by Saman Hassan
“You can teach a student a lesson for a day, but if you teach him to learn by stirring curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives”.
I came across this saying by Clay P. Bedford, President of KAISER Aerospace & Electronics, and it resonated a great deal then (perhaps because it reminded me of a similar expression about fish and feeding people). The reason I liked it is that I had started working as a teacher a year back and I was undergoing a period of deep analysis and observations of how teaching is done.
Working in the role of teaching assistant lent me a very good opportunity to observe the behaviors and learning patterns of students who, in my case, were 4-6 years old. Throughout this teacher training phase, the most interesting part was the one in which the children were introduced to STEM learning, which is a creative mix of the subjects Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
The question that intrigued me was how one could fit such specialized disciplines into the minds of such small children and make it both fun and learning-based. In this article, I want to share some of my observations of teaching STEM with you, while at the same time suggesting some STEM activities that anyone can try out in their own classes!
STEM Activities In School and Their Outcomes
I soon got my answer by seeing that the scope of education has become much more dynamic and far more evolving.
The activities were quite basic but learning-centric. I’ll take the example of the Maze Challenge. The maze is created using chart paper to form a base and using plastic straws of uniform length, joined together to form the paths and passages of the maze. One point was marked with a start line from where a small toy car had to be driven along the entire maze, and the children had to find their own way by avoiding dead ends and barriers and choosing a smooth, unblocked path leading them towards the finish line. No timer was set to let the students understand the game and complete it thoughtfully without any pressure.
The learning outcome was that any problem can be solved if it is logically analyzed, pictured and thought over. When we tried this lesson in class, about two thirds of the children were able to get to the end of the maze without help.
I think this is an important point. Success should never be guaranteed across the whole class - if it were, the activity itself probably wasn’t challenging enough, and those who completed their work likely wouldn’t feel the satisfaction of a job well done.
Remember, these are young learners we’re talking about - still developing their logical thinking skills alongside their fine motor skills. STEM activities like this would build some of the skills these children would need in other classes too.
Another interesting activity involved making a Moving Caterpillar. The main item required was tissue paper cut into long strips and rubbed between the hands, forming a long, twisted piece resembling a caterpillar. To make it look more reasonably similar to the insect, the teachers made patterns on it with different coloured markers. Having done that, the students were asked to trickle down a few drops of water onto it while they observed that as the water was absorbed by the tissue, the caterpillars grew longer as the tissue paper expanded, giving the impression that they were moving. The students had a good time doing this activity and enjoyed themselves a great deal. Some of them even asked for another turn!
This simple activity demonstrated many things to the students - how materials respond to different conditions, for instance - but the main objective, I felt, was to get them thinking. Or, more specifically, to teach them the importance of careful observation - another skill that these young learners would need to help them succeed across the whole school curriculum.
The next one in the series was Insect Hunt. For this activity, the children were taken around the school in the hunt for toy insects that the teachers had hidden beforehand. Of course, for the activity to work, the teachers had to put the toy insects in the right places, as the idea was to promote connecting each insect to its natural environment.
As well as being an enjoyable activity in its own right, this also promoted creative and logical thinking. I can imagine the same approach being translated into different contexts, too. For example, if a language teacher wanted to introduce the vocabulary for different items of furniture, they could rearrange the classroom so that designated areas represented the different rooms in the house, and the students would travel from room to room looking for the kinds of furniture most likely to be found in each place. A fun expansion here would be to place a sofa in the bathroom, for example, and to get the students to decide if this was where it belonged.
The most awe-inspiring activity was called Cloud in a Jar, which exhibited the natural process of cloud formation. For that, the students were first made to observe the actual process using visual aids like videos and images to let them have a raw idea, followed by a sequence of in-class experiments which involved pouring hot water into the jar and covering it with its lid placed upside down (though do be careful here - the water needs to be hot, and it’s best for the teacher to do this bit themselves!). Some ice cubes were placed on the lid and were left to stand for a while. Later the lid was lifted, and some hair spray was added to the jar, which led to the emergence of fumes rising out of it - these were the clouds! The children’s reactions were like no other! We received a deluge of questions, pouring in from every corner of the room, and all this led to the cultivation of curiosity - which was the aim of the activity in the first place.
The Importance of STEM Learning In General
- STEM learning paves the way for innovation, letting students think outside the box and develop creative ideas by adopting a multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving.
- STEM activities arm students with highly sought-after skills: working in groups, promoting leadership, interpersonal communication, and the achievement of common goals.
- STEM activities encourage open communication between students, enabling them to digest complex concepts, to listen actively to others, and to provide useful feedback to their peers.
- STEM activities give rise to critical thinking, preparing young learners to take up challenges where logical thinking and problem-solving skills are of prime importance.
- STEM encourages students to come up with thought-provoking questions and seeks to instill a never-ending love for learning. Curiosity results in mind-boggling discoveries!
- Introducing children to STEM at a very early stage can have profound long-term effects, even leading to more diverse career opportunities.
- STEM learning aids the development of emotional skills, like self-analysis, empathy, and mindful decision-making, ensuring students’ overall growth and helping them to flourish in a rapidly evolving world.
Being a teacher myself, what I believe is that the true meaning of education is to instill in the child the spirit of learning, the willingness and readiness to learn and discover new things, to ask questions, and to reason. STEM offers all of this, and so much more.
More and more schools offer STEM alongside CLIL initiatives, meaning that STEM has become a hotbed of experimentation for L2 learning as well as being a pathway into science education. But you don’t have to be a STEM teacher to give the activities I have discussed here a go - they are easy to do, and can be added to regular language classes, too.
Author Biography
My name is Saman Hassan. I live in Lahore, Pakistan. I have been working in a school as an early childhood educator for a year now and I am passionate about educating today’s youth. I have completed online educational courses, aimed at supporting the child academically, emotionally, and socially. I strive to bring forth dedication, skill, and the desire to positively impact the lives of children. I like to read books, magazines and write articles in my free time!