Circuitry Explorations: Tech Ed Stations
Play-based, hands-on learning activities appeal to our creativity and our curiosity. When combined with specific prompts and tasks, they encourage children by providing greater success and a more rewarding experiences (McLean & Harlow, 2017) as they learn about the world around them. When you combine a 9V battery with a handful of playdough and a […]
Tinkercad
According to its website, “Tinkercad is a free online collection of software tools” for what is known as 3D CAD (three-dimensional computer aided design) as well as coding, circuitry, and 3D printing. With a variety of target audiences, including students, parents, and teachers, as well as hobbyists and general enthusiasts, Tinkercad provides users with web-based […]
Geering Up! 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD)
STEM learning is more than different subject areas simply threaded together. Rather, STEM learning is “a seamless experience for the students that scaffolds the use of disciplinary concepts and practices for solving inter-disciplinary problems” (Dasgupta, Magana, & Vieira, 2019, p. 123). In keeping with that amalgamated spirit, this week’s focus as Create, Make, Innovate! wraps […]
Design-Based Learning: STEM and Simple Machines
Watching children play, particularly very young children, we can see they behave scientifically. Children observe and collect. They wonder and deduce, and they’re methodical. They collaborate – sometimes! – and when they’re puzzled, they experiment and make adjustments. At whatever age STEM learning occurs, though, make no mistake: it is real STEM learning, not mere […]
Design-Based Learning (DBL) and Challenge Learning
“… we learn by doing.” So observed Aristotle in his study on how we should live, The Nicomachean Ethics, a work that is named – so scholars think – out of fondness for Aristotle’s father and son, both of whom were named Nicomachus. While obviously not a new concept to educators, the principle of learning-by-doing […]
