[00:00:00] Victoria Zablocki

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary Science podcast. I'm super excited to be able to bring this interview to you today. Naomi Meredith is somebody I've been listening to for a few years now before I started to actually start my podcast. And I knew as soon as I heard her that I had to bring her on if I ever did start a podcast.

Naomi Meredith is an online K through five STEM coach in Colorado, supporting elementary teachers worldwide to navigate the best practices, strategies, and tools for STEM out there. Naomi has over a decade of experience teaching, five years teaching elementary STEM, along with a master's in STEM leadership and a STEM certificate.

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching, and speaking events. She even hosts the podcast, The Elementary STEM Coach, where she discusses actionable strategies and lesson ideas to continue to support teachers each week.

She also hosts the STEM Career Quest podcast to help elementary students learn more about what they might want to be when they grow up or discover new possibilities in the world of STEM. She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation, and hands on learning in their classroom effectively, and she can't wait to connect with you and be your guide.

And let me tell you, she is very knowledgeable, and this interview was super fun, and she gives lots of actionable tips. And her podcast is a wealth of knowledge. So let's check it out.

[00:01:28]

Teaching science in elementary school is crucial for nurturing young minds. But as educators, finding the time and resources to create engaging lessons can be a challenge. That's where this podcast comes in. Welcome to Naturally Teaching Elementary Science, the show dedicated to supporting elementary teachers in their quest to bring authentic and place-based science experiences to their classroom.

I'm Victoria Zablocki. A certified elementary teacher turned outdoor educator with over a decade of experience coaching teachers on effective science teaching methods. I'm passionate about making science accessible, understandable, and fun for educators and students alike. Join me as we explore strategies for teaching science in elementary school with practical teaching tips, insightful interviews, and more.

[00:02:28] Victoria Zablocki

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Naturally Teaching Elementary Science Podcast. I am here today with Naomi Meredith, and I'm not going to steal her thunder. I'm just going to let her tell you all about her and her awesome journey. So, if you want to take it away, Naomi, go for it.

[00:02:42] Naomi Meredith

Well, thank you so much, Victoria, for reaching out and having me on your podcast. It's so fun being a guest on a podcast since I do have my own show. So, it's really fun being on the other side of things and getting interviewed. But thank you so much again for having me.

So like Victoria said, I'm Naomi Meredith. I am a former classroom teacher of six years. So, I taught second grade for my first two years, third grade for four years. And then I jumped into a K through five STEM teaching position for five years where I taught all of the students in my school, K through five, six hundred plus students, along with co-taught with the teachers in my building. So I worked a lot with the classroom teachers where we were collaborating and co-teaching on different types of lessons, including science, actually a lot of science. We did a lot of science together.

And then simultaneously in that role, I have built up my business as a K through five STEM coach. So supporting teachers like all of you here with curriculum resources and also with my podcast for teachers, The Elementary STEM Coach and The STEM Career Quest podcast for kids.

So I'm not currently in the classroom right now, but I also do teach in my community. So actually after this interview today, I'm teaching some kids in my community and we're working on a STEM project and then I'm going to be contracted in four different schools starting this fall. So, I'm very involved with STEM and science and elementary education. So it's definitely something that I'm passionate about. So excited to talk more about it in this interview.

[00:04:15] Victoria Zablocki

Awesome. Well, we're super happy to have you. I've been listening to Naomi for a while. She has a robust podcast as a resource for people. So we'll definitely make sure to link that in the show notes so that way people can find you there and listen as well.

But I want to get started with just breaking down what STEM is. So, many people know that STEM means science, technology, engineering, and math, but they're not singular things, right? So I want you, if you could, to tell us what STEM education actually looks like.

[00:04:46] Naomi Meredith

Well, I am so glad that you said that. It is not singular things. Actually, I just recorded a series about ways to implement each letter, but all of the lessons I talk about, everything's cross curricular. A huge thing about it, maybe you're really focusing on science for your lesson. You can even think about STEM is like lowercase letters, and then maybe you're amping up a capital letter in the S or maybe you're focusing more on the technology, but everything is integrated.

