This STEM challenge can be used during an air unit. Students are able to find ways to best minimize air resistance. The students are trying to develop a paper airplane that will go the farthest in the class competition.
This STEM challenge can be used during an air unit. Students work together in groups to create a parachute for a lego person. Students are able to find ways to best maximize air resistance. The students need to find the best way to increase the time that the lego person stays in the air when dropped from the second floor to the first floor.
What kiddo doesn't want to launch something across the room?! In this challenge, students work to launch an alien the greatest distance using everyday materials. This is a challenge that can easily be adapted to different age groups and a variety of circumstances such as needing substitute plans or just beginning the wonderful world of STEM.
This resource is a collection of monthly at-home STEAM challenges that students in Grades K-6 can compete using objects found around the house.
This is a challenge based activity in which students use augmented reality and trial and error in order to determine how changes to a quadratic equation affect the shape of a parabola. Students use the Geogebra AR app to manipulate equations and change the parabola to fit around a physical object.
In the Body System Amusement Parks project, students team up to create amusement parks based on the various systems and organs within the human body. With the power of abstraction, each attraction represents the cardiovascular system, the muscular system, the digestive system, etc. Teams create both 3D scale models and presentations to an unnamed wealthy investment firm looking to build a new park in the students’ very own town. This activity was heavily inspired by a post from Danielle Dace.
Getting Started:
This lesson is designed to be used within the heat transfer unit as an engineering design project.
My goal is to teach students:
The difference in heat conductivity of different materials.
Engage students in thinking about the principles of engineering (designing to meet criteria determined by the desired result).
Total class time:
170 minutes (2 class blocks, 1 period for demo, in-class design, 1 period for student-requested informational experiments).
This is a really fun and informative lesson that I do with my high school Programming/technology class to break up the monotony of beginner programming. However; this lesson can be used and applied in essentially any class and for many purposes, and to address many areas. One of the other really nice things about this lesson is that it can be extended to hit many points including physics, math, and advanced engineering.
Throughout the building period, I would present teams with a challenge (puzzle, build, etc…) and the first team to complete it would get a prize. It could be more modification time, extra materials, etc…)
The materials (including hot glue guns) can be purchased at Wal Mart or a similar store for around $20-25, if ordering through your district isn’t an option. With those purchases, it gives you a lot more materials than needed which can be used for additional similar projects.
This lesson aims to introduce students at the top of the K-12 ladder to the concept of Design Thinking via Common Core Literacy Standards recently introduced
This project is meant to be cross-curricular, requiring students to utilize many instructional skills to complete each step. Such skills will include number sense to one million, addition and subtraction to one million, area/perimeter/scaling, 3-D design, and writing/advertising. The project could be completed in sequential order, completed as isolated projects or hand selected for which components are used in your classroom.
In this activity, students will learn about and apply the Laws of Physics to successfully launch and land a raw egg. The activity frames the problem around designing and building a bottle rocket that will protect a raw egg being launched into the air at least seven meters. Resources included in this lesson are found at the bottom of this document and include:
-Teacher guide
-Physics note sheets on motion, speed, velocity, acceleration, momentum, force, friction, Newton’s Laws of Motion, potential and kinetic energy and gravity.
-Egg Launch Instructions
-Link to Bottle Rocket Launching Instructions
-Links to videos
-Post Assessment
In this activity, students will learn about and apply the Engineering Design Process to solve a problem. While working through the steps of the Engineering Design process they will focus on defining the criteria and constraints of a design problem, learn about scientific principles of simple machines, understand tool and machine safety, and create a prototype solution to the problem. The activity frames the problem around researching, designing, building and testing a prototype that is built with at least one simple machine that will launch a ball into a target. At end of unit students test their prototypes and present their findings of working through the process.
● Project Rubric
In this unit, students will use the engineering design process and their understanding of how simple machines work to help fairytale characters solve problems. Each lesson focuses on one fairytale and one simple machine.
This is a STEM unit that can be used in conjunction with ITEEA EbD TEEMS Grade 2 Our Environment, Our Health Unit. Further, teachers might want to use this STEM Unit with environmental units and Earth Day. Students learn about their positive and negative impact on their environment. Students learn that they can have a positive impact on their environment when they use the 4 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Redesign process.
Students are going to be working in an Engineering Design team to create a car using K’Nex pieces. They will work through 3 iterations of design in a goal to have their car travel 600 CM. They will use a ramp (defined in the lesson) to have their car gain momentum. They will also create a 3D Printed wheel to be attached to their design and determine if this has improved their design.
Teacher/Student Guide
Links to 3D Design Videos
Project Rubric
This lesson walks students through finding guitar part cost and calculating board feet of a guitar body, neck, and fretboard.
This lesson teaches fret spacing on a guitar and walk students through drawing a fretboard using Autodesk Autocad.
Design and engineer a mechanical device that is powered by hydraulic (syringe and water) that includes levers and moving parts that will propel a ping pong ball to complete the 2 levels of the “Hoop Shoot Challenge”.
This series of video screencasts will teach all of the key features in Tinkercad (a free, web-based 3D design platform). When you have finished viewing the videos you will have a comprehensive knowledge of how to design/draw in 3D.
In this unit, students will learn about the 4Cs (communication, collaboration, creation, and critical thinking) through literature-based engineering challenges. Each lesson focuses on one "C" and one read-aloud. This unit is geared for grades 2-3 but could be adapted to any elementary grade level.
COMMUNICATION - Click Clack Moo
COLLABORATION - Iggy Peck Architect
CRITICAL THINKING - Rosie Revere Engineer
CREATION - Galimoto