How to Create STEM Projects that Amaze Teachers?

Sometimes, teachers ask you to create STEM projects because they want to enhance your science vision. Have you wondered how to create an idea for your assignment, which has to engage your teachers? Let’s find out through a step-by-step guide. (Remember that “you” in the article represents the people doing the projects, but not necessarily the reader).

Table of Contents

Here are the primary points of this writing:

1. Think of an Idea
2. Conduct a Research
3. Make a Draft and Build your model
4. List the solutions of the problems
5. Retry with Different Settings
6. Write a report and submit your model
7. The Benefits of the projects

1. Think of an Idea

Firstly, you should think of amazing STEM ideas, both challenging and innovative, if the teacher doesn’t provide you the procedures or the item. For example, you can build a “semi-realistic” Mars rover set, which consists of a dynamic launchpad and a landing site with rough terrain in the background. We also require a rocket that can propel the thing to the site, a rover capable of operating in severe conditions, and thousands of lines of code. Making this product needs all aspects of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

But, we can also make something that aims explicitly at one or two subjects. For instance, we can write an app that can analyzes data efficiently and displays the results in a tidy dashboard. You can also utilize chemical reactions to animate something astonishing, for example, inflating something due to the vaporization of some substances. Moreover, you can make a tool that makes life more convenient, such as an application for the blind to cross the road safely.

2. Conduct a Research

Secondly, find the solution for the projects. You can either draw a draft of the purpose or research about how similar products work.

Firstly, try to search as many keywords as possible. For instance, searching str(project_name) + "STEM Project" is even better than just looking for the name on the Internet because you have to create STEM projects, not anything else. If you only say “Mars Rover”, there’s no guide to DIY models. Also, looking for more specialized synonyms can help, and use site:"domain.com" to find resources on a particular website. For more, please check out the official tips of Google Search.

Remember that the website’s ideas aren’t yours, so open a document for a bibliography and cite every webpage useful for your STEM projects.

3. Make a Draft and Build Your Model

Then, after you’ve done your research and took some notes of your ideas, make a draft for your DIY project either by hand or by using tools like Canva. Even better, you can use some software to create 3D images. After that, review your design to see if it’s really suitable to create the STEM projects.

After that, review the materials at home. Maybe you can utilize waste cardboard or plastic bottles to upcycle. Perhaps you can enroll in a course for the programming skills necessary for these complex data processing and displaying customizable analytical pages.

Then, after everything is ready, build your model. Be more flexible and creative as the materials are limited, and mistakes are inevitable. Keep in mind that’s actually the use of the scientific method, where the draft is the hypothesis, and the product is the experiment. So, don’t make that mentally too arduous — you have to motivate yourself to finish the project!

4. List the Solutions of the Problems

Then, we expect to have problems or failures with your projects. In fact, the more unique the STEM ideas are, the more likely it will fail since they are less tested. So, how to deal with these things? It’s best not to laugh because you’re stupid or silly. That’s the worst action to do for your problem-solving skills within such a formal environment. Instead, try to examine what happened immediately. The earlier the problem is discovered, the more likely you’ll find the root cause of the accident. But before that, please define the problem (e.g., incorrect output) to make them leave the course.

To get the best results, install a camera and a data recorder that doesn’t modify the prototype’s balance very much. That way, you can retrieve what went wrong more easily. In fact, airplanes do so by owning one CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder) and FDR (Flight Data Recorder) for each airframe. Remember to log any errors and returned values to the data recorder’s console: It can support finding any bugs or exceptions inside your code. The print() function in Python and the console.log() in JavaScript will achieve that.

Then, simply log any explicit problems into the document (use a different one from the references) and try them one by one in the coming procedure.

5. Retry with Different Settings

After you’ve identified your problem, you have to update your program or machine to fix that problem. In the worst-case scenario, the ideas may be too unprecedented and creative that it doesn’t work at all, and you have to redesign the STEM projects from scratch. More importantly, edit precisely about where you’ve gone wrong. If you’re unsure, it’s best to go back to the last step and point out the problem more earnestly.

Then, feel free to test again, even if you’re unsure. Remember that experimenting is one of the best ways to learn and create STEM projects. Also, it doesn’t matter if your product crashes again; it just clarifies that these settings are still problematic.

If your prototype suffered from a “hull loss” and we can’t use it anymore, don’t afraid to rebuild. We can take more time to reflect and revise your fault and be more vigilant to avoid throwing identical or similar errors.

Try to accomplish the same thing again; you’ll definitely realize there are even more flaws. But, it’s worth doing that because it helps us inspect and master a subject further.

6. Write a Report and Submit the Model

Finally, when you come up with a perfect, flawless option, and you have hard proof to that (test at least a few times to get accurate results!), take your time to write the report.

In fact, you should make it your project logbook and write down anything that went wrong: The teachers will praise you for your perseverance. Remember to be concise and create a natural flow. Take the ones that provides the most value.

When you’ve finished written the draft, consider editing with some tools like Grammarly. Grammatical mistakes and misspellings can literally spoil the project that you took weeks or months to complete. Moreover, it makes your essays more professional by adding clarity, engagement, and delivery issues.

Moreover, adding statistics can help as your process is more specific, and it’s more trustworthy. If you say “Only 9% of all experiments succeed”, it’s much better than “Very few experiments succeed”, right?

Also, include charts as they count as images, engage visitors more, and make your writing more professional. Remember to check the SEO guide and copywriting tips for a better report, especially if the teacher asks you to post that article online (or if you want to do so). Also, don’t forget to copy your problems and bibliography into that file!

7. The Benefits of the Projects

So, it may still seem difficult to create STEM projects, but let’s explain the endless benefits of achieving that.

First of all, they require the use of your knowledge. By doing it realistically, our memories stick much longer than the information in a textbook or this article. Then, you can develop an interest in learning new things and become better scientific people. That’s why STEM education exists, after all.

Let’s go a little deeper into the health benefits. It encourages collaboration, experimentation, and resilience. Each of them can make you be a more quality science explorer. Also, like what we said before, we have to take risks on every project you do. Additionally, it helps us to learn something from DIY: Some data in books or webpages may be modified (in your brain) after this trial-and-error loop.

Conclusion

So, here’s how to create STEM projects that amaze your teachers and the benefits of that. We also learned that we learn a lot from flaws and imperfections and the procedures of correction. We recommend you to write a report longer than this article (which is about 1,425 words long), and look forward to seeing our practical SEO tips.

References and Credits

1. (n.d.). How to search on Google – Google Search Help. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/134479?hl=en
2. Carson. (2020, November 5). The Scientific Method – Central Galaxy. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.centralgalaxy.com/the-scientific-method
3. (2019, October 23). Why Failure Is Good for Learning, and How It Applies to Your Struggling Students | Waterford.org. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.waterford.org/education/why-failure-is-better-than-success-for-learning/
4. Matthew Lynch. (2019, January 12). 7 Benefits of STEM Education – The Edvocate. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.theedadvocate.org/7-benefits-of-stem-education/
5. Jyotsna Dilip. (2019, September 15). 10 Benefits of STEM Education – KidEngage. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://kidengage.com/blog/2019/09/10-benefits-stem-education/