St. Patrick's Day STEM Challenge: Paper Bridge Challenge

STEM Challenges are my favorite way to engage students during those times of the school year when keeping their attention might be almost impossible!  

You can still celebrate St. Patrick's Day while making the experience fun and educational for your students.  It is definitely a win-win situation for all involved!  

Plus, if you have a spring break scheduled around this time, a STEM Challenge would be a perfect activity to work into your plans to help keep students on task once you've wrapped up other coursework.

How does this St. Patrick's Day STEM Challenge work?

This St. Patrick's Day Paper Bridge STEM Challenge asks the students to create a paper bridge that will hold 100 pennies for 30 seconds to help the leprechaun transfer his gold coins to the bank.  

The new bridge must be made out of a limited amount of common household / classroom materials and completed with a certain amount of time.

Students will go through the STEM design process to create the leprechaun's new bridge.  The students will then test the bridge prototypes using pennies (or anything else you may have handy - like unifix cubes or washers).  Students will then make improvements to the bridge after the first trial to yield a stronger bridge for the second trial.

STEM Challenge Preview for Grades 3-5

The middle school kids in grades 5-8 are expected to identify the need, research the problem, design a solution by writing detailed procedures and sketching prototypes, build and test a prototype, and troubleshoot.  The younger students in grades 3-5 are asked to follow the same steps - but in a simpler way.  These kiddos will Ask, Imagine, Create, and Improve.

Your classroom will be buzzing with organized chaos as students collaborate on their designs!  It is always interesting to observe, as a facilitator, how the students are working together and which "roles" the students choose to take within the challenge.  

So, what should this paper bridge look like?

The great thing about a STEM Challenge is that there is not a cookie cutter "right answer" for the students to create.  

The students will amaze you with their creativity!  Often times, the students design prototypes that adults would never imagine from the limited amount of supplies provided within the challenge.

How do you measure the success of a STEM Challenge?

Of course, it is fun to cheer on the students to design the best prototype that will "win" the challenge.

But, as a teacher, the activity is a success when you observe your students actively following the STEM Design Process steps.

You see them critically thinking, creating, and analyzing the prototype's performance and design when troubleshooting.  Students have been activating those higher levels of thinking while having a wonderful time!  

Do you love this activity but don't have the time to design it yourself?  

A student handout, corresponding presentation, and detailed lesson plan is available in my TeachersPayTeachers store for grades 3-5 and grades 5-8 in either PowerPoint or SMART Notebook formats!

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Christmas STEM Challenge: Jingle All The Way

You just might have a few days in December where you've finished up a unit but don't want to start a new one.  This is the perfect time to do a STEM Challenge!  Harness all the students' energy into an innovative and productive project.  The kids will have so much fun that they will forget they are practicing math, science, and engineering skills in the process!

This Christmas STEM Challenge called Jingle All The Way asks students to design a new sleigh for Santa out of common household items within a limited amount of time.  The new sleigh must meet Santa's certain specifications and will be tested by adding pennies, which will represent presents.  Students will go through the design process to create Santa's new sleigh that meets his specifications and test the sleigh using pennies to represent the weight of the presents Santa needs to hold in his sleigh.  Students will make improvements to the sleigh after the first trial to yield a stronger sleigh for the second trial.

Your classroom will be buzzing with positive activity throughout this challenge.  Students get excited to sketch and share their ideas with each other to make the strongest sleigh.  The element of limited time also causes the students to have a sense of urgency that keeps this activity at a high energy level!

The middle school kids in grades 5-8 are expected to identify the need, research the problem, design a solution by writing detailed procedures and sketching prototypes, build and test a prototype, and troubleshoot.  The younger students in grades 3-5 are asked to follow the same steps - but in a simpler way.  These kiddos will Ask, Imagine, Create, and Improve.

