Preparation

Prior to conducting this activity:

1. Find an appropriate venue for the Ignite Activity Fair. You’ll need a large space with tables for several demonstrations. The number of groups (and therefore tables) depends on your number of students; plan to have groups made of 3-4 students.
2. Book your audience’s time. The fair requires an adult audience to whom students will present. These can be J&J staff, school staff, parents, or others. Book their time in advance; make it clear where and when they need to be.
3. Procure prizes for the Ignite Activity Fair; if you’re using groups of 3-4, buy four prizes to cover larger teams. Prizes could locally relevant—a gift certificate to a local restaurant, or a souvenir from your town, or something else.
4. Procure stipends for students to buy supplies. You can decide on the amount in advance—the below directions assume $20 per group.
5. Optional–Identify a field trip venue for the first and second session. The plan below calls for a field trip in the first task of this activity. The field trip should be to a place where students can witness science in action. We recommend science museums or J&J sites.
6. Session 3 requires BTE to take one student from each group to a store; identify the store in advance. It should be large and varied enough to have supplies for many different projects. Arrange for transportation and an adult to travel with the students for the trip.

Implementation

SESSION 1: Introduction to STEM²D & the Activity (1 hour)

1. Use the Session 1 PowerPoint provided to guide your presentation for this activity.
2. Ask students if they have heard of the acronym “STEM” or “STEM²D” and ask them to define it if they have.
3. Introduce STEM²D, making sure to note that Manufacturing and Design are Johnson & Johnson innovations, and that these subjects are all interrelated:

• Science: Observing, studying, and experimenting to better understand the natural world and how it works.
• Technology: Putting science and other knowledge to practical use to solve problems, invent useful tools, envision new possibilities, and establish meaningful connections between people and the world that surrounds them.
• Engineering: Applying science and math principles to design and develop products, structures, ma-chines, tools, or systems that improve everyday life. Mathematics: Using a quantitative framework (numbers, quantities, shapes, abstract principles, and problem solving) to describe the world.
• Manufacturing: Creating something from raw materials by hand or by machinery.
• Design: Creating, constructing, or inventing an object, plan, product, or system; it is also a human-centered mindset and collaborative approach that results in better experiences by uncovering unmet needs and championing meaningful relationships through user-friendly products, environments, and systems.

3. Ask students if they have learned about, or seen on site visits, any careers that fall into these buckets.

4. Tell students why STEM²D skills are critical—Some selling points:

• STEM²D fosters inquiring minds, logical reasoning, creative thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. To succeed in this new information-based and highly technical society, all students need to develop these cross-cutting skills and capabilities at levels beyond what was considered acceptable in the past.
• STEM²D knowledge allows people to be more engaged global citizens who: Make informed decisions about health and safety; Are better able to participate in public policy decisions and debates; Manage daily lives that increasingly rely on technology; Find solutions for challenges that face our global population
• STEM²D is good for getting good jobs. Experts indicated that almost all of the 30 fastest-growing occupations in the next decade will require at least some background in STEM. Between 2014 and 2024, the number of STEM jobs will grow 17 percent, compared with 12 percent for non-STEM jobs. This represents an increase of about 1 million new jobs. Demand for design professionals is also high and growing. For example, between 2010 and 2014 design employment grew by 21.7% compared to 6.1% for the UK economy as a whole

5. Introduce the Challenge:

• J&J sponsors the WiSTEM²D initiative, which is geared towards getting students involved in STEM²D subjects—one type of activity they perform are “Ignite” activities, which are 10-15 minute presentations performed for students that will get them excited in a STEM²D topic.
• Your challenge is to split into teams and create one of these activities. To create a successful Ignite activity, you will need to think about would interest other students your age about a STEM2D topic, what the important points to hit about your topic would be, and how you can demonstrate the topic in a tangible way.
• Your demonstration should include information about the topic—including its definition and what jobs fall under that topic—and a practical demonstration of it, some sort of physical experiment you perform while making your presentation. Your team will have a chance to buy materials for your experiment tomorrow.
• All of you will present your ignite activity in an Ignite Activity Fair [tell students the date, time, and place you have selected]. An audience will come through the fair, view all of your demonstrations, and use raffle tickets to vote on which project is best. The winning project will receive a prize.
• This challenge will be done in four discrete steps. They are:
  • Task 1: Identifying STEM2D—Students will learn about the STEM²D topics, and identify them in a real-world setting. We recommend using a science museum for this, but a field trip to a J&J site or other activity may also work
  • Task 2: Designing & Budgeting the Ignite Activity—In teams, students will come up with at least three ideas for Ignite Activities and pick the best one. They will budget the ideas, based on a small stipend the team will be given for supplies.
  • Task 3: Buying & Building the Ignite Activity—Teams will receive a small allowance, and be taken to a supermarket for supplies. Student teams will put together presentation materials and their demonstrations.
  • Task 4: Ignite Activity Fair—Teams will assemble their Ignite Activity and demonstrate the activities for the ABTS attendees and each other in a fair. Attendees will judge the best Ignite Activity, and a winner will be named.

