- [Announcer] "IQ: smartparent" is made possible in part by the McCune Foundation and the Grable Foundation.

- Today, we are all about family pastimes with an educational twist, and the activities we'll tell you about have an off the charts fun factor, like this high-tech treasure hunt called geocaching.

We'll also show you how to get creative with science and math experiments.

And you can do it with art supplies you probably already have lying around the house.

Plus discover the best way parents can collaborate with their kids by playing and learning together.

We've got a parent's guide to educational activities you can do at home.

So stay with us, because "IQ: smartparent" starts right now.

(bright music) Welcome to "IQ: smartparent."

I'm your host Darieth Chisolm.

We know parents are always on the lookout for exciting family activities.

Well, today, discover pastimes that do double duty, they're fun and educational.

We're going to focus on those all important STEM and STEAM skills, science, technology, engineering, math and art and design.

They are crucial skills for 21st century kids.

But mom and dad, there's no reason why you can't join in on all of the fun as well.

We'll kick things off today with guests who are here to tell us about a hot new hobby called geocaching.

Welcome to Lo Hutelmyer from the nonprofit organization Venture Outdoors and Amber Rooke, education coordinator for the Brashear Association, a community nonprofit serving youth and families.

Welcome to you both.

So geocaching, first off, it's a fancy term, but basically, it's like a high tech hide and seek, right?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Yeah, yeah.

So then why don't you tell us a little bit more about what geocaching is?

- Yeah, sure.

So you pretty much summed it up perfectly.

It is a high-tech scavenger hunt.

You use a GPS device or a cellphone to go and search for these hidden treasures that are spread all throughout the world, actually.

And Venture Outdoors has their own GPS units and we plant geocaches in local parks and along trails and kids and families go and search for them.

- It sounds like a lot of fun.

So how popular is this here in the United States versus maybe other countries?

- Yeah, so the headquarters of geocaching is actually in Seattle.

So it's a pretty popular hobby in America, but it is all over the world.

There are actually two million caches all around the world.

- But is this expensive?

If I wanted to start it on my own or maybe have some fun with my family, does it cost a lot?

- So there are a lot of different options.

You can get really fancy and get a nice GPS unit that might be a little pricey, but there's a bunch of apps that you can download on your phone.

A few of them are free and you can search for geocaches on this free app, so you can do it right on your smartphone.

- Great, great.

So Amber, the Brashear Association focuses on a lot of adventures and things that they can do with kids.

How are your kids responding to this?

- Our kids love it.

We've been partners with Venture Outdoors for the last couple years and our kids have just loved anything that Venture Outdoors brings to them.

And geocaching has definitely been a hit because it's like a giant scavenger hunt and they love competitiveness and just trying to find trying to find the next big prize and clue, and so it's been a big hit with our kids.

- Yeah, so it is fun and that's important, but it's also an educational tool and it stems from STEM education, actually.

It even sparked a movement called educaching, which was of course, a common term there.

So it teaches technology, problem-solving, spatial concepts, math, and mapping.

Tell me about how this is then translated to kids that might be doing this at home with their families.

- Right.

So what's really neat when kids do it with their families is that they're working together.

And this is a segue into teaching them about like how do our cellphones work?

How do towers work and communicate information to satellites and things like that.

So it's making something that they use often, such as the cellphone, seem more real.

- Yeah, I actually in fact, grew up geocaching with my friends in high school before smartphones were around.

We happened to have a GPS unit and we would do it all the time, so it's very tangible for anybody to pick up and do.

- What about the opportunity for kids to collaborate with their family and friends like teamwork, building team and working in collaboration?

- Yeah, so when we work with our youth groups, such as the kids at the Brashears Association, we typically break them into groups of three or four for each unit that they use, so they have to decide to work together.

Somebody is holding a map, somebody is holding the GPS unit and they take turns and stuff, so it really does force them, and we stand back and just watch.

So it does force them to collaborate and work together.

- Any issues with safety?

I mean, do you find that kids might... - We typically put them in areas and parks that are safe.

So we make sure that it's an area that we know well, and we're always walking around like monitoring when they're doing it.

