Perfect for Makerspaces, this 152-page first 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 1 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.).