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Ways to Support STEM@home
Join us for Virtual Family STEM Night

STEM@home continues this spring, in service to over 850 Chicago students!

Project Exploration (PE) has created transformative learning opportunities for youth underrepresented in the sciences –particularly students of color and girls – for more than 20 years. In the face of the coronavirus crisis, our mission and resolve reach youth and families remains the same. STEM@home provides:

For Students

STEM@home provides fun activities to do with stuff you have at home! For every activity you complete, share what you learned on social media to become a #STEMfluencer or share your work on our Share It Portal to earn points. If you need help, call or text our STEM@home hotline: 312-772-6634

For Parents

We know daily life has become more challenging since the pandemic started. If you are having a hard time getting food, internet, or other resources, we want to hear from you and help! Project Exploration has created PE Cares, a hotline and page of information on our website to make sure your family is safe during this crisis. You may also call and/or text us for help: 312-702-1370

For Families

Most South and West Side Chicago families who register for STEM@home qualify to earn points and prizes from the Explore Store. Earn points as your child completes activities and participate in program sessions. Prizes in the Explore Store include gift cards, tablets and laptops, family trips, and more! Learn more and register today.

Let’s Explore!

On this page, you’ll find all of our STEMbook pages. This is the collection of on-demand activities we prepared for you to do cool experiments and engineer with materials you probably already have at home! These are free to use and we hope you will share your favorites with friends, teachers, and your community.

If you live in the Chicago area, register for STEM@home to receive a collection of these activities every month in your own mailed STEMkit, along with all the supplies you need to complete the projects. For qualifying families, STEMkits and participation in PE programs is completely FREE! Spring programs kick off in February.

Register for Spring Programs

STEM@home is made possible by our sponsors:

Project Exploration STEMbooks

For All Ages

Before you can fully dive into the wonderful world of STEM, you first must understand how scientists and engineers THINK. These graphic organizers and fun, hands-on activities will introduce you to scientific inquiry and the engineering design process and get you thinking like a real world scientist or engineer!

K – 2nd Grade Activities

3rd-5th Grade Activities

6th-8th Grade – Scientific Inquiry and Engineering Design Process

STEM Read Aloud Activities

STEM Inside

STEM Outside

STEM Challenges

STEM Halloween

STEM Holidays

Earn points by sharing what your family learned by completing activities

Share It Portal

Keep scrolling for additional resources! Check back often for new activities and updates!

Additional Resources

 

SCHEDULE

Looking to develop a schedule for your child while at home? Keep scrolling to find tips and sample schedules to make a productive schedule for learning and staying sane as a family at home.

STEM RESOURCES

Still looking for additional resources around interactive STEM activities? Find additional activities and online resources below, including those around education standards, STEM video channels, and literacy.

Build a Schedule

The school day is often highly routine and structured to provide students a place of predictability and safety. To ensure that students are getting as much of a structured environment as possible during this time away from school, try creating a schedule of events during the day. Try your best to incorporate set amounts of time for creativity, independent work, academic time, and movement. There have been a variety of schedules posted online as a response to the virus in an effort to help guide adults who are home with children during the day. Here is an example of a schedule for younger children, and another example for upper elementary students.

Other helpful links surrounding routines and structure outside of school:

  1. TIME’s The Secret to Keeping Your Kids Happy, Busy and Learning if Their School Closes Due to Coronavirus
  2. Today’s Teaching kids at home due to coronavirus? Homeschooling moms share their tips

Standards Based STEM Content

  1. NextGen Science 6th and 7th grade vocabulary flash cards
  2. IL 6th grade Biology
  3. IL 7th grade Astronomy
  4. IL 7th grade Chemistry
  5. IL 7th grade Earth Science
  6. IL 7th grade Energy
  7. Duckster’s Science for Kids**
  8. Science Worksheets **
  9. BrainPop **
    1. Login with username ProjectExploration and password Project2020!
  10. MysteryScience **
  11. Garfield Park Conservatory Botany **
  12. Art Institute of Chicago Art + Science Curricula
  13. University of Chicago Tutoring Program
  14. The Field Museum’s Dinosaurs Giants from the Past Curricula
  15. The Field Museum’s Learning Resources **
  16. FermiLab Life Science Resources **
  17. ST Math **
  18. STEM Lessons by Boeing