So I like to see STEM is that you are building to solve a problem and you're really going through those problem solving steps. So, we might talk about it more with the engineering design process and scientific method, but it's more of like, what is the problem you're trying to solve?

So is it through building with maker space projects? Or recycled materials? Are you going to design a prototype or a sample 3D printing? Are you going to solve the problem through computer programming or robotics coding?

So it's not so much with, I have a science test, I want to have the variables and test what the outcome is. There is a lot of testing, there's a lot of overlap, but I really see it and I would tell my students that we are building to solve a problem, whatever that problem might be.

[00:06:00] Victoria Zablocki

Awesome. That's actually going to lead right into my next question, because as I've been listening to your podcast, you've talked a lot about the engineering design process and almost like the vehicle to make it all happen.

So, can you give us like a brief summary of what that is and what the process is and why you feel like that's the best way to teach STEM in your classroom?

[00:06:21] Naomi Meredith

Yeah, so the engineering design process isn't something that educators made up, like, we want to do this, like, we've made up the writing process, which is great, like, I use that, it's actually a real process as well, um, but the engineering design process is the real process that engineers use to build and solve a problem, so they have that problem in mind, how are they going to plan to build their solution, once they build that solution, there's a lot of iteration or testing how things work and going back to that building.

So it doesn't go where, “I'm going to plan” and then “I'm going to build” and then “I'm going to test”. It goes back and forth a lot. You may or may not ever share your final design, which is sometimes hard for students that didn't get there. “Well, what did you do? What could you do?” So again, it's with that problem solving how you're going to attack a problem.

And so some teachers come to me, they're like, “well, is the scientific method dead? Are we not using that?” No, use both. Both are good for different purposes. And when you look at your state standards, they actually have different purposes as well. Some of your standards, really relate well to a science experiment.

So you do need to test. Like if I'm doing, I'm going to do this in actually a couple of days. I want to, have you ever done that experiment where you have the flowers, white flowers, you put colored water and you want to see what's going to happen and how much the water is going to get soaked up by the flowers?

What's going to happen? That's more of an experiment. And that's good too. Like we, that we need that also. So don't get rid of the scientific method. But they both are good because the standards relate to those different processes anyway, don't really do more one than the other. And if you are using the NGSS, Next Generation Science Standards, there are standards specific about the engineering design process. So that's why I chose it. But again, both methods are really good as well.

[00:08:15] Victoria Zablocki

Could you give us a brief summary? I know that you have a whole series on your podcast about what the engineering design process is, but could you give us a real quick explanation of what that might be?

[00:08:25] Naomi Meredith

Yeah, definitely. So, there's some people have different wording, but the process is the same. So you start with that problem. So that ask, what is the problem you're trying to solve, whether that is teacher led or student generated. So you have that problem you're trying to solve. Then you go through that imagine stage where kids are researching, finding more about it, you're building that background knowledge, learning more about the problem, gathering resources.

So with that information, you move into that planning stage. So they're more informed about what the project's going to be. You can plan. It could be through drawing if it's quick, it might be through talking, planning isn't always a drawing. So you plan your design and then the kids love the create part.

That's their favorite, but creating your design. And then through that creation, I like to put these steps together, but you're experimenting and improving, where that is that word I said in iteration, where you're going to try different things, how does it work? How can I improve my design? How can I fix it?

And then through there, whether it's specific tests or informal, you share your design in some way. So whether It's actually using it in the problem, or maybe you are taking a picture or a video. So it's going through that process. Like I said, it's back and forth, but that's generally what we see with the engineering design process.

[00:09:44] Victoria Zablocki

That's great. And I noticed that with the scientific method, even it's back and forth. I know we teach it a lot as being very linear, but it, it really should be a back and forth. So the engineering design process also follows that sort of nonlinear format as well, which I think is more authentic for how scientists and engineers actually work. That's wonderful.

I bet you could talk about it for hours, but what benefits have you noticed with elementary students when they participate in STEM education, because you have experience with Gen Ed, but then you've swapped into being a STEM teacher. What have you noticed students really get out of STEM education?

