10 Performance-Based STEM Projects for Grades 2-3

Todd Stanley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781618217943
• eBook ISBN: 9781000493054
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Science & Technology

10 Performance-Based STEM Projects for Grades 2-3 provides 10 ready-made projects designed to help students achieve higher levels of thinking and develop 21st-century skills while learning about science, technology, engineering, and math. Projects are aligned to national standards and feature crosscurricular connections, allowing students to explore and be creative as well as gain an enduring understanding. Each project is linked to national STEM education goals and represents one of a variety of performance assessments, including oral presentations, research papers, and exhibitions. Included for each project are a suggested calendar to allow teachers to easily plan a schedule, mini-lessons that allow students to build capacity and gain an understanding of what they are doing, as well as multiple rubrics that can be used to objectively assess the performance of students. The lessons are laid out in an easy-to-follow format that will allow teachers to implement the projects immediately.

Grades 2-3

1
Communicate Effectively

DOI: 10.4324/9781003232513-2

The ability to communicate effectively—both verbally and in writing— is crucial to our students during their time in our classrooms and beyond. Consider a lawyer. He has to be able to write legal briefs that enable him to build his case. He also needs to communicate these briefs to the judge or court in order to effectively represent his clients. Doctors also use a combination of these skills. They have to be able to communicate effectively with their patients in order to explain what is going on, and they have to record what they learned into patients' files so that there is an established record of patients' health. These are simplified examples, but that does not diminish the importance of communication skills.

Teachers, especially, utilize communication in their profession, from teaching concepts to a class, to communicating with parents, administrators, and other stakeholders, and more. If a teacher is effectively going to provide feedback to students, he or she must be able to convey this feedback both in written and verbal form. This double reinforcement better equips students to learn from mistakes and strive for improvement in the future.

What does communication look like in a STEM project? It can take a variety of forms, depending on the product that students are asked to produce. For example, if students have been charged with defending a proposal for a design for a product they wish to market to an authentic panel, they will have to employ their speaking skills in order to effectively communicate their plan. Such a presentation requires a combination of style and substance—style in the manner in which the proposal is presented and substance in the quality of the information presented. Characteristics of high-quality presentations of this nature might include:

• ► The presentation can be clearly heard the entire time, and the participant speaks slowly and clearly throughout.
• ► The presenter's demeanor is professional throughout. It sounds as though the presentation has been rehearsed several times.
• ► The presentation is organized in a manner that makes it easy to follow and to understand what is going on at any given time.

If, however, students were charged with creating a brochure that conveyed the information for the project, they would have to communicate in written form. Characteristics of high-quality products of this nature might include:

• ► The brochure has little to no spelling/grammatical errors.
• ► The brochure is typed in a format that makes it easy to view.
• ► The brochure uses sentence structures that make the paragraphs flow and easy to read.

No matter which style students are asked to communicate in, the substance needs to have the same quality. These descriptors could be used for either written or spoken products:

• ► The project is organized clearly, allowing someone to know what is being discussed at any given time.
• ► The student provides plenty of examples to back up statements made.
• ► The student provides much detail, explaining concepts and ideas so that someone can gain a full understanding of what is being talked about.

It is important that any project you present to students requires them to utilize both written and spoken skills so that students display competence in any venue. This will make them that much more effective when going out in the real world to find themselves a job. After all, the top job skills that companies are looking for in new hires all have to do with communication (Graduate Management Admission Council, 2018; see Figure 4). If you were to help your students master both written and verbal communication, they would have an advantage over other potential hires who are less accomplished with these skills.

FIGURE 4. Top 10 skills sought by employers. Adapted from Graduate Management Admission Council, 2018.

Create a Book Trailer

In this project, students will create a book trailer that summarizes a book's plot and convinces others as to why they should read the book. Students should not give too much away in their trailers, but they should have enough interesting information to make someone watching the trailer curious about the book. Students may use a video-editing application, such as iMovie, One True Media, or Video Toolbox, to create their trailers. Trailers must be 1-3 minutes long. Students should use a combination of text, visuals, voiceover, and other elements in their trailers. Various video-editing applications offer different tools, so you might want to become familiar with one or more of them so that you can guide students in their work. Students will present their completed trailers to the class.

Materials

• ► Student computer and Internet access
• ► Project Outline: Create a Book Trailer (student copies)
• ► Suggested Timeline
• ► Lesson: What Goes on the Back of a Book Cover?
• ► Lesson: How to Shorten a 2-Hour Movie Into a 2-Minute Trailer
• ► Handout 1.1: Writing a Book Description (student copies)
• ► Handout 1.2: Storyboarding Your Book Trailer (student copies)
• ► Handout 1.3: Sharing With a Focus Group (student copies)
• ► Product Rubric: Create a Book Trailer (student copies)

Name:──────────Date:─────

PROJECT OUTLINE Create a Book Trailer

Big Idea

A summary should provide just the right amount of information.

Essential Question

How do you summarize a book to entice others to read it?

Deliverables

You will create a book trailer that summarizes a book's plot and convinces others as to why they should read the book. You will use a combination of text, visuals, voiceover, and other elements to convey this information in your trailer. You should not give too much away, but you should have enough interesting information to make someone watching the trailer curious about the book.

Constraints

Your book trailer must:

• ► be created using a video-editing application, such as iMovie, One True Media, or Video Toolbox; and
• ► be 1-3 minutes long.

Suggested Timeline

DAY
1 Introduce the project and conduct Lesson: What Goes on the Back of a Book Cover? Ask.	2 Conduct Lesson: How to Shorten a 2-Hour Movie Into a 2-Minute Trailer. Ask.	3 Have students choose their books and complete Handout 1.1. Imagine.	4 Have students plan their trailers and complete Handout 1.2. Plan.	5 Have students continue to plan their trailers. Plan.
6 Have students begin creating their book trailers. Create.	7 Have students continue creating their book trailers. Create.	8 Have students finish their book trailers. Create.	9 Have students screen their trailers to a focus group (see Handout 1.3). Improve.	10 Have students present their trailers to the class.

LESSON What Goes on the Back of a Book Cover?

1. Ask students: Have you ever bought a hook based on the description on the back? Tell students that when publishers publish books, they have to try to persuade people to buy a book based on the description of what the book is about. These summaries are not usually very long.
2. Share with students some examples of book descriptions, such as the descripti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• Project 1: Communicate Effectively
• Project 2: Focus on Inquiry and Collaboration
• Project 3: Understand Multiple Content Areas
• Project 4: Explore Contemporary Issues
• Project 5: Use Technology, Math, and Reasoning
• Project 6: Use and Analyze Models
• Project 7: Record and Analyze Data
• Project 8: Investigate Change Over Time and Patterns
• Project 9: Use Computer Models or Simulations
• Project 10: Construct and Explain Systems
• DEVELOP YOUR OWN STEM PROJECTS
• REFERENCES
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
• COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS ALIGNMENT