Outdoor Learning Activities

December 10, 2021 Kathy Ceceri

Looking for outdoor group activities with STEAM connections? Here are a few to try:

Rainbow Wind Sock

Sunprint

Acrylic paint

Capillary action

Waterwheel

Design Process

Water spinner

Shows Newton’s Third Law!

Nature Survey

Identify species

Record location, etc.

Nature Map

Presenting survey data

Polarized Lightcatcher

Use sunglasses and tape!

Solar WobbleBots

Robots from dollar store lights

Solar Cooker

Bakes a cake!

Bull Roarer

Twirling wind instrument

Pizza Box AM Radio

Outdoor antenna helps

Really works!

Ph Demo

Red cabbage pH indicator

Messy Chemistry

You can find the instructions and background for most of these projects in my books!

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Home Chemistry

January 3, 2021 Kathy Ceceri

Penny chemistry - Verdigris and copper plating (Copy)

When my kids were teens, we began studying science with a focus on hands-on activities. Instead of lab reports, I had my kids help put together a blog post for each activity. You can still see those creaky old blog posts, but it’s hard to find the good stuff.

I’m working to update and post the best activities on this blog, as well as publish them in printable form in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. In the meantime, here are links to a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

And if you want to visit my old blogs, they’re here:

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Hands-On STEM Resources -- Engineering

November 6, 2020 Kathy Ceceri

Continuing with my series about teaching STEM subjects without a curriculum, here are some hands-on ideas to introduce your kids to concepts in engineering. As always, keep in mind that these activities and supplies can be used to touch on a variety of subjects.

I think of engineering as a catch-all for activities that use science, technology and math in practical ways. It involves taking known facts and techniques — along with developing new ones — to solve real-life problems.

Here are some suggestions for activities kids can do inside, outside, and all around. They all give kids hands-on experience with materials and construction techniques.

Let them explore, then have them write down, draw diagrams, or take photos and videos of what they made and talk about what they discovered!

All my books of STEAM activities, from Paper Inventions to Edible Inventions, include projects that teach kids about engineering using everyday stuff.

My book Paper Inventions includes a chapter on building structures with paper!

Outdoor Engineering

Kids don’t need any special equipment to play around with engineering outdoors. They can:

dig holes
build structures from branches and scrap wood
pile up rocks to dam a creek (existing or created with a hose)
arrange bricks to make walls, archways, and bridges.

If raw materials are lacking, you can make a fun life-size outdoor building set from PVC pipes and connectors from the plumbing store.

Just cut them up into roughly different sizes, from about 1 to 3 feet long, and add a few different kinds of straight, curved, and branching connectors.

Indoor Engineering

Rolled up paper is a great building material. Use newspaper or strips of packing paper to roll struts for a club-house-sized geodecsic dome (instructions in Paper Inventions).

Or use smaller struts or sturdy paper straws to make table-top sized structures. Hot glue is a quick and easy way to attach them.

Materials like toothpicks and bamboo skewers can also be used to build structures. They can be attached by poking them into gumdrops or globs of clay.

You can also buy straw-building kits like Strawbees, or make your own using bent paperclips or pipe cleaners. Let kids experiment to figure out their own!

You can also make entire machines out of paper, corks, and bent paperclips! Rob Ives is the master of this craft. You can find his designs in books (some with punch-out pages to build with) or buy them as individual PDFs.

And pinball machines are wonders of engineering. The PinBox 3000 cardboard pinball machine kit lets you design your own playboard using ordinary crafts materials.

Anywhere Engineering

Rube Goldberg machines and marble runs can be as big or small as you like. Indoors, they can fit on a counter or sprawl around the room or around the house. Outside, they can make their way through the backyard and incorporate swings and other sports equipment.

They’re great for teaching not only building techniques, but also physics and math as you calculate how to make parts swing or drop accurately and get the right balance of weights.

My book Musical Inventions includes a musical marble run inspired by the hand-cranked Wintergatan marble machine that used Lego, wood, and steel marbles to play real instruments.

But there are million variations on this theme. The group OK Go has a whole educational website called OK Go Sandbox devoted to their Rube Goldberg music videos, with activities kids can do themselves!

Engineering Books

Here are just a few titles that my family has enjoyed. They include how-to books as well as books about feats of engineering that can inspire your kids to start building on their own!