STEM Activities at Home

**Signifies an activity that can be modified to be used for early childhood or with older students.

  1. Ice Cream in a Bag (Chemistry)**
  2. Behavior of Light (Energy)
  3. Graham Cracker Tectonic Boundaries (Earth Science)**
  4. Coding Activities (Computer Science)
  5. Design Squad (Engineering Process and Design)
  6. Water Cycle in a Bag (Earth Science) **
  7. Floating Egg (Physical Science) **
  8. Weather Fronts Interactive (Earth Science)
  9. Seasons Interactive and Quiz (Earth Science)
  10. Lunar Phases Interactive and Quiz (Astronomy)
  11. STEM Simulations (all disciplines)**
  12. Marshmallow Equations (Chemistry)
  13. Earth’s Processes Sorting (Earth Science)
  14. Space Place (Astronomy)
  15. Homemade Kazoos (Energy)**
  16. Science Experiments with Household Supplies (all disciplines) **
  17. Magic Milk (Chemistry)**
  18. Marble Run (Engineering Process and Design) **
  19. Layered Liquids (Physical Science) **
  20. DIY Sensory Table **
  21. DIY Sensory Bottle **
  22. Ultimate STEM Guide for Kids (all disciplines) **
  23. TGR EDU: Explore (Project-Based STEM Learning)
  24. SciGirls (all disciplines)**
  25. Garfield Park Conservatory Tour **
  26. Garfield Park Conservatory Botany Activities **
  27. Project MC2 Activities **
  28. Smithsonian 3D Interactive
  29. Density for Daredevils Lab
  30. The Field Museum’s Field Guide **
  31. Museum of Science and Industry Hands-On Science **
  32. Museum of Science and Industry Online STEM Games **
  33. CodeMonkey Coding Activities
  34. Computer Science Activities for the Home Pre-K to University **
  35. GirlsWhoCode Code at Home **
  36. Make Your Own Bouncy Ball **
  37. Make a Walking Paper Horse **
  38. Rachel Ignotofsky STEM Themed Coloring Sheets **
  39. Digital Adventures STEM Online Classes **
  40. FUSE Studio ** Use studio code ABLE GAME 703 to enter.
  41. Exploring Sound with NASA ** Only available on April 9!
  42. Virtual Field Trip to Johnson Space Center (Use the guide to help you discover!)
  43. BudBurst Nature Activities **
  44. Quarantine Kickstart with STEM Sports Workshop Only available on on April 23!

STEM Videos & Channels

**Signifies videos that are more suitable for early childhood.

  1. SciShow
  2. SciShow Kids **
  3. Simple Science **
  4. Crash Course Kids **
  5. Crash Course
  6. Seeker
  7. TedEd
  8. VSauce
  9. Kurzgesagt
  10. USA Science and Engineer Festival Speakers
  11. SciGirls** (en Espanol)
  12. Misson Unstoppable
  13. Project MC2 Videos **
  14. Smithsonian Science How Webcast
  15. Smithsonian STEMin30 Air and Space Videos
  16. Density for Daredevils Lab **
  17. The Field Museum’s BrainScoop Series **
  18. Museum of Science and Industry Videos **
  19. STEM For All Early Ed Playlist **
  20. STEM For All Higher Ed Playlist
  21. Chicago Botanic Garden’s live feed of the Circle Garden

STEM Literacy

Reading is extremely important to the academic success of a child. The benefits of reading at least twenty minutes a day is seen long after a child leaves a classroom. If the activities, videos, or working with content seems out of reach, reading should be an absolute. Encourage children of all ages to read-to-self, read aloud, and also listen to you read aloud to them. You can find more strategies to help better your student’s reading ability here. The following resources are fantastic for finding current, content-related, informational text for students. Both websites allow you to search by Lexile level, which is the level of text your student is able to read and understand. If available, reference your student’s NWEA report. The NWEA will give you your child’s RIT score and a range, and these numbers correspond with their Lexile level. These numbers will be next to their reading score on their NWEA report. You can see the Lexile level and corresponding grade in the table, below:

  1. NewsELA: informational text from a variety of contents at all Lexile levels with additional comprehension and vocabulary activities.
  2. ReadWorks: informational text from a variety of contents at all Lexile levels with additional comprehension and vocabulary activities
  3. Story Time from Space: STEM-themed books read-alouds with astronauts from the Space Station
  4. Talk About the Text: strategies to help with reading comprehension
  5. Seymour Simon ReadAlouds: listen to STEM-themed books being read aloud

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