How to Start a STEM Library

*This post was previously published by Carly and Adam.

 How to Start a STEM Library

Kids love the story Inky's Amazing Escape: How a Very Smart Octopus Found His Way Home. The brightly illustrated book engages students as they learn about octopus and other undersea creatures. They gain empathy when Inky is captured in the lobster trap and they root for him when he attempts to escape the aquarium. The story of Inky provides knowledge in science through the exploration of the ocean. It also provides a glimpse into different STEM-related jobs (fisherman, marine biologist, zoo/aquarium workers).

The story can also offer an opportunity for students to engage in hands-on STEM learning after they read the book. Designing a lobster trap, planning for a class fish tank, or constructing a model of a coral reef, students can extend their STEM learning through additional experiences. This story (and so many others) can support STEM learning in a variety of ways. Obtaining a few STEM read alouds is your first step in starting your STEM library.

What exactly is a STEM library?

A STEM library is a collection of children’s books that support STEM content and foster student thinking, design, and exploration. These may be books that are used for classroom read aloud selections, used in learning centers, or ones that students can read on their own. Building these resources in your school or classroom can increase student engagement in both the language arts and the STEM content.  Adding read alouds to your STEM learning can offer many benefits including sparking creativity, promoting more reading, and building student understanding. 

Why is a STEM library important? 

Access to quality reading materials is critical for every child to develop and grow as a reader. Whether you are a classroom teacher, STEM teacher, or a librarian, adding books that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math will create connections across subject areas and deepen student understanding. STEM read aloud selections can also develop other skills and dispositions in our students like flexibility, perseverance, and cooperation.

Where do I start?

Start small. Look through the books that you already have and pull out ones that are connected to science, technology, engineering, and math. Think about STEM-related topics like weather, plants, animals, or machines. These may be some of your first additions to your STEM library. Begin using those as your classroom read alouds or add them to a learning center where students can read them on their own. (You can even add some manipulatives so that students can design, build, and experiment after exploring the books.) 

Books on a Budget

Don’t have much of a book budget? There are lots of ways to find books without spending a ton of money. Be on the lookout for book sales. Online publishers offer a $1 sale every few months, which is a great time to stock up on books. Local public libraries also have book sales. (I’ve been able to grab some great used books for as low as 25 cents!) Don’t forget yard sales as another way to pick up used books to add to your STEM library.

If you don’t have a budget at all, hit up the public library. Librarians can also be a great resource to suggest STEM books. You might also plan a book drive. Ask parents and community members to donate books to your classroom. Sometimes your school book fair can also be set up to allocate book donations directly to your classroom. You might suggest topics or accept any donations of any type. Lots of teachers have discovered the benefits of Donors Choose and #ClearTheLists. These are other ways that you can get support for your STEM library. Posting your projects or lists allows people to see ways that they can donate to help your students. Lastly, be on the lookout for grants. Even if you are writing a grant for technology or STEM equipment, always include some funding for books. 

Ready to Build Your Library?

There are so many great STEM books, it is hard to just recommend a few. Here are some with links to simple STEM activities that are connected to each book.

• The Most Magnificent Thing is a great book to add to your STEM library. With a focus on the engineering design cycle and persevering through challenges, the story is the perfect way to start the STEM conversation in your classroom. 

• One Plastic Bag can be connected to different STEM challenges connected to the environment, sustainability, and the importance of recycling.

• Mr. Ferris and His Wheel provides some history about the invention of the Ferris Wheel, prompting students to build one of their own.

• Mae Among the Stars is the story of Mae Jemison, the first African American female in space. Students will be asking to design and build rockets after reading this story.

Need more book ideas?

When we connect children’s literature to hands-on learning, not only do we see a rise in student engagement, but also in student understanding. We can incorporate a read aloud to introduce a science concept or align a story to an engineering design challenge. We can add building blocks, circuits, and coding to our read alouds. (Check out Remaking Literacy: Innovative Instructional Strategies for Maker Learning for different ways to connect STEM and great children’s books.)

