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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
This Brown bag series gave me a chance to dig through my files and share some more STEM Challenge oldies-but-goodies.
In each post, I've shared different engineering design projects that are appropriate for a wide age range. All of these activities work to prove that you don't need an endless budget to teach STEM and promote STEM principles and skills.
Here's a recap of the project ideas shared in this series:
This challenge takes a little more time than some others, but it is worth it to watch students build a "stock" hot air balloon then work to design their own hot air balloon that stays aloft longer.
Materials Tissue Paper Glue Sticks Scissors Copy Paper Staplers Hair Dryers (with "low" or "cool" setting) OR Hot Air Popcorn Popper Stopwatches
In this challenge, student begin by building the same hot air balloon. I like to have teams of three for this project, simply because it is more involved and requires students to follow specific directions for this first round. I'm also a bug fan of assigning jobs, so I prefer to divide up the work like this:
Navigator- Reads the directions to the team
Surveyor- Makes any measurements and checks work
Manufacturer- Glues, and assembles materials
Directions can be found all over the internet. I personally like the Junior Balloonist plans or the directions provided by the Civil Air Patrol (who use the directions from Pitsco).
Students follow the directions to build this balloon using the directions and test it, being sure to record their "flights" using 30 seconds of hot air. Once students establish a time to beat (I usually let each team launch once and average their times to get the time to beat.)
Then, students will design their own hot air balloons striving for them to stay aloft longer.
So, what did we learn? Next Generation Science Standards: Planning and Carrying out Investigations, Designing Solutions; Obtaining, Evaluating and Communicating Information CCC- Patterns, Scale, Proportion, and Quantity
CCSS Math: Measurement and Data, Geometry, Ratios and Proportional Relationships
Have you ever played the shooting gallery game at the carnival? Here's a STEM twist on that carnival game for students...a slingshot gallery.
Materials Slingshot Targets* Rubber Bands Craft PomPoms Popsicle Sticks Tape Other Fun Found Objects
*Download the Slingshot Targets sheet and photocopy it onto cardstock. Students will cut the targets apart and fold them to test their slingshot designs.
For this Challenge, students are tasked with building a working slingshot that will knock down the designated targets from a distance of 60 cm (24 inches). Students can work in pairs, but I like each student to design and build their own slingshot. It shows more ownership and also results in each student having their own data to analyze later.
In addition to establishing a required distance to "fling" from, I like to also require other parameters based on age group (Everyone must use at least 4 different supplies.) or based on available supplies to increase the difficulty (Everyone must use a paper cup in their design.) Adjusting these parameters allows me to differentiate the challenge, even within the same classroom.
So, what did we learn? Next Generation Science Standards: Planning and Carrying out Investigations, Designing Solutions; CCC- Patterns, Systems and System Models
In this challenge, students are asked to design a mechanism that will hold a lilypad and help a "frog" jump up into your hand!
Materials Plastic Eggs Frog Patterns Transparent Tape Paint Stirrers (Wooden Rulers or similar) Empty Water bottles Other found items
Students work in pairs to construct a mechanism that will launch their plastic frog to a height tall enough that a student can catch it. Students first construct their frogs by cutting out the pattern and taping it to the front and back of the egg. They should bend down the frog legs so that the frog sits on the lilypad.
Using the supplied materials, students can construct their mechanism. Most students design a sort of see-saw/catapult contraption using the ruler or the paint stirrer, but the items provided by the teacher may frame the challenge differently.
So, what did we learn? Next Generation Science Standards: Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Planning and Carrying out Investigations, Designing Solutions; CCC- Patterns, Cause and Effect, Systems and System Models
CCSS Math: Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Functions,Expressions and Equations
Students are used to challenges that ask them to do something the fastest, but how about the slowest? In this scenario, students are challenged to create a marble run where the marble that reaches the end in the slowest time wins.
Materials Marbles Bathroom Cups (3 oz) Sentence Strips Foam Board (20x30) Tape Other Found Objects
This challenge is a great way to get kids thinking more deeply because the challenge is to complete the course the slowest. Each team must create a course for their marble using piece of 20 x 30 foam board. Students can use any found items that you provide, but I like to make sure to include sentence strips because they are thicker than regular paper and can easily be folded into marble tracks. I also like to provide some fun items like bathroom cups, cotton balls, cardboard tubes and paperclips to make creating the course more fun.
