STEM education is on everyone’s mind – It is the new buzzword! It is at the forefront of educational movements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Organizations around the world are pushing to provide students with STEM opportunities and activities that introduce students to engineering and technology concepts. However, many often think of STEM being promoted in middle school and high school. There are many benefits to providing elementary students with STEM activities as well.
Girls are often underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This is why it is so important to engage and support girls in STEM activities even at a young age. After all, the games, toys, and activities that children participate in are what mold a child's interests. This can greatly impact a child's interests and even their future career goals. Oriental Trading offers a number of fun and engaging products that are perfect for any STEM activity in the classroom! These Plush Superhero Girl Dolls are what gave me this great superhero theme idea! I used Laura Kelly's Lemonade Capital Alphabet Letters and my Ellison Die-cutting machine to cut out each letter onto a variety of colors of Kunin Classicfelt™.
1. Construct and Embellish Your Own Butterfly House
These DIY Unfinished Wood Butterfly Houses allow students to construct, design, and decorate their own butterfly house. Provide students with a variety of paint colors from Oriental's Awesome Acrylic Paint Set and Plaid® Paintbrush Super Value Pack. My students embellished their butterfly houses using Pom-Poms, Mega Chenille Stem Classpack, Hearts & Flowers Self-Adhesive Shapes, and Neon Washi Tape Set. These houses are also a great way to introduce the life cycle of a butterfly and to provide students with informational text about butterflies.
2. Getting Geared up for STEM!
These Connecting Gear Shapes are perfect for introducing children to grouping, designing, sorting, constructing, counting, and putting physics into play. Gears are used in many machines. This activity will help students make connections to everyday machines that use gears to change direction, speed of movement, and create force.
3. Twister Tube Activity - Kinetic and Potential Energy!
This twister tube science experiment was a huge hit for my students! I used Rainbow Color Twister Tubes, two empty 2-liter bottles, water, and some blue food coloring to complete this experiment. It was so much fun to hear the predictions from my students about what they thought would happen when I turned over the bottles. This activity is a great way to introduce kinetic and potential energy to students as well!
4. Observing a Plant's Life Cycle
The Watch It Grow Plant Viewer is a great way for students to observe, predict, and illustrate a plant's life cycle from a seed to a root to a full-size plant! This activity is great to pair with Plant Science Journals for students to jot down their observations and notes!
5. Plan and Construct STEM Structures!
My students loved making towers using the Guidecraft PowerClix® Building Set. This activity helps students to appreciate the planning, resources, and constraints associated with building a tower that has a strong foundation and building something that is structurally safe. This set provides students with a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes that they can use to create a number of unique structures! 
We have a number of superhero themed products that are perfect for any STEM party, after school event, or classroom activity. My students loved wearing a Superhero Girls Halloween Costume as they completed each activity. At the end of the lesson, each student received a Superhero Drawstring Backpacks full of goodies! This included: Girl Superhero Sayings Bracelets, Superhero Girl Beaded Necklaces, Superhero Girl Elastic Headbands, and much more!
Transform the Classroom!
I used a number of superhero themed products to decorate my classroom! The Superhero Girl Backdrop and Large Skyscraper Cardboard Stand-Up turned my classroom into a true superhero world! I hope these activities provide you with a number of great ideas on how to foster STEM activities in the classroom!
