S.T.E.M. Guideline Poster (Engineering Design Process Question Stems)

Most STEM activities don’t fail because the challenge is “too hard.”

They fail because students get stuck in the middle.

They can build something… but they can’t explain why it worked.
They can try again… but they don’t know what to change.
They can talk… but it stays at “We just did it like this.”

And then you end up doing the thing you didn’t want to do:
walking table-to-table repeating the same prompts all period long.

“Okay… what are you asking?”
“What’s your plan?”
“Why did you choose that?”
“What will you improve?”

This poster fixes that.

It turns the STEM process into a visible, student-ready set of prompts so kids can self-coach through Ask → Imagine → Plan → Create → Improve using higher-level D.O.K. questions.

The cost of NOT having this on the wall (or in their notebooks)

• Groups stall and wait for you to rescue them.
• “Engineering” turns into crafting with random materials.
• Students skip planning, skip reflection, and call it “done.”
• You lose time reteaching the process instead of running great challenges.
• Your strongest thinkers carry the group while everyone else watches.

What this gives you instead

A clean, repeatable routine your students can follow every time—without you being the prompt machine.

• STEM/Engineering Design Process question stems for: Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve
• Depth of Knowledge (D.O.K.) prompts that push better thinking and better explanations
• Editable Word document format, so you can tweak wording for your grade level or class needs
• Print options for:
  
  • student notebooks / interactive notebooks
  • small-group table reference
  • full-size classroom poster display

How teachers use it (fast)

1. Print it once for the wall (your “STEM home base”).
2. Print a smaller version for notebooks or STEM folders.
3. When groups get stuck, you don’t give answers—you point to the step and have them choose a question stem.

Now students start sounding like problem-solvers:

• “Our plan failed because…”
• “If we change ___, then ___ will happen because…”
• “The best improvement is ___ since it solves ___.”

Best for

STEM bins, makerspace, engineering challenges, PBL builds, science labs, and any activity where you want students to think deeper and explain their thinking with structure.

Created by Glenn School Resources™.