The following is a guest post from Dr. Jacie Maslyk.
Ready to head back to school? Thinking about new and creative ideas to decorate your classroom?
If you need some ideas for awesome STEM bulletin boards, look no further!
Whether you want something bold and colorful or a bulletin board that focuses on inspiration, our STEM and makerspace community members have shared their classroom creations with us. Bulletin boards can be used to spark an idea, support the effective management of your classroom, or provide content and instruction to students.
Bulletin boards can be designed to go with a classroom theme or used to feature student work. Some bulletin boards share instructional content and others are made to interact with. Our classroom visuals can catch the attention of our students and get them wondering.
Wonder Walls
Building on student curiosity and encouraging students to ask questions happens everyday in STEM classrooms. Wonder walls are places where we can develop student imagination and get them thinking.
This colorful display shared by Danielle Russo Houseman features questions that faculty and staff are curious about. This is a great way to model curiosity for students, as they see the familiar faces of their teachers for “Meet the Teacher” Night. Later in the year, student photos can be added paired with their wonderings.
There are lots of ways to spark student curiosity in the classroom. Using wonder walls like this one, or incorporating curiosity jars or idea journals are great ways to engage elementary students in thinking, questioning, and sharing ideas.
Wonder wall Danielle Russo Houseman
Management Tool
Bulletin boards can also be used as management tools.
The ideas that we display can provide directions on classroom materials or how to work effectively in a group. This board shared by Andria Sharp serves as a way to explain group roles in STEM challenges.
Clearly defining roles like team captain and materials manager can help especially during back to school design challenges, when students are still getting acclimated to the classroom. Group roles can support collaboration and communication with students throughout the school year.
Andria Sharp (Beapineapple)
Some boards can be used a way to get kids practicing their communication and collaboration skills.
This bulletin board focuses on “STEM Talk” and provides prompts for students to use. Whether finding a way to share an idea or expressing a misunderstanding, the board provides language for any classroom but especially in the STEM space.
Focus on Content
Bulletin boards can also be a great way to reinforce the content you are teaching in your classroom.
If you are teaching about robotics, you might include a timeline of the history of robots.
Maybe you are teaching about the water cycle and create a labeled image of the way that water changes or maybe it includes 3-D examples of different states of matter.
Maybe you are focused on women in STEM and display a bulletin board that shares information about the accomplishments of important women like Katherine Johnson or Jane Goodall.
Get Interactive
Interactive bulletin boards can be used by students. Maybe the display has flaps that lift and close revealing interesting STEM facts or include envelopes with quiz questions and answers.
Maybe your board has pieces and parts that students have to manipulate, like this mini building wall in Katie’s Harris’ classroom.
Katie Harris
Some interactive bulletin boards directly engage students in an actual STEM activity. Copper tape, mini LEDs, and coin cell batteries can be used so that students can practice creating circuits with conductive materials right on your classroom walls. Imagine the possibilities!
Bulletin boards that pull students into the learning allow for problem solving and creative thinking outside of the planned lesson. These areas can spark student imagination and can even be used as a planning blueprint for engineering design challenges.
Shine a Light
Bulletin boards were originally included in classrooms so that student work could be pinned to the board. These are still great spaces to show off student accomplishments. Maybe your bulletin board is a combination of student work and some classroom inspiration like this play-inspired board from Andria Sharp.
Andria Sharp Beapineapple
Featuring creative letters designed by her students along with quotes that encourage play, this board is bound to excite students as they return to school.
Let’s Celebrate
The classroom environment that we design should celebrate STEM learning. Maybe you are starting a brand new STEM space and want students to get excited. Jennifer Noah created this board for her new innovation lab. Sharing examples from each domain of STEM and creating something eye-catching will welcome students as they enter the new space.
Jennifer Noah
Decorating our bulletin boards with purpose ensures that we are using our classroom space to support student learning. Whatever you decide to showcase on your bulletin boards, be sure that they are colorful and engaging.
Share your favorite bulletin board in the comment section below, in our Facebook group, or tag us on Twitter!
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An educator for the last 23 years, Dr. Jacie Maslyk, has served as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, elementary principal, and assistant superintendent. She is the author of STEAM Makers: Fostering Creativity and Innovation in the Elementary Classroom, Connect to Lead: Power Up Your Learning Network to Move Your School Forward (ISTE), Remaking Literacy: Innovative Instructional Strategies for Maker Learning and Unlock Creativity: Opening a World of Imagination With Your Students. You can read more on her blog, Creativity in the Making, at www.jaciemaslyk.blogspot.com. Connect with Jacie on Twitter @DrJacieMaslyk or email her at jaciemaslyk@gmail.com .
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An educator for the last 23 years, Dr. Jacie Maslyk, has served as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, elementary principal, and assistant superintendent. She is the author of STEAM Makers: Fostering Creativity and Innovation in the Elementary Classroom, Connect to Lead: Power Up Your Learning Network to Move Your School Forward (ISTE), Remaking Literacy: Innovative Instructional Strategies for Maker Learning and Unlock Creativity: Opening a World of Imagination With Your Students. You can read more on her blog, Creativity in the Making, at www.jaciemaslyk.blogspot.com. Connect with Jacie on Twitter @DrJacieMaslyk or email her at jaciemaslyk@gmail.com .
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”