- All right.

So by now, hopefully, we have a few parents who say, "This sounds like we should be doing this at home."

What would be some of the first steps that you would encourage them to do to start geocaching with their families?

- Yeah.

So you can go right on your smartphone and look for an app called Geocaching and that is free and just download that and you just press go and it will show you all the caches that are located right around your house.

- I'm already ready to do this (laughs) with some friends.

I think that would be really great.

Well, we've got more and we wanna make sure that we keep you on the couch here and ask a few questions of you, so stay with us.

Now, we also have some special helpers who are going to show us just how easy geocaching is by searching for treasures hidden right here in our studio.

But up first, here's how you can find resources for geocaching in your area.

- [Announcer] Learn more about geocaching and find free resources online by entering these key phrases in your favorite search engine.

Geocaching.

Educaching, Geocaching lesson plans.

Geocaching place-based learning, and geocaching near me.

You can also read reviews about the apps that turn your mobile phone into a geocaching device.

Search the key phrase reviews geocaching apps.

- Okay, so I've never tried geocaching before, but I'm about to get a lesson in it from the help of a brother and sister team who participated in a geocaching event with Amber Rooke's group, the Brashear Kids.

Welcome to Nashai and Chris.

- Hi.

- So glad to have you here.

So tell me what is it that's the most exciting for you about geocaching?

- Just that you get to do like something with your family and get prizes and things.

- Yeah, prizes are always really cool, right?

- It is.

- And you can do it with your family.

- Family.

- Really important.

What about for you, Chris?

- It's like how you can just have fun and then do geocaching.

- So, is it hard to learn to geocache?

- It's really not.

It's just like the satellites connect because like up in the outer space, so that's using the GPS, that's the global position system.

That's where that comes from.

- And that allows you to be able to track and find where you're going?

- From the satellites.

- Absolutely.

That's good to know.

Let's do this 'cause we're about to do something really cool.

Here's what's about to go down.

Before we went on the air today, our guest Lo from Venture Outdoors hid two different items, of course, they're called caches, here in our studio and the kids are going to help me find those caches using their devices.

To get started on a geocache adventure, you find clues at a geocache website online using an app from your smartphone, or you could use data entered into the GPS system that Nashai is holding.

So we're gonna get started now.

And I'm gonna have you guys kind of walk me through this and tell me where we're going.

Yeah?

Nashai, you're first.

- Okay.

So the first thing that you have to do is you would turn it on and then it would tell you like a south, west, north or east sign, and then it would tell you the distance of your feet.

- Then let's start doing it.

- Okay.

- Yep, we've got cameras that are gonna follow us and we're gonna let you lead the way.

- Okay.

- So what's it telling us?

- So it's 23 feet away.

- All right.

- 22, 21, 19.

- [Darieth] It tells you if you're getting closer or further away and you're able to determine it using your GPS system, right?

- Yep.

- Okay, so what does it say?

- [Nashai] So let's go this way.

So it's hidden, so we're getting closer.

- [Lo] You can start looking now, Nashai.

- Yeah.

- Can you look closely 'cause if you're close, it might be hidden somewhere.

Of course, that's what this is.

- And we found it.

- Yeah!

So what is it?

Let's have you turn around.

- What I got is two steelers bracelets.

- [Darieth] So let's read what that says, please.

- And the rules of geocaching.

So I will read this out loud.

- Great, so- - And this says "The rules of geocaching.

If you take something from the cache, leave something equal or a greater value."

- So you could actually leave that and then hide it again for the next person who wants to geocache?

- [Nashai] Next person who wants to geochache.

- Chris, how about if we have you do one?

And we're gonna let you lead the way.

What's it saying?

- 46.

44.

43.

42.

40.

- It's telling you how many feet you are away from it?

It's literally counting down, right?

- Yeah!

- You're close, so why don't you start looking?

- Yeah.

- There you go.

We'll pull that out.

I'll take your device and you can open that up for us.

Let's see what the prize is in here.

- Oh!

We got two Venture Outdoors cards.

- Perfect.

Good, good.

