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PRINTABLE: STEMBounce Teacher's Guide Teacher Required Materials:
STEPS: 1. Make a Connection (** Use the Participant Form & Document on the STEMBounce website, our Facebook Group or Twitter: #STEMBounce) It is important to make a connection with another class prior to starting this process. Things to think about:
2. Minds-On Mentor Text: Books are often a great way to introduce students to “needs” & “problems” that can be solved through STEM. Reading a book, such as Scaredy Squirrel by Mélanie Watt, can engage students quickly and help them to passionately advocate for their favourite character, by identifying things they need or problems they need solved. For older students, newspaper or magazine articles may be another way to identify a needs or problems that they can tackle. Community Expert: Inviting a community expert to visit your classroom, either literally or virtually, is a great way to introduce students to real world needs and problems that need to be solved. Listening to the local mayor describe the problems she is facing as she looks to prevent soil erosion at a local park or develop a new transportation plan for their community can quickly engage students in identifying needs or problems that need to be solved. 3. Brainstorm IMPORTANT: Be sure to start with a discussion by setting the ground rules. Ensure the students recognize that you are only brainstorming “problems” or “needs,” NOT SOLUTIONS. By them sharing possible solutions, students are “stealing learning” from others, by preventing the struggle and creativity that comes with a fresh task. Whole Class: (optimal for Gr.K-3 OR modeling the process for older students)
Small Group: (optimal for Gr.4 & up)
4. Selection Whole Class: (optimal for Gr.K-3 OR modeling the process for older students) Guide your students to select the best “need” or “problem” that you believe can be developed into a challenge. Think about: access to materials at your school, as well as your receiving school, also it is important to think about the time that will be devoted to this task. Small Group: (optimal for Gr.4 & up) Have students select the best “need” or “problem” from their list that they feel they can develop into a challenge. Conference with each group to help them ensure that their selection is achievable for both your’s and the receiving school (based on materials, time, etc…). Once you have conferenced, provide each group with a planning template (either printed on paper or shared as a document). 5. Wording & Materials List Whole Class: (optimal for Gr.K-3 OR modeling the process for older students) On chart paper work together to develop the wording for your STEM Challenge based on the “need” or “problem” you have selected. For example: Scaredy Squirrel has dropped his precious medical bag into the poison ivy! Pretending your desk is the tree and the poison ivy is on the ground, use the materials provided, to design something that Scaredy can use to get his medical bag out of the poison ivy & up into his tree. CAUTION: You can not touch the medical bag with your hands! Then finish by creating a list of the materials challenge participants will be allowed to use for this task. Note: ensure the other class also has access to these materials. Small Group: (optimal for Gr.4 & up) Each group will follow the steps in the planning template (either printed on paper or shared as a document). Throughout the process, check in with each group. A key point will be the wording for their challenge. Have them pay attention to the examples provided. Have each group complete the required list of materials and confirm with you that all materials needed are available at both your and the receiving school. 6. Difficulties? Whole Class: (optimal for Gr.K-3 OR modeling the process for older students) Finish the whole group discussion by identifying difficulties that students may have when facing this challenge. Discuss whether these are things that can be overcome or adjustments that need to be made to the challenge itself. Small Group: (optimal for Gr.4 & up) Each group will follow the steps in the planning template (either printed on paper or shared as a document). When they get to the section about difficulties, really connect with them to discuss if they have considered difficulties that may be encountered and whether or not they need to adjust their challenge. 7. Sharing Results How would you like the other class or groups of students to share/document their process and results? This needs to be a reasonable request that the other school can successfully achieve (e.g., pictures, video, drawings, graphs, etc…). You may decide to share results orally when you connect after the process. 8. Test To ensure that the challenge that has been designed makes sense, the student design team must actually work their way through the challenge from start to finish to "test" it. Completing a STEM challenge as a whole class can be cumbersome. At this point, if you are working as a whole class, it is best students split into individuals or small groups for the test. If the process is being done as a small group, groups will work together to test their STEM Challenge. Think about:
9. Good Copy Whole Class: It is time to prepare your STEM Challenge with your partner class. It is best to create a “Good Copy” that is easily shareable. After you have completed the challenge tests, revisit the concept of difficulties and make any changes that you need to the challenge to ensure it will run smoothly for future challenge participants. If you worked as a whole class, you can use the STEMBounce Challenge Whole Class Sharing Document to record the information and share it online with the collaborating teacher. Small Group: As students finish their challenge tests, it is important for them to revisit their planning template and consider any changes that need to be made to avoid unreasonable difficulties future participants will face when completing their challenge. Next, students can transfer their work into the STEMBounce Challenge Sharing Document to be shared with their partner class and teacher. 10. Connect & Share It is always fun to connect with your partner class to get them excited and share the STEM Challenge. Scheduling a virtual meeting is a great way to discuss the challenge(s) you are BOUNCING their way! 11. WAIT! Track & Follow! Be sure to document & share your process along the way using the hashtags #STEMBounce, #TrackTheBounce or #BounceBack. 12. Feedback & Results #BounceBack An important step in this process is connecting your class with your partner class to share results, observations and feedback. Whole Class: Sharing as a whole class is as easy as setting up a virtual meeting using Google or Skype. You may wish to choose a few students to share ideas for the class or examples of how they solved the STEM Challenge. Your students will find it interesting to see how other kids solved the STEM Challenge that they designed. Allowing students to ask questions or give feedback to the other class is another valuable use of this time. Small Group: When sharing using the small group format, you can select to share as small groups, each group sharing with the group that received their STEMChallenge, or as a whole class. Groups can easily rotate in and out of a Google or Skype call, connecting and sharing results with their partner group. 13. Next Steps After you have completed one exchange, you have a few options:
Please share your STEMBounce journey using the hashtags:
#STEMBounce #TrackTheBounce and #BounceBack 
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