on the floor. Newspapers can too be used to clean up.
- Later on the investigations, participants should launder their hands to remove any lather solution.
What to Practise
- Engage students and families by introducing the lesson and request guiding questions: Who has blown bubbles? What makes a good bubble blower? Students should be encouraged to introduce and lead the investigations without giving abroad the answers if they accept washed this activeness earlier. Distribute materials and explain that each table will have bubble solution and a set of materials so participants can see what makes a good bubble blower.
- Explore the various chimera blowers with students and parents. One time an object has been tried, it should go in the "Works" or "Doesn't work" box or expanse. Circulate among the teams to check in and inquire questions. How do they decide what works and what doesn't? How many times do they effort each bubble blower?
- Explicate the results. Later on each squad has had an opportunity to work with several blowers, get together the whole grouping and ask each team to explain what makes a good chimera blower. Did every squad observe the same respond? How did they reach their conclusions? What practise the most constructive and least effective bubble blowers have in common?
- Extend learning if time allows. Students and parents may record their findings, write virtually what they learned, and describe pictures of the chimera blower that worked. Family teams can design and build a bubble-making car or explore other objects in their domicile to find good bubble blowers.
- Evaluate (Outcomes to Look For)
- Parent involvement in planning
- Parent and student attendance and participation
- Answers and questions that reflect an understanding of inquiry and investigation
- Answers and questions that reflect an agreement of what materials brand a adept bubble blower and some ideas why, too as what materials that don't and why
Learn more nigh the 5Es.
Creek Restoration Project (v-12)
Afterschool instructors and students piece of work with community members and parents to understand the local environs and restore a creek.
Duration: Flexible (can be washed in a couple of weeks or over the class of the year)
Learning Goals
- Understand the local environment and issues that impact it
- Practice scientific inquiry through questioning, hypothesizing, observing and recording information, and analyzing and communicating results
- Use scientific tools to measure
- Proceed journals or records of scientific investigations
- Piece of work collaboratively to solve a problem
Materials Needed
- Safety goggles or spectacles
- Gloves
- Collection bags
- Water-testing kits or calculator/PDA probes (available at science-supply stores)
- Digital camera
- PDA or laptop with spreadsheet software
Preparation
- Identify volunteer and local community personnel (environmental scientists, chemists, biologists, etc.) from the Ecology Protection Agency, city parks department, or the local water quality lath to assistance plan and behave the project.
- Programme project timeline and communicate with parents.
- Collect necessary materials.
Safety Considerations
- Adults must supervise all data collection and cleanup. Choose the expanse wisely, looking for the safest environment for students.
- Students must article of clothing gloves for cleanup and utilize goggles when any water-testing chemicals are used.
- Do not collect information when a storm is forecast; observe the heaven for rain showers and thunderstorms. Avoid streams in loftier water.
- Accept a first-aid kit for all outings, sturdy shoes, and proper wear, including protection from the sun.
What to Do
- Engage students by inviting a guest speaker to talk over and share pictures of local streams, or have students to a nearby stream to run across the condition of the expanse. Consider taking students to a local meeting for creek restoration if one is available in your area. Discuss and plan your project with students and parents.
- Explore creeks. Accept students research water resources in their area and creek restoration projects. Lead students in planning the restoration project. Accept students clean a section of the creek/stream and document (using a periodical and digital photographic camera) the activities. Test water for pH, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, or other concrete parameters. Collect, organize, and display data and any changes over time.
- Explain findings. Take students analyze and explain what they learned. This may take the form of large charts, drawings, digital pictures, or computer-generated spreadsheets and charts. Allow fourth dimension for questions and answers, and probe students to explain what they learned also as whatsoever questions they may have.
- Extend learning if time allows.
- Plan an art projection nearly creek restoration.
- Plan pupil presentations earlier local environmental organizations or city parks department.
- Encourage students to enter projects in a scientific discipline fair.
- Invite local or state environmental agencies to talk to students almost careers in environmental sciences.
- Ask students to practice follow-upwards research on local environmental issues.
- Expand the study with older students to include tracing energy flows in the creek ecosystem and researching and restoring native plants to the stream banks.
- Evaluate (Outcomes to Expect For)
- Student participation and engagement
- An understanding of creeks in the local environs
- Questions and answers that reflect an power to practice scientific research (questioning, hypothesizing, observing and collecting data, and communicating results)
- Written answers or illustrations that reflect an understanding of ecology problems, how to measure out chemicals in h2o, and how to display information
Larn more than about the 5Es.
Resources
Explore these resources to assist in implementing the Engaging Families and Communities practice in your plan.
Resources for Sample Lessons associated with this practice:
Creek Restoration Project
Bay Area Creek Restoration Project
San Francisco Bay Area Creek Restoration
Santa Clara Valley Water Commune, Adopt-A-Creek
Seattle Creek Restoration
Family Scientific discipline Nighttime
Barber, J. and C. Willard. Bubble Festival Teacher's Guide. Lawrence Hall of Science. University of California Berkeley. Great Explorations in Math and Scientific discipline (GEMS). Berkeley, CA: Academy of California Berkeley, 1992. Available at www.carolinacurriculum.com/gems/
Barber, J. Bubble-ology Teacher'southward Guide. Lawrence Hall of Science. Academy of California Berkeley. Neat Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS). Berkeley, CA: University of California Berkeley, 2001. Bachelor at world wide web.carolinacurriculum.com/gems/
Impress Resources:
Cothron, J. H., R.N. Giese, and R.J. Rezba. Students and Research . 3rd Edition. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Chase Publishing Co., 2000.
Hopkins, L. B. (1994). April, Bubbles, Chocolate: An ABC of Verse. Books for Young Readers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.
Zubrowski, B. Bubbling: A Children's Museum Activity Book. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979.
Engineering science Tip
Bring your afterschool customs together by involving both children and adults in a "Get Fit" programme. Utilise pedometers and good wellness equally incentives for involvement equally participants track their steps. An inexpensive technology, pedometers are fun to utilize and too beget opportunities for integrating health science into math, English, and social studies. Following are examples of successful efforts to use pedometers to become people walking and students learning:
Pedometer Activities to Raise Cross-Curricular Learning (PDF)
PE Key's Pedometer Site
Safe Routes to Schools
Science
Related Practices
Support Materials
Source: https://y4y.ed.gov/toolkits/afterschool/science/engaging-families-and-communities
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