An engaging read aloud is the perfect way to kick off a STEM Challenge and allows students to make meaningful connections between STEM and language arts. This session includes the "why" behind STEM and Literacy integration and essential qualities of a STEM read aloud. I also share many favorite picture book titles along with simple STEM Challenge ideas for elementary students!

What is the Engineering Design Process and why is it essential to follow it in the STEM classroom? This presentation provides an in-depth exploration of the EDP, examples of how to implement the steps with students, and guides the viewer through a simple STEM challenge using each step.

From index card towers to programming robots, STEM covers a wide range of activities and concepts.

How do you get started in STEM? What is the goal of STEM?

Learn how to build a successful STEM program by starting with foundational skills that lead to more challenging engineering design activities.

Makerspaces are a space in your learning area that allows children to create, wonder, discover, dream, and imagine. Makerspaces aren't limited to the materials in them. They are about engagement and mindset. More making in learning leads to a maker mindset, which is essential to living a full and successful life in the 21st century. This session helps teachers see why every classroom needs a makerspace.

The focus of this session is the planning step of the Engineering Design Process. I am including brief lesson descriptions for intentional teaching of procedures that will transform your STEM teams. Following a set of procedures that becomes routine will ensure that teams all share their design ideas, make design decisions as a team, and choose jobs for each team member during the STEM project.

Ideas and strategies to integrate your history lessons with STEM and Engineering.

This session helps you understand what STEM is, how the components work together, and why it's so important that you teach STEM.

You may have heard some things about STEM before and may have even considered it, but weren't 100% sure if it was a direction you wanted to go in.

This session really helps you understand the real meaning of STEM and how it works in your classroom. It also helps you explore inquiry, the engineering design process, and some small steps to help you get started!

Want to get started with Green Screen but not sure where to begin? In this session you will learn a little of the basics. You will learn why do Green Screen projects, what you will need to get started, how to manage it in your classroom, and when you can fit this in your curriculum in your classroom.

What the heck is a scientific phenomenon, anyway??! In this session, you'll learn how phenomena, driving questions, and discrepant events can level-up the start of your STEM by harnessing the power of kid curiosity. Please go ahead and download the resources, which will give you lots of examples to get you started right away!

Want to find out how to set up an after school STEM club? Wondering what kind of challenges to create or find?  Or even a way to connect with other educators that have set up tips, strategies, and ideas to create an after school club of your own.

This session will help you generate ideas for resources to use as you set up challenges and  connect with other educators. Get tips for set up of a club, strategies to organize as well as fund, and resources to get  an after school club of your own started.

In this session, we'll go through seven myths, misconceptions, or outright mistakes about STEM Challenge practices that lead to missed opportunities. Kerry hopes to save teachers the time of doing their trial & error.

Fun and Easy Ways to Add STEM into Your Classroom has several tips and hints to help you implement STEM thinking into your classroom. Several tough questions are answered by giving you strategies and techniques to your STEM tool belt.

Need help connecting STEM activities with real-world careers? Learn the basics of in-demand STEM careers, strategies to incorporate STEM careers into your teaching, and easy activities to inspire students towards STEM pathways.

Culture and diversity is a hot topic today. With our need to be culturally responsive to help each and every student in our classroom  and school know that who they are inside and outside is valued and included.

Let’s have that discussion and then find ways to create an avenue for diversity learning through STEM challenge! From building bridges to tying in a picture book that teaches a lesson that isn’t always easy for us to tackle…let’s do this together!

In this session, we'll go through three of the most common STEM Challenge issues and how to troubleshoot them:

• Student Shutdown
• Lookalike Designs 
• Epic Fails 

Are you gearing up for a family STEM event? It can seem overwhelming, but we have gathered and prepared all you need for a successful community event for elementary students and their families.

Unplugged Coding is a simple, developmentally appropriate way to introduce the basics of coding to elementary students! This session dives into the "whys" of coding and provides three simple ways to implement unplugged coding in your classroom.

Learn practical tips and tricks to start creating stop motion animation videos with your students. This is always a favorite activity, and it can be done with a variety of techniques and materials.

Using podcasts in the STEM classroom to engage, motivate, and inform students.

First and second graders, our youngest engineers, are so clever and unafraid to try something new and creative. They love building and sharing their projects. This session focuses on using picture books to grab their attention and inspiring their STEM challenges.

Sometimes the ideas of creating a STEM lesson may seem daunting, but this session walks you through step-by-step on how to plan out your own STEM lesson!

This session is an excellent way to get started on writing your own STEM project lesson. It explores each step, including where to find real-world problems, writing a STEM question, working through the engineering design process, focusing on constraints and criteria, and assessment. It also provides an example, along with tips and what the teacher's role is through the entire process.

Do you have a green screen? You might have one and not even know it. This session will cover lots of things that you already have that can be a green screen and a few other fun ways you can use green screen too.

When thinking about teaching 21st century skills, the 4 C's are the pedagogy that come to mind. The 4 C's stand for Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Creativity, and Communication. I have a favorite activity in the computer lab that works on all 4 C's at once - Unplugged Coding.

In this session we'll:

1. Introduce the 4 C's

2. Walk through completing unplugged coding with robots

3. Review how each of the 4 C's is included in this activity type.

The Next Generation Science Standards have evolved from being very boring, fact-based memorization toward having students practice science in authentic ways. This session is an introduction in how the three dimensions of the NGSS overlap with Common Core through 21st century skills. I'll talk about ways you can leverage the standards from multiple subjects to reinforce learning across different contexts.

This is a quick dive into a much deeper subject. 

We all know how important it is for children to be outside, why not find hands-on, engaging STEM challenges that will encourage even our toughest learners to succeed.

This session will assist you in organizing successful lessons, help create outdoor  expectations, and help you answer any questions you might have in order to get your students learning outside whether it be the whole lesson, bringing the outdoors inside, or breaking up a lesson for indoor and outdoor learning you will walk away with ideas to get you motivated and up for the challenge.

In this session, we'll go through options for STEM Challenge assessments and discuss how to avoid undermining your student goals by choosing the wrong assessment.

Do you want to use Sphero robots in your classroom or program? Learn the basics of Sphero robotics plus strategies for use in the elementary or middle school classroom. This session covers introductory Sphero activities along with more advanced engineering design challenges involving programming. Resources and freebies are provided.

Stories are a powerful tool that will increase engagement in STEM activities. Learn strategies for developing stories that provide motivation and tie-in real-world STEM events and career connections. Participants will receive a blueprint to develop your own STEM storyline.

Our presenters are a collection of engineers, master educators, and subject matter experts. Learn more about all of our presenters here. 

Generally, there are no refunds on this video vault, but will consider refunds for special circumstances on a case-by-case basis.

There is a printable certificate available on the Elementary STEM CON 2020 Video Library site for 10 PD hours. No other options are available for the 2020 Video Vault.

Note: You'll need to check with your school or district rules to see whether a printed certificate would be accepted. 

You'll have access to all video sessions though April 19, 2022.

Much of the content in our sessions applies to middle school and homeschoolers, but our focus was on providing content elementary school teachers would find valuable.

We heard from many middle school teachers last year that it was a valuable conference for them.

Nope! The sessions are hosted on our conference platform, for which you'll receive a special login.

Yes! 

Please reach out to [email protected] with your question.