[00:10:22] Naomi Meredith

Yeah, so the biggest thing, so in my STEM role, and then also the things I do in the community, I've seen a lot of the same overlaps, where when I stepped into that K through five STEM role, they didn't really have STEM before, which is fine. So it was a brand new to me school, new to me district, no curriculum and all that.

So what I thought my misconception was, “Oh my gosh, they're gonna love my class, they're gonna be all about it, they're gonna create all the things.” And it was true, actually, for the younger kids, they just jump right in, like, we don't know you, but we're gonna make stuff. But my older kids actually really, really struggled in my class because they wanted everything step by step by step and that was just kind of the school culture anyway where my school did a lot of worksheets and not a whole lot of project-based learning to begin with.

So it was actually, a big challenge for my older students where I had to create an environment that was really centered around growth mindset, being okay with making those mistakes, being creative. That was really interesting where, like I said, I thought kids automatically want to be creative, but if they're not having those experiences leading up to it, it's a little bit scary where they didn't want to mess up or make it look bad or they would be scared if it didn't work.

And so, it really has helped, like, yes, we do cool projects, and I would tell the kids this all the time, and I still tell kids this, it's not about what the tools we're using, it's about how are we using these skills you're going to need with any job, you're not all going to have STEM jobs, a lot of them you will, but what skills are you using, how are you problem solving, how are you working together as a team, if you can't work together with somebody, whether it's remote or in person, no one's going to want to hire you. How are you thinking through problems, things are going to go wrong all the time.

So it's really those soft skills. Like you're using those like cool projects as an avenue to use those soft skills in authentic ways. Like you were saying, and it's hard as a classroom teacher, it's hard. Like you do have to do reading and all of that. Like you're not going to do projects all the time, but when you're thinking about, “my kids are having a hard time collaborating” or “they're not thinking about this math problem in a creative way.” Well, what other experiences are you giving your kids that are allowing them to do that authentically? Where you're not forcing them, you have to do this and this role and this project. It kind of comes out naturally and gives you those teaching experiences.

So that's the biggest thing. Even in my one hour classes that I teach at the coffee shop with STEM, I can tell which kids have done more of this and who haven't. Like, I had one little guy, like, crying. He hadn't ever used scissors, really, before. So that was a whole thing. But, I'm like, you're doing great!

You got this! Keep going. And so I'm like, I hope this kid comes back because I mean, I wasn't being mean, but this is something like you need this, bud, you, it's just something that's really important. So those soft skills are really, really essential when you're implementing STEM in your classroom.

[00:13:21] Victoria Zablocki

That's great. And it gives them an authentic location and a project to be able to work on those. And I feel like that's missing a lot in a lot of classes. Even when I was teaching outside with students, that was something that I put together were projects where they had to use those soft skills because they, they lack them.

And the creativity piece is really huge. We did a project where they had to design something that they wanted to sell. It was an econ standard. And so they had to design something they wanted to sell and make it out of nature. And then they had to show everybody and give like a little infomercial and at the beginning, like the first 10 minutes, they had no idea because (they were fourth graders), they had never done something like this before, and they were lacking those skills. But then once they started to get into it, then they could really shine. But it was, it was scary. And so that's wonderful that STEM is a nice way to be able to integrate that into your classroom in a very authentic fashion.

As a STEM teacher, in your role, you were a special, so it wasn't, you were a Gen Ed teacher and then you implemented STEM, you were a special that they came to. How could a general education teacher take STEM and implement it into their classroom?

[00:14:34] Naomi Meredith

This is like the million dollar question, because I get asked this one a lot, which is good, because I mean, I even saw where STEM was getting cut a lot, or some even teachers in my building wanted to start doing more STEM in their classroom outside of specials.

And so there's a few different ways. I really think that are easy ways that integrate with what you're already doing. So, it can be, if you want it to be, an extra thing. So maybe you have STEM Fridays where every Friday we're going to do a STEM project that's related to what we're working on in science.

