STEM Group Work Made Easy – Job Descriptions for STEM Roles

This set of posters and lanyards has been created to assist the running of small group STEM activities in the classroom. Assigning specific roles will encourage your students to be collaborative and work well in a team environment. By working together towards a common goal, your students will learn how to communicate effectively. The lanyards are a great tool to remind students of what each group members role is within the team.

The different roles within this resource are:

• Challenge Captain responsible for making decisions, providing encouragement, asking for assistance and making sure the team stays on task.
• Materials Master responsible for deciding on materials during the planning stage, gathering materials for the building phase and ensuring materials used correctly and safely.
• Testing Coordinator responsible for testing materials, inspecting the construction, ensuring the team is making progress during the construction and testing once construction is complete.
• Construction Worker responsible for building the construction, advising when the construction should be tested, ensuring the plans are being followed and using the proper equipment and safety measures.
• Chief Architect responsible for deciding which ideas to use during the planning stage, making modification to the plan, drawing a plan of the construction and monitoring during the building process.
• Reporter responsible for asking the team to reflect on the challenge, encouraging members to share successes and problems, organising the teams feedback and repotting back to the class.
• Safety Officer – Ensuring that all materials are organised neatly, keeping others away from the building site, passing materials to workers and ensuring the safety of the construction.

STEM Challenge Ideas

If you’re looking for some STEM challenge ideas to use in the classroom along with these job description posters and lanyards, there are many simple activities that you can set up for your class including:

1. Build a Bridge: Challenge: Using only popsicle sticks and glue, build a bridge that can span a gap between two desks. Objective: Explore principles of engineering and structural stability while designing and constructing a bridge.
2. Create a Paper Airplane Launcher: Challenge: Design and build a simple launcher using rubber bands and cardboard to launch a paper airplane. Objective: Apply principles of physics and engineering to create a device that converts potential energy into kinetic energy.
3. Make a Straw Tower: Challenge: Build the tallest tower possible using only drinking straws and tape. The tower must support a small object at the top. Objective: Experiment with stability and geometric shapes while constructing a tower that can withstand vertical loads.
4. Design a Foil Boat: Challenge: Using aluminum foil, design and build a boat that can float in a basin of water while holding the maximum number of pennies. Objective: Explore buoyancy and displacement while designing a vessel that can support a load without sinking.
5. Create a Simple Circuit: Challenge: Build a basic electrical circuit using a battery, wires, and a light bulb. Make the bulb light up. Objective: Learn about electrical conductivity and circuitry by assembling a simple circuit that demonstrates the flow of electricity.

Kaylyn Chupp, a Teach Starter collaborator, contributed to this resource.

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