Sustainability and STEM

March blew in so very quickly! Time for renewable and non renewable resources lessons, tied to natural resources, as well as to wind and water powered hands on STEM challenges. I love using recyclables to let my kiddos create!

First things first, students need to know what sustainable resource means. Doing something in a way that minimizes damage to the environment and avoids using up natural resources, for example renewable energy. 

Here is a list of renewable resources: (can be created again in our life time)

• wind
• water
• sun
• wildlife
• plants

Examples on non-renewable resources: (can not be recreated in our life time)

• oil
• natural gas
• petroleum
• coal
• gasoline

An anchor chart can help you discuss the different vocabulary words and help them visualize the difference. Here is a quick video to help you also explain the concepts of being green in a way that kids can connect!

For older students you could use a little bit more detailed explanation to show it with a three pillar model as well as a global concept: global, economic and social

There are a ton of great activities that you can incorporate along with teaching your students right away at the beginning of the year how to live sustainably and help the classroom, school, community, and planet!

Great Ideas:
 -recycled paper is great and when you make a card for someone with it....so special
-toilet paper tubes can be used for so many great projects...from binoculars, robots, 
-cans can be reused as a pencil holder, but if you can get the big ones form your lunchroom, they make great robots, drums, utensil holders for a present, paint them and have the kids take it home to put their stray plastic bags in, and a great after school project you can  make games for a school carnival!
-start recycling efforts in your school. Think outside the box. Try recycling old markers!

-plastic bottles make a great plant holder, water filter project, bubble blower, car, bird feeder...
-Kurig Cups are in mass in our teachers' lounge. We could store our frozen herbs from our school garden in them, plant seeds in them, turkey or snowman craft, mini pom pom shooters for a STEM project, perfect for an anemometer...
-  egg cartons make perfect animals such as bugs and caterpillars, they make great seed starters, and rock collectors, even lovely flowers! These flowers were started in an egg carton for our school garden! 

For more great ideas that include writing, STEM, research, qr codes and more...check out this newly updated 30 page Sustainability Pack! Find this Sustainability and Earth Day Pack HERE!

I love teaching sustainability all year long! This is a great summer school, back to school, and science unit for anytime!

Planting Gold with Potatoes Science and Social Studies Connections

I like to start with a book called What's For Lunch...Potatoes by Claire Llewellyn. 

Planting Potatoes is a great way to show your students how their food grows. They can be easily grown in a garbage can or even a laundry basket! I first started planting potatoes outdoors six years ago when I got tired of the FOSS Plant unit planting potatoes in a cup, so why not create a school garden to extend our learning. What we found by planting a garden helped us realize that planting a seed is magic! Not only that, learning that food doesn't all come from a seed from a seed pack is pretty neat, too!

Don't want to plant potatoes? That is okay, too. These lessons can be taught with a bag of potatoes from the grocery store. Want to extend the concept to connecting the Westward Movement and gold rush...keep reading because simulations are perfect for cross curricular activities and getting kids up and moving!

Getting Started: 
What do you need for an introduction potato activity? Seed potatoes and learning stations. Let's get growing!


Next, you can show a little video that shows the process of how they can grow potatoes at home or at school.

Using Potatoes to Learn Science:
Here, we go...now it's time for students to learn about the life cycle of the plant, how it gets from field to fork and also different ways that we eat potatoes. I used  this great site when I first got started it has a ton of resources and ideas: Growing Your Own Potatoes Link

Science Stations Potato Pack

 We use the list we generate in class usually getting over 20 different ways that they are eaten. Here is a few to start with: boiled, baked, chips, pancakes, potato salad, JoJo's, potato skins, German Potato Salad, fries, tater tots, wedges, curly fries, sweet potatoes...

Have them learn about how food gets to our table by watching a quick video and then writing about it!

Interested in your own Potato Pack? Follow the link HERE: Science Stations: Potato Pack


Connecting Cultural Awareness: 
Another great way to add a bit of social studies to your lesson is to discuss where potatoes originated and what cultures eat potatoes at home as a staple food. Europeans typically brought their love of potatoes over and continued to eat them which is why some families eat more than others. We have a great discussion about what everyone's staple food is from rice to tortillas we learn a little bit about our heritage.

Kids that finish my stations get to go and play Mr. Potato Head where I have one of my own children's favorite toy. If you don't have that, have kids make their own by looking at a Mr. Potato Head picture.

Plant some potatoes in a bucket and let them sit until Fall! This is a great way to continue a project that another class started. You can have the planters write letters to give clues as to what is in the bucket or better yet they can go gold mining!

Gold Mining and STEM Connections: 
The best part about planting potatoes is that we get to pick them in the fall! I not only get to see each of my students year after year, I then can continue a lesson! However, not everyone can do this, so a great way to tie STEM activities to a social studies connection is to learn about the gold rush! I help them learn about this in science and then they get to dig for gold...Yukon Gold that is! Tie in measuring and writing and this is a perfect well rounded mini-unit~

Want to give a simulation a try and then connect engineering a wagon and prospector's tool...this pack is for you! Grab the STEM Gold Rush Science and Social Studies Connections HERE!

One potato...two potato...three potato...four, learning about potatoes can be fun and so much more!