Dr. Z Reflects: Another Rube Goldberg STEM Session at UNI Elementary Literacy Conference

Friday, April 17, 2015

Another Rube Goldberg STEM Session at UNI Elementary Literacy Conference

How Rube Goldberg Led Our 6th Grade Students to Pursue their Passions - UNI Elem Lit Conf from Leigh Zeitz

What do Rube Goldberg, STEM and Literacy have in common?

That's a good question. I have been invited to share our Rube Goldberg experiences as a Featured Speaker at the UNI Elementary Literacy Conference.

Interestingly enough, I will be sharing the stage with Dr. Beth Van Meeteren (STEM in PreK-3rd Grades: A Reason to Develop Literacy); Marcy Seavey (Finding the Citizen Scientist in Every Child); and Rick Vanderwall (Media and Drama Integration with Literacy) It will be an exciting opportunity for all.

Today I will be sharing our Rube Goldberg experiences in the 6th Grade Waverly-Shell Rock Middle School. We will discuss the explorational process that we experienced while creating our own inventions to accomplish simple tasks. These tasks might be turning off a light, erasing a blackboard, or popping a balloon. These may seem like meaningless tasks, but its not about turning out a light. The emphasis of this process is the creative problem solving that our students experienced while they were building these inventions.

If you want to learn more about my presentation, you can refer to my other posts in DrZReflects. The Slide Show is available in the list below as well as some of the other resources that I used in preparation.