So maybe you've been doing experiments, you're following those standards, but there's that one standard you don't know. How can I teach this? It's probably going to be the STEM. Just saying, build a model, STEM right there. So, I would definitely integrate it. Look at the standards you're already doing. You could have it be STEM Friday, something that the kids look forward to.

I wouldn't have it, like, be an extra thing. Like, “oh, if you're bad, we're not going to do STEM.” Because that's going to, I don't know, I feel like, I don't know. Just don't do that.

But another way you could implement it, and I also did this when I taught science a lot, when I taught third grade, is implementing stations. So you could have science stations where, I know it's hard with supplies in general, getting enough for all the kids, it's overwhelming to do an experiment. So maybe you have a station. Station or a lab where they're doing the science experiment and then they rotate to another station, whether it's the same day or different days that's STEM related and they are building to solve a problem.

So that way, if you're scared to do STEM as a whole class, it is kind of overwhelming when kids are all doing all this stuff, but if you have it in those smaller chunks like stations, you can zone in and help those five kids who are at that station and just make sure the project is going well, you can adjust and go from there. So whole grouping can be crazy.

And then the third way that if you're really thinking, how can I get started is connecting it with stories. So we love a good picture book as teachers. Like I, that's something I cannot get rid of. I have so many books. That's, I have so many, but there's some books that really lend themselves well to building and solving a problem.

So one book I can think of the top of my head is After the Fall by Dan Santat and it's Humpty Dumpty. It's like, what happened after we fell off the wall? Well, he's a little bit scared. He doesn't want to get back up again. So you can have students build and solve a way, how can they build a way for Humpty Dumpty to be safe while sitting on the wall next time?

So connecting it with literature, whether it is fiction or nonfiction, you're already reading it, so how can you add on a hands-on element? And that also helps with the comprehension too. Yes, they need to write about their comprehension, but if you're making it concrete, when we think about math. You have that concrete abstract and pictorial, which I think I put them in the wrong order.

Yeah, I did. But anyway, you guys know what I'm saying. But it's kind of the same thing where how can you make your literacy hands-on. So those are the biggest three ways if you're a classroom teacher that I recommend when getting started.

[00:17:30] Victoria Zablocki

That's great. I know that you just did a series, the STEM in Action series, and you gave some great examples for stations. You broke it down by letters, so Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and then you made sure that there was a lesson and a station, and then there was also, it was a one day project. Yeah, so if people check those out, you give some really quality examples there, and then that could be a good place to start.

Especially like, we don't have to do it all at once, right? We can get it going a little bit and dabble your toes in here and there, and then as you become more comfortable and you acquire more materials, then you can add STEM in more regularly.

Where is a good place for people to find some STEM resources? I know that we're going to give you a chance to tell all the things that you offer, but do you have any other suggestions where, like a general education teacher could find some easy to implement STEM resources that are the full STEM and not just the science or just the technology, but somewhere that they could find some resources?

[00:18:29] Naomi Meredith

Yeah, one resource that I'm a part of that, um, I think can be underutilized sometimes, or if you're not involved, is there is a Facebook group that I'm a part of. It's free for teachers to join. I think it's called the Elementary STEM Teachers, but teachers are chatting in there all the time and it's very, very active.

I'm in that group, I don't run that group, but it's very active where teachers ask questions, share resources all this time. So that's actually really helpful where you can even search like in the search bar what you're looking for and see if somebody has asked that question already. So that's a really great resource.

Another great one as well is there's a lot of teachers on social media who share lots of great quick tips and tricks. When I was a classroom teacher, I loved following fellow classroom teachers, but even branching out to the people that you follow, those are some great places as well. You can even just look up the hashtag like STEM teacher or elementary STEM and then find a lot of people on there to follow.

Now, it depends on like what you're comfortable with. So even from there, I actually like getting on the email list of STEM companies that do really great things. So once you kind of start digging, um, one for example, I really love Wonder Workshop and they have a blue robot that does coding and you want to learn more.

I like getting on those email lists because they will send updates and even lesson ideas of how to use things in your classroom. So even if you set up a separate email address or if you just like to make a folder, I like to do this too. When I follow companies in my email, where I make a folder in my email and I put their newsletters in that folder. So then I can go through and see. And they have really great ideas for you to get started and like, get your brain flowing. So kind of some unconventional ways of resources, but those are ones that I really like to dig into.

