As the school year comes to a close, it’s time to engage students in fun and hands-on STEM activities that reinforce important concepts in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Here are five exciting challenges to inspire your elementary school students to explore, create, and learn together!
Marshmallow Tower STEM Challenge
Materials Needed: Marshmallows and toothpicks
Instructions:
-
- Divide students into small groups (3-4 students per group).
- Provide each group with a handful of marshmallows and a bunch of toothpicks.
- Challenge the groups to build the tallest freestanding tower using only marshmallows and toothpicks within a given time limit (e.g., 15-20 minutes).
- Encourage students to brainstorm and plan their tower designs before building.
- Emphasize the importance of stability and balance in their tower designs.
- After the time is up, measure each group’s tower to determine the tallest one.
Tips for Teachers:
-
- Demonstrate how to build a stable base using marshmallows and toothpicks.
- Encourage students to experiment with different tower shapes and heights.
- Offer guidance and support as needed, but allow students to lead in building their towers.
Materials Needed: Various types of paper (regular, construction, origami), rulers, and scissors
Instructions:
-
- Show students different paper airplane designs and discuss the basic principles of flight.
- Allow students to experiment with different types of paper and folding techniques to create their own paper airplanes.
- Provide rulers for measuring and scissors for cutting paper.
- Encourage students to test their airplanes by flying them indoors or outdoors.
- Have students measure the distance each airplane flies using rulers or tape measures.
- Discuss which designs flew the farthest and why.
Tips for Teachers:
-
- Provide templates for basic paper airplane designs for students who need guidance.
- Demonstrate how to fold paper airplanes step-by-step.
- Encourage students to make adjustments to their designs based on their test flights.
Egg Drop STEM Challenge
Materials Needed: Raw eggs, various cushioning materials (cotton balls, bubble wrap, foam, etc.), tape, straws, cardboard, and balloons
Instructions:
-
- Explain to students that they need to design a container that will protect a raw egg from breaking when dropped from a height.
- Provide various materials for construction.
- Encourage students to brainstorm and plan their designs before building.
- Once the containers are built, have each group take turns dropping their egg containers from a designated height (e.g., the top of a ladder or stairwell).
- Check each egg to see if it survived the drop intact.
- Discuss which designs were successful and why.
Tips for Teachers:
-
- Provide examples of common packaging materials and their protective properties.
- Encourage students to think about distributing the force of impact across their containers.
- Have students test their containers at different heights to see how they perform under varying conditions.
Penny Boat STEM Challenge
Materials Needed: Aluminum foil, pennies, tub of water
Instructions:
-
- Challenge students to create a boat out of aluminum foil that can hold as many pennies as possible without sinking.
- Provide each group with a sheet of aluminum foil.
- Students should fold and shape the foil into a boat design.
- Once the boats are built, place them in a tub of water and start adding pennies one at a time until the boat sinks.
- Discuss the design features that helped the most successful boats hold the most pennies.
Tips for Teachers:
-
- Show students how to fold aluminum foil to create a sturdy boat shape.
- Emphasize the importance of keeping the boat afloat by distributing weight evenly.
- Encourage students to make predictions about how many pennies their boats will hold before testing them.
Spaghetti Bridge STEM Challenge
Materials Needed: Spaghetti noodles, mini marshmallows or clay.
Instructions:
-
- Challenge students to build a bridge out of spaghetti noodles and mini marshmallows or clay that can hold the most weight.
- Provide each group with a box of spaghetti noodles and a bag of marshmallows or clay.
- Students should experiment with different bridge designs and construction techniques.
- Once the bridges are built, test their strength by placing weights (books, water bottles, etc.) on top until they collapse.
- Discuss which bridge designs were the strongest and why.
Tips for Teachers:
-
- Show students how to create sturdy joints using marshmallows or clay.
- Encourage students to reinforce their bridges with additional spaghetti noodles where needed.
- Discuss the importance of distributing weight evenly across the bridge.
These end-of-year STEM challenges will not only keep your students engaged and excited but will also reinforce key concepts they’ve learned throughout the school year. So, let’s end the year with a blast of fun and learning!
Use these recording sheets in my shop to help your students document their STEM journey!
