STEM curriculum has been curated by STEM curriculum experts and other educational institutes for introducing students to STEM domains with a hands-on approach.

With experiential knowledge as its prime focus, the curriculum consists of hands-on STEM activities that will allow students to develop consequential life skills for example creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration and teamwork, and concentration.

Stem curriculum is escorted by detailed lesson plans, activity sheets, and teaching slides for helping educators in creating the most out of the lessons.

Stem  Curriculum:

What is Stem Used for? 

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

The abbreviation for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics STEM. STEM encompasses all these four domains and shared intensity of problem-solving, innovation, and critical thinking. Here is the curriculum of STEM. these tasks can be hard and tough on the age and grade of the student.

 Stem  Curriculum

Apples up on Top:

Listen to this Jason Mraz-style version of the Dr. Seuss classic and then have students create a snap cube tower 20 blocks high and balance a piece of foam fruit at the top. YouTube: 10 Apples Up on Top Song in the style of Jason Mraz.

100^th Day - Lego Challenge:

Using only 100 legos, build the tallest tower you can.

Make a House:

Listen to a read-aloud of The Snow White and then have students build two houses: one that the wolf can definitely knock down and one that they think the wolf cannot knock down. When both houses are done, test them with a hair drying with the wolf's face taped to it for 10 seconds.

Animal Camouflage:

Watch the Mystery Science video, "Why are polar bears white?" and then have students color a month so that it camouflages into the classroom (not hides, but camouflages). Students tape their moths in place and the following week we become predators and walk the room, counting how many moths we can see.

Animals at The Pond:

Have each student pick a plastic animal figurine out as they walk into the room. Tell them that today the table is a pond and each of them is a house around the pond. The animals would like to get to one another more quickly than walking around the pond, so the table needs to build bridges and docks so they can quickly walk to each other's houses. To make this more difficult, some years I limit supplies and/or require the bridges and docks to all be the same height.

Balance a Bird:

Listen to the Mystery Science mini-lesson about crazy balancing acts and then have students build a "bird" that they can balance on their finger as they walk around the room. The bird is made from a pipe cleaner, a popsicle stick, and two washers. As long as the washers are below the center of gravity, the bird will balance, but don't tell them this. Design Squad Global on YouTube also has a video about the center of balance called Balance Magic.

Building Up:

Listen to the story, "Building Up" and look at the pictures for inspiration about how engineers can build. Then have some time building using whatever material inspires you.

Bunny Copters:

Tie in with how seeds are designed to travel away from the parent plant. Printable here and searchable under "Bunny Copters": 

https://www.mos.org/sites/dev-elvis.mos.org/files/docs/education/mos_observing-air-and-flight_bunny-copter.pdf

Chromatography Butterflies:

Listen to the Mystery Science mini-lesson Why are Butterflies so Colorful and then have students color two coffee filters with markers and spritz them with water. After they dry, form them into wings and add the body (either a pipe cleaner or clothespin). For older students, you can tie in the science of chromatography.

Codespark:

Programming apps for grades K-5 that I usually wait until first grade to start unless a kid is really eager to start early because they have an older sibling.

Craft Stick Puzzles:

Programming apps for grades K-5 that I usually wait until first grade to start unless a kid is really eager to start early because they have an older sibling.

Curling:

During the Winter Olympics, we watch a video about the sport of curling and then try our hand at some homemade, laminated curling games by using colored pennies to play the game. There's a video about the game of curling that helps students: Science Friction, all about the physics of curling. (YouTube)

Elf Shelf/Gnome Home:

Choose a building material and build a tall tower to hold the paper elf or gnome more than 12 inches off the table surface.

Fall Legos:

Design something you would see in the fall using Legos. Start by brainstorming things that we typically see only during the fall and have them pick from those.

Free Choice:

On the last day of class for the year, I often give them free choice so they can build with their favorite materials or repeat an activity we did earlier in the year. They often also have some time for free choice/building/exploration during each class period after they successfully complete the challenge.

Free Choice Rules:

Day 1 we talk about what the students can use, where they get materials from, how to share (3 to a large bin, 1 or 2 to a small bin), how to unlatch the lids, dig through the bin rather than dump the contents on the floor, and put one thing away before getting another out. At clean-up time we talk about the signal (blinking the lights) for pick-up and how to quickly and quietly clean up and return to our seats for a brief engineering video.