Well, you guys did a great job with this.

I wanna ask a quick question, if I could, of our guests who are still over there.

And that is, you said earlier today that there's some 7,000 caches that have been hidden here in Pittsburgh.

Who puts them there?

How does that work?

- Local geocachers.

They all can put them in there.

They can create new cashes as well.

So that's how 7,000 became to be in Pittsburgh, is just independent individuals or groups would create a cache, place it there and then log into the website, then people can check it out.

- Ladies, thanks so much for being on the show.

And I especially wanna thank Nashai and Chris.

You all did a great job.

I've really had a lot of fun learning about geocaching and we're certainly glad that they were all here in studio with us.

Outdoor activities are great, but we know parents need rainy day pastimes, too.

Right now, it's full steam ahead, as we take arts and crafts to a whole new level.

- You can see when it's moving, those are the sound waves.

The kids are exploring sound right now, where we're working on pitch and volume and all different experiences with sound.

Can you speak like a mouse really high?

Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak.

And then can you talk like a giant?

That's good, roar.

The Creativity and Literacy program serves families who have children who are ages three to five, who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten.

I think often we talk down to children and we think that they're not capable of deeper understanding.

And I think that's false.

And so we treat them like they're capable human beings.

And so we use scientific terms and we talk to them in a way that they can gain the knowledge from those things.

(glass clinking) When we look at the STEAM and we then combine them with those ideas of 21st century skills, we really find that fosters a love of learning for these children.

- Arts and crafts, one of those staples of childhood, right?

Well, now we're going to learn how to use art projects to support STEM and STEAM education.

My next guest is Brian Stamford, a curriculum and instruction coordinator from the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, a branch of the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Brian, thanks so much for being here.

- Thanks for having me.

- So let's start by talking about what drove the STEM to STEAM movement.

- The STEM movement began roughly 10 years ago, and STEM is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

And it's a way of integrating all of those topics in a single project.

Within the past few years or so, we've seen educators begin to infuse STEM learning with arts.

- So as a parent trying to decide how do I wanna get my kids involved?

What materials around the house that I can use?

I mean, is there a right or a wrong way to doing this?

I would assume there's some principles to follow, so you know what the children get in the end result, but the process of deciding what I wanna do, right or wrongs in that.

- Darieth, I don't think there is a right or wrong.

Kids are naturally curious.

Some of the best STEAM learning opportunities I've had at home with my own kids started with me catching my kids in a simple act of curiosity and following my initial response of, "What are you doing?"

I took a deep breath and then asked, "What are you trying to figure out?"

- So let's talk a little bit about some of the things that you have here and their functionality and how it supports learning.

- Sure.

The first project I'll demonstrate to you today is straw rockets.

What you'll do is a parent would take a strip of paper and they'll wrap that strip of paper around a straw until it's tight and put a piece of tape to affix that.

That will become the rocket tube.

Then you'd cut a few triangles and you would tape those triangles to the bottom of that tube.

Those would become the fins.

And then finally, the opposite ends of that tube, you would twist with your fingers, put a piece of tape across that, and that would become the tip of the rocket.

- And then how do you propel the rocket?

- Well, that's the fun part.

To propel the rocket, you simply insert the straw into the tube and blow.

- And that is probably the fun that kids have in all of this.

Obviously, they can construct it, but then when they watch it take off, that's pretty important.

Tell me the educational proponents in that.

I mean, obviously, you've got to cut it, you've got to measure.

But what's the value in that?

- Absolutely.

Parents can incorporate science and engineering into the process by asking their kids what would happen if we altered this rocket?

What if the rocket body was shorter?

What if the rocket body was longer?

Let's do that and observe what happens.

They could ask the students, what would happen if we changed the number of fins?

Or what if we bent the fins?

Would it fly any better?

Would it fly worse?

Again, let's do that and let's observe what happens.

- It's really about including some of those hypothetical situations, but in real live application.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- Art and design can fall into the process in designing a rocket for a particular application or a location.

What if we were gonna make a rocket for grandma?

How do you think she would wanna decorate it?

What if we're gonna build a rocket for your school?