So, what did we learn? Next Generation Science Standards: Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Developing and Using Models, Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions; CCC- Patterns, Cause and Effect, Scale, Proportion and Quantity
CCSS Math: Measurement and Data, Geometry, Ratios & Proportional Relationships
What if STEM stood for something different? As you know, the actual acronym stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, but aside from content, the concept encompasses many more essential skills like: problem solving, critical thinking, team-building, self-esteem, self-motivation and more.
At a recent symposium in the Seattle area, business leaders were surveyed regarding the skills, attitudes, attributes, and aspirations that they feel are the most important to the success of students in the future. Among the results?
Critical thinking, learning, and analytical problem solving
Communication
Adaptability
Collaboration and teamwork
Self-direction and self-awareness
Technical skills and computer literacy
Fundamentals of education including math, science, and English
Creativity
Cultural competence and global awareness
Emotional intelligence
This series on STEM Skills Challenges will harness the power of STEM challenges and focus on these essential success skills that our students need to be effective in the STEM workforce.
In this series we have learned how to plan and develop an effective STEM unit. Planning a unit like this is very time-consuming if done right, but the outcomes and student progress will be well worth the effort!
For this week, I thought we'd explore the use of derby cars to teach STEM. Not the pinewood kind that the boy scouts make, but a variation of that using a clothespin as the car body. In this challenge, students will each build their own derby car, but will work with a partner for support. Students are challenged to design the derby car that will complete the "track" the fastest.
Materials Clothespins (one per student) Buttons, Spearmint Lifesavers, Wagon Wheel pasta, etc. Straws Masking Tape Thin Wire (such as twist ties, floral wire, etc.) Foam Pipe Insulation (one 6ft length for every 2 groups) Stopwatches (1 per group)
I like to use the foam pipe insulation as the track because it is inexpensive and flexible. You can buy the non-stick kind in six foot lengths very cheaply at your local hardware store. Using scissors, cut it lengthwise to make two derby car tracks. For more advanced students, you can require that their track involve a number or curves or loops. For beginners, the track can be taped to a wall at a particular height.
Students can build their cars using any of the materials. Generally, students will place the front axle in the hole at the front of the clothespin and the second in the back somewhere, securing it with tape. However, there is no rule that the clothespin must be the body. Students can construct their derby car however they like.
So, what did we learn? Next Generation Science Standards: Developing and Using Models, Planning and Carrying Out Investigation, Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information ; CCC- Scale, Proportion and Quantity Cause and Effect
CCSS Math: Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Measurement and Data, Expressions and Equations
The last two steps that we'll talk about is Redesigning and Debriefing. These are separate steps focusing on different goals, but because they share some common elements and they both NEED to take place at the end of the unit, we'll talk about them together.
Redesigning After students have communicated their results and shared them with the class, it's important for students to have time to redesign. This doesn't need to be a whole unit withing itself, but they should at least have an hour or so to work on improvements to their design. This allows for a couple of things. It allows:
Students to process what other teams have shared and leverage that new information into the redesign of their own product.
Any team that was unsuccessful to implement a workable solution based on new information shared (and thus generate some success)
Students a chance to take some risks that they wouldn't have taken prior to presenting the project to the class. They can push the envelope without any ramifications. (This is where some GREAT learning can take place.)
And as a side benefit, giving students the opportunity to redesign their products shows the importance of collaboration and communication amongst the different teams (and also usually sparks more creativity!)
Debriefing Debriefing shares some of these same elements, but it is not the same. Debriefing takes place at the end of the project and allows the teacher to pull everyone together to talk turkey. This is an opportunity for students to:
Share any new information that they have learned and discuss how it relates to the project
Ask clarifying questions that may help them further their learning or connect the dots
Discuss possible next steps or extensions of the project
This is an opportunity for teachers to:
Review key findings and objectives for the project
Clarify any misunderstandings that still may exist
Further tie the learning to real-life (I like to talk about STEM careers that would contribute to a project like the one just completed)
As an aside, the debriefing can provide the teacher with key information such as insight on how to make the project better the next time and informal assessment based on discussion.
I always thought that the Egg Drop was a really cool project. You know, the one where you design a protective pod for a raw egg and then drop it from a balcony to see if it worked? Fantastic...until you factor in the children and well, the actual raw eggs. Then it all goes downhill rather fast.
