Fizz! Boom! STEAM! Science Technology Engineering (Arts) Math

1. Fizz! Boom!STEAM! Science Technology Engineering (Arts) Math Jo Oshiro Oregon Pre-Engineering & Applied Sciences Initiative (OPAS) Oregon University System Oregon Elementary Age Librarians, March 2014

2. Warm Up Demo • 2 identical bags of LEGO (or blocks) • Designer and Builder, back-to-back (or across a wall) – can’t see each other’s blocks • Designer: Design, describe • Builder: Try to duplicate • Reveal …

3. My goals for this session • Help you better understand STE(A)M education hype and implications, especially for younger kids • Practice framing/scaffolding activities with STE(A)M • Give you some leads to more … • Hear your views, ideas, needs and lay the groundwork to better serve those

4. Your goals for this session? • Any for the wall right now? • Bike Rack -- comments, questions, goals for later

5. STEAM-capable & STEAM-curious

6. Casual Engineering/Design/Inquiry • Watch & Wonder • observation, research, what to try out? • Test & Tweak • changing one thing at a time, record results, trying again • Show & Share • reflect on meaning of results http://stemrobotics.cs.pdx.edu/sites/default/files/ScientificMethod.pdf

7. On the ground, you can Pick a problem/project and Kids drive • Open-ended, testable, with comparison to goals • Support a team-based process • Frame with reflection, process, content, research • Questions matter: wait, collect, record • Reward effort and explanation more than results • Encourage agency and self-efficacy, active not passive • Failure is not just OK, it is expected You coach as they become experts. How much of this do you already do?

8. On Thinking Like an EngineerAdvice from 12 year old participants of a workshop with picoCrickets, devices used to build projects with motion, light and sound using LEGOS and other materials • Start simple • Work on things that you like • If you have no clue what to do, fiddle around • Don’t be afraid to experiment-Tinker • Find a friend to work with, share ideas! • It’s OK to copy stuff (to give you an idea) • Keep your ideas in a sketch book • Build, take apart, rebuild • Lots of things can go wrong, stick with it From “All I Really Need to Know (About Creative Thinking) I Learned (By Studying How Children Learn) in Kindergarten” by M. Resnick, MIT Media Lab, 2007. Downloadable at http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/kindergarten-learning-approach.pdf

9. Framing a Project • No one right answer: whatever works • Define “works”: testable for more objective feedback than “pretty”, “fun” • Limits, materials, goals up-front • Look for connections • What steps? Does sequence matter? • Keep a record – pictures, videos, sketches, journals • www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber

10. Make A Chair • Work together • 6 index cards • 6 inches of tape • Scissors • 6 minutes Probably not this chair 

11. So … about that chair • What if I said … • you have to pick it up with two fingers? • it has to hold up under an apple? • it has to remind people of a different culture or time? • What might you change? • What if your starting materials were different from each other?

12. So … about the chair-building process • Purpose, constraints  design criteria, features • Engineering Criteria • Prototype, test, re-work We’ve just described the beginnings of a formal engineering process

13. Engineering is a Way of Thinking The Engineering Design Process is a Team Process

14. STEM definitions • Science: knowing more--more thoroughly, reliably, repeatably • Technology: the study of the tools and processes that are used to make stuff and solve problems, not just computers. There’s a technology for oil painting, pottery, dressmaking. • Engineering: making stuff that solves problems. Taking risks to solve problems with imperfect knowledge and limited resources – time, money, materials, ... • Math: a tool to describe patterns which may or may not apply to things and problems in the real world. When it does apply, math can help widen and deepen one’s understanding of the problem and help predict behaviors under changing conditions.

15. STEM definitions • Science: knowing more • Technology: Tools particular to a discipline • Engineering: making purposeful stuff within limits. • Math: pattern description tool

16. TE for engagement: Why?Connecting to the IES Practice Guide “Encouraging Girls in Math and Science”Downloadable at http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide.aspx?sid=5 • Hands-on, creative, collaborative, fun • Tools and framework for thinking and solving • Open-ended, no one “right answer” • Smarts improve with application, practice • More objective feedback than “pretty”, “fun”, “cool” • You coach while kidsbuild competence

17. Tactics in the trenches • Practice • spatial skills • number sense • observation and description • non-fiction reading and media • Connect to what they already know • Switch around team members’ roles • Any kit/activity must embody more than one workable solution/product

18. Framing a Project • No one right answer: whatever works • Define “works”: testable for more objective feedback than “pretty”, “fun” • Limits, materials, goals up-front • Look for connections • What steps? Does sequence matter? • Keep a record – pictures, videos, sketches, journals

19. STEM  STEAM • Integrating Art into STEM • Many other permutations of more holistic curricular acronyms

20. STEM in the service of Art • Watercolor special effects – leads in to chemistry, pigments, color • Mobiles – calculating balance points • Clothing design – arithmetic, materials • Painting • Sculpture • Digital drawing/video/animation

21. Kick-start Scaffolding, Any Project • What do you know and how do you know it? • From whose perspective? • What is this connected to? • What if (supposition/constraints)? • What is the relevance (personal, community)? • What’s next? Deborah Meiers, Power of Ideas, thanks to Wendy Thompson, Wahkeena Arts

22. Paper Engineering • Picture/card, not flat, 1+ moving part • Share happiness, make people smile • Connects to pop-up books • Two pieces of heavy paper, tape, pen/pencil, scissors • Work together or separately • Want to use recycle bin to prototype?

