The Natural Sciences Education & Outreach Center collaborates with CSU faculty, National Parks and citizen science programs to translate their current scientific research into unique STEM experiences for students.
What is a STEM Kit?
A STEM Kit is a box of activities and experiments designed specifically to teach Scientific Inquiry and the Nature of Science. Each kit is designed to be guided inquiry and is paired with the current research that happening at CSU or around the world!
How is a STEM Kit used in a classroom?
A classroom set is composed of 15 identical kits designed to be student-centered, guided inquiry explorations. Each kit is meant to be used by 2 students, for a total of 30 students at a time.
Paired students work at their own pace, while the teacher takes on the role of facilitator and guide. The students become the scientists, focusing on the scientific process, scientific illustration, data collection and analysis, and communication of results.
Each kit contains just about all of the materials needed (minus common things like water and paper towels) to explore some really interesting scientific research topics.
Topics and levels
Each kit listed below is ranked by level of facilitation needed by students and does not refer to the difficulty level of the kit content. The grade level range is indicated for each specific kit. More information about each kit is available on each kit’s web page.
Level 1 Kits:
These kits require minor student-teacher interaction and can be checked out by any educator.
- Going Viral STEM Kit: Examine what viruses are and how the human immune system fights against them by simulating an epidemiological modeling with and without vaccinations and herd immunity. (4th through 12th grades) ¡Disponible en español!
- Plankton to Plastic Pollution STEM Kit: Plastic is everywhere! In our daily lives, we rely on plastic more than we think. Students learn about pollution to be part of the solution. (4th through 12th grades) ¡Disponible en español!
- Really Ancient Fossils STEM Kit: Learn how paleontologists uncover past events that led to the fossilization of a community of sea creatures millions of years ago. (6th through 12th grades)
- Soils of Fire STEM Kit: Analyze three soil samples from different areas of the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire to examine how carbon moves through the environment. (6th through 12th grades) ¡Disponible en español!
Level 2 Kits:
These kits require some student-teacher interaction and can be checked out by educators who have 1) attended a STEM Friday with their students; 2) attended an NSEOC Key Note featuring a STEM kit; OR 3) successfully borrowed and returned kits in the past.
- Anchialine Pools STEM Kit: Uncover how the hidden groundwater is vital to the survival of these culturally significant pools that are unique to the islands of Hawaiʻi.(4th through 12th grades, local pick-up only)
- Bees Please! STEM Kit: Find out and exchange data from an on-going citizen science project about different species of bees to explore bee biodiversity and behavior. (4th through 12th grades)
- Fossil Forests STEM Kit: Explore how trees and plants become fossilized. (8th through 12th grades)
- Get Critical! STEM Kit: How does information get from one place to another so quickly? Carry on experiments with optical fibers to learn about reflection, refraction, critical angles, and diffraction. (6th through 12th grade) ¡Disponible en español!
- Get Energized! STEM Kit: Explore what it takes to develop a new, more efficient battery and solar panel by testing different materials. (4th through 12th grades) ¡Disponible en español!
- Solar Cars STEM Kit: Learn about engineering design principals and iterative prototyping by designing the most efficient solar car possible.(4th through 12th grades)
Level 3 Kits:
These kits require quite a bit of vigilance and student-teacher interaction in order for all students to have success. They can be checked out only with EOC staff approval.
- High Tech Rocks! STEM Kit: Learn the science behind the technology in your electronic devices! Become a solid-state chemist by manipulating natural materials (like minerals) to produce useful physical properties (like magnets). (9th through 12th grades)
- Secrets of the Hibernators STEM Kit: Marmots, among other hibernating animals, hold answers to many health problems that humans face. Through experiments and data analysis, recognize how metabolism is moderated seasonally. (6th through 12th grades)
- Vital Ice STEM Kit: Interpret data collected from Denali National Park using model ice cores and learn about the concept of permafrost in a unique way. (6th through 12th grades)
- Wonder of Wolves STEM Kit: Gain understanding about the role and effects that wolves have in the ecosystem and in people through a series of activities that incorporate social structure, behavior, diet, and diverse human perspectives. (6th through 12th grades) ¡Disponible en español!
- Hominid Skull Set: By measuring different skull parameters, students see similarities and differences between seven hominid relatives and infer evolutionary advances: Proconsul africanus, Pan troglodytes, Australopithecus africanus, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens neander-thalensis, Cro-Magnon, and Homo sapiens. A pre-lab activity where students reconstruct broken pottery gives younger students a better understanding of how paleontologists reconstruct fossils. (6th through 12th grades)
- GetWET Water Education**: The GetWET Observatory, located on CSU property along Spring Creek is a groundwater well field, allows students to study the interaction between the creek and the groundwater. **These can only be borrowed by teachers trained to use the GetWet backpacks. (6th through 12th grades)
Who can check out the STEM Kits?
The kits are available for teachers and informal educators in Colorado to check out for a duration of a week by submitting one of the following forms:
Loan Application Forms
The loan application forms require you to confirm your email address before it will be sent to the EOC – so once you click submit, check your email (including the junk folder)! You should also get a copy of the form for your records via email, if you don’t please contact Courtney.
- Local Pick-Up Loan Application Form – for educators in the immediate area of Fort Collins (i.e.: Greeley, Loveland, Ault, Windsor, Johnstown, etc.)
- Delivery Loan Application Form – for educators in Colorado outside of the immediate Fort Collins area
Return loan application forms to Courtney Gooding Butler via email (courtney.butler@colostate.edu) or fax (970-491-2005).
Does checking out a STEM Kit have a cost?
Thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation and generous donations from individuals and foundations we are able to make these resources available to educators at no cost.
Feedback Survey
- Teacher Feedback Survey – after using a STEM kit, teachers must provide the EOC with feedback in order to request another kit.
Scientific inquiry is more complex than popular conceptions would have it. It is, for instance, a more subtle and demanding process than the naive idea of “making a great many careful observations and then organizing them.” It is far more flexible than the rigid sequence of steps commonly depicted in textbooks as “the scientific method.” It is much more than just “doing experiments,” and it is not confined to laboratories. More imagination and inventiveness are involved in scientific inquiry than many people realize, yet sooner or later strict logic and empirical evidence must have their day. Individual investigators working alone sometimes make great discoveries, but the steady advancement of science depends on the enterprise as a whole.
– Benchmarks for Science Literacy
