STEM Your Library What Does It Look Like?

From Story to STEM
Resources for STEM programming at your library
Presented by:

·  Beth Gentry --Former Middle School 6th Grade Science Teacher, High School Biology and Earth Science Teacher. Currently a teacher librarian at Buckingham County Primary.

·  Becky Wallace – Former Middle School 6th grade Science and Math Teacher. Currently a teacher librarian at Sussex Central Middle School.

STEM @ Your Library – What does it look like?

The school librarian supports educational and program standards as defined by the local, state, and national associations and stimulates critical thinking through the use of learning activities that involve application, analysis, evaluation, and creativity” Empowering Learners actions, II.IV, p. 25.

Who can help you?

Don’t be afraid to recruit volunteers. Look for guest speakers in your community or ask science teachers or students to come in and give you a hand.

Add STEM to what you’re already doing!

·  Add nonfiction/STEM books to your story times

·  Add STEM challenges or questions to your lessons

·  Add a STEM center with science materials (instead of or in addition to your craft station)

·  It can be as simple as providing the materials and a question for the kids to explore

Tips & Tricks

-  You DON’T need to be an expert!

-  Try out your activities…

-  Or don’t try them out…

-  You don’t have to read the whole book. It's fine to share part of a book, to paperclip pages together, or reword certain passages if they're too wordy for your audience.

Resources for STEM programming ideas:

v  The Show-Me Librarian by Amy Koester (especially check out her All Things STEAM page, which has TONS of great resources for STEM programming): http://showmelibrarian.blogspot.com

v  Bedtime Math (http://www.bedtimemath.org) posts daily math questions for all ages

v  It is always good to know what other educators are using as they explore topics and create units to engage students. This link provides categorized STEM books. http://www.theeducatorsspinonit.com/2014/11/stem-books-for-children.html

v  Search for lesson plans on science concepts. Each year the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) publishes a list of outstanding children’s science trade books. http://www.nsta.org/publications/ostb/

v  Many museums, aquariums, and zoos include educator resources on their websites

v  www.stem4teachers.org The projects shared here were funded by grants from the Virginia Department of Education, through the federal Math – Science Partnership program, and NCLB Title IIB initiative. Central Virginia teachers, from six public school divisions and area private schools, worked in partnership with Education and STEM faculty as they engaged in increasingly student-centered approaches to teaching.

v  The Cook Prize honors the best science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) picture book published for children aged eight to ten. It is the only national children's choice award honoring a STEM book. Presented for the first time in 2012, the Cook Prize is named in memory of two ground breaking Bank Street educators - Don Cook of the Graduate School of Education, and Michael Cook (no relation) of the School for Children.

https://www.bankstreet.edu/center-childrens-literature/cook-prize/

A copy of our PowerPoint and book list of our resources, can be found at our Google Site:

https://sites.google.com/a/bcpschools.org/vaasl-stem-session/

Rather than typing in all of this, you can email us, and we will share the site with you.