STEAM Curriculum

I belong to a Facebook group called Teaching STEM. It's a private group for Elementary STEM Specials teachers. There are 16.8K members. It's typical to hear pleas for help. Here's one request, "I am a new STEM teacher - How do you set up your year?" If I scroll past a few posts I come across another, "I have just been moved from science to our school's maker space... Now I have to design a K-5 curriculum.... Any suggestions on where to start with a curriculum?"

I responded to one post, sharing how I develop my curriculum. (In my circumstance, I teach STEAM to 3-5th grade students. I see each class for 50 minutes once every 3 days. This averages out to 14 classes a quarter.) After sharing what I was doing, a couple of people responded with interest in my plans and asked me to share. I want to share my plan, but it's not as easy as pulling out some pre-published curriculum and saying, "Here, follow this." So, I am responding to the request by writing about how I develop my curriculum through my Blog.  I struggle to justify the time it takes to write a Blog. So, if you are interested in learning more, please follow me. It will help motivate me to keep writing. 

Designing a STEAM Unit - by Dr. Stelck

At the beginning of the summer, I start reflecting on the incoming fifth-grade students. End-of-the-year tests results show that the group is not strong academically. Through my experience with them I know they are creative and enjoy art. I think about times I met with them in person. I remember some instances when they were in third grade where groups of students were visiting the STEAM room during their recess time to build airplanes from some recycled materials I collected. Through this time of reflection, I decided to develop an aeronautics curriculum for everyone's first-quarter STEAM experience. 

After deciding on the unit, I scour my shelves at school and at home for any books I have on the subject. Here's a list of the books I found:

Kids' Paper Airplane Book by Ken Blackburn and Jeff Lammers

Unusual Paper Planes by Paul Jackson

The Complete Paper Airplane Book by Michel Shulan

Super Wings the Step-by-Step Paper Airplane Book by Peter Clemens

Air * Wind & Flight by Mick Seller Science Workshop

Flying Mobiles by Paul Jackson

Power Launch Paper Jets by Conn McQuinn and Peter Pluchino

Stationery Flight by Michael Weinstein

The Great International Paper Airplane Book by Jerry Miller, George Dippel, and Howard Grossage

Integrating Aerospace Science into the Curriculum: K-12 by Jerry Flack and Joan Ray

Note: The hyperlinks are there to help you identify the book I am referencing. When I searched for the book I selected the top hit to the correct book to help you find it if you're interested.

I will share with you how I continue to develop the curriculum in my next post. 

“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes

turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

– Leonardo DaVinci

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