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STEM Activities At Home
Welcome to STEM Activities at Home
With the mounting disruption in our society as a result of COVID19 the PAST Foundation is here to provide parents/guardians and educators with access to some of our STEM educational resources!
Educators can use these resources as take home activities for their students while parents/guardians can download these activities straight to their devices. Our STEM Activities are appropriate and adaptable for all students K-12.
Description: You must design an organism that can live in a harsh Mars environment.
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Description: You must design a bird feeder for your backyard and you must design a beam to hold it away from your house where you will mount it.
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Description: Create a paper flower with special geometry that will allow for it to open with contact to water.
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Description: You must package three marbles into each game from a large box of about 100 marbles, a mechanism designed to separate those marbles into groups of three and a container to hold the marbles within the board game box
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Description: This activity allows you to build a crawling or flying insect from a simple plastic bottle.
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Description: This activity allows you to build a single flower or a ring of flowers from a simple plastic bottle.
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Description: This Design Challenge asks that you build a bridge using the least amount of materials to hold the maximum amount of weight.
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Description: This Design Challenge allows you to create a table top or ground based catapult from simple materials.
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Description: The city is concerned that global warming can lead to more precipitation and wonder what the ramifications could be and how to prepare. They hire you, an environmental scientist working as a consultant, to predict damages to the cities’ infrastructure and safety.
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Description: This simple and fun activity allows kids to create a zoo from paper cut outs. Make it fun by asking kids to guess at foods, habitats and dangers in their environment.
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Description: American Electric Power Company and Columbia Gas of Ohio have requested a design for an eco-friendly house that uses multiple sources of renewable energy.
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Description: You will be investigating the affect erosion can have on South Dakota to mitigate the dangers and problems it may cause.
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Description: You are a researcher on a quest to find the most impactful invention from the Industrial Revolution Era and then to transform it into a futuristic wonder. Choose one invention of technology you could not do without from the era.
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Description: The challenge for you is to design a vehicle that will provide protection AND relay important information about the weather.
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Description: You must create a tool to demonstrate why soap and water are such a powerful weapon against this deadly COVID19 pandemic.
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Description: Not all aircraft use propulsion to achieve sustained flight. Gliders rely on design and weather to achieve lasting flight. Build your own glider.
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Description: Attendance has been down at a local golf club to inability to play during inclement weather or pandemic. Time commitment is also a hindrance. Your firm has been tasked with developing a business plan to increase attendance.
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Description: Did you know that the word kaleidoscope comes from Greek words meaning {beautiful form to see?} How will you create your kaleidoscope to create color reflections?
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Description: An introduction to compost and composting place. Learners will build a garden bed or a container garden capable of sustaining and growing life.
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Description: Infection rates for bacterial and viral illnesses need to be measured and documented. The location of bacteria in your home needs to be measured and located.
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Description: BOEM is interested in further developing their underwater monitoring program and they need your help designing the optimal ROV (remote operating vehicle) to collect vital environmental data at specific ocean depths.
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Description: A small Alaskan town has mail and groceries delivered weekly by small planes. Depending on the wind speed and direction there are two different ways the airplanes approach the small airstrip and land. One approach is straight and simple. The other requires the pilot to turn 90 degrees during approach then land quickly.
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Description: Scientists often need to move things that cannot be touched (think boiling water, radioactive material, or deadly viruses.)
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Description: Spring is here and that means rain! Rain falls the from clouds, but how and why does this happen? Explore clouds and rain!
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Description: You must carefully choose your parts. Take notes on what you choose and record the disassembly of every item, in case you have to reassemble it. Your only tools are outlined below. Be creative, be clever and good luck!
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Description: The gardener has seeds that need to be preserved in a SEED Bomb. The bomb needs to maintain the virility of the seed while being stored to be used at a future time. The seeds must be able to be stored in room temperature surroundings without germinating.
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Description: Alaska Department of Transportation intents to build new bridges in several locations in the next few years and they need your help to design bridges that are aesthetically interesting, safe and functional. The span of the bridges will variety by location.
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Description: Create a stained glass panel that is both interesting and and structurally sound and tells a story without using words.
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Description: Create a rocket from a 2 liter bottle, some simple connections and duct tape. Challenge yourself to launch the rocket as high and far as you can.
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Description: A tour company has contracted with you to develop travel brochures for clients interested in going on extreme adventure trips through the world. The clientele usually knows very little about the biome they are about to visit. They will be dropped off via helicopter with only a small backpack filled with supplies.
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Some Student Favorites
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A Few Words About The Design Cycle and Design Thinking
First we are introduced to a problem, then we creatively brainstorm and design solutions to that problem. There is no one right way. After we design we build. Then we test and succeed or fail. Both are natural ways of learning and both have their place and importance. If we fail, we go back and analyze and modify our design until it no longer fails. Then when we are comfortable with success, we share our solution.
Using the Mini Design Challenges provided by the PAST Foundation means your are given permission to explore and experiment. Try new things; give yourself permission to be creative. Most importantly, have fun!
Using Our Activities
Please feel free to share your experiences with our STEM Activities on Social Media or by email! Make sure to tag the PAST Foundation or use the hashtag #ThisIsPAST.
Educators – if you need help with implementing and using these Design Challenges or moving your content digitally — We are here and happy to help!
Connect With Us
If you need help with implementing and using these Design Challenges or moving your content digitally — we are still here! We are happy to help!
Kat Deaner
STEM Coordinator
Educator Programs
Mary Schneider
STEM Coordinator
Educator Programs
Jeff Schneider
STEM Coordinator
Educator Programs
Ashley Price
Assistant Director
Student Programs
These STEM Activities Have Been Sponsored By
