The STEM journal or STEAM journal is a MUST in a STEM or STEAM classroom. Why? I hope that you will be able to understand that completely after reading this post. However and to what extent you have used STEM and STEAM, you have seen that students need to plan out their ideas through writing and sketching. I hope you have seen that!!! If not, we have some work to do, but don’t fret that’s what this is for! Let’s get started!!!
Using STEM/STEAM Journals
Alright, first things first. If at the least you have allowed students to complete a STEM or STEAM challenge in your classroom, you have noticed that they must use a design process like the engineering design process or design thinking throughout the challenge, or you at least allowed them to sketch out a plan before they designed something.
So because of this, it’s really necessary to start implementing a STEM or STEAM journal now in your classroom! You will not regret this decision! Why? If you want more student ownership when it comes to their creations and problem solving…. THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT! So let’s find out how to do it the right way!
STEM Journals are Student Idea Areas
I know that when it comes to teaching new concepts like science and engineering there will be lots of vocabulary and new things that students need to record and learn about. You can still do this, but it should be limited in the STEM or STEAM journal. One or two important vocabulary words or concepts are ok for students to have word for word, but you could always allow them to try and put into their own words. However, this process takes time to teach to students, too. Why? They aren’t confident in their own ideas.
Allowing students to completely have the STEM journal be for their OWN ideas helps students to gain confidence when recording their own ideas. So… let’s really try to focus on allowing the STEM journal be a place for just their ideas! Want some more information about the STEM journal and the STEM classroom? Grab this free tip guide to the Ultimate STEM/STEAM classroom!
Using Design Processes
Within a STEM or STEAM classroom there is an important element that must be taught. What is it? Designing. How do we teach designing? This process directly relates to engineering which is prevalent throughout the STEM or STEAM classroom. There are many processes we can teach, but let’s focus on two: The Engineering Design Process and Design Thinking. Both of these are a series of steps that students go through during the planning stages of a build or creation.
So where does the STEM journal come into this idea of designing? Well.. this is where students will document the entire process. First of all, each new creation or design must start with a DRIVING QUESTION. This would be the first step, and they should label it as ASK. Then as they move through more of the steps in designing, they should label each step and document their work. This allows them to use their designs when creating, making changes, and figuring out when improvements are needed! Want a digital STEM/STEAM journal? Grab it here! Perfect for your remote classroom or even in person! Check out how I use it when 3D print designing in my elementary classroom on this blog post!
STEM Journals should be unique for each student.
This is often a really hard idea for teachers to get used to. Why? Well… we want to make sure every student understands each concept. One way that we do this is by making sure we have presented each concept to the whole classroom, and that they have all the correct notes to study. We can still do this, but teachers…… THIS IS A STUDY GUIDE. A STEM journal is not a study guide at all.
STEM journals are and should be UNIQUE to each student because… AND YOU KNOW THIS…. we are all different. You record notes in meetings differently than other teachers, your classroom is different, your online presence is different. People are UNIQUE. We have to allow this to be true for students and their STEM journals, as well. If we don’t, we stifle CREATIVITY. Period.
DATA in the STEM Journal
Here is another hard concept for us. Students need to record data on their experiments and when testing designs they have created. Yes…. this part will be unique to them, too. They can’t just start doing this. It’s our job to show multiple ways to record data: bar graphs, charts, observations, drawings, tallies…. it goes on and on. We even need to teach the best way to record data for certain types of investigations. Then they can make their own choices in the STEM journal.
I know, I know… this hard for us, too. Especially if you can’t make heads or tails of what they have recorded. So what do you do? Conference with the student. Can they explain it? Do they even remember the whole investigation and the data they collected? If not, well that’s when we reteach. Again, this is a process that takes time, but YOU got this!!! The end results will be amazing!!! Read about the ways that I teach this to students by introducing STEM careers, and how they do this type of recording here.
Sketches in the STEM Journal
This is my absolute favorite element in the STEM or STEAM journal! So much instruction can take place here! I love using books like Notable Notetaking: Scientists and their Writings from NSTA. Real scientists show their real sketches, labels, and notes in this book for children and even adults. It’s an exemplar piece for sharing. You may recognize a few of the scientists in this book… oh and…. it’s a primary source!!!
This is also how to really get the ‘A’ into STEM which is must and mantra for me! Scientists, believe it or not, and engineers can be amazingly skilled artists! That’s how it all started when it came to making the first ever STEM and STEAM journals on this planet! So let them do ART… in the STEM journal!!! I mean have you ever heard of Leonardo DaVinci the artist, scientist, and inventor?
Hold them Accountable for what they put into the STEM Journal!
Yes… that’s our job! No, I don’t mean tell them they are wrong, or this isn’t good. I mean allow your students to explain everything that they put into the STEM journal to you. Conference with them. How could they improve what they have entered to help them in the future? We know students need to practice, practice, practice. It’s our job to help them evolve into experts!
Personally, I love these conversations. Quite frankly… I learn from them, and they learn from me. When they know that they will have to be able explain their entries, a lot more thought is put into their writings. Oh… by the way… because of this you can teach STEM during your writing block and give sentence instruction, concepts of informational writing, and you can even give a simple task that students should add to their STEM journal for another subject area you are teaching. STEM journals just ROCK… in more ways than one. Start doing it the right way TODAY!!! Don’t forget to grab the ULTIMATE STEM/STEAM Classroom guide for FREE today! Happy STEM journaling to everyone!
