Literature based STEM activities are seriously how I love to begin any STEM/STEAM lesson. iHeartSTEAM Stories is a new creation of mine. The first edition to this series is Temple Grandin. Why should we teach students about her? Temple Grandin is one of the most unique people I have ever learned about. Temple was diagnosed with autism at an early age. She was born in 1947, and at that time, not much was known about the mind of autistic people and how they learned. Temple’s mother was determined for her daughter to get the education that she deserved.
STEM Literature Connections
Temple is the perfect person to introduce into the classroom to educate our students about autism. She is a wonderful speaker and thinker. Her dedication in her field of Animal Science revolutionized the cattle industry in America. Temple had so much compassion for animals, especially cows, because she discovered that she could relate to them. She won many battles and lost a few on the way to her achievements in animal science. Her determination to not give up is a wonderful characteristic for our students to learn about. My favorite thing to do in the classroom is to read stories. I don’t care how old they are. They love stories. The Girl Who Thought in Pictures by Julia Finley Mosca is the perfect book to teach about Temple.
STEM and Children’s Literature
When I use books to teach with in the classroom, I always pull out a few vocabulary words to high light. I don’t use too many, though. No more than 4 is my recommendation. You really want students to focus on the story and to take away something that they will really remember. I use character traits for one to two of my vocabulary words always. For Temple, my four vocabulary words are compassion, perspective, observant, and autism.
Today many classrooms across the world are becoming more focused on STEM/STEAM. By using literature to introduce students to scientists and other career fields, you have now integrated English Language Arts into STEM/STEAM lessons and activities.
Enriching the STEM Experience
Introducing students to real people in real STEM/STEAM fields is so important. Enriching the experience through writing and other ELA activities fully engages students when learning through STEM/STEAM. Students will be able to retain at a higher rate with multiple connections. I like to use acrostic poems, word searches, vocabulary in action, and story retells to support reading material. Students will completely be able to answer the question, “Who is Temple Grandin?”
STEM and Literature
In this story about Temple Grandin, I used multiple avenues to enrich ELA. However, these activities were merely there to open the door for students to be excited about STEM/STEAM. After all the introductions and storytelling, now it’s time for students to get to experience designing like Temple. I first begin by letting students observe nature in the same ways that Temple did in the story, from the perspective of the animal. We then move on to designing cattle chutes like Temple did. I have normally introduced the Engineering Design Process much earlier in my classroom, but if you haven’t, that’s okay. Now is the perfect time. So introduce the Engineering Design Process, and use it as a guide through a design challenge like designing cattle chutes.
By this point, students have respect for the science they have been discovering and the scientist, which in this case was Temple Grandin. They long to know more and learn more. They are also ready when I bring a new book out to teach them something new!
Have fun exploring and researching Temple Grandin if you decide to. My resources are also available to support you when learning about Temple Grandin in my iHeartSTEAM series. I also recommend watching Temple’s Ted Talk to get to know her better before you teach about her. I have also dedicated a series to the introduction of each field area of STEM/STEAM in a series of resources on STEM/STEAM careers that create a basic foundation when teaching students about STEM/STEAM. Read more about them through the link.
Do you need more support for STEM/STEAM integration? Please check out my 9 step guide to STEM/STEAM integration in any subject area.