Friction Sleds:

Introduce friction and then have students rub their hands on the table (minimal friction) and then their sneakers on the carpet (maximum friction). Have a bin of materials with high and low friction on each table for them to test. The test is rubbing each material on your sleeve. If your sleeve moves a lot, there's a lot of friction. If it doesn't, there isn't much friction. Then ask them to build a sled that can go down both sledding hills in the classroom (foam board at different angles). They must use at least 3 different items from the bin to make their sled. The sled must slide, not roll.

Gingerbread Boys Centers:

To prevent the gingerbread boy from running away, he needs to feel special: decorate your cut-out gingerbread boy, build a house for him out of magnet tiles or Keva planks, decorate the gingerbread house on the magnet wall with magnets, and build a way for him to cross the river so that he doesn't need to get a ride on the fox.

Gravity Glue:

Watch the YouTube video "Gravity Glue 2014: Short Version" and then challenge students to stack 10+ rocks using nothing but gravity and balance.

Halloween Centers:

Play-doh monsters, play-doh pumpkins, 5 Little Pumpkins sitting on the Gate, etc. as different centers.

How I Met My Monster:

Listen to the story, How I Met My Monster, and then sketch a monster you think would scare you into staying in bed. When the students are mostly done sketching, I tell them to then grab a building material and build a 3D model of their monster that matches their picture and we compare features on them.

Humpty's Wall:

Listen to the read-aloud, "After the Fall" about how Humpty has developed a fear of heights after falling off the wall. Design a better wall for Humpty in which he can't fall off even if a gust of wind hits him (hair dryer for 10 seconds).

Ice Cube Challenge:

Design something that will slow down how quickly an ice cube melts. We only did this once and outdoors because it got so many materials wet, but the students had to build some sort of shade structure to protect the ice cube from the sun.

If I Built a House/Car/School:

Read one of these Chris Van Dusen books and then have the students either sketch what they would design or build with their choice of building materials. I allow them to work in groups of 1-4, but each person has to bring a different material into the structure.

Keva Plank - Tallest Tower I:

Working with a partner, design the tallest tower you can using only the blocks in your bin. This video will help you understand what will happen in the fall with this lesson. Repeat it in March to see how far the students have come with working together.

Keva Plank  - Tallest Tower II:

Working with a partner, design the tallest tower you can using only the blocks in your bin. This video will help you understand what will happen in the fall with this lesson. Repeat it in March to see how far the students have come with working together.

Keva Planks – Boxitects:

Since the pandemic many students haven't come in with the SEL necessary to start with Keva Plank Towers I, so I've been reading Boxitects to them and then just having them build with a partner, sharing the same box of supplies as a soft intro to partners and teamwork.

Lego - Fairy Tale Setting:

In another variation on a lesson plan for a substitute, students are tasked with designing the setting of a famous fairy tale. I generally offer 3-4 choices and try to pick at least one well-known fairy tale.

Lego Bridges – K-Version:

Build a Lego bridge that goes over the water (a 1/4 sheet of blue construction paper) that is wide enough for a little piggy to walk over and tall enough for the piggy to walk under.

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Lego Cars:

Design a Lego car that will roll independently down the 8-foot ramp.

Lego Cars - Wind-Powered:

Design a Lego car and then attach a sail to it. See if it can travel 8 feet using only the power of the fan. I put out some great sail materials and some lousy choices: coffee filters, tissues, tinfoil, construction paper, copy paper, card stock, and paper plates cut in half.

Lego Challenge Cards:

I've printed and laminated several free Lego Challenge Cards that I found online and often use these as a sub plan. With the youngest students, I offer 4 choices while the older students get a stack of them on the table and can go through them.

Lego Symmetry:

Place a row of Legos down the center of each baseplate and then challenge students to build something with symmetry, which is identical in shape and size on each side of the line.

Lego Symmetry II:

Repeat the lesson in older grades but challenge them to build a 3D model that has at least one line of symmetry.

Leprechaun Traps:

Design a trap that you think will trap the leprechaun. We've never been successful, but sometimes we find a trail of glitter the leprechaun has left behind.

Magnet Centers:

This varies depending upon the materials, but I have students find 10 things in the room that a magnet sticks to, decorate the whiteboard with magnets, have a magnet wall, glue magnets to matchbox cars, and have students try to "push" the cars without touching them, build sculptures with magnets, see which items in the box stick to a magnet, etc.

Muncha Muncha Muncha:

Listen to the story, "Muncha Muncha Muncha," and then design a way to keep the bunnies out of Mr. McGreely's garden. Have the kids explain their solutions to you because their answers are wild and not easily interpreted by just looking.

