When it comes to communicating with families about STEAM a picture is worth more than a thousand words. I can’t begin to tell you how many times a parent has emailed me or reached out asking questions like “my daughter mentioned something about building a city on an iPad” or “my son says you are playing with bees?!”

Children are not the best at communicating details. I consider myself lucky that they are even talking about what happens in my classroom at all by the time they head home. But something always gets lost in translation. To help with some of this, I started documenting whatever students were doing in my classroom each day. Then compiling the photos and sharing with classroom teachers. They send weekly newsletters that highlight the different activities students did that week. I put photos by class into a Google Drive folder that classroom teachers can then link to in their newsletter. I also include a couple bullet points with what to give a bit of context to the photos.

First grade students using Bee-Bots to practice giving directions in a sequence as part of an introduction to robotics unit.

Another way I’ve connected with families about what is happening with STEAM has been requesting material donations. I have a simple list of materials that families often recycle or throw out that are extremely useful materials to have on hand for a variety of projects. At parent night at the beginning of the year I send this list out then have a collection bin in the front of the school. So they can easily bring in and drop off on their way in each morning. The items I request include:

• toilet paper tubes
• paper towel tubes
• shoe boxes
• cereal boxes
• wine corks
• newspaper

Wine corks are always the most commented on item I ask for, but I always joke that no judgements are made by how many people bring in. Families are consistently amazed by the different ways students use the corks, and other materials in projects they work on.

NanoBot prototype created using a wine cork as the base for the design. Students first brainstormed a problem they have that the NanoBot could help solve, then drew a plan for what the NanoBot would look like before building. This project was inspired by the book NanoBots by Chris Gall.

The final way I’ve brought families into the STEAM world is by connecting with parents who have experience in any of the STEAM fields. During the cardboard city project with second grade students I am able to have architect, engineer, and city planners come in to share with students what their job looks like day-to-day. They provide context for some of the bigger ideas I’m trying to explain to students, and lend their expertise.

In all my experience, I’ve found the more I can share and invite people in the better the project can be. So, don’t be shy! Ask for materials, snap pictures and videos to share, and get those parents into your classroom.

The essence of STEAM-based learning is integration. While I knew there were certain skills I wanted to teach students the content to teach those skills was wide open. I can still clearly remember the overwhelming feeling I had my first year teaching STEAM — so many options, what to cover. That first year I had students working on iPads way more then I would have liked. They became my crutch. So much so that the next year I challenged myself to limit iPad usage with students to 25% of my teaching time with them. But what to teach when I didn’t have any specific content?

When collaborating with colleagues my first instinct is to listen. Whenever I was able to attend a grade level meeting I just wanted to hear what they were doing. In doing all that listening I was able to find opportunities to assist with an activity that was either something they had always done and struggled with. For example, second grade students in social studies have a unit that looks at the the areas of our city and how our neighborhood has changed over the years. They learn about residential, commercial, industrial, recreational and services available in our city. In math they are doing some measurement and establishing a number line. What was the “Measuring for the Art Show” unit became Measuring for our Cardboard City. Measuring poster board of different sizes that would be the “land plot” students would build on. This project has grown into the main project of the year for students. But it all started with my helping make the connection between the math unit and the building project they had students do.

 Each student builds a building or space for the city. In the culminating activity they arrange their buildings/places to make up the Second Grade Cardboard City. This project connects to a social studies unit, a math unit, art skills and of course, STEAM.

Not only should you listen for things people are struggling with, but also keep an ear out for an idea they have but didn’t know where to start. Our school librarian does this big unit with first grade students that starts as an exploration between fact and opinion. The culminating project in the past was students reading a picture book biography about a famous person or animal. They find three facts and one opinion about the person or animal they read about and did a guessing activity. She wanted students to do something more but couldn’t figure out what. I stumbled upon the idea of turning a water bottle into what we call Biography Bottles. This idea continued with recycling theme (something first grade focuses on throughout the year). After reading their picture book biography students used a reference photo and a wealth of other materials to turn their bottle into a representation of their person or animal.

               Biography Bottles created by first grade students as part of a Library and STEAM project.

Besides listening there are three more tips I suggest in getting classroom teachers, and other school colleagues to join in on the STEAMy fun:

1. Attend any grade level and/or planning meetings you can. Focus on just listening to find those projects or ideas that you can help expand. After you start working on a project remember that collaborative work requires so much communication. Even if you are doing a project that you’ve done before, you never know what ways you might be able to innovate without hearing what else is going on.

1. Invite people to come see what you are doing. As a specialists teacher I’m often teaching solo. It can feel a little like being a salesperson, but if you want people to be involved or excited about what you are doing they need to see what is happening.

1. Give colleagues a chance to play with materials too. At least once a year I host a faculty meeting where I challenge colleagues to one of the design challenges I give to students or a new one that I’m trying to test out.  Just as students love having time in the day to create with their hands in an open-ended, problem-solving way, teachers too appreciate that time.

Good luck! And remember, communication and listening will be your best tools in getting colleagues to collaborate.

