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!

Click to Shop Now!

The Case of the Missing Cake: Using a CSI Lab to Teach Chemical and Physical Changes

Everyone loves to solve a mystery, so The Case of the Missing Cake CSI Lab gets students excited to observe and classify physical and chemical changes!

The CSI Lab Scenario will definitely engage the students and make learning about physical and chemical changes much more interesting.

But, if you want to amp up the engagement, then you may want to decorate your classroom as a crime scene.

Add the caution tape.  Have an empty cake plate with a trail of white powder on the counter.  Dress up as a detective or crime scene investigator.  The more you sell this activity, then the more excited your students will be about learning the basics of chemistry.

Small classroom transformation #CSI #scienceclass #chemistry #science #teacherlife #teach #engage #teachersofinstagram lesson credit on TPT: @angelawillyerd

A photo posted by Esther Alvarez (@alvrze) on Oct 6, 2015 at 4:17pm PDT

Imagine being a student in your classroom when the room is staged like in the photo above.  Exciting, right?  In an instant, you have already captured their attention.  Then, you can explain the case.  In this lab, a cake decorated by a famous baker has gone missing from his bakery overnight.

It is up to the students to solve the case!  

Three suspects were found with white powder residue on their clothing.  So, the students must test samples of known and unknown substances to determine which suspect was the culprit.

The students will then observe what occurs when testing the known white substances with water, vinegar, and iodine.

Did it dissolve?  Did it fizz?  Did it turn colors?

Once the lab group discusses what was observed, then they classify the observation as a physical or chemical change.

Students will then be presented with unknown samples collected from the crime scene and each of the suspects.  They will then need to test these unknown samples as they did the known samples.

Once the results have been collected, then the data analysis begins.  You may have to walk through the data analysis with your students.  Help them be able to compare the known substance results to the unknown substance observations.

Can they determine which substance is which based on the observations?  Which sample collected from the suspect matches the observations made with the crime scene sample?  Who was the cake thief?

Thank you @angelawillyerd for your#TPT #CSILab It was a hit this year too! #teachersofinstagram Blog post soon!

A photo posted by Esther Alvarez (@alvrze) on Oct 4, 2016 at 12:56pm PDT

The fun part, as a teacher, is that you can always have some tricks up your sleeve.  If you are conducting this lab with more than one class, then you may want to switch up the crime scene sample.

The different classes will yield different results as to which suspect is guilty of stealing the cake!  This will keep the students on their toes and avoid any spoiler situations that are lurking in the hallways or cafeterias.  There is always one student who can't wait to share the verdict with the others!

This lab helped students collaborate with others, classify the observations as either physical or chemical changes, and encouraged higher level thinking with the analysis of the collected data.  Plus, it got students excited about science!  Yes!!

Are you interested in conducting this lab in your class but don't have the time to create the lab handouts or corresponding presentation?  Check this resource out in my TeachersPayTeachers store - it is available in PowerPoint and Smart Notebook formats.

Special thanks to Esther Alvarez!  She is a rock-star teacher in Texas who has conducted this lab in her middle school science class for a few years, and is always so nice to share the photos with me!  You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

 

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!

Storm Stories - Severe Weather 10-Day PBL Unit

Looking for an authentic way to teach severe weather?  This Storm Stories project is a 10-Day Project-Based Learning unit that allows students to research the formation of four storms: tornadoes, hurricanes, thunderstorms, and lake effect snow and is found in my TeachersPayTeachers store here. 

The first part of the project is for students to research how these various storms are formed.  The research compiled by the students is organized into a Storm Recipe Book.  Then, the students work together to create an informational newscast as if they are reporters live on the scene of the storm.  The students must incorporate the information they gathered in the recipe books and weave that knowledge into their broadcast.

This project includes QR codes on the handouts, which allows students to easily be directed to the websites for research as long as the devices they are using has a camera function because a free QR code reader can be installed.  The students simply open the QR code reader and hold the worksheet up to the camera on the device to be scanned.  The QR code reader will then open up to the website the student needs - no "www...." typing to worry about!

The final newscasts can be filmed with an iPad or a video camera - that is completely optional.  We've experimented so much with this over the years and tried to figure out what works best as our technology and expertise has improved.  You can have the kids make back drops by hand with paint and/or bulletin board paper, stand in front of a screen that has a clip of their storm playing in the background, or even try to use "green screen technology" to later go back and edit in a video clip of the storm to really make it seem like they were live on the scene of the storm.  It's never going to be perfect the first time around, but don't be afraid of experimenting!  The kids are really excited to participate in this project regardless of the high-tech editing and are even more excited to show you what THEY know about this area.

Here's a video edited together from the first year we tried this project out.  You can see that the green screen needed tweaked for it to work properly, so we just left the green background without the editing this year.  The students still thoroughly enjoyed working on this project and loved to watch their peers' newscasts as well!

Classifying Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures {Think, Pair, Share} Sneak Peek

Watch the sneak peek above to see if this activity would be a good fit for your classroom.  If so, you can download the interactive SMART Board file, student handout, and detailed lesson plan in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Click here to visit my store!

