Creating STEM Learning Spaces That Can Travel
The Challenge of New STEM Learning Spaces
When I first considered setting up a STEM event at the library, I saw it as an opportunity for Dotty's Place to branch out. It was a chance to meet new families, work with more children, and bring hands-on STEM learning into another community space.
But I also had a lot of questions.
The teacher in me likes to be prepared. I was the teacher who either arrived very early or stayed very late. I had always wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking something. This need to prepare became especially evident when I changed classrooms or grade levels,
I often wrote detailed plans for how I wanted things to work.
Apparently, retirement hasn't made that part of me disappear.
A few days before the library event, I went in to size up the room. I had certain questions in mind. Questions like, How many tables were available? Were there boards I could use? What other activities would be happening that day? Would library staff be nearby? How much should parents participate?
I probably asked more questions than I needed to, and I'll admit that I felt a little embarrassed about that. But asking questions is how I learn. This was a new environment, and in some ways, I was starting from scratch.
STEM Game Time Meets the Library
One of my biggest concerns was movement and noise.
At a typical Dotty's Place STEM Game Time, I want children moving around. I want them talking. I don't mind when they combine materials from different kits because one idea suddenly leads to another.
A library required me to think about that freedom a little differently. For example, I knew I couldn't bring my red Solo Cups. Kids have a blast building enormous structures with them. But the first time a tower came crashing to the floor and everyone burst into laughter, I had a feeling I might not be invited back!
I didn't want to remove the things that make Dotty's Place special. I wanted to figure out how to adapt them to the space.
That meant becoming more purposeful about expectations, signs, and how the room itself communicated with children and adults. The signs didn't need to be filled with rules. They needed to quietly help everyone understand: Here's what happens in this space. Here's how you can participate. Here's how we can explore together.
That thinking eventually contributed to a name change. The library experience needed to be a little more structured than my usual STEM Game Time. In a funny way, it felt as though Dotty's Place was growing up a little.
Giving Adults a Role Without Taking Over
I had already been thinking about adding notebooks or simple manuals to my STEM kits. Preparing for the library pushed that idea further.
I began creating small cards to accompany activities. They provided children with a visual, but they also gave parents and volunteers some basic information about the kit—what children might explore, questions they could ask, and ways they could support the experience.
That distinction mattered to me.
I don't want an adult standing beside a child explaining exactly what to do. One of the things I value most at Dotty's Place is giving children opportunities to learn independently and grow at their own pace.
The cards gave adults something else: a way to support without taking over.
Then Something Clicked
During an earlier STEM Learning Page theme, I had been trying to explain how I "sneak" STEM into everyday activities. Instead of thinking only in terms of science, technology, engineering, and math as separate subjects, I started looking at the behaviors and actions children use when they're doing STEM.
They build. They create. They explore. They reason and solve problems.
Then I started looking at my STEM kits the same way.
Suddenly, I could sort activities into four zones—Build, Discover, Design, and Challenge.
That little change did something important.
It gave children a visual way to understand the room, but it also gave me a planning tool. When preparing for an event, I could look across the zones and immediately notice if everything I had chosen involved engineering. Had I remembered something connected to science? Was there an opportunity to explore? To create? To reason?
And, I have to admit, I had a blast color-coding everything and finding little icons for each area.
Creating a STEM Space That Can Travel
That's probably the biggest lesson I took from the experience.
Taking Dotty's Place into another setting wasn't simply a matter of packing up the bins and putting them on different tables. I needed to think about how to create a recognizable Dotty's Place learning environment wherever we happen to be.
The location may change. The amount of space may change. The rules may change. Even the activities may change.
But the heart of it shouldn't.
Children should still be able to walk into the space, become curious, make choices, experiment, talk about their ideas, and learn at their own pace.
And I'm only beginning to see where this can go.
I'm looking forward to bringing these STEM experiences to more libraries and community spaces around Tucson, hopefully a few times each month as the new year gets underway.
Maybe (just maybe) I'll visit a library near you.
Let me know where you are. I just might make a special trip.
If you have been inspired by my new STEM Exploration Lab, Here are a few of the tools that I'm sharing. I've created these products, just for this experience. I will keep adding to them, as I grow. Click here to: explore the four STEM learning zones and download starter signs and sample activity guides to adapt for your own classroom, library, homeschool, or community space.
Because whether it's in a classroom, a community center, a library, or somewhere we haven't thought of yet, STEM belongs to everyone.
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