Three Tips for Authentically Engaging Students in Real-World STEM Learning

Key points:

Earlier this year, I was teaching science to a group of ninth grade students participating in a summer learning program. Despite not having access to a dedicated lab space, it was important that my students had the opportunity to engage in hands-on, technology-based, real-world learning.

All the boxes needed to be ticked: the investigations had to be:

• Let's get to work
• Related to the experience lived by students
• Quantitative, ideally with a dependent variable that can be measured
• Entry level, as students in the program had very different levels of experience and exposure.
• Low risk for the students and the room, which was carpeted and had no access to sinks or running water.
• Doable without chemical glassware

The practical component was especially important since this type of learning connects students with the process of science; In particular, it allows them to practice making observations and identifying possible patterns, or lack thereof.

Whether in a decorated lab or a more traditional classroom, like where I taught this summer, below are three tips for fellow educators looking to incorporate more hands-on learning into their STEM instruction.

Start simple. You don't need a lot of expensive materials to engage students in hands-on learning – just start with a thermometer or, better yet, a temperature probe!

For the summer program, I created an experiment where students tested different types of road salts. I used <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/AquaDoc-Ice-Melt-Safe-Concrete/dp/B0CM44FDC5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2J25GR6NOU3AW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.u0ynT0ZWfEtvZEZ8iMH5bkkC8Czap71hRKIQGTcR61R5RH-RloyLjZ0Bz9Zjece3dvqrJFSO4_lg1YT7Bf961QJmHtKMJImsuMdMSCqK33anRCtKE4CY5rcWUcDpRHEmP4Q-7C5iFCRSPSf6_7bA5ZLNRwo1X_AUmpTgVxvDzC1rNAWX4pZAXnboGXI3J1ooz_wyVS1GQXRbm38rWOYTjR5o4LXzwwSH0LNYUw9QNHE.Oa8olnvT-mXUinyQDMN6-PNl-0kg-AjnccE2WGw_Fx4&dib_tag=se&keywords=ice+melt&qid=1728343766&sprefix=ice+melt%2Caps%2C87&sr=8-1″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>AquaDoc IceMeltwhich is mainly calcium chloride, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/HARRIS-Friendly-Magnesium-Chloride-Included/dp/B07XZMYCK9/ref=sxts_b2b_ccp_search_w_op?content-id=amzn1.sym.df2081bd-b9c5-41f7-ae97-6c056112b3d5%3Aamzn1.sym.df2081bd-b9c5-41f7-ae97-6c056112b3d5&crid=ANGYXFFUVNFA&cv_ct_cx=ice%2Bmelt&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.eI8WTut425QWADWteTji2eIKu87xx2TRiGwma7MR8hRnUyCFGG-xfxAc94N-oh-WjjQ8VOydSD0AuTz5jJskYP9-s4jo_YFnSYkNFee4-h9ofOIyJXUgEB9iAoCfLbAm.vicJT_5C2UHyy5qVGUAoz1o09KBjwCGktRJgVRgZ_wg&dib_tag=se&keywords=ice%2Bmelt&pd_rd_i=B07XZMYCK9&pd_rd_r=21c62a94-549c-430a-817e-dd471c77b314&pd_rd_w=WB1tF&pd_rd_wg=8Ngvf&pf_rd_p=df2081bd-b9c5-41f7-ae97-6c056112b3d5&pf_rd_r=Z6ZZFZPQY9EN0B52JFZV&qid=1728343815&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=ice%2Bmelt%2Caps%2C93&sr=1-2-d27bdacb-ad14-3372-97fb-5f5070035007&th=1″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>kindmeltwhich is mainly magnesium chloride and sodium chloride. Both are available on amazon.

Then I put together a set of Vernier Go direct temperature probes from the school where I teach during the school year and asked for small water bottles that students could use as reaction vessels. The summer program provided Chromebooks for students to use. These were perfectly suitable for executing the Vernier Chart Analysis Applicationthat my students used to help analyze their data findings.

Give students agency. In my experience, even reluctant students become interested in setting up a science experiment when they have some level of authority over what they will test.

After a brief introduction, my students determined their constant variable (for most of them it was the amount of water used in each test) and their dependent and independent variables.

Since all of my students are from the Northeast, they were already familiar with road salt: Their parents or guardians spread it on sidewalks, driveways, and apartment stairs during winter weather. What they didn't realize is why those salts are so effective at melting ice and snow.

The moment they discovered that calcium chloride and magnesium chloride cause a dramatic increase in temperature when added to water, they were surprised and excited. Even more so when they realized that sodium chloride seems to result in a small, but noticeable, decrease in temperature.

During the experiment, students had the opportunity to record the maximum or minimum temperature for each test using the temperature probes and then use the Graph Analysis app to create graphs to analyze their results. Using probes helped students quantify their observations: While students could feel temperature changes just by holding the containers in their hands, using data collection technology provided the measurable data they needed to understand the relationship. between the amount of salt added and the change in temperature.

Invite questions to prompt next steps in learning. Authentic hands-on experiments, like this one, will often raise questions from students. And when students realize that their questions are taken seriously and that they are invited to create testable questions, they will become more engaged in the learning process.

I have often found that the moment I give students a sensor and proper guidance to explore, they start asking more and more questions. In this case, “What happens if we mix two different melted ices?”, “How high can the temperature get?” and “Can we melt the plastic bottle if we add enough salt?” They all came up.

If circumstances allow, giving students time to try out some of the more entertaining questions can enhance their learning. In this experiment, for example, a water bottle lost its shape due to the heat generated when a group of students added spoonfuls of AquaDoc to the small sample of water. This led students to ask, “Why does one salt make water so much warmer than the other?”, which aligns well with the Next Generation Science Standard focused on matter and its interactions.

After additional testing and discussion, students researched the environmental pros and cons of different types of road salt and made an informed assessment of which to recommend. This got them even more involved with environmental and engineering standards.

Authentic, actionable learning and data collection like this creates the infrastructure for students to question and think critically about their results, as well as to connect their findings to the world around them. In my experience, this level of engagement in STEM is really difficult to achieve with just textbooks and practice problems.