STEM at Every Age: Building a Hands-On Path from Elementary to High School

All kids need access to STEM education. Hands-on STEM projects help to build skills in problem solving and analytical reasoning, improve digital literacy, and show kids how things in the world around them work. These skills are necessary to be a functioning, contributing, and productive member of modern society.  If there are no longer enough technology producers to support the ever growing number of technology consumers, we as a people will be unable to continue innovating and advancing.  Our world will stagnate, and no one will be able even to maintain the technologies on which we’ve become so dependent.

The ozobot is a spherical, programmable robot that emphasizes hands-on exploration and problem solving. The company's Evo Coding Robots can be programmed with colored lines drawn on paper! Different colors make the robot perform different actions, and the student is presented with challenges that they must figure out how to get the robot to complete. Even though they aren't "writing code," students are learning the basics of computer programming – how to get a machine to follow a sequence of precise instructions one step at a time to accomplish a goal. As the students progress, they may move into the Blockly coding environment, a blocks-based programming language similar to Scratch (which is described in more detail below). This statement from the company's website provides an apt summary: “[The Evo Coding Robot] [t]urns abstract coding concepts into movement, interaction, and creative play.”

Makey Makey offers a relatively low-tech approach to learning about electrical circuitry. This unique product uses a USB-connected device that helps turn physical electrical circuits into ways to interact with programs running on the computer. It’s a bit like a do-it-yourself game controller. However, the circuits themselves are constructed from things like index cards with foil tape or even just graphite pencil lines, coins, fruit like bananas and kiwis, or conductive putty.  Students learn the differences between conductors and insulators, and they get to see what sorts of everyday items fit into each of these categories.

3DUX Design provides project kits with die-cut cardboard packaged with plastic clip fasteners and simple electronic components that allow kids to learn simple physics while expressing themselves through creative play. These kits include design challenges like building enclosures for different kinds of animals at a zoo or constructing the house of the future. The parts are open ended and reusable, so kids can go beyond what’s in the instructions.  The company founder is a former pediatrician!

ScratchJr is a a tablet-based, finger-friendly coding environment for creating animated scenes to tell stories and play simple games. It was designed to make Scratch's blocks-based approach to coding accessible to even younger students. The instruction blocks are small squares with pictures to show what action they perform. “Programs” are short sequences – usually just a few blocks long – that tell an on-screen character what to do. Despite its apparent simplicity, the ScratchJr environment incorporates real computer science concepts – loops to repeat instructions and message passing to let the code for one character trigger code on another, for example.

Scratch is perhaps the first (or arguably the most common) blocks-based coding environment. It was designed at MIT as a better way to teach programming to young students. Instead of having to learn an entirely new language with its grammar, vocabulary, complex syntax rules, and strange punctuation, Scratch programs are "written" by dragging and connecting color-coded puzzle-shaped blocks. Students are still learning five foundational concepts from computer science: variables, loops, conditional statements, functions, and events. These elements are used in every modern programming language! While they are learning these concepts, though, student are not also trying to learn the proper spelling, capitalization, and punctuation that make text-based programming difficult for many people. Plus, while the output from most text-based languages is text-only without a lot of additional scaffolding and infrastructure, all Scratch programs are graphical. It is easy to add sounds and to animate characters.

Snap Circuits are electronics kits with large components perfect for small hands. These kits include the same types of components – LEDs, resistors, motors, buzzers, etc. – provided with kits designed for older students, but in a form factor that is more appropriate to younger learners.  Everything is molded in durable plastic and mount onto base plates with just a press.  "Wires" are actually molded plastic strips in a variety of lengths with literal snaps to make electrical connections.  With Snap Circuits, students are building real circuits with real components but without having to worry about putting tiny leads into tiny holes on a breadboard.  This helps to eliminate the frustration associated with trying to complete tasks their bodies are not yet ready to perform.

Tinkercad is an online application for 3D modeling. It allows students to explore basic concepts from 3D design without the complexity and steep learning curve generally associated with industry-grade CAD tools. Complex shapes are made by combining more primitive shapes – cubes, cylinders, spheres, cones, etc. These merges may be additive or subtractive.  For example, a snowman might be modeled with three spheres stacked on top of each other, each successively smaller than the one below it.  A pipe, though, would be modeled by starting with a solid cylinder and merging it with a slightly smaller "hollow" cylinder. (Tinkercad calls these shapes holes, and they are also sometimes described as negative space.)  Tinkercad designs may be exported and printed on a 3D printer.

In addition to 3D modeling, Tinkercad has an excellent electronics circuit simulator, too. This allows students to build circuits on a virtual breadboard with many of the components found in typical kits – LEDs, resistors, transistors, capacitors, etc. There are even microcontrollers like the Arduino and the micro:bit. The Arduino may be programmed in Tinkercad using a blocks-based language similar to Scratch, or in the text-based C-dialect used with the real board.  There's also a hybrid mode where the code may be written in blocks, but Tinkercad will show the equivalent text code.  Once built, circuits in Tinkercad may be simulated and will behave almost exactly the way the actual circuit would behave in the real-world. There are virtual diagnostic instruments like a multimeter and an oscilloscope, too.  Tinkercad is a great tool for preparing students for physical electronics project kits because they learn to work with the components and the breadboard without worrying about losing or breaking all the small parts!

Python is an easy-to-learn text-based programming language widely used in industry. It is one of the easiest text-based programming languages because it has an English-like syntax and uses less punctuation than most other languages. Additionally, Python enforces a rigid structure where code blocks must be indented. This style is highly encouraged in nearly every language, but it isn’t required in most. Python is a very versatile language, and is popular with researchers and engineers who might not have studied programming formally in college.  It has an extensive third-party library system.  This means that if there's behavior you need that isn't part of the code language, there's a good chance a library exists that will add that functionality to your program!  Python consistently ranks as one of the most widely-used programming languages in the TIOBE index. It is currently first on the list and has been since late 2021!

As students reach high school, the emphasis should be on connecting the dots. Instead of continuing to collect foundational knowledge and skills, they should work on applying what they know and can do.  They should begin using real-world tools and technologies – web-based programming, electronics project kits, professional-grade CAD applications, etc.  They might also begin to take a more detailed look at specific college majors and career paths in which they are interested. If they like aeronautics, they could work with a drone. If they like to program, learn new programming languages.  If they want to do robotics, look for an FTC or VEX team to join (or start one yourself!).

At this point, the tools, applications, and resources are no longer driving their learning.  Instead, they become the facilitators - the things that make what they want to do possible!

STEM is a buzz-word, and it gets attached to lots of projects even when there’s questionable academic relevance. Beyond what the letters stand for (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), there’s really not much agreement about what is or isn’t STEM. STEAM is another popular label – it’s STEM plus the Arts. (You may also see STREAM - that's STEAM plus reading!)  There’s really no further distinction in these terms, and, in my opinion, there’s no need for the STEAM (or STREAM) label. STEM can and should include the Arts, but I don’t think STEM without the A devalues those subjects in any way.