Reflection through STEM

I have discovered again why I love science and math.  There are so many awesome things you can do with them.  I have a new appreciation of Engineering and Technology.  I love seeing the new robots and technology that are available to students.  I love seeing the students figuring things out then making their project better.  Try and fail is the best type of learning.  This semester has been so much fun exploring, learning, and planning the STEM fair for the three schools.  Thank you to our teacher this would not have ran so smoothly because she did a lot of prep and gathering of materials.  Learning different ways to teach my future students to push their comfort thinking so will grow in their thinking.  Including the Launch, explore, summarize and the 5 E's lessons and thinking outside the box.  I am excited to try them out this next semester. 

Math Trails

Math trails are flexible because there is no right way to do a math trail.  I love the idea in which students observe math concepts they are studying in their environment and then create a problem for their classmates to solve.  I love the observation in the students environment.  This helps show students math is everywhere.  We need to look and be aware of math in our environment. 

I like that we can use our surroundings to teach math to our students.  I would use a patio to help teach area and perimeter.  Another was is to find a pool or tiles on the floor or even bricks in a wall.  The students will estimate the perimeter and the area.  Then I would have then create a yard on graph paper and have their classmates solve the perimeter and area of each object.  Math trails can take a day, to a few days or even a week. Math trails will be introduced in my future classroom.