As you might remember from other STEM Educators Academy lesson plans, each lesson includes a "hook," designed to engage youth in shaping the activity, capturing initial interest in the topic, and warming up before diving into the design challenge.

Watch below as Jeran shares more about Allison Grace Williams to set up the hook.

To get youth ready for the design challenge later in the lesson, consider the following two "hook" activities: 

• Exploring the neighborhood, asking youth to choose something to add or change to make their communities thrive. 
• Taking a “field trip” in the school building, looking for a space that can be transformed to benefit everyone. 

We encourage you to let youth vote to decide on the hook so that they have some influence over their learning experience. Further, the hooks provided above are just ideas, and may not be the right fit for your youth.

Can you think of a more relevant and engaging hook or plan one together with the youth in your program?