Educator’s Rising encourages middle school and high school students who want to pursue careers in teaching. Students from across New Mexico attended a conference at NMSU and heard from different speakers on different ways of both teaching and learning. One session looked at hands-on STEM learning.
Buzzers beeped, lights flashed, and fans spun as students created circuits using the “little bits” systems. Students get clues and have to figure out which parts complete the puzzle.
Monique Pino, a senior at Carlsbad high says she was excited to find the correct answer.
“I like a lot of challenges,” Pino said. “I like using my mind, so it was pretty fun.”
She says students could be inspired to learn with the game-like aspect.
“I think it would be more, it would get them more involved,” Pino said. “Then actually doing work on paper.”
The Little Bits system has three stages, structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry. Roshani Rajbanshi, a graduate student with the STEM outreach program at NMSU, says the levels gradually get more challenging.
“In the first one they had all the parts together,” Rajbanshi said. “Trying to learn how to do it, how to make a circuit, and then later on they brainstorm, and then a the end their would be open inquiry, you do whatever you need to make it creative and learn from there.”
Rajbanshi says when the kids are building their circuits, they are learning with immediate results.
“They come to the table,” Rajbanshi said. “The collaborate, the communicate, and they also do it all by their hands, and they can also see what projects are working and what’s not.
Rajbanshi says it also teaches them the importance of working together.
“When you go out in the field and work,” Rajbanshi said. “You’re not working on your own, you have to have that team. You have to communicate with them, you have to collaborate with them, it’s not one persons thinking. When you have different ideas, the work is much better than when you do it all by yourself, so I think work is really important to.”
Annette Hardin teaches English at Carlsbad High School, she says the ideas learned through this hands-on exercise could be applied to subjects beyond science, technology, engineering, and math.
“I don’t think enough students are exposed to inquiry based learning,” Hardin said. “This is a true inquiry based learning experience, so they see how it starts with confusion, and have to work together to solve the problem, and it’s really good for them to see that.”
Hardin says if they do eventually want to be teachers, it’s important for them to experience different ways to learn.
“They need to have all kinds of learning experiences,” Hardin said. “Before they can apply it to being a teacher, so this is great.”
Monique Pino is excited to continue learning, and going into a career in teaching.
“I’m actually taking an internship class,” Pino said. “So right now, I’m working with third graders for the semester, and that’s going good so far, so I thought I might as well take a trip and get a different experience.”
Pino said she would use the ideas she learned from the hands on STEM exercise in a future classroom.