What are your school colors?

Your school mascot?

- Great, good.

A few other items you brought, if we can go on to the next demonstration.

- The next project I'm going to demonstrate is a Calder mobile.

And a Calder mobile is sometimes referred to as a three-dimensional drawing in space.

I have an example of a Calder mobile created by my own kids.

And a Calder mobile consists simply of arms, weights and some means of suspending those weights.

- And these are all household items at any family.

I mean, we've got some paperclips and straws, you said.

Looks like, I mean, very simple to use.

- Oh, absolutely.

We've used dowel rods as the arms, but you can also use PVC pipe.

I have seen parents use limbs they've picked up around the yard.

For weights, I use some leftover foam board we had, but you could also use cardboard or other lightweight materials.

And I use paperclips, but you could also use straw, strings, wire.

- So you've got a third project to share with us.

- The third simple project parents can do at home involves creating artwork using a pendulum as a paintbrush.

And it's called pendulum painting.

(gentle music) To create a pendulum painting, you need some type of disposable cup, string, a broomstick or other handle by which you can suspend the string, a few chairs to put the broom across and some type of canvas to paint on.

(gentle music) - [Darieth] And so how does design flow into all of this?

Because certainly, arts can be functional in that way, but then when you bring design in, how does that work?

- Traditionally, STEM units would ask students to complete a defined project to learn a particular topic.

Or the goal of a STEM assignment would be to complete something that's functional.

Incorporating arts into the process now gives kids the latitude to design what that product would look like in the end.

- And where can parents and kids go to get ideas around projects they can do, supplies they need, a simple website to go to, come over to see you all?

What's the process to actually finding some projects to do together?

- If you're looking for specific ideas, there are plenty of activities online.

There are Pinterest boards set up for parents to learn specific STEAM activities to do at home.

Libraries also have plenty of books relating to STEM and STEAM learning.

However, virtually any activity at home can be turned into a STEAM activity simply by asking four questions.

Why does this happen?

How could we make it work better?

How could we improve the way it looks?

And can we measure somehow what happened and draw a picture of that?

And that would incorporate science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.

- Great questions.

We can use that in life for most cases.

- Absolutely.

- Certainly.

Any final tips that you would offer to parents as they begin to explore STEM and STEAM activities?

- Whatever you choose to do with your kids, be excited about it.

Less statements on your part and more questions.

It's not the outcome that's important, it's the process.

And STEAM learning gives kids the ability to think creatively, which results in their building confidence and thinking independently and thinking more critically, which are three qualities we all want to foster in our children.

- Absolutely.

We want our children to all be able to think that way.

So well, Brian, thank you so much and thank you for bringing in the projects.

They were great to see.

By the way, if you're interested in learning more about how to do them, they are available on our website.

Coming up, we'll tell you how to engage your older kids in STEAM and STEM activities.

And we've got great advice for ways you parents can learn and discover right alongside your children.

But up first, we've got more key phrases you can use in your own online research.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] Learn more about STEAM-powered projects by searching these key phrases online.

STEAM resources.

STEAM art projects.

Do it yourself STEAM projects.

STEM and STEAM projects.

- And our next guest today is Shawn Grimes.

Shawn, welcome.

You are the director of technology at the Digital Harbor Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland.

So tell us about the Digital Harbor and what your mission is there.

- Yeah.

So our mission there is we've reopened a closed down rec center in Baltimore, and we envisioned it as a youth tech center or youth maker space.

And so we have kids there after school and through summer camps learning about leading edge technologies such as 3D printing, electronics, programming, graphic design and much more.

- So those are some of the key projects that kids are working on.

- Yup.

- How engaged are they?

- Oh, our kids never wanna leave.

We have a great story of last year.

We accidentally planned a game jam, a game hackathon on the weekend of Halloween and the kids did not wanna leave to go trick or treating.

And we're talking third through 12th grade, and they just kept asking if they could stay later and later.

And we're like, you can, but you guys are gonna miss out on the candy.

And for them the getting to create games and make things was more important to them than the candy.

- It is exciting.

