A STEAM_ed Bee: An Integrated Unit Teaches Second Graders about the Importance of Pollination

In today's dynamic global economy, integrated units of study are particularly important. Students who are fluent in several disciplines and comfortable moving among them can make meaningful connections and maintain enhanced understandings (Sias et al. 2016). This article shares an integrated ST...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science and children 2021, Vol.58 (5), p.86
Main Authors: Schrodt, Katie, Winters, Jeremy, Huddleston, Tracey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advocacy
Animals
Coding
Elementary School Science
Elementary School Students
Grade 2
Interdisciplinary Approach
Language Arts
Science Instruction
STEM Education
Teaching Methods
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Summary:In today's dynamic global economy, integrated units of study are particularly important. Students who are fluent in several disciplines and comfortable moving among them can make meaningful connections and maintain enhanced understandings (Sias et al. 2016). This article shares an integrated STEAM unit that is grounded in the science disciplinary core idea that plants depend on animals for pollination or to move their seeds around. Over the course of three days, a group of second-grade children explored the life of bees: What is their purpose? How do they live? Why are they important? The unit integrates three threads of learning through integrated lessons using methodology from language arts, science, math, and social studies. Students explore first through a language arts lesson that focuses on bees and advocacy. Next, the students think like a bee as they use math and coding to navigate a bee to do its jobs while avoiding predators. Last, the students put all of their learning together as they experience bees from the perspective of an apiarist.
ISSN:0036-8148