How do STEM activities impact collaboration and persistence in a kindergarten classroom?

Seminar Title

How do STEM activities impact collaboration and persistence in a kindergarten classroom?

STEM, Collaboration, Persistence

Kindergarten

Kindergarten

Science

Mathematics

Do you want to foster a lifelong love of learning in your students while teaching them to collaborate with one another and persist through a challenge? Try STEM! (Science Technology Engineering and Math) The principles of STEM—critical thinking, asking good questions, communication, observation and exploration—are truly at the heart of every discipline. I am excited about my research because I have seen my kindergartners develop the ability to collaborate and persist through a challenge as their love of science, technology, engineering, and math grows.

The question guiding my research is how do STEM activities impact the 21st-century skills of collaboration and persistence? A review of literature supports the need for students to develop these skills. They are critical to a student’s success in the classroom as well as in the workforce. To collaborate is essential to foster their own social and academic growth, and to help them become more productive and successful in their future careers. People who persist become accustomed to and comfortable with trying again. Failure isn’t a fear for them. People who do not persist often give up when things get hard and lack the focus and attention to stop and try a different way Persistence is vital to a student’s success in the classroom. For my action research project, I explored how STEM activities impact collaboration and persistence in my kindergarten students. I used a social curriculum which focuses on interpersonal skills, along with children’s literature, video clips, and games to guide my students to understand what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to be a respectful classmate. We also had focused lessons on what it means to collaborate and what it means to persist, and what things we need to do in order to have an effective group. Using STEM challenges, I encouraged the kids to use their relational, collaborative, and problem-solving skills to find a solution together. I presented my students with some challenges that related to the problem encountered by the main character in a fairy tale. The challenges required the students to collaborate, to problem solve, and to persist. They also fostered a continued love for science and math and also fostered new relationships between students. Through my research, I have learned that teaching students what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to be part of a collaborative group was important to their success in the challenges. It was also important for the students to know what persistence is and recognize times that they persisted. Knowing that you can succeed at things that are challenging is empowering and helps develop critical thinking skills. As a result of my research, I am going to continue to provide hands-on challenges for my students where they can develop grit and continue building their collaboration skills.