STEM Design
My work with STEM learning extends beyond the classroom. For five summers, I facilitated inquiry-based STEM camps with STEMBus, followed by four summers as a Camp Invention instructor. These experiences gave me extensive practice facilitating open-ended design challenges in which students learned through building, programming, testing, problem solving, and iteration.
Rather than providing students with a predetermined finished product, my role was to teach the foundational knowledge and skills they needed and then facilitate the creative process as they designed solutions, encountered problems, tested ideas, and made improvements. I later brought this same approach to STEM learning into my own classroom through engineering and design challenges connected to academic content.
Learning Through Exploration
I believe STEM learning is most powerful when students construct understanding through exploration, experimentation, and discovery. Whether working as a STEMBus instructor, facilitating Camp Invention, or designing engineering challenges in my own classroom, my role was not to provide students with a predetermined path to the answer. Instead, I created the conditions for exploration (providing materials, posing challenges, asking questions, and supporting students as they designed, tested, problem-solved, and refined their ideas).
In these experiences, I worked as a “guide on the side,” allowing students to take ownership of both the process and the learning.
Explore the Presentation Below
Click through the presentation below to explore project examples, student work, and the learning behind each experience.
My STEM experiences emphasize learning through making, testing, troubleshooting, and iteration. Use the arrows in the presentation below to explore examples from STEMBus USA and Camp Invention, including programming, electronics, engineering design, fabrication, and invention.
What Others Say
"Mrs. Winn does a nice job of planning and creating lessons that go beyond the curriculum. This was obvious during a science lesson I observed in which small groups of students were working with wind turbines. This activity generated a lot of excitement and the students learned so much." -Jason Robarge, Principal