Crazy Contraptions: Build Rube Goldberg Machines that Swoop, Spin, Stack, and Swivel with Hands-On Engineering Activities by Laura Perdew
Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices by William Gurstelle
Build It! Make It!: Makerspace Models. Build anything from a water powered rocket to working robots to become a super engineer
by Rob Ives
Building Big by David Macaulay

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Hands-On STEM Resources -- Technology

August 31, 2020 Kathy Ceceri

Continuing with my series about teaching STEM subjects without a curriculum, here are some hands-on ideas to introduce your kids to concepts in technology like robotics, other electronics, and software. As always, keep in mind that these activities and supplies can be used to touch on a variety of subjects.

You’ve probably noticed that the number of robotics and electronics sets has exploded over the past decade. They range from pre-built models that you program with an app, to kits that let you design, build, and program your own robot from scratch.

However, kids can make their own electronics projects – everything from low-tech robotic systems to sensor-driven wearables that light up and play music -- using just everyday stuff, plus a few inexpensive electronics parts.

As the author of several books of low-tech/no-tech activities that teach kids about electronics and programming, I have a preference for STEM resources that encourage kids to design and build their own circuits into creations they make by hand, from materials around them.

For example, these Solar WobbleBots from my book BOTS are made from dollar store garden lights, old CDs, and the top of a slurpy cup. The only special part you need is a solar-compatible DC motor.

Research shows it’s the best way to teach kids how electronics work – and I know from experience it helps get kids thinking about ways to add onto their projects and come up with their own ideas.

But most of all, combining technology with crafts makes it less scary for people who don’t feel comfortable with math and science. Parents and teachers with no STEM background have used my book BOTS as a complete introductory robotics course.

Bots Adafruit Bundle.jpg — My book BOTS! is a complete robotics curriculum!

Get the BOTS parts bundle from Adafruit.com

Here are a few of my favorite products and software for helping kids learn about technology. I’ve chosen them because they are the easiest for kids to work with on their own, and for non-techy parents to feel comfortable using. I’ve included links to helpful teaching guides where available, written by their creators or by other teachers. Check them out!

Software

Even if you don’t have any hardware, your kids can learn technology concepts with some of the free online educational software available. Here are some I use in my classes:

Scratch is a programming language and a safe online community where children can program and share interactive media such as stories, games, and animation with people from all over the world. It is designed and maintained by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, and has been used by educators for decades. Works on computers and touchscreens. It’s widely used and there are a ton of courses and activities built around it. To start, go to https://scratch.mit.edu/educators.

Microsoft MakeCode looks and feels a lot like Scratch, but it’s made to work with specific microcontroller boards (see below) so you can program lights, motors, and sounds using built-in or added sensors. A simulated board on the screen lets you practice coding even if you don’t own the hardware. MakeCode is constantly being upgraded, and now includes MakeCode Arcade, designed for building 8-bit style games and animations you can play on the screen or download to special game microcontrollers. Some educator resources can be found at https://makecode.com/online-learning.

Hour of Code is like a free sampler of many different kinds of educational software that teach computer concepts. Some of the software is also free, and some is available by subscription. Hour of Code hosts a yearly event with new activities, plus all the past years’ activities are available on their site. If you’re interested in a particular type of software, you can also go to its site and see if it has an Hour of Code activity.

Hardware

Studies show that having kids design their own circuits, particularly on paper or fabric, is the best way to teach kids how electric circuits work.

LEDs and DC motors are the most basic supplies you need to learn about switches and sensors that turn on a light or make a robot move around. For LEDs and small vibrating motors, you’ll need a 3 volt CR2032 coin battery (or similar). For 1.5 volt DC hobby motors, you’ll need a AA or AAA battery. For the circuit itself, you can use wire, aluminum foil or foil tape, or sturdy conductive fabric tape. You can buy your own parts or get kits from educational electronics retailers like Brown Dog Gadgets, but the quickest way to get started is to take apart small devices from your junk drawer or dollar store. Scrappy Circuits is a great resource for creating your own electronics kit.

Circuit Sticker WristBand — Find sample projects from my books and more!

Project links here

Adafruit Circuit Playground Express (CPX for short) is my favorite programmable microcontroller. I use it to teach kids to play music and build robots, electronic games, and even wearables! The CPX has built-in color-changing LED lights, a speaker, and pads to connect additional components like servo motors or strands of lights. You can also use the pads as touch sensors, along with built-in sensors that detect light, sound, motion, and temperature. The infrared transmitter and receiver lets you send signals from one board to another. You can find an ever-growing collection of instructions for kids on the MakeCode page. For other software languages like CircuitPython, check Adafruit’s learning guides. (About $25)

BBC Micro:bit is smaller, cheaper (about $15), and more widely used than CPX, though the two boards can be used in many of the same projects. It only comes with motion and light sensing, and there’s no built-in speaker. But it lets you send and receive data and program it using Bluetooth, and the small red LED grid that lets you show letters, numbers, real-time sensor readings, and animations. It has a robust educational community sharing activities, ideas, and curriculum, plus numerous kits and robotics platforms designed around it, such as the Dexter Gigglebot and kits from Tech will Save Us.

