What a 21st century classroom looks like?

Students are capable of learning far more than you think they can. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning fits in every grade level because the material is adaptable to the developmental age of the child. Young students have a natural curiosity which helps them solve problems, engineer solutions, answer questions about the world around them and make sense of any numbers.

Here are some ways teachers can engage their young students in STEM learning:

Scratch

Drag-and-drop programming is an effective intro for budding coders. With a little adult help, this is a rich platform for getting kids into programming and digital creation.

Blockly for Dash & Dot Robots:

Adorable robots teach hands-on coding skills with plenty of creative options and lots of fun.

3D Printing

Applicable to most subject areas: 3D printing technology can be used for instruction across the curriculum and is applicable to most subject areas. With little support, you can teach students to make fun yet insightful artifacts. They will learn about the underlying concepts of geometry and science while designing their projects in 3D printers.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

A lot of teachers are already familiar with Google Expeditions, a virtual reality platform that lets users experience hundreds of places in the world in 3D. But what you might not know is that you can now create your own tours using Tour Creator. This tool enables us to create our own tours, using imagery from Google Street View or our own 360 photos, then publish them right into Poly, Google’s library of free VR and AR objects. Students can create tours as part of a research project, use them as a way to reflect after a field trip, or even as a supplement to a creative writing project. They can be used to create tours of your school, your classroom, or your town. If your school doesn’t currently have much VR technology, start with an affordable Google Cardboard—just pop a smartphone into one of these and you now have one VR headset that can be used by a small group of students.

With so many technologies in the classroom, there is now more space for active learning and engaging with students. Whether adding a single tool for a specific project or term, or making a more dramatic change, being well-versed in technology can help you have a better idea of your students’ progress.