STEM Engineering activities in elementary school? Yes!
Today we tackled day 3 of school, I wanted my students to apply some of the concepts we have been talking about–mostly about helping each other and being receptive to help. I decided to design a little STEM engineering challenge that would require them to stick to a tight schedule, come up with a plan, try it out, cooperative, test their idea, then reflect on the process…all while relying on each other for help. As our district is moving toward the Next Generation Science Standards, this is a perfect “kick off”. What engineering standards am I looking at?
What engineering design challenge did we tackle?
I wanted to create a task that was easy to prep, engaging for students, and had a high success rate.
I think I accomplished it!
What is the situation?
Help Harry.
Time to Evaluate our Engineering Challenges!
It was a great discussion starter, collaboration-teaching, science skill-building half-hour of FUN! See what you think! Grab the freebie if you are interested and tweak the contents of the supply bag to be whatever you have on hand! This time, I used a piece of foil, about 12 pipe cleaners, 12 inches of masking tape, two cupcake liners, 2 index cards, and a popsicle stick. I considered using paper clips, a piece of yarn, a small paper cup, or a small paper plate. The task can be done using whatever you have! Want to try it yourself? Just click the image below or RIGHT HERE to take you to the freebie handout pictured above.Want to pin this for later?