Engage Your English Language Learners in STEM With these Videos

When I was first hired at my Mexico- bordering district, I remember my students would think an engineer was a train conductor. They had no idea what stem was, and not even my 6th graders could differentiate what each of the letters in stem represented. I learned that my students needed extra support in teaching what Stem is, and the videos found in this post were a hit with my English Language Learning students and engaged them in what’s to come. 

 

 

I needed my students’ buy-in, so as I was building a strong, nurturing relationship with my students in the 13+ classes I was supposed to go to as a cart STEM teacher.  I began collecting a sweet little collection of videos that teach and introduce STEM in a fun and engaging way. All of my students were highly engaged any time a short video clip was shown in class. They had great visuals and left a lasting impression. 

 

In this collection of What is Stem videos, each one is used for a different purpose. They are shown on different days and lessons in my classes. The goal is not to show them all in one day, but to place them in the correct lessons. You can use the poster from this post on the engineering design process. 

 

 

 

 

I joke that I love this video because it’s talking about tacos, but it truly is awesome! Students will be taken through the engineering design process in a very simple problem. If you are introducing the engineering design process for the first time, this is a great video to share. 

 

I usually stop after each step and we write on an anchor chart what the step is and what it looks like for the taco stem challenge. 

 

 

 

This is a part of a commercial, but I love showing this video because it shows Molly, a young girl,  invent new things to help with her problems. This has always been a class (and teacher) favorite. In the video, she gets bored with the menial tasks at home or at school. She wants to be free in what she wants to do, so she creates systems of inputs and outputs to help her get the job done. 

 

I use this video when I am teaching my robotics students about invention and innovation. This is a very important lesson for stem class because they need to know why stem professions keep making or improving designs. 

 

While this commercial is running, I ask the students to jot down what inventions Molly comes up with. We discuss them, and if we have time we rate the inventions from most impactful to least impactful. Be forewarned, your students will want to watch this multiple times. 

 

 

 

This was is a total favorite because the visuals are awesome for my English Language Learners in stem class, and it goes into the different jobs of engineers. When you want to engage students in stem careers, then this is the video to show! Your students will get exposed to careers they may have never even heard of. 

 

I usually do a little research project and ask my students to learn more about one of the stem professions and share it with the rest of the class. 

 

 

 

This is a well-made video for students about engineering. It may be too fast-paced for many of my students, but I learned to slow down the playback speed. This helped my English language learners and other diverse learners. 

 

This is one of the first videos I share when we go into stem challenges. I let my students know that they are engineers in my class for the day or the entirety of the design challenge. 

 

 

 

This is another excellent video that goes over the engineering design process made by the same channel as the previous “What’s an Engineer?” Video. It is a very well made video, but I also slow down the playback speed for my diverse learners. The colors and animations make it very engaging for the students, and it is a great alternative to the taco engineering design process video. 

 

Looking to embed ELA with science (or vice versa)? Get these writing prompts that will get your students thinking about what they’re learning in science class as they practice their writing skills!