Andy Larmand

This flexible robotics system is certainly intuitive for students of all different ages. It’s easy for kids to program in various STEM and computer science projects and it also unlocks tons of creative freedom in both makerspaces and other non-traditional classrooms. Plus, with its micro:bit compatibility, students can add interactive elements to any classroom STEAM project.

Capitalizing on a great deal of genuine learning opportunities that, perhaps surprisingly, we can find within television shows and movies, ClassHook is a platform that helps turn the programs kids are watching into educational experiences. While TV usually serves as a break from learning, there’s also knowledge weaved in and ClassHook helps you find top media resources.

So many factors go into how education leaders ensure students are ready for the real world and, often, it involves STEM. Factors like technology, the economy, emerging careers, and the state of the workforce each continue to affect how teachers introduce students to STEM. And, as of now, there isn’t much indication that the elements fueling STEM education will slow.

The esports industry, beyond the high school and college levels, has been popularized via a number of different outlets. One of those is certainly live streaming top matches on platforms like YouTube or Twitch. And, while this excitement may seem unnecessary to casual observers, there are actually millions of people who follow these gamers, including the next generation.

You probably know by now that we are huge advocates of makerspaces in K–12 schools. The added freedom for creating, hands-on experimentation, and exploration that they provide for students helps them learn in so many new ways. Now, many educators have even gone as far as to create their own makerspace curriculum after seeing all the benefits for students.

Though it’s been around for a while, Scratch remains an extremely reliable coding platform that teachers can use to introduce elementary students to programming and meet them where they are. It’s a super strong beginner-level language with a lot of functionality and was created around graphical coding to serve as a great introductory classroom option for K–8 students.

While there are fewer kits than with the Google Expeditions line, the quality of each is important. Currently, we offer three TD Synnex kits on our store, differentiated only by the number of units in each one of them (10, 20, and 30). Perhaps most notably, each of the three kits comes with the same set of components and the

Quaver is a tech tool that helps provide students with a more well-rounded education experience (often captured through STEAM learning) with easily accessible tech-based resources. Their team has created a variety of SEL-focused lessons for this important area in today’s instruction and provided a unique way for educators to teach SEL skills through music education.

While we don’t want to place too much pressure on any educators starting new STEM programs, there are some key suggestions we can provide. The first of those is to decide on and define the direction of the STEM program, including its identity, purposes, and objectives, which often means that the learning experiences should reflect real-world problem solving.

In addition to key STEM skills that students will likely need, they are going to need strong soft skills, like communication, collaboration, and listening, too. As such, the social-emotional aspect to teaching exposes kids to the process through which they acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for managing emotions and building relationships.