My Dream Playground:

Listen to the story, My Dream Playground, and then either sketch a playground you're like to design or build a few pieces of playground equipment using Legos. We put these on display and include several classes' worth of pieces.

Paper Chain Challenge:

Using only a single sheet of paper, scissors, tape, or a stapler, construct the longest chain you can in 20 minutes. I often use colored paper and give each student at the table a different color so they don't mix up their pieces.

Peaceful Gardens:

UsingKeva planks, each person at the table designs two structures as part of a peaceful park or garden, and then the table connects them with pathways. This lesson was inspired by the YouTube video "How to build an Asian-inspired garden" on the Keva Plank channel.

Perfect Square:

Listen to the story "Perfect Square" and have students create a collage using 1-4 pieces of colored paper that they glue onto a sheet of white paper. I cut construction paper into 1/4 sheets to reduce waste for this project.

Play & Learn Science:

A free PBS kids app about the weather, friction, contraptions, shadows, etc. that is a great introduction to the iPad.

Pumpkin Palooza:

Several centers all themed around pumpkins: estimation station where you guess the pumpkin's weight, estimation station where you guess which of three pieces of yarn would go exactly around the pumpkin's middle, build a model to show "Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate," complete "Pick a Pumpkin" on Starfall on a Chromebook, using a die and a glyph create a jack-o-lantern, put together a pumpkin puzzle, practice using tools by using a mallet to pound golf tees into a pumpkin.

Room on the Broom:

Listen to the story and then design a Lego broom with room for all the characters in the story.

Scavenger Hunt:

Provide a visual scavenger hunt list of 16-20 items on a clipboard for students to go out and explore. They should cross off items as they find them. I tie this in with thinking like a scientist by looking closely at the world around us.

Shadows:

Learn about how the sun "moves" throughout the day, causing your shadow to also move. Go outside and, with a partner, trace your partner's shadow. Outline their shoes and later color them in so that later in the day/week they can put their feet back on the shoe outline and see how their shadow has moved.

Shape Monsters:

Create a monster by gluing pattern block shape paper cut-outs onto a sheet of paper. When done, count how many of each shape you used and put that number on your shape counting sheet.

Snap Cube Spinners:

Formulate a hypothesis about whether a small snap cube spinner or a large one will spin longer. Build one of each and compare them three times. Add your name to the graph to show which one spun longer.

Snowflake Geometry:

Watch the video about how snowflakes form, then build a snowflake on the table using pattern blocks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M48RfaWcWA&ab_channel=SciShowKids

Snowflake Tinker Trays:

After learning about how snowflakes form and how many sides they have, provide materials to design a snowflake on the table (gemstones, popsicle sticks, cotton balls, q-tips, beads, etc.) for students to explore.

Sorting & Classifying:

We talk about how scientists like to group items into large categories and then smaller categories, for example, living things, animals, and horses. Then I give them a collection of random items and ask them to group them with their partner into categories that they make up. They might put things together by color, texture, shape, size, purpose, or whatever categories they wish.

Spiders:

Listen to the Mystery Science mini-lesson, what is the Biggest Spider in the World? Have students pay attention during the video to how many legs and eyes a spider has and after the video have them build an accurate model of a spider using any classroom building supplies.

Star Fall:

The early literacy and math website is kind of confusing because a lot of it isn't free anymore and the games are very short (2 minutes) but a good introduction to using a trackpad or mouse.

Thanksgiving Tables:

Build a Thanksgiving table large enough to fit all 5 cut-out pictures of food without them overlapping, standing up, or hanging over the edge of the table. When they have that done, test them for weight using two cans of food.

Tinfoil Boats:

Students designed boats using tinfoil that could float and then tested their strength by placing pennies or gemstones in them until they sank.

Tippy Hide:

The three bunnies on Mr. McGreely's farm want to come in for the winter. After listening to the story, Tippy Tippy Tippy Hide, design a way to keep the bunnies out of the house for the winter. Try to get the kids to think creatively on this one and not just build a wall: a dog, a robot, a hutch for the bunnies, their own house, and laser-activated catapults are all acceptable answers.

Turkey Traps:

Read "How to catch a turkey" and then talk about things we know about turkeys. Using that information, design a trap that will capture the runaway turkey but not harm it.

Why Do Leaves Turn Colors In The Fall?

We watch the Mystery Science video, "Why do leaves turn colors in the fall?" and then I have a bunch of leaves for each table to observe closely with magnifying glasses. After a few minutes, I distribute black and white print-outs of leaves that they color to match their favorite leaf and we display them on the bulletin board for the month.

                                                                                    Stem  Curriculum