[00:20:20] Victoria Zablocki

I think that's great information and it's also very up to date then. So it's not something that's been done 10 years ago. It's something that's happening in the now. Those are great resources. I know you also have resources, so I think now might be a good time to branch into what you offer, if you want to take a couple minutes to talk about that.

[00:20:40] Naomi Meredith

Yeah, so if you, you guys obviously love podcasts, you're here listening to podcasts. So if you want to hear more, I do have a podcast for teachers, The Elementary STEM Coach, where I go more into depth about all of these topics that I'm talking about. I do have every episode categorized into playlists. So if you just reach out to me… But it's free. It's the same podcast. But if you really want to focus in on back to school, here are all the episodes about back to school.

If you want to hear more about the engineering design process, I have an episode about each one and specific projects that go along with it. So that's another great resource for you as well. And then for your kids, I do a seasonal STEM Career Quest podcast where finishing up season one, where I interview people who are in STEM careers, so to help connect what is happening in STEM right now.

And I've interviewed some really, really cool people. So that's a really fun one as well. You, it actually works better with, for classroom teachers. You could use that as a listening station. So those are some two on the go resources, but then I also create lessons for your classroom. So those can be found on Teachers Pay Teachers, Naomi Meredith, workshops where I do on demand workshops and also live workshops throughout the year.

And I have a STEM teacher 101 course, so you can go through the whole course and I'm also breaking it up into segments. So if there's something you really want to zone in and target, you can work on that. So those are my main things that I work on. Um, those are, again, in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop, Naomi Meredith.

And then I am active on Instagram. That's where I like to hang out. So, I have @NaomiMeredith_. Send me a DM. We can chat over there. But those are the main places that I would say to find the things all being STEM.

[00:22:13] Victoria Zablocki

Awesome. Is there anything that we didn't cover that you want to mention that you've noticed from all your experience that teachers could benefit from?

[00:22:21] Naomi Meredith

Yeah, so STEM isn't as overwhelming as you think it might be. And actually, when I got into my position, I didn't have a degree in STEM education. So I had taught for six years and I was just interested in hands-on learning and technology. I didn't know everything and didn't have everything figured out going into that position.

And I'm still learning and I'm still figuring it out. So, don't feel like, “Oh my gosh, like she's been doing it for so long.” I didn't have any real, not that much experience going into it, but now I have a master's in STEM leadership, but just adding in those little bits is really amazing. And the big thing too, I've seen with kids is some of those harder to reach kids really can shine in STEM.

In fact, some of the behaviors for STEM from those kids, not all the time is not perfect, behavior management is a real thing, but they really thrive with that hands-on learning and creativity. So give it a shot. It doesn't all go well. I did a a circuit project last week and it was horrible. Nobody's project worked.

People went home and nothing lit up and I've been doing this for some time and I felt horrible. I'm like, you know what? I have another project today. We're going to talk about pollination and it's all good. So it doesn't go perfect the whole time. There's a lot of things that don't work.

So even as a teacher, you have also have that growth mindset, but. Just like anything in teaching, just try it, see what happens, try it again. It doesn't have to be overly complicated, but any teacher is very capable. You are very capable of hands on things.

[00:23:49] Victoria Zablocki

Awesome. Well, that was wonderful. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you coming on and sharing with everybody how they can actually implement STEM. It's a thing that they can do.

[00:23:59] Naomi Meredith

Thanks for having me. I had such a great time.

[00:24:06] Victoria Zablocki

Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of the Naturally Teaching Elementary Science Podcast. I hope you found it informative, inspiring, and full of actionable insights to enhance your science teaching journey. Connect with me on social media for more updates, science tidbits, and additional resources.

You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at naturally.teaching. Let's continue the conversation and share our passion for elementary science education together. Don't forget to visit my website at naturallyteaching.com for all the show notes from today's episode. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Your feedback helps me improve and reach more educators just like you. Thank you again for listening, and until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, and keep naturally teaching.