Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: Rapunzel

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, lay down your long hair to me!  In the story, Rapunzel is taken as a child and forced to live alone in a tower.   In this challenge, students will design a zip line that will help Rapunzel to escape her tower.

Materials
Kite String
Yarn
Paperclips
 Scissors
Tape
Straws
Cargo
Other Found Objects

During this challenge, students may work in teams or pairs to design a zip line to help Rapunzel.  Students may create any design they want as long as they only use the provided items.

Download the design brief for details: TeachingSTEM through Fairy Tales- Rapunzel

Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: The Princess and the Pea

In the Princess and the Pea, the princess must climb up twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds and to try to get a good night's rest.  In this challenge, students will design a parachute to return the princess safely back to the ground in the morning.

Materials
Tissue Paper
Glue Sticks
Scissors
Measuring Tape
String or Yarn
Cargo

When testing their parachutes, students should take care not to stand on tables of chairs.  In order to test from a higher height, a stairwell or balcony can be used.  If neither are available, a parachute dropper like this that clips onto the ceiling or onto a basketball hoop may be used.

Download the design brief for details: Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: The Princess and the Pea

Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: Stone Soup

In the story of Stone Soup, a weary traveler wanders into the village and is told that there is no food to eat.  So, the traveler brings out his cooking pot and, with the unwitting help of the villagers, makes stone soup.  In this challenge, students will design and build a cooking pot that will hold the most soup.

Materials
Tissue Paper
Making Tape
Straws
Mini-Marshmallows

The teacher can choose for student to work in teams, pairs, or complete the challenge individually (if you have enough mini-marshmallows!). This is also a great lesson to incorporate estimation and/or volume calculations.

Download the design brief for details: Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales- Stone Soup

Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: Henny Penny

In the tale of Henny Penny, Chicken Little is convinced that the sky is falling.  In this challenge, students work in teams to design a device that will protect Chicken Little in the event that the sky begins falling.

Materials
Bean Bags
Frosted Wheat Cereal (or similar)
Yardsticks (one per team)
Found Objects

After reading and/or reviewing the story of Henny Penny, students work in teams to design a device that will keep Henny Penny (one piece of frosted wheat cereal) safe when the sky (bean bag) starts falling.  

Students will construct their devices and test them by dropping a bean bag from different heights.  Bean bags can be grouped together for more weight if needed. 

Download the design brief for details: Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: Henny Penny

Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales: The Billy Goats Gruff

As students recall the fairy tale of the The Billy Goats Gruff, they will remember that the goats attempt to cross a bridge to seek out a greener pasture. In this challenge, students will design a bridge that will hold all three billy goats for more than 30 seconds.

Materials
Books
Ruler (1 per team)
Toothpicks
Gumdrops or Mini Marshmallows
Large Marshmallows (3 per team)
Tape
Stopwatches
Billy Goats

First, students will "build" their billy goats by cutting out the patterns and taping each one to a large marshmallow.   Students will then work in pairs to build their bridge using the toothpicks and gumdrops/mini-marshmallows.

Download the design brief for details: TeachingSTEM through Fairy Tales- The Billy Goats Gruff

Teaching STEM Through Fairy Tales: The Three Little Pigs

I'll Huff and I'll Puff and I'll Blow Your House Down! In the story of The Three Little Pigs, kids follow the story as our endearing pigs build different houses to try to escape the Big Bad Wolf.  In this challenge, students help the three pigs by building a well-designed house that will keep them safe!

Materials
Paper or Styrofoam Plates (1 per student)
Cotton Balls (3 per student)
Painter's Tape (1 roll for the class)
Measuring tape (1+ for the class)
Other Found Objects
Hair Dryer or Fan

 After reading or reviewing the story for The Three Little Pigs, students work to design and build a house for their three pigs (cotton balls) that will withstand huffs and puffs from the Big Bad Wolf (hairdryer or fan).


Download the design brief for details: Teaching STEM through Fairy Tales- The Three Little Pigs

Teaching STEM Through Fairy Tales

As you'll note from pretty much all of my other posts, I'm a huge proponent of STEM  in the younger grades.  So, connecting STEM through literature is a natural extension (and quite a powerful tool).  This connection helps to improve reading skills, yet also enhance creativity and critical thinking skills.

In this series, we will further examine the connection between literature- specifically fairy tales- and STEM.  Each week we'll take a look at a favorite fairy tale, make a connection to STEM and tie each one to the NGSS Engineering Design Standards.

Join me next week for a look at our first fairy tale!