1. Mapping STEM Areas in Our School

By the end of the lesson, students will have developed a deeper understanding of their school’s unique characteristics, fostered a sense of connection, and enhanced their knowledge of their own community. 

Evaluate students’ critical thinking skills and observation abilities in their maps. Look for evidence of thoughtful consideration of the school’s characteristics, including the inclusion of important locations, landmarks, and routes. Assess if students have identified and depicted unique aspects of their school. 

Provide students with a rubric beforehand on what all they need to do in their maps. You can base your rubric off of these suggestions. Give students feedback on their group’s maps, based on a rubric. Make your feedback critical. The teacher should have high expectations for students’ work. If they do not meet your expectations leave constructive comments and have students fix their work.

• Large paper for maps
• Art supplies for drawing
• Access to the school (walkaround)
• Cameras, allow students to take pictures during school walkaround
• Pencils, rulers, straight edges
• Glue
• Laptop
• Scissors
• Microsoft PowerPoint, or Google Slides
• Brainstorm Activity Handouts
• Walkaround Printed Handouts
• List of Examples of STEM places in Schools
• School Walkaround Group Role Sheet
• Instructions for Group Mapping
• Assessment Instrument Guide

Introduction (15 min)

1. Describe the idea of mapping to students and explain what you want them to design. This is teacher choice. We advise having students think about the spaces in their school that are meaningful to them and are related to STEM. Example, “What places where you can see any type of “technology (T in STEM)” are there in your school?”.
2. Ask students to brainstorm and create a list of possible STEM areas within the school. Encourage them to think about classrooms, labs, maker spaces, technology centers, gardens, or any other locations where STEM activities and resources are available.
   • Here, you can use the brainstorming guide handout and  the list of examples of STEM places.
3. Record the students’ ideas on a whiteboard or chart paper to create a collective list of STEM areas.

Mapping is a visual and spatial representation of a particular area or place. It involves creating a graphical or symbolic depiction that shows the layout, features, and relationships of different elements within that space. In the context of this lesson for grade 5-6 students, mapping refers to the process of creating a visual guide that highlights specific STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) areas within their school environment. This could include identifying and marking locations where STEM-related activities, resources, equipment, and learning spaces are situated.

School Walkaround (15 – 45 min)

1. Divide students up into small groups and provide them with a floorplan of the school or blank sheets of paper to create their own maps.
2. Instruct each group to choose one STEM area from the collective list that can be assigned to them. Use the Group Roles Handout to help students select their role in the group.
3. Students will then explore the school, visiting their assigned STEM area and noting down its location, features, and any specific equipment or resources present.
4. Encourage students to discuss and collaborate within their groups, sharing their observations and insights about their assigned area.

If you are limited in time, this could be the end of lesson 1. But, if time permits, during lesson 2 your students will come back to design the actual maps of places they visited. For this, they can use the Group Mapping Instructions.

Designing a Draft Map – Extension (40-60 min)

1. As the class convenes in the familiar classroom setting, there is a chance to revisit the intriguing locations explored during the walkaround. With the collective list of STEM areas in mind, invite students to create their draft maps.
2. Each member within the groups should have their blank map or map template prepared. These will serve as the canvases upon which the group will artistically interpret the STEM areas they encountered.
3. Commence by identifying the specific STEM area each group focused on during the walkaround. With the map before you, indicate the precise location of this noteworthy place within the school.

From the Indiana Academic Standards Science: Grade 5

• SEP.1: Asking Questions and Defining Problems. Asking questions and defining problems in 3–5 builds on grades K–2 experiences and progresses to specifying qualitative relationships. Define a simple design problem that can be solved through the development of an object, tool, process, or system and includes several criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

From the Next Generation Science Standards

• ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions: There are systematic processes for evaluating solutions with respect to how well they meet the criteria and constraints of a problem.

1. National Geographic Education. (Year, Month Day). Map Skills for Elementary Students. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/map-skills-elementary-students/
2. Ladson‐Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory into practice, 34(3), 159-165.
3. Tanase, M. (2020). Is good teaching culturally responsive?. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 4(3), 187-202.
4. Weisser, C. R. (2007). The Locations of Composition. United States: State University of New York Press.
5. Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont “Schoolyard Resources” https://gsmit.org/educator-resources/