The most awesome part of facilitating a STEM Challenge, for me, is to witness the extraordinary creativity that your students will exhibit during this type of an activity.  As adults, we have lost a lot of our imagination - so when we see a handful of random household objects listed as materials, we think: What do you do with these???  We think there has to be one certain way to make whatever it is we are being challenged to design. But, the kids will be able to come up with design ideas beyond what we could have ever imagined!  There might be a couple kids that need a few minutes to grease the wheels of innovation, but once they get going there will be no stopping their enthusiasm!

Starting STEM in elementary is a fantastic way for kids to fall in love with science.  The kids learn how to cultivate their thinking by following the STEM Design Process during a time when they already think outside of the box!  These steps will help them create even more advanced prototypes and troubleshoot at a higher analytical level as they get older - hopefully leading them to successful career paths!

Love this activity but don't have the time to design it yourself?  A student handout, corresponding presentation, and detailed lesson plan is available in my TeachersPayTeachers store for grades 3-5 and grades 5-8 in either PowerPoint or SMART Board formats!

Thanksgiving STEM Challenge: The Great Turkey Race

What do you do during those few days right before Thanksgiving Break?  Get your kids to collaborate, think critically, and have a ton of fun with a STEM Challenge, of course!

How does it work?  This Thanksgiving STEM Challenge encourages students to help prevent the turkeys from becoming Thanksgiving dinner by building a fast-moving turkey stunt double out of common household items within a limited amount of time.  The students work through the STEM Design Process - building a prototype, testing these turkeys by "racing" them, and then making improvements to make the turkeys faster.

Your classroom will be buzzing with positive activity throughout this challenge.  Students get excited to sketch and share their ideas with each other to make the fastest turkey.  The element of limited time also causes the students to have a sense of urgency that keeps this activity at a high energy level!

The middle school kids in grades 5-8 are expected to identify the need, research the problem, design a solution by writing detailed procedures and sketching prototypes, build and test a prototype, and troubleshoot.  The younger students in grades 3-5 are asked to follow the same steps - but in a simpler way.  These kiddos will Ask, Imagine, Create, and Improve.

Turkey Prototypes from Mrs. Jennifer Best's FACS Classes
at Mercer Middle School (Grades 4-7).

So, what should the turkeys look like?
The most awesome part of facilitating a STEM Challenge, for me, is to witness the extraordinary creativity that your students will exhibit during this type of an activity.  As adults, we have lost a lot of our imagination - so when we see a handful of random household objects listed as materials, we think: What do you do with these???  We think there has to be one certain way to make whatever it is we are being challenged to design. But, the kids will be able to come up with design ideas beyond what we could have ever imagined!  There might be a couple kids that need a few minutes to grease the wheels of innovation, but once they get going there will be no stopping their enthusiasm!

Starting STEM in elementary is a fantastic way for kids to fall in love with science.  The kids learn how to cultivate their thinking by following the STEM Design Process during a time when they already think outside of the box!  These steps will help them create even more advanced prototypes and troubleshoot at a higher analytical level as they get older - hopefully leading them to successful career paths!

How do I get all those toilet paper rolls?  If you aren't a toilet paper roll hoarder, like myself (I mean you never know when you might need one for a STEM Challenge or a craft opportunity - right?!), you might be in a pinch to have enough toilet paper rolls depending on the size of your class(es).

You can ask for donations from your staff members or solicit donations from your students. (Click here for a freebie donation letter template!)  Paper craft rolls can also be purchased at Hobby Lobby (click here), so make sure you use their 40% off a regular priced item if you need to buy these supplies.  You can also find these at your local Michaels Craft Store (click here) - show them your Teacher ID for a discount.

Love this activity but don't have the time to design it yourself?  A student handout, corresponding presentation, and detailed lesson plan is available in my TeachersPayTeachers store for grades 3-5 and grades 5-8 in either PowerPoint or SMART Board formats!

The Great Pumpkin Slinger - Fall STEM Challenge

Fall festivals, Halloween costumes, and the inevitable piles of candy wrappers left behind on your classroom floor.  (How do they learn to stealthily unwrap it without teacher detection - anyway?!?)  Sounds like that restless period of the fall and a GREAT time to spice things up with a STEM lab.

