STEM Activities at Home

Alien Organism

You must design an organism that can live in a harsh Mars environment.

Beam/Bird Feeder

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.

Blooming Flower

Create a paper flower with special geometry that will allow for it to open with contact to water.

Board Games

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.

Build a Bridge

This Design Challenge asks that you build a bridge using the least amount of materials to hold the maximum amount of weight.

Build a Bug

This activity allows you to build a crawling or flying insect from a simple plastic bottle.

Build a Flower

This activity allows you to build a single flower or a ring of flowers from a simple plastic bottle.

Catapult Design

This Design Challenge allows you to create a table top or ground based catapult from simple materials.

Climate Change

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.

Create a Zoo Art

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.

Energy Efficient Homes

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.

Erosion

You will be investigating the effect erosion can have on South Dakota to mitigate the dangers and problems it may cause.

Evolution of Tech

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.

Extreme Weather Vehicles

The challenge for you is to design a vehicle that will provide protection AND relay important information about the weather.

Germs and Soap

You must create a tool to demonstrate why soap and water are such a powerful weapon against this deadly COVID19 pandemic.

Gliders

Not all aircraft use propulsion to achieve sustained flight. Gliders rely on design and weather to achieve lasting flight. Build your own glider.

Golf Business Improvement

Attendance has been down at a local golf club due 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.

Kaleidoscopes

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?

Lasagna Garden

An introduction to compost and composting places. Learners will build a garden bed or a container garden capable of sustaining and growing life.

Moldy Bread Infection

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.

Neutral Buoyancy

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.

Paper Airplanes

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.

Pyramid Cup

Scientists often need to move things that cannot be touched (think boiling water, radioactive material, or deadly viruses.)

Rain Cloud Exploration

Spring is here and that means rain! Rain falls from the clouds, but how and why does this happen? Explore clouds and rain!

Recycled Art

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!

Sail Cars

Make a working, rolling car powered by the wind.

Seed Bombs

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.

Spaghetti Bridge

Alaska Department of Transportation intends 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.

Stained Glass

Create a stained glass panel that is both interesting and structurally sound and tells a story without using words.

Stomp Rockets

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.

Surviving the Wild

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.