Make It Relevant
Staff Development Guide
Training Situation: Meeting (small group)
Length: 25 minutes
Objective: Participants will brainstorm science practices in order to add more opportunities for youth to connect the work of scientists to their everyday activities.
Agenda:
- What Do Scientists Do? – 10 minutes
- See the Skill in Action – 5 minutes
- Discussion – 10 minutes
Download
DownloadVideo-Based Learning Module
As you watch the skill video below, think about these questions:
- What does the facilitator do to ensure that all youth have some prior knowledge before beginning the design challenge?
- How does the facilitator learn about youth’s prior knowledge and experiences wtih roller coasters?
- What are some other ways you could introduce a roller coaster design challenge?
Now that you’ve watched the video, reflect on what you saw and post your responses.
- What can make connecting to prior knowledge and experiences more difficult when doing a design challenge activity?
- Why is it important to go over instructions when doing a design challenge? How can that influence youth engagement?
Explore More Like This
Considerations When Giving Youth Control
Discuss concerns and the “Developing a STEM Project” Video-Based Learning Module in order to give youth control of STEM learning experiences.
Tinkering
Learn how tinkering is important to learning in computer science and prepare to engage youth in directing their learning.
Make It Active
Review strategies to get youth actively doing STEM in order to add more active learning opportunities to their program.