STEM for Students: Exploring STEM from a Young Age
Exploring STEM from a young age is a great way to get a leg up for academics and skills for every day. However, anyone can start exploring STEM at any age as there is never a “right” time to start. There are many benefits of exploring STEM and although it may be difficult for some to start at a young age, there are many ways to encourage one to start today!
In this blog post, we will explain the benefits of participating in STEM activities, some examples of STEM activities for young students, and ways to engage students.
What is STEM?
STEM is an acronym that is an umbrella term for the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM is all around us whether that be our technology that continues to advance every day or the vehicles that drive throughout the day. Exploring STEM can be both hands-on or theory based so there are many fun options one can choose between.
Benefits of Participating in STEM Activities
Explore their interests
Since STEM is an umbrella term for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, there are many routes young students can explore! Throughout these topics, there are many niche subtopics that one may find intriguing. Young students are able to take their time exploring STEM activities, finding out what they like/dislike. The list of possible STEM activities they can participate in are endless!
Gain important skills
Participating in STEM activities allows one to gain a greater knowledge for everyday life and academics. STEM activities include real world applications which will increase one’s creativity, communication and collaborative skills, and problem solving skills! These skills are important for the future and will allow young students to thrive inside and outside of school.
Working on STEM projects allows students to explore more topics in the STEM field. Not only are they exposed to high level topics at a young age, but they also may find their passions along the way. STEM is such a diverse net that encapsulates numerous subjects that you may not have heard of before. Overall, participating in STEM activities is an amazing learning experience that one must try!
Prepares students for higher level courses
Participating in STEM activities expose young students to a vast variety of STEM topics. Within these STEM topics, there are some concepts that may be tough to grasp, yet the benefit of young students exploring at a young age is that they will get a leg up for the future. Although they may struggle while learning new, tough concepts, they will excel later in higher level courses as they already have a background in learning that topic. Do not feel intimidated by seemingly complicated processes and names as the STEM community is very inclusive and helpful! No one is expected to excel in subjects at first, so make mistakes and learn from them!
Examples of STEM Activities for Students
Chain reaction activities
Chain-reaction activities are activities that produce reactions after mixing or adding different materials/reactants. Here are a list of a couple fun chain reaction activities young students can participate in:
Lemon volcano experiment
Fire snake experiment
Slime
Oobleck
Elephant toothpaste
Inflate a balloon with yeast experiment
Only a few activities were listed, but the list is endless! Please proceed with these experiments with caution as without the proper safety precautions, one may get hurt. Have fun with these activities and you can perhaps create your own!
Hands-on activities
Hands-on activities are activities in which young students can have fun building or playing with the materials while learning about STEM topics. Some may take a while to complete, but the end process is always worth it! Not only is it rewarding to see what you have accomplished, but it allows one to gain important skills such as patience. Here are a list of hands-on activities below:
Build anything from you imagination out of recyclable materials
For example, build a house out of cardboard boxes and random materials found around your home
Build a pizza box solar oven
Turn milk into plastic
Launch rocket bottles
Build a parachute
Build a DIY magnet
There is an endless list of activities young students can participate in, but we only listed a few. Have fun participating in any of the activities listed/not listed and make sure to follow safety precautions!
Online activities
No need to use/buy materials to participate in activities because there are many opportunities to participate in STEM activities online! Not only is it easier, but you can take it with you anywhere. Here is a list of some online activities below:
Scratch (use block coding to create games!)
Codecademy
Smithsonian Science Education Center
National Geographic Kids
There are many online activities for young students to participate in and this list just names a few!
Engaging Students in STEM Activities
When students are young, participating in STEM activities may not seem like the most attractive subject. However, STEM activities are a lot of fun when you try it, so here are a few tips on how to engage students in STEM activities!
Participate in hands-on activities
Younger students tend to have a lower attention span, so conducting a hands-on experiment increases the engagement of the student as they have to physically move/add things to their experiment. Hands-on activities are more attractive in some cases because some students enjoy playing with the materials used and watching the reaction in real time. Additionally, it allows a different, fun way to teach young students about STEM, allowing them to ask questions and explore the experiment further as the activity is happening in front of them.
Have a flexible style of learning
Not everyone learns the same way and that is okay! Everyone is different and they grasp subjects differently. Having a flexible style of learning increases the student’s interest in the STEM subject and it makes STEM more fun as. There are many ways of teaching students about STEM and here is a list of a few:
Lecture with slides
Hands-on activities
Real world applications of the STEM subject
Socratic seminar about the STEM experiment
Fun, interactive game
These are just a few different teaching techniques that students can learn with! Feel free to experiment with some of these techniques or implement your own as well. STEM can be a difficult subject, but with a flexible style of teaching/learning, STEM will seem less intimidating to learn!
Hold fun competitions
Competitions are a great way to spark extra drive in the students. There are multiple activities in which one could “win” and it also makes the activity more fun! Not only are the young students learning, but they are also excited when participating in the activity as they are driven by the idea of winning in the end.
There are many ways you can make an activity into a competition! Some ideas are listed below:
Who can make the most elephant toothpaste?
Who can program the most unique game?
Who can build the most sturdy building?
Which boat can hold the most weight?
These are only a few ways you can make an activity into a fun competition. Competitions are a great way to introduce collaboration and great sportsmanship too! Good luck to the young competitors!
Exploring STEM from a Young Age
In this blog post, we listed a few ways to encourage young students to explore STEM through different activities. There are many benefits to learning about STEM at a young age as it gives one a leg up for the future and it teaches many skills.
You can start exploring STEM at any age as there is no age limit! Anyone can start today as there are a multitude of ways to learn and get exposed to STEM.
Exploring STEM from a young age is fun and exciting, so students should be creative and make anything from their imagination! Encourage students to push past their boundaries to explore something new. STEM is a wonderful way to encourage creativity and innovative ideas! Have fun exploring STEM!
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