Bringing STEM to your classroom is about creating time and space for these important disciplines with equity and access for all. But it is also about creating opportunities for problem scoping, problem solving, creativity, design, collaboration and more!

Novel Engineering is a teaching method dreamed up at Tufts University. Students use existing classroom literature – stories, novels, and expository texts – as the basis for engineering design challenges that help them identify problems, design realistic solutions, and engage in the Engineering Design Process while reinforcing their literacy skills.

Check out their site for more information http://www.novelengineering.org/

Take a Look!

Zoom Design Squad (reading pod): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RFMoVeHLjU (4:00)

Amazing Kid Inventions! (Ellen) https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=QR_CfFuDWQ8&feature=emb_logo (3:00)

Already watched the above? Please watch (if you can)....

Dream Big: Engineering our World (Grade 2+), Rent here for $4 (42 mins)

Sometime when you get a chance....

Big Hero 6 (Grade 2+)

Explore the following Novel Engineering samples

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs https://www.smore.com/fr9ad-cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs
• The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch https://www.smore.com/0gkhp-the-lighthouse-keeper-s-lunch
• The Trouble with Trolls https://www.smore.com/jzfbr
• Westlandia https://www.smore.com/m418a-westlandia

Student Designed Challenges!

• Each fairytale has a challenge at the end! Designed by my second graders at HTHNC! https://coolbooksforeverybody.weebly.com/fairytale-engineering.html

Problem scope, problem solve, help people, ....

Design systems, have fun, empathsize with who they are designing for, consider ethical implications,....

Through almost a year of study, the NSTA group came up with these criteria for selecting the best STEM literature for young readers:

• Modeling real-world innovation

• Embracing real-world design, invention, and innovation

• Connecting with authentic experiences

• Showing assimilation of new ideas

• Illustrating teamwork, diverse skills, creativity, and cooperation

• Inviting divergent thinking and doing

• Integrating interdisciplinary and creative approaches

• Exploring multiple solutions to problems

• Addressing connections between STEM disciplines

• Exploring Engineering Habits of Mind

• Systems thinking

• Creativity

• Optimization

• Collaboration

The best STEM books might represent the practices of science and engineering by

• Asking questions, solving problems, designing and redesigning

• Integrating STEM disciplines

• Showing the progressive changes that characterize invention and/or engineering

• Demonstrating designing or redesigning, improving, building, or repairing a product or idea

• Showing the process of working through trial and error

• Progressively developing better engineering solutions

• Analyzing efforts and making necessary modifications along the way

• Illustrating that, at points, failure might happen and is acceptable—provided reflection and learning occur

• Communication

• Ethical considerations

• Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

• Fairy Tales: Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears (design a chair for bear), The Three Little Pigs (https://www.smore.com/545ef-the-three-little-pigs), 12 Dancing Princesses (design an alarm system to alert the king), Beauty and the Beast (design the ultimate party poppers), Chicken Little (https://www.smore.com/s4yut-chicken-little)

• Stuck (design a tool to get the kite out of the tree)

• Bear Snores On (https://www.smore.com/vsca1-bear-snores-on)

• The Snowy Day (design a snowball keeper...ice cube insulation)

• Make Way for Ducklings (design a way to help the duckling cross the road)

• Where the Wild Things Are (friendly monster trap or a boat that can carry the monster home with wind power)

• The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch (NOTE: I don’t read the end of this story) (Design a way to protect the lunch)

• Westlandia (design your own game using upcycled materials and a bouncy ball)

• Gingerbread Baby (gingerbread house design)

• Pipiolo and the Roof Dogs (NOTE: I don’t read the end of this story. Help the dogs get off the roof)

• The Dunderheads (design a bungee cord escape for the kitty)

• Those Darn Squirrels (design a better birdhouse)

• Gallimoto (toy making)

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (design a prototype that helps the environment)

• Design a friendly trap for ________! (stuffed animal, sister, elf on the shelf, etc.)

• Make forts.... A wonderful place to read!!!

• I love the idea of setting out a building material at night with a building challenge card for the early rising engineer! You can download some great challenge cards here! http://picklebums.com/building-challenge-cards/

• The perfect gift for your engineer? Here are some things to consider: marbles, masking tape, rain gutters (Home Depot), a stopwatch, cups and the quintessential cardboard box!