From STEM to STEAM: Tunnel Books

A big joy of visiting schools is seeing how teachers integrate the Arts to ignite learning in fabulous STEAM-inspired projects. Beckery Renaud used this approach with her fifth- and sixth-graders at Pembroke Elementary School, who made these beautiful tunnel books inspired by Extreme Survivors: Animals That Time Forgot.

This project brings together Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Math in fun, elegant packages. Students research an animal (science and technology), construct a tunnel book (engineering and math), write a fact-based haiku and add their own artistic touches (the arts).

What a lovely surprise to walk into Beckery’s classroom and see these wonderful books and chat with students, who were so proud of their work.

I love this tardigrade hiding in the moss.

A sea sponge haiku. Who knew?

Tunnel books can be simple or elaborate and adapted for various grade levels and Common-Core Standards. The folks at Wonderopolis give a nice overview and how-to links.

Beckery’s project was part of Island Readers and Writers Literary Links to Science Program. For more ideas on using Extreme Survivors in the classroom, you can download IRW’s activity sheets, as well as my Extreme Survivors Reader’s Guide.

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