During the fall of 2016, students in Dr. Anne Gatling's STM 3000 STEM Capstone: Integrated Science for Educators students participated in a STEMsmart Backpack project (see assignment below). Students had the opportunity to develop STEM backpacks for McQuade Library's ERC. Each student chose a STEM topic they were passionate about and then selected and evaluated high quality multimedia materials (books, DVDs, hands-on learning materials) to include in the backpack. Students also created lesson plans aligned to appropriate standards. Now Merrimack's pre-service teachers will be able to check-out these backpacks in McQuade's ERC -- making it a bit easier for them to bring hands-on STEM learning to their student-teaching and service learning sites!

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

"The backpack activity was a great way to think about STEM topics that schools do not get a chance to cover, like astronomy. The backpack we created would be a great resource to use in a classroom or as a parent one day to engage a student and teach them different ideas. It is also really cool to know that my work is being used in the ERC and hopefully can help benefit teachers and parents!"

"I felt the backpack project was really interesting and I felt the one I made is one I will be able to use when I have my own classroom in a short couple of years. I really got to research what resources and tools are out there and was able to make a backpack that I think will really help teachers and their students in math."