STEM to Story E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 568

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Bring STEM to life for students with zombies, rockets, celebrities, and more STEM to Story: Enthralling and Effective Lesson Plans for Grades 5-8 inspires learning through fun, engaging, and meaningful lesson plans that fuse hands-on discovery in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) with creative writing. The workshop activities within the book are the innovative result of a partnership between 826 National's proven creative writing model and Time Warner Cable's Connect a Million Minds, an initiative dedicated to connecting young people to the wonders of STEM through hands-on learning. Authentically aligned with both the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards, this book provides teachers, after-school and out-of-school providers, and parents with field-tested lessons, workshops, and projects designed by professionals in each field. Including reflective observations by arts and science celebrities like Jon Scieszka, Mayim Bialik, and Steve Hockensmith, lessons feature bonus activities, fun facts, and teaching points for instructors at every level. These quirky, exploratory lessons will effectively awaken student imaginations and passions for both STEM and creative writing, encourage identity with scientific endeavors, and make both science and writing fun. Grades five through eight is the critical period for engaging students in STEM, and this book is designed specifically to appeal to - and engage - this age group. The guided curricula fosters hands-on discovery, deep learning, and rich inquiry skills while feeling more like play than school, and has proven popular and effective with both students and teachers. * Awaken student imagination and get them excited about STEM * Fuse creative writing with STEM using hands-on activities * Make scientific principles relevant to students' lives * Inspire students to explore STEM topics further The demand for STEM workers is closely linked to global competitiveness, and a successful future in STEM depends upon an early introduction to the scientific mindset. The challenge for teachers is to break through students' preconceptions of STEM fields as "hard" or "boring," to show them that STEM is everywhere, it's relevant, and it's loads of fun. For proven lesson plans with just a dash of weird, STEM to Story is a dynamic resource, adaptable and applicable in school, after school, and at home.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

PREFACE

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Science and Writing

What Is STEM?

Science Teaching

An Important Note on Safety

And Finally, a Roundup of Our Best Tips

SCIENCE-O-PEDIA: A GLOSSARY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE AUTHORS

826's History

THE CONTRIBUTORS

CHAPTER 1: THE SCIENCE OF SAVING DAYLIGHT

CHAPTER 2: TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

Session 1: Engineering Airplanes

Session 2: Make It Better

CHAPTER 3: IT'S (PARTIALLY) ROCKET SCIENCE AND (MOSTLY) ICE CREAM

Session 1: Ice Cream

Session 2: Staying Cool

CHAPTER 4: PLANET OOBLECK

Session 1: Oobleck

Session 2: Is It Alive?

CHAPTER 5: HOW TO WRITE SCIENCE FICTION

Session 1: Exploring Technology

Session 2: Imagine a World …

Session 3: Create the Character(s)

Session 4: Bring Your World and Your Characters Together

CHAPTER 6: MAKING WAVES

CHAPTER 7: THERE MAY BE BONES

Session 1: Excavation

Session 2: Hypotheses

Session 3: A Closer Look

CHAPTER 8: TINFOIL SHIPBUILDING

CHAPTER 9: WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE, NOR ANY DROP TO DRINK

Session 1: Contamination

Session 2: Filtration

Session 3: Final Challenge

CHAPTER 10: THE SCIENCE OF SUPERPOWERS

Session 1: I Am From … (Origin Poems and DNA)

Session 2: Up, Up, and Away! (Secret Power Poems and Flight)

Session 3: Quick, to Safety! (Secret Lair Building and Haikus)

Session 4: Saving the Day (Prose Poems and the Great Egg Drop)

CHAPTER 11: INFINITE RECESS

Session 1: Fractal Poetry

Session 2: Leaving Space and Time

CHAPTER 12: REWRITING THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

Session 1: The Day the Zombies Came

Session 2: Humanity Breaks Through (We Hope)

Session 3: Zombies Evolve

Session 4: The Day the Zombies Died (!?!)

APPENDIX

Handy Lesson Links

Self-Assessment Checklists

Common Core Curriculum Standards for English Language Arts

Next Generation Science Standards

INDEX

End User License Agreement

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Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Preface

Begin Reading

STEMtoSTORY

ENTHRALLING and EFFECTIVE LESSON PLANS for GRADES 5–8

By 826 National Edited by Jennifer Traig With generous support from Time Warner Cable

Cover Design by Lauryn Tom

Measurement Tool: © pio3 | Shutterstock

Feather Image: © iStockphoto | OlgaLIS

Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by Jossey-Bass

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax [phone], or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax [phone], or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations and/or sources for further information may have changed or disappeared between the time this was written and when it is read.

Certain pages from this book are designed for use in a group setting and may be reproduced for educational/ training purposes. The reproducible pages are designated by the appearance of the following copyright notice in the margin of each page:

Copyright © 2015 by 826 National.

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ISBN 978-1-119-00101-0 (pbk.), 978-1-119-00103-4 (epdf), 978-1-119-00102-7 (epub)

PREFACE

When people think of science, technology, engineering, and math—or STEM—the relationship to creative writing is not the first thing that comes to mind. STEM brings up visions of hard science—beakers, syringes, computer code, and strands of DNA. Think of creative writing, and you probably think of feather-tipped quill pens, coffee shops, and angst. But we see something different. Creativity is the cornerstone of science in all its forms, regardless of the discipline, and writing is common to all subjects. It is a well-known fact that many of the inventions we use today—the cell phone, the electric car, the Internet—were first imagined by creative writers of science fiction. Yes, you have a creative writer to thank every time you make that phone call while taking pictures on vacation.