I've been in a couple maker spaces and I think it's just fabulous, some of the ideas and products that come out of maker spaces.

It can be intimidating, though, especially for parents who are not familiar with the process that happens there.

What do you do to invite the parents in and make these outings more enjoyable for the entire family?

- So I think one of the big things that we do is a Family Make Night, where we just encourage families to come in and make with their children.

And we use the term family very loosely.

So we have some older adults who bring their older parents and there's no one under the age of 18 with them, but they're making alongside each other.

My own mom comes in and makes with me, which is a delight, but the kids get to make along with their parents and they get to show their parents what they do and what they enjoy to do on a daily basis.

- Now, what is parallel making?

- Yeah.

So we use this term parallel making.

And it stems from early childhood development talks about parallel play, where kids will play alongside of each other.

And with parallel making, we see the same sorts of things, where a youth and their parent are working on the same problem to solve using the same materials, but are coming up with very different solutions to the problem.

And so this kind of spurs collaboration and communication between the parents and the children, because they're getting to say, "Well, mom, what did you do there?

Why are you using the pipe cleaners?"

And mom's looking over and going, "Oh, I see what you did with those Popsicle sticks.

Let me try doing something like that with mine."

And it kind of brings them down on the same level of learning together and collaborating on projects and getting to feed off of one another's mood and inspiration.

- Yeah, and I would assume that this is a process for keeping it fun.

I mean, it certainly can be a lot to consider when you're trying to make a project, if you're using a 3D printer or any of that.

But how do you keep it fun?

- Well, we like to use the analogy of how you give a dog his medicine, right?

You sneak in what they need with what they want.

And so we do a lot of the same sort of principles.

So we do a Paper Rocket Night.

And so we're learning about the fundamentals of aerodynamics and rockets and how they need to have fins and nose cones and things like that.

But we're doing it with paper and crayon and a two-liter soda bottles and bike tubes, all materials that parents and children are used to seeing, but we're using them in very different and creative ways.

- We talked about that in our last segment and had an example of that.

And it's very simple and basic, but it teaches a lot of the STEM and the STEAM, if you will, in both of those applications.

For parents though, who go into maker spaces and say to themselves, "Oh, this is a little intimidating.

I don't know what to do."

Do you find that the kids are the ones in the know and it gives the kids the opportunity to nudge their parents and say, "I got this.

I can tell you how this works."

- Yes.

And this is a great opportunity for parents to really sort of listen to their children and engage with them in a very unique way, where the children are, all of a sudden, the subject matter experts or are being able to teach their parents what they've been able to create and do.

We had an instance a few summers ago, where we had one of our youth, a 13-year-old girl teach us how to use Minecraft and how to play Minecraft amongst our staff.

Very unique situation, but we were open to the fact that she knew it better than us.

All the kids wanted to do it, so we built a staff training around her leading it.

We also do a lot of other reverse mentoring.

We've had kids teach different school platforms and things like that that the schools are using to disseminate grades or information.

So we'll have parents come in and learn from our team of students of how to use these products, because they're much more comfortable with a keyboard and a mouse than some of the parents are.

- One final piece of advice that you'd offer to parents and kids who may be watching, but certainly parents, as it relates to really understanding the value of STEM and STEAM.

- I think that this is a parent's opportunity to serve as a role model for what a lifelong learner looks like.

We don't expect kids to finish school and know all the things that they need to know to be set for the rest of their life.

We expect them to continue learning and continue developing.

And so making and working with your children is an opportunity for you to serve as an example of what that continual learning looks like.

- Okay, great.

Well, Shawn, thanks so much for traveling in from Baltimore to be with us to talk about this.

- Thank you for having me.

- We appreciate it.

And we hope that today's program has inspired you to try out-of-the box activities that make STEM and STEAM learning fun for the entire family.

Thanks for being here with us and join us again next time for more "IQ: smartparent."

- [Announcer] Want to learn more about "IQ: smartparent?"

Visit us online at iqsmartparent.org for more episodes and additional tools and resources.

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(bright music) "IQ: smartparent" is made possible in part by the McCune Foundation and the Grable Foundation.