STEM Resources

ncrease STEM proficiency with fun lab activities that encourage critical thinking and communication. STEM Labs for Middle Grades provides more than 50 integrated labs to cultivate student interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Designed by leading educators, these activities require students to solve real-world problems using scientific inquiry, content knowledge, creativity, and teamwork!

Mark Twain Media Publishing Company specializes in providing engaging supplemental books and decorative resources to complement middle- and upper-grade classrooms. Designed by leading educators, this product line covers a range of subjects including math, science, language arts, social studies, history, government, fine arts, and character.

Science, technology, engineering, art, and math work together to make learning fun in these STEAM lessons!

Perfect for Makerspace!

This fourth grade teacher resource book includes:

• A year's worth of teacher lesson plans
• STEAM design challenges that turn elementary students into inventors
• Easy-to-follow lesson format (with standards identified for each lesson)
• Classroom-tested lessons

The STEAM Design Challenges in this book follow engineering practices to teach students in Grade 4 to solve a problem by designing, creating, and justifying their designs. They also allow art to support and enhance the learning of science and math while the engineering process is followed.

These engaging STEAM lessons:

• Integrate the Next Generation Science Standards and national standards from other disciplines
• Enhance learning across various disciplines
• Facilitate students in collaborating to solve real-world scenarios
• Promote critical thinking, analytical thinking, and reflective thinking
• Incorporate the Five Es Instructional Model (engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate)
• Are classroom tested

Engineering Design Process
The lessons in this book are intended to support the engineering design process in which teachers become a facilitator by encouraging and guiding students to work as a team to find a creative solution to a real-world problem without providing step-by-step instructions. Students are inspired to act as scientists and engineers through the use of sketches, diagrams, mathematical relationships, and literacy connections. By creating their very own models and products based on background information from their studies, students are immediately engaged through a meaningful, rewarding lesson.

More about the lessons
Each lesson begins by presenting students with a design challenge scenario in order to immediately excite students with a real-world situation that they are on a mission to solve. Students are then given a dilemma, mission, and blueprint design sheet and are asked to collaborate with team members to create several prototypes. Students present their prototypes to their teacher, construct their design, test their design, engage in a class discussion about their design, and then modify their design. Finally, teams create a justification piece in order to sell their new prototype (ex. persuasive letter, video, advertisement etc.).

About the Authors
The Steam Dreamers, a group of four classroom teachers, desired to create more interactive learning environments and science classrooms through student-centered problem-solving lessons. They created this collection of cross-curricular design challenge lessons to provide teachers and students with real-world scenarios that are driven by core learning standards and enriched through the inclusion of literacy and the arts.

• One of the most brilliant STEM toys for developing creativity, critical thinking and problem solving skills.
• An exciting introduction to the building blocks of engineering and math.
• Includes 8 light-up cubes, 4 rails, 52 colorful cubes and 20 steel marbles.
• Marbles are nickel plated steel balls. They are not magnets.

The magic of gravity pushes the spheres through the Geomag gravity motor spiral. A magical and eco-friendly system that uses the invisible forces of attraction and repulsion to set in motion the models. Starting at the base of the system, the weight of the spheres creates a never-ending spiral that kickstarts a real gravity motor. This set contains 11 magnetic rods, 32 spheres and 126 plastic mechanical elements. Gravity is the innovative evolution of the Geomag mechanics line. Developed with expert players in mind, the new construction system is based on an innovative "gravity motor": this uses the weight of the Geomag spheres to Kickstart the mechanisms and movements of the Geomag mechanics structures. The motion is provided by the invisible forces of gravity and magnetism, without using electricity or batteries. The play experience is based on these fundamental principles of physics. Mechanics gravity is a STEM product that can truly stimulate curiosity and inspire to learn more about science.