This post is sponsored by 4-H as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. All opinions expressed are my own.
Looking for educational activities for kids? STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math and STEM activities and products encourage kids to develop core skills in these areas. These are skills that are increasingly more important in a more tech-obsessed world. Your kids need to be exposed to STEM learning, even if they never grow up to be scientists. I’m all about a very well-rounded education, filled with science, math, english, reading, sports, music, and more! I hope you are as well.
The challenge, as with everything else with kids, can be to get your child to really put their all into all of these diverse subjects and disciplines. If you can make it interesting and fun, you are golden!! But it has to be about the kid as some kids are artsy (Natalie) and some kids are scientific (Liam), and some kids are a little bit of both (Caleb).
As much as we have worked on it, I think we are also a little lucky in our house. We love science! Liam is in his school’s robotics club, Natalie loves making slime and doing other fun experiments, and Caleb is always looking to play with awesome STEM activities and games! Together, we are always on the hunt for great ways for the kids to learn and have fun, too!! The fact that they really enjoy it makes it all so much easier. It also really helps that there are so many great products and resources out there today. So much more than even 10 years ago, I’d say!
4-H STEM Lab
I have a great program to share with you if you see STEM learning as vital to your child’s education!! The 4-H STEM Lab is a free online resource that you and your kids need to know about. I’m talking about fun, easy, hands-on STEM activities that will make your kid want to learn. Yes, WANT to learn. These awesome STEM activities are all about experiential learning and activities, which I find to be the best way to get kids to pay attention and learn.
These hands-on STEM activities are designed to instill curiosity, and critical thinking, which is just about priceless. Why do I think it’s priceless, well given the importance of STEM, I think that a program like this is helping kids develop the skills needed to be successful in life. A life that in the future will be, well, “futuristic!”
Want to see a little bit more about the STEM Lab? Check out this awesome video!!
Hurricane Mapping
One of my favorite 4-H STEM Lab programs is the Hurricane Mapping activities. This is really fun, really interesting, and really awesome. For me and for the kids! It introduces kids to using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by tracking the paths of two of the most destructive storms to hit the United States in recent history. Kids will learn how to combine maps with data and to draw comparisons between two sets of geographic information. This is real science! They will then analyze how this data can inform important lifesaving decisions.
Hurricane Mapping uses real world, impactful information and learning that really leaves a mark on my kids. I’m sure it will on yours as well. It’s life, right? This is what’s important, showing kids about STEM learning and how it directly relates to their world, the real world. You can see the wonder and excitement when they learn about this and put all of the pieces together about how science works in their world. The sponsors, HughesNet and University of Vermont Extension, are really on the money with this one!
Practicing Good Digital Citizenship
While learning about science and math is very important, nothing really matters if you don’t try to raise good people, too. Teaching kids the intangibles about things like the Golden Rule is just about important about reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic!! It’s what makes a society tick, what makes it work. Thank goodness, 4-H steps is all over this, too!
Practicing Good Digital Citizenship is an awesome program, sponsored by Microsoft, that helps teach kids the right ways to interact with others online. You and your child will take part in a little bit of role playing to help children learn about how online interactions and behavior are as important online as in-person. It’s fun for everyone involved, but it really teaches important skills and concepts.
The internet and social media provide us with so many opportunities to connect, but it can also be a cold and ugly place. There are so many new challenges associated with being online today that you and I never could even dream about. I see it first-hand just about every day. It’s just way too easy and convenient to do the wrong thing online. While not only teaching your kids the best ways to behave online, this program also teaches them how to recognize inappropriate, threatening or bullying interactions. This is important for kids of all ages, believe me.
Find Out More
I hope you see how important all of this really is for our kids and for out world. I also hope you see how it can actually be fun and excited, too. It’s not the same old “boring” science so many people seem to have bad ideas about! STEM learning is an important thing for everyone to know and learn about, but it really is something that you and your kids can practice and enjoy together. As we move more and more into a technology-based and highly focused world, it will only get more and more important.
To help you and your kids learn more about STEM activities, while making it fun and interesting, be sure to check out:
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- 4-H STEM Lab: http://bit.ly/2OoAVQ2
- Hurricane Mapping: http://bit.ly/2MlzwHp
- Practicing Good Digital Citizenship: http://bit.ly/2NN3RiZ
- 4-H Council on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4-h
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/4H
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/national4h/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/national4H
- Hashtag #4HStemLab and #InspireKidsToDo
This post is sponsored by 4-H as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. All opinions expressed are my own.
11 comments
My son loves STEM activities! He is only 5 right now, but we have found somethings already that will hopefully encourage to love STEM more when he is older.
These would be some fun STEM activities to do with our grand kids. I wish these and others like them were around when our kids were in school.
Those are great STEM projects and activities to do with your kids. I personally like Hurricane Mapping. I used to do that when I was a Kid.
What a great program for the kids! I would have loved this for myself when I was younger, I am glad they are pushing STEM everywhere for the next generation!
STEM toys are amazing for encouraging creativity in young minds. As they work with the toys, they begin to get an understanding as to how things work. The $-H Stem Lab is a great online resource to get kids started in the world of STEM!
i have heard only excellent things about STEM activities. looks like your kids love the activities. great photos. Joy
STEM can definitely form child’s curiosity to learn, being exposed to experiential tools will help them retain the knowledge by 80%. I believe, If I’m not mistaken it has been introduced to progressive schools already. I’m from training and development, I’m imp to see innovative stuff that will help our kids to be ready in the future.
that’s awesome for the kids to get involved in. it’s great to see hands on learning and for kids to get excited about everything again as well.
Things like this are so much fun to do. it is so important to engage with experiments and learn hands on!
I am glad that STEM learning is being encouraged in schools, in the home and in the community. It is a great way to raise a child’s curiosity on how things work!
Nnnniiiccceeeee! How I wish all schools, teachers and school administrators initiated learners into this way of learning more than what it is right now. We would have so much better solutions to all these challenges we are facing now.