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Patricia NewmanPatricia Newman
Sibert Honor Children's Book Author & Environmentalist
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design-challenge

LitLinks: Use kidlit to unlock STEM thinking with these 3 easy design lessons

January 1, 2025 LitLinks, LitLinks-Grade 3-5, LitLinks-Grade 6-8, LitLinks-Grade K-2 No Comments
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BY PATRICIA NEWMAN


Are you ready for a New Year’s Resolution you can keep? In this age of too-much-to-do and too-little-time-to-do-it, doesn’t it make sense to integrate subject minutes wherever possible? That’s exactly what we’re all about here at LitLinks — providing hands-on lessons inspired by children’s literature that integrate STEM with the language arts. Today’s recap focuses on design challenges to help your students practice creative problem-solving!

The standards

According to the Next Generation Science Standards, “Early in their science education, students need opportunities to engage in constructing and critiquing explanations. They should be encouraged to develop explanations of what they observe when conducting their own investigations and to evaluate their own and others’ explanations for consistency with the evidence.”*

Additionally, the reading of complex informational texts is a foundation of the Common Core Standards. “By asking students to answer questions and think critically about what they’ve read, the standards help build essential skills in problem-solving, analysis, and critical thinking—skills needed for success beyond school.”**

Design challenges are the BEST of language arts and science!

Design challenges

To contrust an explanation for a problem, students require an a fluency with the text, an understanding of the problem, and the ability to think of creative solutions, tweaked and solidified based on the results of testing.

Enjoy these three lessons featuring books about Mars, Wonder Woman, and medical inventions such as prosthetic limbs.

LitLinks: Design your new home — on Mars!
LitLinks: How to design an invisible jet like Wonder Woman’s
LitLinks: Design challenge for students – make a prosthetic limb

Easiest resolution you ever made, right?

*National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2012. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/13165.

**https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/

Featured image credit: “Where design thinking and open source community collaboration meet” by opensourceway is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.


Click for more LITLINKS STEM + Literacy activities

Tags: STEM+LiteracySTEM+Literacy Physical Science
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  • Home
  • Books
    • Sharks Unhooked: The Adventures of Cristina Zenato, Underwater Ranger
    • Giant Rays of Hope: Protecting Manta Rays to Safeguard the Sea
    • A River’s Gifts: The Mighty Elwha River Reborn
    • Planet Ocean
    • Eavesdropping on Elephants
    • Neema’s Reason To Smile
    • Zoo Scientists to the Rescue
    • Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem
    • Plastic, Ahoy! Investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
    • Ebola: Fears and Facts
    • Jingle the Brass
    • Nugget on the Flight Deck
    • Surviving Animal Attacks
    • Elite Operations series
    • Energy Lab series
    • QuickReads Fluency Library
    • Books for English language-learners
    • Writers write all kinds of things
  • Author Visit Programs
    • FAQs
    • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Educator Resources
    • STEM + Literacy Activities
    • Teacher Guides
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
    • LitLinks
    • KidLit creators who make kids want to read
  • Writer Resources
    • Writing Classes
    • Manuscript or Proposal Critiques
    • How I got my start
  • Who is Patricia Newman?
  • Contact
    • Stay In Touch
    • Earth Day Every Day newsletter archive
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