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.

The 21st Century Classroom: Google Classroom

Have you used Google Apps in your classroom?  If not, you should start soon!  I had started using Google Apps as a collaboration tool within the classroom.  The students could share a document with the people in their groups, which would allow them to work on the same document at the same time no matter their location.  I encouraged them to set a meeting time to log onto the computer at home where they could brainstorm and work together.  Google Docs would show who was typing what (and even allows them to type at the same time on different parts of the document).  The best part is that Google Docs always saves your work automatically!  There are no more of the: "I can't find that file" or "I must have forgotten to save that yesterday" excuses that delays productivity.  The students could even share the file with the teacher to grade in a paperless fashion.  I thought that was so awesome...that is until I saw this video on Google Classroom, which is new for this 2014 school year!

This video shows how you can set up a class within your Google Apps, add students, send class e-mails with one touch, create an assignment, and enter grades and feedback for the assignment.  What an efficient and paperless way to run your classroom!  You can post the due dates for the assignment and monitor how many students have submitted (or have yet to submit the assignment) easily.  Google Classroom will then organize the submitted assignments (by assignment and class) rather than having you search for whatever the students saved the document as in your Shared Documents using the old Google Docs method.  Watch the video below to see how you could utilize this in your room!

Wavy Motions

Students worked with a spring toy to see the differences between the two types of mechanical waves - longitudinal (when the medium moves parallel to the direction of the wave) and transverse (when the medium moves perpendicular to the direction of the wave).  Students also experimented with wave frequency - moving the slinky quickly right to left increased the frequency of the transverse wave.  Soon, students will be able to relate this experience to seismic waves and sound waves which we will study in more detail next week.  Eventually, students will be able to contrast these characteristics to electromagnetic waves.

Marshmallow Challenge Winners 2013-2014

Our students did an awesome job of building community within the classroom while building their free-standing towers during the Marshmallow Challenge.  Students had 18-minutes to collaborate and build the tallest tower that would still stand without assistance.  The students were provided with 20 sticks of spaghetti, a yard of string, a yard of tape, and a marshmallow.



Here are our class winners:

The Overall Champs - 54 cm

Class winners from 1st period - 53 cm

Class Winners of 2nd period - 32 cm

Class Winners of 5th Period - 27 cm
Also, our Toilet Bowl Champs! :)

Class Winners of 6th Period - 50 cm

Class Winners of 8th Period - 40 cm

Watercraft Challenge & Egg-ceptional Packaging

Students worked this week on developing an important skill through science and technology.  Students were asked to find a solution to a problem using limited time and resources.  The first challenge was the Watercraft Challenge.  Students created a watercraft using foil, straws, tape, and paper cups.  The watercraft was then tested in a bucket of water by adding as many pennies as it could hold before sinking.  The top watercraft held 85 pennies this year!

The next challenge was the Egg-ceptional Packaging project.  Students were asked to design a package that would prevent an egg from leaking or cracking when dropped from the football bleachers.  Students were given limited materials, such as: straws, toothpicks, tape, a square of bubble wrap, a plastic grocery sack, and rubberbands to make their packages.  Only 3 teams in the entire seventh grade had eggs that survived the fall from the bleachers today!  Check out the collage of photos from these activities above.

Marshmallow Challenge 2012

Students in 1st period work collaboratively to build this 22.75" structure.

This group became our 2012 Marshmallow Challenge Champions
with a structure at 24.5"!

Students in 4th period were in contention for the championship -
if it wasn't for the lean, this 23.5" structure might have been the tallest!

Students were given limited time and materials to complete the Marshmallow Challenge.  They were asked to build the tallest free-standing structure with the following materials: 20 spaghetti sticks, a yard of tape, a yard of string, and one marshmallow.  The marshmallow had to be placed on the top of the structure, in its entirety.  The students could cut any of the tape, string, or spaghetti to make smaller structures within the larger structure.

This year, the winners created a 24.5" structure (see photo above).  The tallest structure included in the Willyerd Hall of Fame was built at 29.5" during the 2010-2011 school year.

Lab Safety Whack-a-Mole

Students in Mrs. Willyerd's 5th period science class collaborate
while trying to identify the rule violations in the Whack-a-Mole Lab Safety game.

Welcome back to a brand new school year!  I have really enjoyed getting to know my classes for this year.  The students have all been trying their best so far and want to learn.  That is all a teacher can ask for!

This week we discussed lab safety.  Students learned the lab safety expectations and were able to review with a Lab Safety Whack-a-Mole game on the SMART Board.  The game allowed students to identify the rule violations within a lab scenario.  Students had to apply their knowledge of proper safety procedures to identify the violation.  Many students did a great job on the test and passed with a 9/10 or higher the first time.  Any student who did not receive a 9/10 or higher must re-take the test to ensure their safety as well as the safety of others this year during lab.  Students must also have their lab safety contract signed and returned in addition to a passing score to participate in lab.

Next week students will learn about the metric system and the instruments to use when measuring in the lab.

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.