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With a national movement to emphasize STEM and STEM careers, it is important that all students receive a strong background in the concepts of STEM. To assist teachers, science, math, and other curricula must be aligned with the core principles to develop the skill set needed by future generations. These principles will be the foundation future generations need to support the core beliefs they will use in a global marketplace. This document reviews those principles and beliefs with support from three STC Program™ units:
Balancing and Weighing, Motion and Design, and Experimenting with Forces and Motion.
In Balancing and Weighing, students investigate the relationship between weight and balance in a physical science unit for grades 1–3. The inquiries in this unit will familiarize students with tools and techniques critical to future science lessons. Students explore weight and position using a fulcrum and beam, and extend their learning by building mobiles. Later, they put objects in serial order using a balance they assemble and calibrate.
In Motion and Design, a physical science unit for grades 3–5, students learn why objects go and stop. Students use K’NEX® sets, which are exclusive to STC™, to build model cars from accurate technical drawings, and design them to meet specific challenges. Not only will students learn how to make a car go fast or far, but also how to carry a load, resist air, and more. As part of the final design challenge, K’NEX® pieces are assigned a price, and students are asked to build a car not only to specifications but also at the lowest price.
Experimenting with Forces and Motion allows students in grades 6–10 to investigate the nature of energy, the different forms it can take, the nature of different forces, and how those forces affect the motion of objects. Students begin by exploring elastic, magnetic, frictional, and gravitational forces. Learning from experimentation that force affects the motion of objects, students turn their attention to energy and motion, learning about kinetic energy, how to calculate speed, and the relationship between forces, energy, and motion. Throughout Experimenting with Forces and Motion, students develop skills in making precise measurements, recording detailed observations, applying scientific terminology, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data, drawing conclusions based on evidence, and working collaboratively to complete investigations.
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