STEM Summer Class: The Beach

Our last summer class for the year has been focused on STEM learning- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. I decided to pick a single focus topic to guide our learning experiences, and after debating lots of different ideas and activities, finally settled on the beach. I planned this summer class a little differently than some of the others that had set lessons on certain days. I came up with questions we could think about and answer together through research and hands-on activities. I planned lots of potential activity ideas, but wanted to let the interests of the class and their level of engagement determine which topics and materials we would actually explore.

Our first questions were: 

"What is a beach?"

"What can you do at the beach?"

This first set of questions helped me to get an idea of their background knowledge about beaches, ad if any had personal experiences visiting a beach. Some kids in this group had visited an ocean beach, while others had experienced the lake beaches that are closer to home. One idea that was pretty common to all was playing in the sand and building castles. Isn't that one of the first things you think of when you think about the beach? 

That led right into one activity that I had planned, which was building with wood scraps. (I had gathered a box of scraps from my Grandpa's wood shop, and was excited to use them in some creative way).

With the fun of building sandcastles in mind, we set out to create something more permanent. Everyone was so engaged in this process that we ended up spending most of the first class on the designing, building, and gluing phase of this project. 

We continued to work on these creations alongside other activities throughout the class.

The next day we painted.

 

And on the last day we added seashells as finishing touches. 

This was probably my favorite part of the class, because I loved watching each creative process and there were so many fabulous skills happening as a natural part of the process. Some of those skills included fine motor work, problem solving, engineering, shape sense, counting, measurement, and collaboration. It was so fun. Although the objective wasn't necessarily to create anything in particular, the kids were excited about and proud of their finished products. 

As I was reflecting on this activity, I thought it would have also been fun to include other materials during the final phase, like gems, rocks, sticks, pipe cleaner, or even loose sand! But the beauty of an open-ended project like this is that the kids can keep adding to it at other times if they would like to!