STEM and STEAM this summer!
Summer reading is a great time to market ourselves, but it’s even better for starting new programs. Get kids hooked on STEM and STEAM programming! Focusing on “Build a Better World”, try these three “hot” topics that all touch on Sustainability:
Global warming
Princeton University created a game and teaching guide that children from fifth grade up can enjoy and learn with – The Wedges Game!
This is a “team-based exercise that teaches players about greenhouse gases, plus technologies that reduce carbon emissions” (Wedges Game)
Try out this resource for even more ideas! STEM Learning
Take these programs a step further!
- Have kids debate the issues
- Have kids draw up policies and recommendations to present to local councils
Nothing increases a child’s understanding of topics better than a little research, a bit of debating and then presenting to others. And what better way to build a better world than to approach their local representatives?
Climate change
For your tweens and teens, try out experiments that model climate change. Introduce them to the science behind the experiments! Show them how they can not only collect data, but also observe it, and understand it. Simple materials are needed, and this booklet is chock full of details to explain it! Here’s a visual for you!
Need a whole PowerPoint presentation on even more activities to model climate change in the library?! Here you go! Majorly cool PowerPoint
Sustainability
Learning about sustainability increases a child’s learning in STEM activities. No, really, the Association of American Colleges and Universities proved it.
They say that learning about sustainability prepares students for the 21st century’s biggest questions: energy, air and water quality and climate change.
Learning Gardens
How about learning gardens?
The backstory is simple: our social and ecological issues are deeply connected: “Climate change, habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, food insecurity, air and water pollution…are increasingly related to issues of equity and social justice.”
This is “ecological literacy”
Here’s some great books to help you along!
Have fun getting your hands dirty this summer!
AnnMarie Hurtado
This is way cool. Climate change is an important and timely topic and these ideas will be great for giving kids hands-on insight.
Jonathan Dolce
Glad you like the post! It is indeed timely, but also, as it takes a village to raise a child, public librarians can help do their part in increasing their community’s exposure to issues that will only increase in importance throughout their lifetime; I am reminded of the old fable of the ants and the grasshopper, really.
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