Activities & Standards
STEMACES activities are designed for the 8th grade science classroom to complement—not replace—existing curriculum while supporting NGSS and TEKS integration.
🎯 Program Overview
While standards-based curricula (e.g., NGSS and TEKS) ensure that 8th-grade students meet required science standards, many teachers want additional opportunities to engage in engineering and scientific practices. Students also need more opportunities to develop skills in these practices, such as computational thinking. STEMACES provides engineering design challenges that allow students to build their own engineering platforms for creating scientific experiments and analyzing data collected with the platform. This approach models how scientists conduct research by designing and building custom solutions to make scientific discoveries.
STEMACES activities integrate seamlessly into standards-based curricula, strengthening mastery of 8th-grade science standards while also providing opportunities to revisit 6th- and 7th-grade concepts in support of 8th-grade state science assessments. For rural teachers who are responsible for teaching technology and/or computer science standards, many of these requirements can be addressed within the science classroom. This approach maximizes instructional time in rural learning environments and promotes greater equity in STEM learning opportunities for rural students.
For schools implementing our program, we offer a catalogue of activities designed to build on and accompany the science learning that is already happening. Activities are broken into two categories:
Foundational Activities
Implemented with the Learning by Making Technology Platform, introducing students to systems thinking, digital and analog signals, sensors, coding, and electrical engineering.
Engineering Challenges
Three activities that empower students to use their understanding of code, hardware, and sensors to gather and interpret data.
💡 Foundational Activities
Circuit Systems
Introduces electrical circuit systems using LEDs, resistors, breadboards, and components. Students explore systems thinking and consider how systems function in their environment.
Light Show
Students create musical light displays using their BasicBoards. Teachers demonstrate their own shows during professional learning sessions—always a huge hit in the classroom!
Intro to Sensors
The final foundational activity gives students skills to interact with sensors throughout the Engineering Challenges. Students learn to use the light sensor and interpret the data displayed in real time in the Web App.
⚙️ Engineering Challenges
With foundational knowledge complete, students tackle real-world engineering challenges! Each utilizes sensors to gather data for interpretation and analysis, with clear goals, criteria, materials, and constraints.
Night Light
Design a circuit that responds to changes in light conditions using sensors and programming.
Winter Coat
Investigate insulation properties and temperature changes using sensor data collection.
Capturing Motion
Explore motion, position and velocity, by interpreting data using sensor technology.
📚 Standards Integration
NGSS Integration
STEMACES activities support students' use of scientific and engineering practices. Teachers choose how to integrate challenges into their established curriculum through our Professional Learning Sessions.
TEKS Alignment
A standards-based approach arises from combining STEMACES activities, professional learning sessions, and adopted science curriculum. 8th-grade standards are met through hands-on experiences with modern technology.
🚀 STEMACES in Action
Our activities empower students to engage in hands-on, modern science practices with real technology. We're supporting teachers and inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers—one circuit, one sensor, one discovery at a time.