The lesson in the leaves. (STEM is everywhere.)

In the Marines we had this corporal who had us play these memory games. What he was helping us do was become hyper vigilant of our surroundings and commit to memory what we saw. I wasn't so sure it was working at first but then slowly I began to take notice of things I normally would have ignored. The lessons he taught us started to change how I saw my surroundings.

This past summer I had a similar experience which opened my eyes to things that once went unnoticed. A handful of us participated in the STEM TQ program which put us on the path to becoming STEM capable learners. One of the big ideas was to see STEM everywhere, from a ball point pen to why water ponds on the parking lot.

Today I had two experiences that made me stop and wonder. How is what I am seeing STEM?

I left Truman and saw this leaf tornado. The red boxes highlight some of the leaves that suddenly started spinning almost out of nowhere. Was it due to the shape of the building? Was it two weather fronts suddenly colliding right in front of me? So many question from this chance encounter.

When we left the house today the lawn was free of leaves and when we arrived home we found this odd assortment on the lawn. Leaves were only on one part of the lawn leaving the other part free of debris. The new pile of leaves had a strange curve to it. How is something like that formed? Was it a fluke or if we walked down the block we could see similar patterns?

The idea isn't always to answer these questions but it is to start to question. Without Googling or YouTubing we could spend a chunk of time investigating and wondering. These wondering could lead us to thinking about how sand or snow piles up when the winds blow. That idea could lead us to talk about the currents deep within the ocean. There is no end to where these simple STEM questions could lead.

What have you seen today that is STEM?  How could you take that one thing and start your kids questioning and wondering?