The STEM Space

Show Summary: Have you used rockets in your classroom or program? They have the potential to launch your students into a love for STEM, but there can also be some misconceptions that need to be addressed. In this episode, Claire and Natasha are sharing their experiences and advice on how you can rock it with rockets! Links from the Show: Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes 52: How to Host a ST...

Show Summary: In this episode, Natasha talks with a group of aerospace engineering students from Texas A&M University. They are part of the team behind an amazing K-12 STEM program called Space Teams, a six-day virtual space mission for students 12 - 18. A new Space Teams mission is coming up in October, and we thought it would be fun to bring some of the team to share more about this program...

Show Summary: How do you feel about the education system where you live? In this episode, Natasha shares a project she completed comparing the education systems in different countries. Tune in to hear what is working and what isn’t in education around the world. Links from the Show: Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes 73. Does STEM Track? 71. How to Create a Relevant STEM Challenge 56. What Do...

Show Summary: From launching Space Club to hosting STEM Family Nights, Natasha reflects on her last 8 years as STEM Director at a nonprofit in San Antonio, Texas. She discusses with Claire the transition from engineer to educator and the impact of STEM programs. Plus, Claire shares a super easy apple spice cobbler recipe! Links from the Show: Related The STEM Space Podcast Episodes 73. Does STEM T...

Show Summary: Ready to elevate your STEM class with a Stage 3 STEM project? Here is the part 2 we promised in episode 75! Claire and Natasha dive into ideas for long-term research-based STEM projects for elementary and middle school. We discuss animal habits, a project for a custom-fit aquatic wheelchair, and tackling a local city challenge. We also share how any Stage 2 engineering design challen...

Show Summary: Need some low-prep icebreakers for back to school? Claire shares her favorite Stage 1 STEM activities that build a foundation of teamwork, collaboration, and communication to set the stage for engineering design challenges. Plus, she describes how to add new constraints to some of our most popular STEM icebreakers to adapt for older students or to re-use with a class. Links from the...

Show Summary: What's it like to live and work in outer space? In this special episode of The STEM Space, we share our most viewed Space Club Career Chat with former astronaut Bonnie Dunbar! She worked for NASA for 27 years, flew five times on the space shuttle logging over 50 days in space, and is now a professor of Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Dunbar shares her journey to becoming an astronaut and...

Show Summary: Can you survive a mission to space? We invite your elementary and middle school students to submit their designs for a colony on the Moon or Mars that can keep a crew alive and happy! With a blend of research, engineering, architecture, math, and science - this is an epic Stage 3 STEM challenge that only requires recycled materials to bring it to life! Claire and Natasha discuss the...

Show Summary: What is the focus in your STEM classroom? Do you love teambuilding activities? Or perhaps you spend most of the year on engineering design. In this episode, we discuss a quiz to rate your STEM lessons or program, plus some exciting projects we are working on including Alphabet STEM for kindergarten and an epic Space Colony Competition! Links from the Show: Related The STEM Space Podc...

Show Summary: Is STEM really accessible for all students? What is the purpose of tracking students in school? Claire and Natasha discuss inequalities in our school system and how putting students in a track may limit their educational potential. We also share our own experiences in struggling with math, but due to parental support and resources, we were able to persevere and become engineers. But...

Show Summary: Natasha chats with Dr. Roman Gomez, a lead research scientist in the Space Science and Engineering division of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Roman shares his story of growing up in San Antonio, joining the Army, and then eventually getting his Ph. D. in astrophysics. Using questions submitted by Space Club elementary and middle school students, we discuss his jo...

Show Summary: With no internet access and limited supplies, how can you inspire and engage kids with STEM? We often think of robots and circuit boards as an integral part of STEM education, but hands-on learning doesn't need fancy tools. In this episode of The STEM Space, Claire and Natasha discuss ideas for offering STEM in rural communities (with special guest, baby Fenya). We also provide a fra...

Show Summary: Do you have a student obsessed with a subject? You know, the one who asks you all the questions you don’t know the answers to? In this episode, Natasha interviewed York Space Systems Program Manager Christine Dubbert (who was that student) for the 2022 spring semester Space Club Career Chat finale. Tune in as we talk about her pathway to STEM, what it's like to be a woman in engineer...

