In the past year I feel that I have grown and learn a lot. When I started learning about how to become a STEM Ambassador, I had no clue how to correctly teach STEM lessons to kids, but now that I have had that experience I am so excited for this summer. Some of my favorite moments from last year were being able to see all the kids faces when they where amazed when they learned something new or when they where to excited and interested in what we where doing. I also had so much fun helping to mentor the First Lego League team and getting to see all their determination and hard work pay off at competitions. Some things I did struggle with last year was getting some of the larger and more excited classes ready and engaged at the beginning of class by myself. I also sometimes struggled with making sure that all of the kids where doing what they where supposed to by myself. 

1. How to calmy handle when kids don't listen to instructions during the lesson, especially when doing a a very messy or chaotic lesson. 

2. How to let kids be independent and learn and explore but also set boundaries for things that they aren't ready to do themselves. For example a 1st grader wanting to use the hot glue gun by themselves. 

• For this lesson for the older age groups I would have them do the lesson and the competition the way the lesson lays it out. For the younger age groups instead of making it a compeition and a challange I would have them design there tower and focus more on them making it then the challange of it being the tallest. 

• Some problems are that kids want to keep eating all the building supplies, somtimes kids also don't alway work well in groups so it is a good way to teach kids how to work in groups. 

• I have used a lot of the engagement strategies listed in the website. Often when I am first introducing the lesson I will try to connect it to something that the kids are intrested and will enjoy. If kids finish early somthimes I will go over and ask them to tell me what they made and if we still have time give them other things to make or do.  A majority of the lessons I taught last year had a group aspect to it to help them learn to work together.  Sometimes we use diffrent forms of media to teach the lessons such as videos. If needed lessons will be split up into parts so we don't overwelm the kids with to much work at once.  Some of our lessons are competitions to help keep the kids engaged. 

1. KPOP Demon Hunters

2. 67

3. Hot Wheels

4. Slime

5. Legos

6. Squishmellows

7. JellyCats

8. Spiderman

9. FidgetToys

10. Starwars

11. Avengers

12. Mario

13. Barbie

14. Glitter

15. Minions

One teacher that always kept me very engaged in class was my history teacher. My historhy teacher did a very good job at making the lessons intresring and not just her telling random facts about history. She would always make it a story and made it a very interactive class where she would answer any questions we had. She would also always have videos throughout the lessons so that we could learn more about certain topics in a different way. 

There are many things you can do to help make a classroom feel more inclusive for students. You can allow student more time to think about questions and answers when giving presentations or speking with them. If they are feeling overwhelemded you can break the task down into smaller steps and even show them how to do it with an example. Some other things you could do is lay out a plan for what is going to be happening in class for the day so there is more structure. You can also make sure to try to start the class the same way every time so the students feel ready to learn at the begining of class.