23. Planning Paper Engineering • Where can we get ideas? • Sketch an idea – is it happy? • What part should move or pop? • Decorate first, later? What are the risks and rewards of each? • If we need to attach pieces to each other, how to do so? Tabs, staples, sew, glue, cut-and-insert, …

24. Paper Engineering Show and Tell • Variety from same starting point? • Meet criteria? • Suitable for elementary kids? • Interesting to elementary kids? • I found this, not sure it isn’t digital theft -- http://www.arts.professorklein.com/docs/pop_up.pdf • Cool project -- http://fractalfoundation.org/resources/fractivities/fractal-cutout/

25. STEM Framing/Scaffolding • Easy? Hard? Complete? • Do you feel comfortable doing more on your own?

26. We’ve done the STEAM … Let’s do the Fizz! BOOM!

27. Jo’s Q & D Physical Chemistry • Stuff can be solid, liquid, or gas. • Ice is solid, water is liquid, steam is gas. • Sometimes mixing, heating, or cooling different kinds of stuff changes it between solid, liquid, gas. • Gas takes up more space than solids or liquids.

28. Alka Seltzer Rockets • Cleaner than mentos/diet coke • Often used as a lead-in to carbon dioxide chemistry, inquiry into water temperature, launch trajectory variations for older kids • How can we make it about engineering and design for younger kids? More than just Wow! Fun! ???

29. Shall we do this? I’m prototyping for presentations like this: is this an activity or a demo? • Paper, scissors, tape, TP rolls • Canisters • Alka Seltzer • Containment devices • Goggles

30. Practical Pointers • Don’t use Alka Seltzer plus (additives) • Use a quarter-tablet to start • Safety Goggles! • Launch tubes for containment, control? • PVC elbows • TP roll constructions • Place lid down to launch • Paper rocket bodies – easier to see! • Fins for flight: longer? More accurate? • Mess: shower curtains, lids, pans

31. Finding Film Canisters • White ones with thick lid better • Film canister vendors • www.filmcanistersforsale.com/ -- good to me • www.sciencebobstore.com/products/Bulk-Film-Canisters-for-Rockets.html – also has videos and lessons • www.amazon.com/Educational-Innovations-Rocket-Film-Canisters/dp/B00B3VF320

32. CO2 rocket lessons, videos • http://www.raftbayarea.org/readpdf?isid=680 • www.howtosmile.org/record/14467 • http://www.alkaseltzer.com/as/student_experiment8.html • http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/filmrocket.php • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP8mkFaoAnk • http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/film-canister-rocket

33. What might all this do for kids? • Learning to learn; finding joy in it • Self-direction, learning who they are • Persistence and valuing practice • Emotional safety while dealing with failure and success • Better teamwork, logistics, project- and time management skills • Enriched communication

34. Wrap Up Help kids see themselves as STEAM-capable and STEAM-curious • Bike Rack? • Highs? Lows? • Suggestions fora better presentation?

35. Want More? • Searchable hands-on activities (some STEM) at howtosmile and raft.net (more on the found object end of the spectrum) • Computer models of science processes at Phet • Neil de Grasse Tyson: facts change • Leading and student-originated questions • Harvard Question Formulation • Questions while building a robot • Questions while doing a robot challenge • Show Me Librarian on STEAM • Author Ed Sobey at the NW Invention Center • Author, speaker, kit-builder/seller Celeste Baine • Family Engineering has great activity books (Science/Math) • Techbridge Family Science Activities • Join Jo’s NOISE List – email jo_oshiro@ous.edu

36. OST STEM in Oregon • 4-H http://oregon.4h.oregonstate.edu/tech-wizards • Science Museums • Saturday Academy – www.saturdayacademy.org • Mad Science -- http://portland.madscience.org/ • Robotics Teams – www.ortop.org • Thinkersmith (Eugene) -- http://thinkersmith.org/ Google “maker”, “Scratch”…

37. Thank you for fighting the good fight! Jo Oshiro jo_oshiro@ous.edu Thanks to Ryan Collay for brainstorming and co-presenting the prototype of this presentation, and especially for the chair pictures!