Students always become engaged with this Great Pumpkin Slinger Fall STEM Activity!  They usually have so much fun that they forget that they are critically thinking and just focus on slinging pumpkin peeps.  And, I have no problem with their denial because I can always see their minds turning.

Students follow the STEM design process steps, which prompts them to find a solution to a problem when given limited time and materials.  Students were asked to design a pumpkin launcher that would catapult the pumpkin peep the farthest distance using rubber bands, craft sticks, a straw, paper cups, index cards,a plastic spoon, and some masking tape.

A student sketch of the catapult prototype.

Each section of this STEM challenge is timed.  The power of the timer inspires students to think critically and work collaboratively!  They might feel panicked at first, if they haven't done a STEM Challenge in this way, but soon they know the clock is still running and choose to get to work.  I notice that there is less time to argue with other teammates and more time to showcase ingenuity.

Once the students have completed the design steps, then it is time to test the catapult prototypes. We quietly launch the pumpkin slingers in the hallway, which is always fun for the students.  Apparently, slinging pumpkin peeps down the hallway feels like we are on some type of top secret mission that might ordinarily get us sent to the principal's office!

The first trial is always interesting for the kids.  Some teams are fairly successful while others realize they really need to make a lot of changes!  The Troubleshooting sections that follow the first trial help to redeem the teams and encourage students to make design changes to the original prototype to yield better results.  Our best result yet was a sling shot model that launched the pumpkin peep 1,407 cm!


This Fall STEM lab motivated even the toughest critics to become engaged.  They might have even said that they loved doing this activity...and if you teach middle school, you know that is hard to come by!

Would your class find this interesting?  Find the lab handout, a teacher lesson plan, and a corresponding SMART Notebook  or PowerPoint file in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

Also available for Grades 3-5!  In PowerPoint and SMART Notebook.

Marshmallow Challenge

I look forward to sharing the Marshmallow Challenge with students every year.  The kids are already intrigued when you talk about anything with marshmallows, but they have no idea how much fun is in store for them during this class period!  Oh and science, too.  Fun and science is definitely a winning combination in my book.

This activity is an introduction to a STEM Challenge because students are designing prototypes of their marshmallow structure, but they are not formally following each step in the STEM Design Process.  The way this activity is structured allows student to naturally work without too much interference, which creates a fantastic talking point to bring up at the end of the activity.  Who stopped and tested, troubleshooted and adjusted?  Who built the structure as planned and only tested with a few seconds left?  What were the results for these different methods?  This will provide a lot of conversation as to why the STEM Design Process is important to follow in future STEM Challenges.

Another focus of this activity is to build collaboration and time-management skills.  The beauty of the Marshmallow Challenge is the way it allows people to work together and rally around each other.  For those reasons, this great activity can be used for any subject and any age.

So, how does it work?  Teams are challenged to design a free-standing marshmallow structure in 18 minutes with limited supplies that were provided by the teacher.  As the facilitator, you can acquire a lot of information about the people doing this activity as you walk around and observe.  Personality

traits will definitely appear - some will take charge while others hang back, some will build and build without testing along the way because they think they have a surefire plan for success, others will try something and test it then make changes along the way.  A teacher can definitely learn a ton about  the kids just in eighteen minutes!

Once the time is up, I like to have the kids throw their hands up in the air so we all know that no one is cheating and putting on any finishing touches.  Then, I walk around to measure any structures that are still standing with a meter stick.  The kids will wait with bated breath until I approach their table with the meter stick...hoping that the fragile marshmallow structure will last long enough "to count."  It's always fun to drum up friendly competition and offer a nice treat for the class champion - or even the grade level champion.  Students are always running into the classroom the next day to see what the grade level results were and how they compared.

In addition to the fun and games aspect of this activity, students are also critically thinking and collaborating.  All super important skills to activate and develop - especially after a long holiday or summer break!

Love this activity but short on time? Download either the SMART Notebook file or PowerPoint file that includes a visual aid for materials, activity guidelines, a timer slide, a data collection slide for class results, and extension questions as well as a detailed lesson plan and two-page student handout for planning and reflection.