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STEM ideas for a second year teacher

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Madison Baker Madison Baker 555 Points

This is my second year teaching. I teach ELA and Social Studies, but every Friday we have something called 'brain break' this is where you let the students have a break from regular school & let them do 'fun learning activities.' Does anyone have any ideas for me? 

Bianca Bell Bianca Bell 936 Points

Hi Madison,

These are some STEM tasks that my students have enjoyed doing. These STEM activities are not only fun and engaging but also foster critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration skills among students. I hope this is helpful.

1. Paper Airplane Engineering: Have students design and build paper airplanes using different types of paper and techniques. They can experiment with wing shapes, sizes, and folds to see how they affect flight distance and stability.

2. Marshmallow Tower Challenge: Provide students with marshmallows and toothpicks and challenge them to build the tallest freestanding tower possible. This activity encourages teamwork, problem-solving, and engineering skills.

3. Egg Drop Challenge: Challenge students to design a container to protect a raw egg from breaking when dropped from various heights. This activity allows students to apply principles of physics and engineering to solve real-world problems.

4. Pasta Bridge Building: Provide students with uncooked pasta and glue, and challenge them to build a bridge that can support the weight of objects (such as coins or small toys). This activity teaches concepts of structural engineering and design.

5. DIY Slime: Guide students through making slime using common household ingredients like glue, borax, and water. This activity introduces concepts of chemistry and polymer science in a fun and hands-on way.

6. Water Bottle Rocket Launch: Have students design and build water bottle rockets using empty plastic bottles, fins, and a launcher. Then, take them outside for a rocket launch to observe physics principles such as thrust, trajectory, and aerodynamics.

7. Coding Challenges: Introduce students to basic coding concepts using online platforms like Scratch or Code.org. They can create animations, games, or interactive stories while learning about computational thinking and problem-solving.

8. Mystery Bag STEM Challenges: Place various materials (such as popsicle sticks, rubber bands, plastic cups, etc.) in mystery bags and challenge students to use the contents to solve a given problem or complete a task, such as building a catapult or a zip line.

John Slater John Slater 1035 Points

I think this would be helpful!

Taylor Bahin Taylor Bahin 1190 Points

Do the ideas need to be based in ELA and Social Studies or just brain breaks in general.

Myah Shier Myah Shier 1890 Points

Hi! I think this lab can be fun no matter the age group, and can engage the students with how buoyancy works. 

Buoyancy Lab- You will need clay, pennies, and a tub of water. The students would mold the clay into a shape that they think could hold the most pennies while not sinking. You then would have the students place the clay into the water and start placing pennies onto the clay to see which one can hold the most pennies. This is a fun hands-on activity that allows for creativity and a little bit of competition if wanted!

I hope this helps!!

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