So I've been thinking of ways to modify this activity so that it is more sanitary and less messy. Voila! Pringle Pod.
Materials Found Objects such as paper towel rolls, bubble wrap, etc. Measuring Tape, Seamstress Tape Pringles brand potato chips (because they are uniform in size and shape)
Students work in pairs or teams to construct a protective pod for their pringle. Students' designs must not exceed 3 inches in any one direction and they may not modify the chip or coat it.
Because this of modification of using a pringle in lieu of an egg, it is not necessary to drop the pods from a very large height. I like to have students drop their designs from increasing heights starting with 1 foot. Once they reach a failure point, they can redesign to see if they can beat their best height.
So, what did we learn? Next Generation Science Standards: SEP- s, Defining Problems, Analyzing and Interpreting Data; CCC- Patterns, Cause and Effect
CCSS Math: Cause and Effect, Scale, Proportion and Quantity, Measurement and Data,Expressions and Equations
Research shows us the implementing STEM education does indeed improve student learning. The real question here is HOW?
STEM education is a very interesting blend of interpersonal skills, and content skills- both of which are needed and desired in the ever-growing STEM workforce regardless of if the level of education the job requires.
In addition to meeting grade level curriculum requirements, STEM helps students to grow in areas that aren't necessarily measured by the state curriculum or even classroom assessments, but that are necessary skills that contribute to a student's self-worth and confidence.
Some of those interpersonal skills that we often overlook due to all of the administrative pressures are communication, critical thinking skills collaboration, project management, decision making, problem solving, stress management, etc. STEM naturally build these skills by placing students in real-life project situations that not only require their understanding, but also their application. As a result, it makes STEM education a powerful tool for students and teachers.
One of the last components to put in place is a mechanism for students to communicate their findings. It's important for students to investigate and record their daily notes and data as well as create formal reports of their discoveries.
For this component, there are very many options. Teachers use a high-tech mechanism and set up a Moodle Site or a Wikispaces workspace for students that will allow them to develop and refine 21st century skills. Teachers can also use a low-tech mechanism and ask students to communicate their results through Science Notebooks (aka paper) that will allows students to focus more in effective communication. Because of the many options available, the teacher should choose the best method of delivery, factoring in the age-appropriate skill level of students and the curriculum/ skills that will be the main focus of the project.
In addition to written communication, it's a good idea to have an oral component like a presentation, interview, or skit as well. Combining written and oral reporting helps students to enhance their communication skills and make them more relevant as presenting and public speaking are important skills students need when preparing for the workforce.
What could be more fun than designing the Perfect Parachute? In this STEM challenge, students will work to design the parachute that stays aloft the longest.
Materials Tissue Paper, Paper Napkins, Newspaper, Wax Paper etc. Kite String, Yarn, etc. Masking Tape, Transparent Tape, etc. Scissors Stopwatches Meter Stick, Seamstress Tape, or other Individually Wrapped Candies
Students will work individually or in partners to design a parachute using the available materials. I like to provide different types of paper, string, and tape so that students can learn about how weight and other different characteristics (like canopy size, shroud length and apex vent) affect a parachute. (Note though that using really thin string like fishing line or embroidery thread provides frustration for students as it tangles and knots easily.)
In this challenge, students will need to keep their cargo (one piece of individually wrapped candy) aloft the longest, so be sure to provide a surplus of materials to support multiple parachutes per student or pair.
Once students have finished a design they should test it and collect data. I want my students to test their designs safely, so I don't allow them to stand on anything but their own two feet. As a result, I specify that they test from the height of 48" (which is about how far my students can reach without standing on anything). I tape the seamstress tape to the wall and let them line up the top of the parachute with the correct height.
If you'd like to test these from a greater height, and don't have a handy stairwell or balcony, you can make or purchase a parachute dropper like this one. This particular one clips to the ceiling matrix in most classrooms or can be attached to a basketball hoop.
So, what did we learn? Next Generation Science Standards: SEP- Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Planning and Carrying out Investigations, Analyzing and Interpreting Data, Obtaining, Evaluating and Communicating Information CCC- Patterns, Systems and System Models
CCSS Math:Number and Operations, Measurement and Data, Geometry, Rations and Proportional Relationships
