Last time in this series, I covered some of the different types of resources that are available through the Million Girls Moonshot initiative. But this time, I wanted to delve into some specific resources related to activities you can bring into programming. They’re not all from STEM Next and the Moonshot directly, but it was through the initiative that I discovered them. Take a look and hopefully one of these will be useful to you and something you can implement right away. If you want more information or support around implementing STEM programming, contact Sam Graulty (sam@vermontafterschool.org).
“Community Engineering” Resources
This site contains both complete STEM units (one on playground accessibility and one on wind turbines) as well as bite-sized learning modules that can be used to introduce or supplement other resources. They include learning standards, lesson plans, pictures of student work, student and teacher learning objectives, materials, and extra tidbits of advice relevant to educators working with elementary students. Community Engineering is a group based at Tufts University whose goal is to “to help you to help all students learn to use engineering as a problem-solving approach for their everyday lives and communities.” They use a framework known as Community-Based Engineering (CBE) to accomplish this.
“Engineer Girl” Resources for Educators
Engineer Girl is a website run by staff from the National Academy of Engineering that aims “to bring national attention to the exciting opportunities that engineering represents for girls and women.” They have collected numerous toolkits, curricula, and activities to help educators broaden their STEM offerings. I especially want to highlight Teach Engineering which has a TON of very easily accessible activity resources. They’re very well organized and explained, with most having a video as well.
“Million Girls Moonshot” Engineering Mindset Activities
Lastly, I wanted to highlight a few activities listed by the Million Girls Moonshot themselves. These three activities are organized to refer back to the engineering mindset framework I highlighted in the last post. They each come with specific instructions, an engineering journal for students, and also a powerpoint you can use while facilitating.
To learn about resources like these and to stay up to date on new events and opportunities coming up, follow Million Girls Moonshot and Vermont Afterschool on Twitter!