Show Summary: How young is too young for STEM? My kids' daycare claims to teach STEM with activities geared to students as young as 2 years old! But how does a 2-year-old even do STEM? I am pretty skeptical so I asked Claire, who teaches STEM for Pre-K all the way to 8th grade, to get her perspective. Tune in as we discuss STEM for little kids, learning goals, and what is even possible. Links from...

Show Summary: Have you used game-based learning in your classroom? Can gaming actually improve learning outcomes? In this episode of The STEM Space, Natasha chats with renowned game-based learning expert and Texas A&M University professor André Thomas. His career started in the movie industry creating graphics for movies like Men in Black, then moved into the world of graphics for games like M...

Show Summary: Are you interested in learning about the latest research in STEM education? In this episode, Natasha, a doctoral student at Texas A&M University, shares her recent research on the impact of attendance in an afterschool STEM program (Space Club) on student attitudes towards STEM. Tune in to hear the latest trends in STEM education and the behind-the-scenes of conducting quantitati...

Show Summary: Natasha chats with Kristina Ohl, a 6th-grade science teacher who decided to “re-create” one of her favorite activities, Vivify’s Mission to Mars Planning Game. She brought the real-world project back to Earth by having students plan and design an energy-efficient and eco-friendly house! She discusses her experience developing the lesson including consulting a sustainable building eng...

Show Summary: Tune in as Claire and Natasha tackle another question from our listeners: “I am new to STEM…how do you keep it all together? All the resources, organizing for all grade levels…I’d love to be a fly on the wall in Texas!” As the school year wraps up, Claire reflects on a crazy busy year and how she stays organized when teaching different STEM topics for her PreK all the way to 8th-grad...

Show Summary: What is it like to work at NASA? What happens at mission control? In this episode, Natasha chats with Patrick Ream, a ground controller trainee at NASA's Johnson Space Center! We talk all about his work at NASA, what inspired him to become an aerospace engineer, and his advice for motivating struggling students. Links from the Show: Watch this Career Chat and more on Vivify’s YouTube...

Show Summary: What is the point of a field trip? In this episode, Natasha brings Claire on another adventure with a group of undergraduate engineering students who plan to become STEM teachers. Learn how educators can thoughtfully plan a field trip experience to maximize learning and when may be the optimal time for these types of experiences within a unit of study. Links from the Show: About Lill...

Show Summary: Does life exist on another planet? Listen to a fascinating STEM career chat with Dr. Charity Lander-Phillips, an astrobiologist at Southwest Research Institute. We discuss how her love for volcanoes as a kid led to her current work searching for life on another planet. Tune in for this exciting episode, taken from a recent Space Club Career Chat. All questions were submitted by eleme...

Show Summary: What are your must-haves for a STEM lab? What is a quick STEM challenge for a school showcase? How can I turn a theatrical puppet into an engineering design challenge? In this episode, Natasha and Claire answer your questions submitted in The STEM Space Facebook group! Plus, we share a wild story of a school being evacuated due to a science experiment gone awry. Links from the Show:...

Show Summary: “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one we have.” - Émile-Auguste Chartier, French philosopher After many class discussions of failure, social-emotional learning (SEL), and upstairs/downstairs brain, one of Claire’s 6th grade students asked, “ Why do you think that [failure is] required? If you’re successful the first time, why isn’t that a victory? Why is fai...

Show Summary: Rewards work well if you have a skill or a task that is mechanical, but what about in STEM? How do you get your students to be more intrinsically motivated versus wanting those extrinsic rewards? Tune in as Claire recaps her Invention Convention with Natasha and all of the ways she was surprised by her students. Learn how you can incorporate motivational tools and emotion regulation...

Show Summary: You can come up with anything you want. There are no constraints. It sounds like the perfect formula… for disaster. It’s been proven time and time again that we, and especially our students, need constraints. But how do you give them constraints without stifling their creativity? Enter Invention Convention! Tune in as Natasha questions Claire on her school’s very first Invention Conv...