Since 2017, walkSTEM tours have evolved to develop a range of different types. Each tour can have a different focus based upon your goals – math walks, nature walks, art walks, STEM walks with a career lens, design-themed walks, computational thinking-themed walks, community and social studies-oriented walks, and more! You can even create a walkSTEM experience using a mixture of different themes, promoting inter-disciplinary learning. We love having new and different themes, as long as our key criteria are met: each walking tour should include inquiry-, real world-, and observation-based components, as well as having STEM connections.
Creating your own walkSTEM is your chance to put a fun, engaging spin on the STEM learning that is a part of your neighborhood, building, park, mall, museum – you name it! It’s an opportunity to grow STEM mindsets. This is a great classroom or out of school project that can be done in person or virtually.
Making a walkSTEM video is a great way to share your STEM lens on social media – but it doesn’t have to be difficult! Here’s how you can create a walkSTEM video of your own.
Using Instagram:
- Take photos or videos of your walkSTEM environment
- Open Instagram, and create reel
- Select all the photos and videos that you’d like to include
- Put your content in order, and add text or a voiceover to share your STEM observations and questions
- Customize your video with fun Instagram features, such as:
- Audio and music
- Text effects
- Close captioning and Text-to-Speech
- Special effects and filters
- Transitions
- Once you’re finished with your video, you can choose what frame will be shown on the profile feed. Create your caption and make sure you tag @talkingstem, and use the hashtag #walkSTEM!
- Want to see how to make a walkSTEM video of your own – click the button to watch a screen recording of one that our social media manager made showing her question about cooking pasta! Teachers can create such instagram reels, leveraging the easy of this platform. You can then use the reel as you wish – we have had some teachers express interest in creating their walkSTEM instagram account that they only use for the purpose of showcasing STEM in local environments such as their school campus OR just download your reel and share on your video sharing platform with students! There are many ways that educators can leverage social media platforms to make their STEM walk activities easy and engaging for students of all ages! Here is an example of a talkSTEM teacher fellow on instagram!
Using Canva:
What is Canva? Canva is an online design and visual communication platform with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere. It’s user-friendly and can be utilized by ANYONE to make simple social and print graphics freely!
- Open our brand new video template that our social media specialist created on Canva. Just click the button below.
- At the bottom, click on “Use this template for new design“. You’ll have to create an account, which is completely free!
- This video has placeholders where you can insert your own content. On the left side, you’ll see Uploads, where you can upload your own videos and photos from your walkSTEM.
- Each “page” has a set time which you can edit, and determines how long the page will show on the final video
- To add, delete, or duplicate a page, click on the three dots that appear when hovering on top of each page.
- To put your own content on a page, just drag it from your Uploads section
- Remove the talkSTEM placeholder slides, but keep the final slide to encourage others to make walkSTEM videos
- Customize your video with fun Canva features, such as:
- Music library
- Text effects and a large selection of fonts
- Animations and transitions
- Canva’s gallery of shapes, stock images, graphics, clip art, and stock video
- Charts and tables
- Image editing
- To download your video, click the button on the top right “Share” button!
- Ready to use the template? Create your free account on canva.com and you are ready to go!
- To see more examples of social media walkSTEM videos, visit our instagram or tiktok channels. Also, the videos made on these channels or using other free video-editing platforms using smartphones will soon be added to our open-access video library. Make sure to sign up on talkSTEM.org to receive notifications from us! Educators, we are now actively growing our professional learning network of teachers, instructional coaches, coordinators, curriculum specialists, and out of school educators. If you are interested in learning more as we develop this network and opportunities for members, visit our Professional Learning Network page and make sure to sign up to receive notifications. Thanks for all you do to make STEM come alive for our youth!
Dr. Koshi Dhingra has dedicated her career to STEM education and is passionate about having every child live up to their potential. Seeing a lack of girls and other underrepresented youth in STEM programs, she founded talkSTEM in 2015 to address the imbalance. She has a doctorate in science education from Teachers College, Columbia University, has years of experience teaching in graduate and undergraduate programs, and has held leadership roles in universities. She advises and collaborates with a broad range of educational institutions globally. Dr. Dhingra began her career teaching science in middle and high school in New York. She lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband, three children, and two dogs.
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