Spark STEM Excitement in Youth!

After a long year and a half filled with zoom meetings and other virtual workshops, it's incredibly refreshing to be back live and in person!

We've all known over the course of this pandemic that going virtual with our education system has proven to have it's benefits and disadvantages. Most educators will agree that this has been the most testing time for them trying to engage their students in unique ways, while also maintaining their interest level. With so many distractions in play, whether it be personal, political, or financial, families have had a difficult time keeping their children invested in learning. Now that restrictions have been lifted in various regions, we're seeing a large influx of more classroom engagement and the need to get back to stimulating our youth with more diverse learning opportunities.

I had the pleasure of doing my first in-person workshop of the year with a group of kindergarten students in Los Angeles this past week. What a joy seeing the excitement on their faces as I presented some fun and engaging lessons around "How Sound Works". For all my educators out there looking for some intriguing science lessons, here's a snippet of what we learned:

1. What is Sound?

• Used a slinky to demonstrate sound waves & frequencies

2. How Do We Hear Sound?

• Did a lot of vibrating, hand wave motions, and creating high & low sounds (trust me....they loved it!)

3. Echolocation

• Group activity playing the roles of bats & insects, and a hands-on experiment with paper towel rolls & pie pans where they could hear how echolocation works

4. Seeing Sound

• Put sound into a visual perspective with a hands-on activity involving a cup, plastic wrap, & sugar where students could see how sound travels through vibrations

If you're looking for some fun & exciting ways to get your students hyped about STEM topics - make sure to keep following along my channel for continued STEM education ideas, or check out my collaboration page to see how we could do something exciting together in your classroom!