Makey Makey is a touch-sensitive electronic board that plugs into a computer. Using clip-on wires, it turns any conductive object – a banana, a foil-covered ball, or a pencil drawing -- into a computer key. You don’t download your code to the board itself, so it’s a little easier to use than the CPX or Micro:bit, and it’s great for creating controllers for games, stories, and music. It has its own blocks in Scratch (both come from MIT). Look for projects by and for teachers on the Makey Makey page on Instructables (About $50)

littleBits are electronics building pieces that lets kids learn how different components work without programming. Unlike the similar Snap Circuits, you can incorporate littleBits into your own creations using cereal boxes, craft sticks, and other recycled materials. My favorite is the Gizmos & Gadgets Kit (about $185 on Amazon). If you can find the now-discontinued 1st edition, you’ll get radio remote control bits you can use on their own, rather than Bluetooth bits that require a smartphone app. The company has undergone some changes since they were bought by Sphero (another well-known robotics education line) in 2019, but you can still find lots of excellent teaching resources at https://classroom.littlebits.com/educator-tips.

Circuit Stickers are stick-on LEDs that can be used with conductive tape to create light-up art of all kinds. The Love to Code Creative Coding Kit with a clip-on Chibi Chip lets you program the lights from a computer or mobile device with an earphone jack. The accompanying book introduces computer programming concepts with a storybook format with room to build circuits right on the page. More educator tips at https://chibitronics.com/education. (Under $100)

Lego Robotics now offers kits for many levels, from the new version of the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor set (around $400), with instructions for five unique robots, to the BOOST Creative Toolbox (about $150, shown here) for ages 7-12 that can be used to build robots, an auto factory, and an electronic guitar.

LEGO Education also has a separate line of products for classroom and home instruction with standards-aligned lessons, including the WeDo 2.0 Core Set.

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Hands-On STEM Resources — Science

August 17, 2020 Kathy Ceceri

In the old days, classroom teaching materials meant texts and workbooks. Nowadays, it might mean an online curriculum.

But there are plenty of hands-on learning tools that give kids a deeper experience by engaging more than just their eyes and ears – and allowing for creativity in the results!

Many activities can be done with just the materials you already have on hand. You can find suggestions for how to do them in books (including mine!) and on parenting blogs (mine are here ) for use at home. For example, my post on Nature Schooling shows you how to build a curriculum around backyard observation.

Also check out resources aimed at classroom and informal educators, such as Instructables (free, with contests for best inventions!) and Teachers Pay Teachers.

The kits and special supplies mentioned here are available through educational retailers, toy sellers, and local stores. For many, you can find teacher guides that show you how to do one project or build a unit or even a complete course around the materials.

To get you started, I’ll be sharing some suggestions for teaching STEM subjects – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math – without a textbook. Keep in mind, many activities and supplies can be used to touch on a variety of subjects, all at the same time, or when used in different ways. First up — science!

At-Home Science Resources

At-home science activities go way beyond baking soda and vinegar volcanoes. We’ve measured the pH of learned laboratory techniques breaking down aspirin tablets into their component chemicals, experimented with the state of matter called plasma (a kind of electrified gas) by cooking grapes in a microwave, and proved that light is both a wave and a particle with a laser pointer and Styrofoam cup.

You can find many of my at-home science experiments in my books, and I’ll be updating my old science blogs over the coming weeks.

That said, if science is a weak area for you, or if you can’t pull together all the materials you need, science kits are a great way to go. Be careful what you pick -- some kits don’t always work, are hard to figure out, or ask you to provide so much yourself that they’re barely worthwhile. Here are a few science companies that get great reviews from kids, parents, and educators:

Kiwi Crate is a subscription box that includes everything you need to do one project each month. The kits are well-built and come with clear instructions. The company also produces lines for older and younger kids on themes including making, engineering, and crafts.

ScienceWiz can be found in books-plus-kits are sold in the toy section of major stores, but their quality is much higher than some flashier-looking products. My kids built a working AM radio from the Inventors Kit that we still talk about to this day.

Steve Spangler is known as a TV science showman best known for popularizing the Diet Coke and Mentos demonstration, but he also creates kits, videos, and instructions to help you do experiments at home.