It all started with a question.

Our science teacher was discussing her unit on buoyancy. She wanted some help figuring out what other materials students could use to build small boats that would float in small kiddie pools in her classroom. She also just happened to witness a cardboard boat regatta in her hometown on Long Island, NY and had the sliver of an idea—“What if first graders made a boat that would be big enough to float one of them in our school’s pool?”

When she talked to me about this idea we quickly decided it wouldn’t work to put a student in a boat we weren’t sure would float, especially as they are still learning to swim. But how about a teacher? As someone who tends to say yes before fully thinking through things I agreed enthusiastically only to then worry what this actually meant. And so an idea was born.

In social studies, first grade students learn about waste and recycling. Through a variety of activities students develop a deep sense of why it’s so important to reduce our use and recycle. The science teacher already did some activities connected to this study, so it seemed like a natural connection to challenge our students (and ourselves) to building a boat using materials we would normally recycle.

The first year we did this project we had students build the boat using clear packing tape, and milk cartons. We asked families to bring in any cartons they had, which with three classes of students collecting (roughly 60 students) we had more than enough to build our first boat. For our students, the main goal was to challenge them to apply what they had learned about buoyancy and general boat design. For ourselves, the challenge was managing so many student ideas into one final design.

The first ever First Grade Boat created in 2014 using milk cartons, plastic juice bottles and attached with clear packing tapes. Students were able to design different “accessories” to bring their boat to life.

Success! That first year with the help of one last design addition–a trash can at the bottom of the boat to cover any holes–the boat stayed afloat. That was our first attempt at this project four years ago. What started as a idea between colleagues is now a tradition for first grade students.

Going forward we decided to challenge ourselves and students by building not one boat, but three so that each class would have their own boat to design and build. Our students also recognized that as a school the big cardboard boxes that snack came in each week was highly wasteful. And so we added another element to this project–could students figure out a way to make cardboard repel water? Tape to the rescue again.

If you’re considering a large STEAM study in your classroom, consider partnering with a science teacher if you school has one. If not, I found partnering with at least one other teacher to bounce ideas off of and also help manage a larger project is invaluable. Also be prepared to celebrate failures with students. I can’t even begin to tell you how many cardboard boat prototypes just completely sunk as students tried to figure out the best way to wrap the cardboard, and what tape would hold up best. If you show students that failing is part of the process by making a public display of your own failures, you will encourage them to take risks and deepen their own learning.

When I first jumped into a new role at my school as STEAM Integrator and Materials Librarian, the maker movement was in full swing. Makers are those who make, create, adapt and try to innovate in a variety of ways not limited to the more showy tech marvels so often highlighted on the pages of Make Magazine (https://makezine.com).

STEAM is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math. It’s an evolution and in some cases an alternative to STEM, which doesn’t include art. I am most often asked why STEAM not STEM. For me, the addition of art doesn’t take away from the need or desire to highlight and encourage students to seek out the STEM fields. Rather the addition of art serves as an additional entry point for students who might not be inclined towards STEM topics. Moreover, I often encourage and challenge my students to see the many ways artists use principles of science, engineering, technology, and especially math in the things they create.

Although I don’t have dedicated class time with PreK and kindergarten students I do have time to collaborate with classroom teachers. What I have discovered is that by design most PreK units are innately STEAMy. For example, kindergarten students will be studying the Post Office in Social Studies which will spur the idea of creating a Postal Service for our school. From there dedicating time for students to create stamps, learn how to address envelopes and write letters, build post office boxes and then participate in picking up, sorting and delivering mail is what STEAM is all about.

First and second grade students have dedicated “STEAM” time as a special class once every six days in half groups for a 45-minute period (Note: Our school using a six-day cycle instead of a weekly calendar for classes.) In this class I focus on activities that introduce students to problem-solving in a hands-on way that most often connects to something they are studying in their classroom or in another special like science or art. Over the years we have developed a schoolwide design process that uses the language derived from our very own PreK classrooms: think, plan, do, review.

The Berkeley Carroll Design Process was developing with the goal to use language that would be familiar to students in PreK all the way to 12th grade.

In first grade students are first exposed to this through a problem I pose to them. My daughter loves bananas, so I often carry one with me in case she needs a quick snack. Bananas are great because you don’t need any utensils to eat them, and they are easy to carry because you don’t have to wash before you eat either. But the bad thing about bananas is that the can get bruised and mushy very quickly. From there I tell them about the first time I accidentally mushed a banana in my bag. I challenge them to help figure out a solution to my problem. From there they think about solutions and questions that they need more information about; draft a plan; build a prototype; and finally we test their creations.

First grade students working on their first prototype project. Students first learned about the problem, then brainstormed ideas and created a plan for their prototype. Materials they could use for their prototype include: toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, plastic cups and paper plates.

STEAM projects in early childhood can be as big as creating a schoolwide postal service to as small as giving students an opportunity to recreate something they learned about. What I have discovered is that the best projects are those that give students enough room to be creative, get messy, and connect to at least one concept they are learning in another subject.