Today, schools are introducing STEM education and robotics to children in ever-lower grades. In "Beyond Coding," Marina Umaschi Bers lays out a pedagogical roadmap for teaching code that encompasses the cultivation of character along with technical knowledge and skills. Presenting code as a universal language, she shows how children…

The "Connecting With Others" curriculum for grades 3 through 5 will help students learn to be sensitive to differences, resolve conflicts without resorting to violence, and learn tolerance and acceptance of others. Includes 30 lessons divided into five skill areas: Concept of Self and Others, Socialization, Problem Solving and Conflict…

This article encourages students to think multidimensionally and in a multidisciplinary fashion with this challenge, and choose a team that can support this kind of thinking. Presented is a challenge in which a major home improvement company makes tools and accessories for use by experienced and new homeowners. This company would like to provide…

In looking at successful inquiry activities, patterns in pedagogical approach emerge (Meyer et al. 2011). This article discusses one such approach--the design challenge. A design challenge can be defined as an activity in which students are given an explicit task to create a product that meets a defined goal. However, simply asking students to…

Street intersections are a source of accidents--for both automobiles and pedestrians. This article presents an intersection challenge that allows students to explore some possible ways to change the traditional intersection. In this challenge, teachers open up the boundaries and allow students to redesign their world. The first step is to help…

Good teachers are storytellers. They use stories to promote interest in the classroom; to help students understand and remember events, places, people, and ideas; to provide context for teaching abstract concepts and systematic processes such as math and research skills; and to promote understanding of other cultures and people. Storytelling can…

This book provides an overview of the creative problem-solving process and exercises to put the process the work. The illustrated, reproducible pages guide students through each step of the problem-solving process by using evaluation grids to track their ideas, solutions, and plans. The activities can be used in a variety of ways including for the…

This book contains 52 units designed to assist teachers in helping their students improve their creative writing and communication skills, improve their skills in creative problem solving, and enlarge, enrich, and make more accurate their images of the future. Each unit begins with an overview of the activity, an explanation of the creative…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics'"Curriculum and Evaluation Standards" envision an interdisciplinary approach to mathematics that allows children to communicate their ideas in the process of solving real problems. This book promotes the connection between mathematics and children's literature as part of realizing that…

Presents a student project that requires students to create a puzzle involving some form of manipulative and present it to the class with an advertisement. Uses writing to have students report on their progress. (MDH)

Mounting research evidence has shown that an activity centered approach to elementary and middle school science education can be quite effective. This sourcebook, developed for teachers by teachers, presents many activity oriented science lessons that could be done in any elementary or middle school classroom with minimal additional experience.…

A practical guidebook of ideas, lesson materials, and related resources for developing imaginative and productive thinking skills of children is presented to assist teachers and parents. Emphasis is placed on the use of strategies and techniques that enhance originality, mental imagery, reverie, reflection, humor, novel playfulness, and divergent…

This book offers teachers of grades 3-8 creative and fun activities that build students' skills in problem solving, decision making, cooperative learning, divergent thinking, and communication. The book offers 28 diverse and original enrichment activities that teach personal values such as responsibility, compassion, leadership, and respect for…

The second edition of this book provides the theoretical and practical foundation for a language development program in which all students become actively involved in communicating their high-level thoughts with exceptional competence. Preservice teachers vicariously enter 13 language arts classrooms in which they learn how the language arts are…