Here are some of the challenges:
Greek Mythology - In this challenge, we used we had learned about Theseus and the Minotaur in our Greek Mythology unit to build a marble maze. The kids were given a cardboard lid, craft sticks, pipe cleaners, and glue to construct their maze. It had to have a beginning and an end,and the marble had to travel through it by tilting the box lid side to side. These pictures show kids in the planning and building phases. There is also a picture that shows the challenge posters, and the questions the kids are supposed to thinking about and discussing as they work.
Tall Tales Unit - This is set of pictures was a STEM challenge we did in conjunction with our Tall Tales Unit. The kids were given 5 plastic shopping bags and some duct tape with which to create a working lasso like Pecos Bill's. The pictures show some kids in the designing/creating phase and the testing phase. They had to be able to lasso their chair!
Balloon Rockets - This is the last set. In this challenge, the kids were tasked with getting Tom the Turkey off the farm before Thanksgiving. The kids were given a couple of different shaped balloons, and three different types of "string" on which to test their rockets. They tested them on fishing line, ribbon, and yarn. They measured how far each rocket traveled on each of the lines, and the selected the rocket and "string" they wanted to use for a competition at the end of the challenge. We had great discussions about propulsion and friction. These pictures show kids in the planning/building process and setting up for their test runs.
