STEM at Home
What is STEM?
STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math. STEM education focuses on these disciplines as essential subjects to help students navigate an ever-changing and increasingly complex world. Evidence shows that STEM literacy helps our youth be prepared to have knowledge and skills to solve problems, make sense of information, and know how to gather and evaluate evidence to make decisions.
Endeavour PTA sponsors this program in an effort to give students access to quality learning modules designed to help students with STEM fluency. For more information about STEM education in schools, see the US Department of Education's webpage about STEM.
How does the program work?
Endeavour's STEM Docent Program typically operates with one module per grade each trimester. Classrooms have a parent volunteer who presents the information and facilitates the lesson, but this year we are modifying our projects to be done at home with minimal common-place materials.
Lessons focus on a learning objective, vocabulary, STEM principles, and a materials and methods portion to demonstrate what is being learned. Each lesson should take 45-60 minutes to complete.
We will do our best to provide a variety of activities throughout the school year. Stay tuned for updates!
Learning Modules
Kindergarten
Living vs. Nonliving
In this lesson, students learn about the characteristics that distinguish living things from nonliving things. By examining video clips and still photographs of a variety of objects and organisms, students gather evidence and develop criteria to decide if something is living or nonliving.
Materials: printed handout
Click the link below to access a folder containing all lesson materials.
First Grade
Density Columns
Students get an early introduction to the differences between weight, mass, volume and density with an experiment that shows varying densities of different liquids.
Materials: clear narrow glass or cup, honey, water, food coloring, whole cow's milk, vegetable oil, dish soap, corn syrup, ice cubes, and a turkey baster or syringe.
Click the link below to access a folder containing all lesson materials.
Second Grade
Paper Chromatography
Students learn about chromatography, a method for separating parts of a mixture. Principles learned include developing a hypothesis, solubility, molecules, and scientific method. Chromatography is used in crime solving, DNA and RNA sequencing, and vaccine development, for example.
Materials: coffee filters, clear cups or jars, water, Crayola markers, Mr. Sketch Markers, paper bags (two different brands of markers preferred since they use different pigments and pigment combinations to make their colors).
Click the link below to access a folder containing all lesson materials.
Third Grade
Skeletal System
In this lesson, students are introduced to body systems and focus on the skeletal system including anatomy and physiology of bones and skeletons.
Materials: printed skeleton parts, scissors, brads/round fasteners or tape.
Click the link below to access a folder containing all lesson materials.
Fourth and Fifth Grade
Columns in Architecture and Engineering
The objective of this lesson is for students to understand the structural purpose of pillars and columns in buildings. They will also learn their evolution through human history as an architectural adornment.
Materials: paper and tape.
Click the link below to access a folder containing all lesson materials.
Note: the usual fall activity for fourth grade involved difficult to obtain materials, so fourth grade will be doing the same activity as fifth grade. This is a new activity for both grade levels.
A special thank you to Elizabeth Glass for all her work preparing the lessons for this school year!