You can continue to build your STEM library over time. You don’t need to have hundreds of books right away. You might even consider partnering with other teachers in your grade level or on your team and share books with one another. In time, your library will grow. Surrounding your students with quality STEM books will help them to continue to thrive in their literacy skills and their STEM skills, too!

 A Good Kind of Tired

We all know that “teacher tired” is a different kind of tired, especially at the beginning of the year or on a Friday. Pure exhaustion! There is another kind of tiredness, it’s the exhausted feeling that you feel after an educational conference. This is a good kind of tiredness that means you have used all of your senses to fully engage in all that comes with attending a conference. 

This is how I felt after attending the FETC conference in New Orleans last week.  It’s the feeling that your brain has been working hard to process new ideas. It’s the feeling that your heart is full from connections with your PLN. It’s the feeling that your body needs to rest after walking to lots of great sessions and your arms need to relax after plenty of waves, handshakes, and hugs. It is when you realize that your ears need some quiet to process the content and conversations that filled your days and nights.  

Attending a conference can overload the senses, especially after a period of time when we have functioned in isolation (with social distancing and all that came with living through years of a pandemic.) This sensory overload can tire you out while at the same time rejuvenate you and propel you forward into new learning.

Some say that you just need a little R&R; rest and relaxation. While those are good, after a conference, I say that you need 3 Rs: recuperate and reflect then renew. 

Recuperate

After a conference, you may need to take a few days to recuperate. Long days of presenting or attending sessions and late nights enjoying a new city with friends, taking advantage of networking events, can also mean a little less sleep than normal. Recuperating might mean taking a relaxing bubble bath, loading up on Vitamin C, or taking an afternoon nap.

It’s also time to wind down from the hectic pace of conference life and assimilate back into life as parents and spouses, teachers, and leaders. Transitioning back to these other roles can be challenging. Shifting from conference-mode to mom-mode is always tough for me! As you do, it will be time to process all of the information that you have taken in during conference time and begin to consider what to do with it all.

Reflect

Let’s face it, if you start each day with a keynote and attend a full schedule of sessions, things can get overwhelming. That is a lot of information to process! Taking time to reflect can mean reminiscing as you scroll through your photos and post to social media. Reflecting might also mean reviewing those all-important nuggets of learning and figuring out how you will incorporate those into your work moving forward.

During the conference, I was invigorated by the ideas that were shared in the conference sessions by rockstar educators. Reading through my notes, revisiting slides, and conference resources, I reflected on new ideas and a validation of existing beliefs. I considered things I might try and decided on what ideas to let go.

I was engaged by the expanse of vendors who shared the latest and greatest of all things educational technology. I returned home more excited to share the cool features of Canva, Novel Effect, and Book Creator with the school districts that I serve. The incredible social events hosted by companies like Flip, Wakelet, Zoom, and Logitech made the conference experience even better. I was elated by the connections that I made with educators, librarians, tech coaches, and school leaders. As I reflect on the conversations, I am filled with appreciation for the new friends I’ve made and the ones I have had for years. Spending quality time with those who make you better is critical to personal and professional growth.

One takeaway from my personal reflection was to return to blogging--thus this post! For me, writing has always been a vehicle for reflection. It allows me to process through my thinking and share my ideas with others. I hope to write more in the coming months and continue this tool for reflection.

Renew

Sometimes we feel a sense of renewal in the new year or after a special milestone. Renewal can feel motivating. It can come in the form of an energy surge. After a conference, I usually feel a bit of both.

After the conference I felt a sense of renewal in a few ways. My motivation to learn and grow was renewed through the amazing people that I met and the new things that I learned. For a period of time, I lost my interest in socializing. Once I was able to reconnect with old friends, my interest in people was renewed. 

In my role as an educational consultant and instructional coach, I visit schools across the country, but no longer have a “home district”. Sometimes my sense of belonging is skewed by my lack of connection with a district to call my own. However, at the conference, I was reconnected with my tribe and rediscovered the sense of belonging that makes me feel joyful, supported, and inspired.

For now, I am going to live in this fulfilling, yet tired feeling and wait for the next big conference!