Understanding Your Audience Needs
As you watch the skill video below, think about these questions:
- How does Jean and her staff “set the children up for success?”
- Why is it important to try out the activity and materials before hand?
- How might selecting appropriate materials impact youth learning?
Now that you’ve watched the video, reflect on what you saw and post your responses.
- Why do you think it’s important to select appropriate materials when doing STEM?
- What examples of types of materials did you see were especially successful with youth? How could you tell?
Explore Engineering Practices
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Keep Youth Interacting
STEM activities are engaging, interactive and hands on experiences for youth. But what happens when members of a group are not interacting? In this video, pay close attention to how the facilitators work with a group if members become disengaged. Listen to the supportive but firm voice of the adult, as she re-directs the group. Pay special attention to how staff listen, maintain a supportive attitude, and model effective collaboration skills.
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Iteration with Balloon-Powered Vehicle
Engineers test their designs to see how well they work. Then they use their observations and data to test their design, then test it again. The educator in this video explains how to test balloon-powered cars and encourages youth to improve their designs.
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Presenting a Challenge
Watch as staff engage youth in an engineering design challenge to build their own roller coaster. Notice how staff connect the challenge to youth’s feelings and experiences with roller coasters.