First Week Flashback: STEAM in the Library

In this month's First Week Flashback, we take a look at some of our STEAM activities from Literacy Studies classes.

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Over the last several years, students have had access to a variety of materials and activities to explore and make. In 2014, students could choose to participate in Library Lab, a before-school activity that included electronic choices and hands-on manipulatives for students to enjoy and explore. (You can read about it HERE.) Two or three days a week students could choose from things like origami, LEGOs, Marble Run, coding, and gaming.

Over the years, Library Lab became something students might choose to do during their study hall time, but most recently, these sorts of opportunities have become part of the Literacy Studies class that nearly all students take. Using book fair profits and receiving a State of Iowa Scale-Up STEM grant have allowed for additional opportunities for students. Several times a semester students can choose from materials such as:

                • Spheros            • Cubelets

                • littleBits            • Felting

                • 3D pens            •  3Dux Designs

You can see some of their making and exploring below:

With the sudden end to in-person learning at school, students weren't able to enjoy all of the second semester STEAM days planned, but hopefully this fall they can continue to explore and make with these and additional items, like Root Robot, Makedo Construction materials, and Makey Makeys. Stay tuned!

Harnessing STEAM Power

With the new school year comes new STEAM activities! After receiving a State of Iowa Scale-Up STEM grant last spring, we are now able to expand the STEAM offerings to students. Still popular among students were things like Spheros and 3D pens and Cubelets, but students were also able to explore using 3Dux Design activities, dry felting, and Strawbees.


With task and challenge cards available to students both in the activities themselves and in Google Classroom, students explored making, creating, designing, and imagining all sorts of things!

With additional new items still waiting in the wings, students will have additional STEAM days to explore again!

ABCs of DCGMS Library: S is for STEAM Activities

We're on the downhill slide for our ABCs posts, and today's post looks back at some of the students' favorite days in the library. Today's post is brought to you by the letter S for STEAM activities.

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Each semester students completed an interest inventory survey that allowed them to choose their top four choices of STEAM activities, and throughout the semester, students explored those four choices in small groups with others with similar interests.

What kinds of things did they use and try out? Take a look:

From top left-hand corner: Snap Circuits, Cubelets, Bloxels, Sphero, 3D pen, K'Nex, little Bits, Stik Bot, Do Ink green screen app, IO Blocks minis

Students had nearly a full class period to try out their activities of choice and to create, build, code, fail, and try again with some rethinking. Like our Breakout work, students were also developing their communication and problem solving skills, as many of these activities were new to them. You can see some of their work below:

More STEAM activities and making in the library in the coming school year as we were awarded a State of Iowa Scale-Up STEM grant that includes numerous materials to add to our learning and creating.

STEAM-y in the Library

As we neared the end of the quarter, students in Literacy Studies had the opportunity to choose from a variety of STEAM-related activities to explore, play, create, and just be curious! Some of the items appear below:

Included in the picture are 3D Magic Pens, Sphero SPRKs, IO Blocks, K'NEX, Stik Bot green screen, Snap Circuits, and Cubelets. Students could also choose to use the Do Ink app for other green screen opportunities.

After a quick "tutorial day" to hear about what each items was, students filled out a Google Form with their top 4 choices, and over 2 days' time, students were able to use the items they'd selected. Such great times ensued! So much planning & trying, building & creating, failing & redesigning! 

Students using the Cubelets first accessed information from Google Classroom to learn about how to use them before creating their own robots.

Students using the K'NEX and IO Mini Blocks could also access Google Classroom for creation card ideas, or they could design and build what they liked.

Students could also refer to included circuitry projects or create their own pathways.

With so many activities from which to choose, students will have the opportunity to explore all eight options throughout the year. More creating, imagining, and designing to come!