Somewhere along the way, the ability to think creatively and express new ideas in all forms (writing being the one most central to 826 National) got separated from the STEM discussion. This book is our effort at reconciliation. How did we start? Well, like many good stories, ours begins with a woman and a man (the writers of this preface, Tessie Topol and Gerald Richards) from two organizations, a ridiculously bold plan, and a room full of mad scientists. Perhaps the scientists weren't mad, but there was a room full of them, and representatives of foundations and corporations as well, all looking for ways to engage young people in STEM.

826 National's partnership with Time Warner Cable (TWC) began at Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) America in 2011 with a basic question: How do we make STEM more engaging, especially to students in low-income and underresourced communities? At that meeting, we made a commitment to action, to bring together 826 National's proven creative writing model and TWC's Connect a Million Minds, an initiative dedicated to connecting young people to the wonders of STEM through hands-on learning (www.connectamillionminds.com).

The result was a four-week STEM and creative writing pilot program conducted in summer 2012 at 826 National chapters in Los Angeles and New York, where more than sixty students engaged in hands-on learning around a range of inquiry-based topics, including the science behind ice cream and deep space exploration. In one lesson, kids designed their own experiments to determine whether salt or sugar made ice melt faster. The resulting discussion around the properties of salt led to a -creative writing exercise in which students each composed a short story about a scientist who wakes up one morning in a world without salt. This original lesson was published in 826 National's book of writing lessons Don't Forget to Write, and parts are adapted here in this book.

The initial pilot was so successful that we decided to build on that and conduct workshops in summer 2013. Once again STEM and creative writing workshops were carried out at 826LA and 826NYC. But we were left with another question. Would these workshops work outside the walls of an 826? If you took away 826LA's Time Travel Mart or 826NYC's Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co., would students still be interested? So the pilot was expanded to include other TWC partners, Operation Breakthrough in Kansas City, Missouri, and the YMCA of Greater New York. Beyond examining the science of salt, that summer students donned lab coats and protective goggles to build landing gear for touching down on fictional planets, then put pen to paper to create stories about alien landscapes. And once again we had success on our hands, so much so that the YMCA expanded the number of students using the lessons from twenty to eighty-one!

The results of the pilot projects encouraged our two organizations to work together to create the STEM and creative writing book that you have in your hands. Filled with workshops on such topics as the physics of music, writing science fiction, and the science of superpowers, this book is meant to encourage kids to get their hands dirty, to be curious and ask questions, and to use what they've learned to spark their imagination. And to love every minute of it. Who knows? The next Gene Roddenberry or Madeleine L'Engle may be in your midst, dreaming of the next invention or innovation that could change the world.

You may be thinking, I don't know much about science, or I haven't worked on a math problem in years! That's okay. This book is for you as much as it's for your students. We wanted to make the lessons here easy enough to understand that your science proficiency, or lack thereof, would not be a barrier to use. The book is meant to be used in after-school and out-of-school settings, as well as in the classroom, by teachers, parents, and nonprofit staff.

This book is the result of an unexpected but wonderful partnership, and we'd like to thank all the people who helped make it possible. First and foremost, thanks to President Bill Clinton, who had the insight to bring people together to create partnerships that build lasting change; Dave Eggers and Nínive Calegari, whose idea of partnering an unusual storefront and a writing center has flourished into a global movement; TWC leadership, who got behind a sustained philanthropic commitment concerning an issue important not only to the success of their business but also to the nation at large; and all of the 826 volunteers and staff who created and piloted these lessons. Finally, thanks to you for picking up this book and believing that STEM and creative writing can help foster the next generation of creative thinkers, problem solvers, and innovators.

Have fun!

Tessie TopolVice President, Corporate Social ResponsibilityTime Warner Cable

Gerald RichardsChief Executive Officer826 National

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Welcome! Maybe you're here because you're a major STEM fan who can't get enough science, technology, engineering, and math. Or maybe you're a, let's say, more artistically inclined person, who, for some reason or other, suddenly has to teach some science. Whether you're in your element or over your head, you're in the right place. We've got twelve easy, fun, engaging lesson plans that combine the STEM fields and writing, and we're here to walk you through every step. As the catalyst said to the chemical compound, let's get started!

Our goal is, we hope, the same as yours: to inspire students to love the STEM fields and writing, too. One of the most exciting parts of science—of any kind of learning—is discovering something new. When students are exploring and figuring out how the world around them works, they are discovering something new to them—which is just as important and exciting as a Nobel Prize–winning discovery. Such an opportunity to explore and discover can ignite a passion for deeper learning.

This book's aim is to create moments of inspiration for students. We want students to be able to explore and discover, and to tap into their creativity along the way. We want to engage students who might not otherwise think of themselves as “science types.” And we want to highlight the many elegant connections between the arts and science.

So, how do you use this book?

Pick a lesson, any lesson. The different lessons each can stand alone. Together, they provide an opportunity for students to become deeply immersed in the practices of science and engineering. The lessons were designed and piloted in out-of-school environments, but we've adapted them to be used both in and out of the classroom. To make things easy, we've estimated the time needed for each section of every lesson, allowing educators to plan breaks in lessons based on their own unique time considerations. In addition, each lesson is indexed to both the Common Core State Standards for English language arts and the Next Generation Science Standards.

And if you're not a classroom teacher, there's plenty for you here, too. The lessons are designed to be taught by just about anyone: after-school educators; parents; and, yes, classroom teachers, from new to veteran. Each instructor will have a different level of experience. For those who want them, we provide some tips for teaching science. These tips are based on research, both cognitive science findings on how students learn as well as research that has looked at the impacts of instructional practices on students' learning. They're best practices that will bring a lot to your teaching.

We've also compiled a handy-dandy glossary: the Science-O-Pedia. Each entry covers the big, big ideas in the doing of science, from evidence and hypotheses to iteration and models. Read it first, or consult it just when needed.