Finding STEM Activities for Middle School
Middle school is a fascinating period in a student’s life. It is a time of transitioning into a more complex and difficult academic set-up that becomes more structured. It is essential to make this transition as smooth as possible to ensure the student’s ability is maximized. This is where STEM activities for middle school students come into action and should be implemented. Let’s take a glance at some of the different STEM activities for middle school students that can be used and why they are important in the short and long-term.
Group Activities
These activities should be based around groups of different sizes. The idea is to encourage the use of groups to get a task done. The task can be anything and should ensure all students have to communicate with one another to get the right answers for their problems.
There are many activities that fit into this group and do an excellent job of helping a student solve problems and get the most out of the process.
These activities can include things such as constructing little items such as cars and getting them to function in order to win a race. This is a great way to get a team together and work towards a common goal in a competitive setting.
Problem Solving
The best part about these activities is to help develop a child’s ability to correlate the academic world with the real world. It is essential to not keep them separate as that can lead to bad transitioning for the middle school student.
There are many problem solving STEM activities for middle school that can be implemented such as candy math. The idea is to use candies as a means to solve math problems for the students.
Paper Rockets
The final activity is one that focuses on something fun such as ‘paper rockets’ and help build them as part of a group.
Paper rockets are easy to build, but in a group it can lead to a range of solutions. It opens the mind of the student to help them understand that there are many different, but equal ways to tackle the same problem.
This is the main goal of the process and is why these activities pay such a big role in the short and long-term for the student.
STEM activities for middle school students are essential for their overall development as students and as social beings. Often, the education system can become focused on the academic side of the development process and forget the importance of developing students as people too. This is where these activities are excellent motivators to get students to think outside the box and maximize their abilities. It is essential to get the most out of students in this age to make their transition into high school that much easier. It is often easy to forget these details in the regular curriculum and that is why it is important to separate these activities and organize them in a structured manner.
Article by Dr. Patricia Fioriello at ExpertBeacon.com – Help your child succeed in a STEM education program at school.
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