STEAM

We’ve gotten some great new tools at the library, so this month Maker Monday was all about exploring circuits! First up: Makey Makeys. We have 6 Makey Makeys, and I hooked each up to a laptop…

Do pulleys really help us to lift heavier loads? Today's Project: Pulleys Supplies: empty spools wooden dowels (or chopsticks or hefty skewers...) buckets heavy things (blocks, books, bag of flour, etc.) rope or cord or string pulleys (a variety, from the hardware store) Today's book: The Monkey goes bananas / Bloom, C. P. (I'm actually fairly proud of this book as an option for pulleys. Here's a photo of the pulley action: subtle, but still totally there! Where I found inspiration (or "what…

Can WonderWorks be used for outreach visits? Today's Topic: Shapes Supplies: Geoboards Rubber bands Book: Shape up, pup! / Heck, Edward Perfect square / Hall, Michael I'm not sure why it took me this long to realize that I could take my WonderWorks class to outreach visits to daycares, but this first visit was such a roaring success that it won't be my last time! I read several books about shapes, and then I brought out the geoboards. I gave a quick explanation of how they worked, then gave…

The first STEAM JR (K-2) event of the fall is complete and a huge success! We did some fun hands on science experiments involving force and motion. I started by reading the book Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee. There is a lot of action in the book and the book actually mentioned that the roller coaster is pulled up the tracks. We had just discussed pushing and pulling as 2 forces, so bonus example! After our story, I showed the kids what we would be making as junior scientists. First up…

How do we measure how hot or cold something is? Today's Topic: thermometers! Supplies: a variety of thermometers. I found some at the dollar store and at Big Lots and I e-mailed participants to ask if they could bring any thermometers they had at home that were appropriate for sharing (i.e. not germy medical thermometers). Ice cubes water pitchers hot water (I asked the coffee shop next door to make a carafe of hot water straws red chenille stems this printable thermometer Book: Temperature…

Let's learn about things that absorb and things that repel liquid! Today's Topic:Absorption Supplies: fabric scraps (various kinds) water containers to hold water water droppers (we also used baby-ibuprofen-type syringes) paper towels coffee filters foil waxed paper regular paper plastic wrap styrofoam plates paper plates sponges measuring cups and/or spoons Book: Maisy takes a bath / Cousins, Lucy This book was a bit of a stretch, but I've always loved the page where Maisy is standing at…

The book The Three Little Pigs, an Architectural Tale was the complete inspiration for this STEM program. We read the book together and then drew houses for the little pigs. We then discussed that…

Kites & Kite Programs for All Ages | STAR_Net

Last month, we focused on apps that encourage play with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. There are a lot of my favorites in this bunch! August 2015 --Fun with STEAM: Math: Weigh the World by Ravensberger ($1.99, iOS only) Science: Toca Lab by Toca Boca ($2.99, iOS & Android) Engineering/Tech: The Everything Machine by Tinybop ($2.99, iOS) Science: This is my Body by urbn; pockets ($2.99 iOS) Math/Tech: Curious Ruler by Curious Hat (99c, iOS only) Math: GeoMatry by Fernando Pires…

This fall I am starting a new preschool program, Little Makers, once a month on Saturday mornings. All of our preschool-only programs have been during the week, so I wanted another option for paren…

(I want to take this moment to thank Abby at Abby the Librarian immensely for her Preschool Lab Dinosaur science program where I got most of my ideas.) Today’s storytime began with another se…

Family STEM Nights | StarNET Libraries

As I clean up the mess left behind in the wake of our summer learning program, I’m of course remembering the highlights. This was the third year I offered a summer maker/tinker series for kid…

Last summer I blogged a little bit about one of our series programs for school-age kids, Maker Morning. Feel free to check out...

The Summer Reading program this season has had a special place in the children’s department’s heart as we unanimously chose to go with a Lights! Camera! Action theme. We are a group of cineastes and Broadway enthusiasts, and were hoping to share our love of the big screen and stage to inspire some upcoming filmmakers, set designers, and makeup artists. Looking back on our programming this summer, technology had a huge presence in providing kids with an opportunity to explore various ways of…

This was my last new media storytime of the summer (read about the first and second), and about the same time that I started really thinking about what I wanted to offer in the fall. After the less…