Tied 2 Teaching STEM activities {Review}
If you are looking for a break from the normal daily tasks of school Tied 2 Teaching provides STEM Activities, Full Year of Challenges with Close Reading!
It is no secret around here that I struggle with being a “fun” mom. I try my best to throw a little magic into each school day through a game or some kind of challenge. But the truth is most days are filled with the normal “have to get done’s.” And once the “have to’s” are done, it’s hard to find time for the fun. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to do a review of this bundle. If someone can help me add a little extra sparkle in the name of learning to our school day, then I’m all in.
What is STEM?
If you have been in breathing distance of any public/private school you know that STEM is a hot topic. And if you happened to be holding your breath while you passed them, and have no idea what I’m talking about- Then a quick acronym lesson is needed.
STEM= Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The study of STEM is an integrated approach of these studies through learning experiences.
One of the reasons that STEM has become such a hot topic lately is that the future of our nation’s job markets are moving towards jobs that are going to require students to be competent in critical thinking and problem solving. Both of these can be accomplished through STEM activities and experiences.
It takes work:
I’m not going to sugar coat it, one of the reasons that homeschoolers don’t do such a great job incorporating STEM activities into their school day, is because it can be a lot of work to pull together the supplies and activities that go along with it. Most homeschool curriculums don’t do a good job of incorporating STEM activities into the lessons, and even when they do, I know many moms who have said they just skip it because it takes so much effort to pull it together.
Tied 2 Teaching STEM Projects
Tied 2 Teaching has taken some of the hassle and work out of the planning for you. We only accomplished a handful of lessons but the STEM Activities, Full Year of Challenges with Close Reading is designed for you to be able to do one STEM activity a week for a whole year.
What you receive with your bundle:
The downloadable bundle comes with 70 STEM projects. It is broken down by months with seasonal projects included. You have the freedom to do the projects out of order (which is what we did).
Each of the challenges we did was set up to include:
- A high interest reading passage from a website.
- A page of questions to be answered about that passage.
- A project to complete that was relevant to the passage.
- A set of STEM worksheets to go along with the project.
What we thought about them:
My kids really enjoyed them. They had a great time with each of the different activities and projects. They learned a lot from the reading passages and their learning was further solidified through the projects. I liked how the worksheets had them think about what they were going to do first, before they began their projects, and then how they asked them to critique the success of their projects.
I did think some of the worksheets were redundant and didn’t always have them complete every one of them. But the beauty of downloadable projects is that you can pick and choose what fits your needs.
Each of the projects come with varying ease and difficulty. Some projects, like the house of cards project, that I thought would be fun and easy ended up being more challenging than expected. It was interesting to see how each of my children approached the project, and watch as they became frustrated and then elated when they problem solved to figure it out.
You can find Tied 2 Teaching online here:
If your curious about any of the other great products I have reviewed check them out here:
Angela is the Homeschool Encourager for the Overwhelmed & Under-Caffeinated and the Chaos-to-Confidence Specialist behind Schooling with Grace. With a no-fluff approach, a dash of humor, and a whole lot of heart, she helps homeschool moms cut through the chaos, ditch unrealistic expectations, and teach with confidence.