#STEMlens, an education resource and social media project by talkSTEM, is now on TikTok! During the coming months, participants from around the world – students, parents, and educators alike – will be observing the world around them through a STEM lens, and sharing their questions and discoveries for others to contemplate and enjoy. And now our talkSTEM staff will be responding to your submissions with thoughts and answers of our own!
To participate, simply take a picture or video of something in the world around you that makes you think about STEM, whether that’s the first flakes of oncoming snow or the patterns formed by skyscrapers and crosswalks in a bustling city. Add your thoughts with overlays or captions, and share it online to Instagram or TikTok, either using #STEMlens or using one of our four themed STEMlens tags:
1. Food – #STEMlensFood
2. Sports – #STEMlensSports
3. Outdoors – #STEMlensOutdoors
4. Art – #STEMlensArt
Or submit online here! Your submission will then be available for teachers, parents, mentors, and students of all ages to use as a learning resource, forming a community-created library of observations, thoughts, and problems freely available for others to make use of and solve in the course of their own learning and instruction. Our goal is to humanize and to personalize the study of science, technology, engineering, and math, encouraging constant exploration and thought that continues outside of the classroom (virtual or otherwise) and into the world around us – and we need your help to build this collection!
We will regularly select interesting questions from the community to answer in short video responses, giving you and your students a chance to see your pictures and thoughts discussed meaningfully and appear on our official talkSTEM social media channels. Our responses will be posted to our TikTok – take a look at what’s been posted so far at www.tiktok.com/@talkstem. Feel free to tag us in your submissions and give us a follow @talkingSTEM on Twitter and Instagram, or check out our YouTube channel at talkSTEM.
We’ve included a number of recent #STEMlens submissions below – feel free to use them as-is, or as examples for what a submission could be! Whether it’s creating a #STEMlens scavenger hunt, creating themed questions, or even just pursuing the generic STEMlens hashtag, we hope that this project will encourage you and others to view your surroundings with a new eye.
We can’t wait to see what you’ll create!
Sincerely,
The talkSTEM Team
To create TikTok videos of your own, simply click the plus-shaped “create” button at the bottom of your phone screen (if using the app) or, if using the desktop website, the “upload” button in the upper right – then either film or upload a video of your choice! For more information on creating videos with TikTok, we recommend you visit support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/creating-videos.
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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