By Devin Partida

Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash

The STEM field is highly valued. Jobs in these areas help boost innovation and lead to progress in society, and they also pay quite well. However, teaching this curriculum to K-12 students can be a challenging task. Here’s how teachers can find simple yet effective STEM lesson plans to better engage their students and encourage them to enter this robust sector.

RobotLAB

One tool to consider when creating your lesson plan is RobotLAB. This site provides education plans for STEM subjects using robotics and virtual learning.

Many students can find STEM subjects complex and sometimes less interesting to learn about. RobotLab’s lessons help to engage kids by using robotic characters. There is a wide variety of subjects such as math, algebra, geometry and coding. RobotLAB also provides a 2021 catalog that will help you determine which products are best for you.

TEDEd

TEDEd is another educational tool to consider. This program works with experts in education and TED speakers from all over the world to create and share high-quality and interactive videos on a daily basis.

These lesson plans are free, and they cover multiple subjects and age groups. Offerings include science and technology, mathematics and engineering. These videos provide an interactive way to break down complex material through animation and simple audio.

If you want to access this content through your email, simply sign up on their website to receive a daily newsletter. It includes helpful tips collected from TEDEd's global community of parents, students and teachers.

BrainPOP Educators

BrainPOP is a tool that uses digital animation to teach students about science, mathematics and engineering. The lessons consist of movies and quizzes to teach the students the material and are available for all age levels. Along with the videos, teachers are given written instruction plans to help guide the lesson. This can also be a good tool for online learning as a way to better engage students.

Microsoft Education

Microsoft has a website that provides project-based activities to incorporate into your lesson plans. They help students better visualize the complex material of science, mathematics and engineering subjects. For example, a student can learn the basics of electrical systems by creating a string of lights through an online simulator.

Dealing with electrical systems also involves knowing how to convert energy through transformers. However, finding the right size transformer consists of a series of mathematical equations related to voltage levels. This is where the understanding of mathematics and engineering comes in. Microsoft Education projects are also hands-on and allow students to put into practice the material they have learned.

TeachEngineering

This program offers five different curriculum types, including lesson plans, activities, units, sprinkles and market challenges. The lessons provide you with instructions on how to successfully teach the material and engage students in the process.

Activities are usually hands-on and give students a chance to go beyond the written material. The units are made up of lessons and activities that coincide with one another. Sprinkles are shorter versions, while marker challenges are open-ended, teacher-prompted problems for students to solve. They involve real-life examples for students to think through.

Teaching STEM Doesn’t Have to Be so Hard

The STEM field is making our future so much brighter. It’s what creates innovative buildings and leads to cures for diseases. However, teaching this subject can be a daunting task for teachers, especially in grades K-12. Students may often find this material complex and challenging to understand. That’s why it's important to find sites that have interactive lesson plans to engage students and encourage the innovators of tomorrow.

Discover more STEM lesson plans with RobotLAB! 

CoderZ is an online educational environment that improves students 21st century skills, while they are having fun programming their own virtual cyber robot. CoderZ and RobotLAB has different lessons to do at home!  Check them out Here

Devin Partida
Editor-in-Chief - devin@rehack.com