6. Allow the students two minutes to sort into teams before continuing Task 1.
7. Introduce the field trip site & give students Handout 1—

• Now that we’re in teams, we will go to the Science Museum to explore these STEM²D topics in depth. As teams, you’ll explore the museum, and gather ideas for your SPARK activities.
• Each of you have a copy of Handout 1—it’s a form that will guide you in the museum. As you find exhibits, note them down on the form and what STEM²D category they may fall into. Remember—these categories are interrelated so one exhibit may fall into multiple categories. Your job is to think about and discuss as a team how the topics relate to the exhibits you find.

8. If leaving immediately, take students to transportation in an orderly fashion. If the sessions will be split up, give students details on where or when to meet.

SESSION 2 (optional): Task 1—Identifying STEM²D At a science museum or other site (2 hrs plus travel time)

1. If you have a science museum close to you, consider incorporating this activity to the STEM²D Ignite Activity Challenge. Arrange a field trip to the museum, and give the students 1.5 to 2 hours to explore the museum
2. In front of museum establish ground rules:

• Students should explore the museum in groups, or in pairs if they choose to split up.
• Students have 1.5 hours to explore the museum. Meet at a specified location afterwards.
• Students should complete their handout as they explore

3. Give students 1.5 hours to explore museum
4. After meeting—provide or take students to lunch or a debrief
5. Over lunch or debrief, discuss exhibits—

• Best/worst parts of the trip?
• Which STEM²D fields did they see and where?
• What lessons can students pull from this field trip to create engaging Ignite Activities?
• Overall opinion of the place

6. Finish up and travel back to your classroom or release students.

Session 3: task 2 & 3—Designing, budgeting, Buying, and building the ignite activity (4 hrs—this session may be split up or lengthened)

1. Use the Session 2 & 3 PowerPoint provided to guide your presentation for this activity.
2. Review the Challenge and explain the next phase of it: Student teams will brainstorm 2-3 ideas for ignite activities using Handout 2.
3. Students should use Handout 3 to budget the activity. They have a set amount of money to purchase supplies. The handout gives students four basic criteria to use while budgeting:
   • Determine if a material is needed or wanted—i.e. if it’s essential to a demonstration or if it will just add value
   • Determine if there are conditions under which you should buy or not buy—i.e. if element x is needed to activate element y, you should not buy element y unless the store also has element x.
   • Estimated cost
   • Maximum allowable cost

3. After students have had time to design and budget out an idea or two, have a BTE volunteer take one student from each group to a store to purchase supplies. Give students no longer than thirty minutes at the store and head back.
4. While students are at the store, their teammates should be creating the supplementary materials for the presentation. This includes any visuals, background information, or diagrams the students need to support their presentation.

• At a minimum, visual materials should include a title, and identify which STEM²D subject or subjects are shown in the demonstration.

5. Once the student team has returned from the store, allow students to continue free work until the end of their time. They may need to test experiments, so be aware clean-up may be needed.
6. At the end of the session, bring the students together and remind them that the next meeting will be the Fair. Remind them of where and when they need to be for the session, how long they will have to set up their demonstrations, and other pertinent information.

Session 4: Ignite Activity Fair (2 hours)

1. Reconvene your students and explain the parameters of the next session:
   1. Students will have a half hour to set up their demonstrations in the venue, and then a half hour to practice their experiments and vote on each other’s projects.
   2. At the end of the practice period, the general audience will enter. Each person will have 3 raffle tickets—they can use these to vote for the best project, and the team with the most tickets in the end will win a prize.
   3. Let students know when winners will be announced–either at the end of this session or at another event.
2. BTE volunteers should organize the general audience. Brief the audience on the rules—they should award their raffle tickets to projects they find the most engaging and well-presented. The audience may distribute their tickets however they see fit; three tickets to the most engaging group, one ticket each to three groups, etc.
3. Allow the students to set up for a half hour
4. Once the students have set up, call them to attention; have groups present one at a time for the entire class. Once all have presented, give students two minutes to distribute their own tickets.
5. Student Teams will continue their presentations as adult ABTS attendees rotate through. Certain experiments may only be able to be shown a few times—students should figure out a plan for this.
6. Have Adult attendees will circulate for ninety minutes, or until they have seen all experiments
7. At the end, BTE volunteers should retrieve the tickets and count them up. You can reconvene the class to announce the winner or do so at another event. You should have prizes prepared for the winners.

Reflection

After the activity, ask BTE students to review and reflect.  Consider using the following questions to spark a large group discussion and/or written reflection:

• What was the most effective Ignite Activity you saw? What made it so impressive?
• What are three things you learned about making presentations?
• What would you do differently if you could do this again?

Key Vocabulary

STEM2D: An acronym comprised of:

• Science: Observing, studying, and experimenting to better understand the natural world and how it works.
• Technology: Putting science and other knowledge to practical use to solve problems, invent useful tools, envision new possibilities, and establish meaningful connections between people and the world that surrounds them.
• Engineering: Applying science and math principles to design and develop products, structures, ma-chines, tools, or systems that improve everyday life. Mathematics: Using a quantitative framework (numbers, quantities, shapes, abstract principles, and problem solving) to describe the world.
• Manufacturing: Creating something from raw materials by hand or by machinery.
• Design: Creating, constructing, or inventing an object, plan, product, or system; it is also a human-centered mindset and collaborative approach that results in better experiences by uncovering unmet needs and championing meaningful relationships through user-friendly products, environments, and systems.