By: Meghan Thoreau, OSU Extension Educator
November’s Body and Mind Workout Challenges
In STEM Club, we stress the importance of multidisciplinary learning and problem-solving by allowing students to engage in hands-on STEM challenges. Remember, it takes more than one subject to solve real-world problems. It’s also important to stress a lifelong learning mode where the body and mind are working together. A healthy active mind requires a healthy active body; the two systems work and support each other.
Day 1: PhysBot Wearable Tech and Fitness Challenges
Students learned about wearable technology and the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle by exploring the PhysBot Data Tracker which inspires healthy minds. The PhysBot technology was developed through an Ohio-based partnership between Ohio State University Extension 4-H, Big Kitty Labs, and Tiny Circuits. For a quick club overview visit: go.osu.edu/PhysBot.
Our young STEMist learned that physical fitness matters. Our body and brain need a mix of activity and mind challenges to stay healthy. Teens need at least 60-minutes of active every day, where adults can get away with 150 minutes/week! Wearable technology is growing and becoming a popularized accessory for all ages. It’s estimated that in 2019 almost 90-million people in the U.S. will be wearing some form of wearable technology.
The PhysBot breaks down wearable technology and allows students to see and understand all the working components. The students also learn how to calculate their resting heartbeat by hand. Then they put on their individual PhysBot to compare their heart’s beats per minute (BPM) through an LED pulse sensor. Finally, the students engage in different physical fitness challenges while monitoring their BPMs. Students can also download their data to a computer using free downloadable software to continue investigating their physical activity results.
To learn more or to order a PhysBot Kit visit: ohio4h.org/physbots.
“When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He’ll Win the Whole Thing ‘fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might so When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right.”
-Fiona Apple
Day 2: International Strategic Board Game Challenges
Coming up with strategies and tactics to over challenges and problems requires a 21st Century Skillset. November’s STEM Club focused on discovering new ways in plotting winning strategies which, later on, will foster more strategic thinking skills that could help when applied to real-life scenarios. Practicing strategizing skills is important and STEM Club exposed students to international strategic board games they can continue playing and learning from. The more these types of games are played, the better students will be at coming up with winning strategies and making smart decisions for a lifetime. The games shared came from around the world: Chess (India), Five Field Kono (Korea), Backgammon (the Middle East), Fox and Geese (Northern Europe), and Mū Tōrere (New Zealand).
Why are strategy games so important?
Strategy games are great for learning life skills, such as patience, self-control, and thinking critically. These types of games teach emotional competence and help students learn to control their impulses; not to make a decision immediately, but rather wait for a better more effective opportunity.
Strategic games help students learn to evaluate other factors at play, realizing that their next decision may actually cause more problems for them or possibly lead to a strategic advantage. Strategy games also help set and maintain goals while many avenues of thought and decisions have to be sorted through. Students start thinking of the next move, but in reality, they are looking further ahead, thinking how their next movie will lead to the next challenge. It’s that skill of anticipating the counter move that leads to making smart decisions in the future. These games teach student to make decisions after identifying the alternatives available to them and anticipating the possible consequences. And that is the basis to critical thinking.
Stay tune for December’s STEM Club highlight. Students will be diving into biology and building their own microscopes to study a variety of plant and animal specimens!
There is nothing better than expanding and challenging the minds of eager children. What a wonderful job you are doing and what a great experience for children.