STEM/STEAM

Question 1

what is STEM?

Answer 1

Science, Technology, Engineering, Math

Question 2

what is STEAM?

Answer 2

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math

Question 3

list some characteristics of STEM/STEAM.

Answer 3

• both are educational approaches that build creative and problem-solving into projects.
• both encourage critical thinking and inquiry-based learning.
• both are hands on and often have ambiguous goals.
• the main goal of both stem and steam is to embrace the process of learning and discovery.

Question 4

list and explain one STEM/STEAM activity that can be used in math when working with young children

Answer 4

building with paper blocks activity:

• students will receive thick strips of colored paper from the teacher.
• students will fold the strips of paper into shapes like triangles or squares.
• students will use the paper shapes that they made to build a colorful structure using different colored paper triangle blocks and then the students will be given objects like a cookie, a cotton ball, a popsicle stick, etc., and will trying putting these objects, one at a time, on top of the structure that they built, in order to see how sturdy their structure is.

Question 5

list and explain one STEM/STEAM activity that can be used in science when working with young children

Answer 5

rainbow spin mixing:
-teacher will have students complete this activity one at a time with the teacher.

• the teacher will have the student place 2 coffee filters layered on top of each other, inside a salad spinner.
• the teacher will give the student 3 paint bottles (each bottle will be a primary color).
• the teacher will have the student squeeze a little bit of each primary color into the center of the coffee filter.
• the teacher will put the lid on the salad spinner and will have the student press the button to start making it spin.
• after a minute of spinning, the teacher will have the student stop pressing the button and wait for the salad spinner to stop spinning. then the student will take shelled off the salad spinner and see their coffee filter with the colors all mixed and spread out and the teacher will take the coffee filter out to dry and will have another student come over to do the activity.
• teaches about centrifugal force because the paint colors start out in the center of the coffee filter and when the salad spinner rotates, the colors from the center are pulled out from the center of the filter, causing the colors to mix.