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Challenge
For the entire month of May, people around the US will celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage. This month is dedicated to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America’s history and are influential in its future success. The people of this cultural background have made countless impacts in our modern-day world. One of those impacts was using the night sky to navigate the large oceans without the use of technology. An additional discovery of the Islanders was building a va’a (Samoan for canoe) to withstand the harsh waves and the brutal winds of the ocean while navigating the large bodies of water. So, channel your inner voyager because your challenge is to create and design a va’a that will not only float but move with the wind. What sort of material would be ideal to build the va’a and outrigger(the side piece of the va'a to help balance)? How tall should you make your sail? What material will catch the wind the best? The objective is to create a va’a that will not only float but reach its destination by wind. A great idea to get you started would be to build a va’a using origami. Here is a link to a YouTube video with directions on how to do so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot_OXIXAsLk. Next try to find the best material to build a sail and mast. Finally build the outrigger to help balance the va'a and give it stability. The outrigger can be built similarly to the va'a, but just at a smaller scale. Once your va’a is built, get ready to test your engineering. Grab a plastic container and fill it halfway with water. Then set up a fan (or just use your lungs) to give yourself some wind to test how well your va’a can travel in the wind. Materials
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Challenge
April features two different National Holidays that tie-in together quite well. They can be translated to a wide variety of different STEM Challenges too! April 2 is National Children’s Picture Book Day and April 16 is National Librarian Day. No matter your age, everyone has a favorite picture book, whether it be “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” or “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”! Ask a librarian to help you find your favorite one and work with them to use the story to find a STEM Challenge. Every story usually has a general pattern: introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. Your picture book does too! Besides the major climax though, there are also a bunch of minor problems that get solved along the way. Take a walk down memory lane and reread your book searching for those problems and the major climax. What problems can you find? What are the solutions to those problems? What is the climax and the resolution? Could any of these problems be solved in a different way that include a STEM Challenge? Can you develop your own STEM Challenge? That’s your challenge! Find a problem in your storybook and design an alternative solution to the problem that focuses on engineering. For example, build a house out of straw or sticks that doesn’t get blown down by the Big Bad Wolf, design a way for the Prince to reach Rapunzel besides climbing up her hair, build a trap to help the Old Woman catch the Gingerbread Man, etc. The possibilities are endless! Share your solutions with others and a librarian! Materials
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There are two moments in the year when the Sun is exactly above the Equator and day and night are of equal length. Do you know those two moments? Hint: One of those days is coming up this month. If you mentioned the first day of spring or autumn, you would be right with spring being the day this month. We call these days equinoxes, and in March, it’s the Spring or Vernal Equinox. Vernal means relating to spring and to understand equinox, we can look at the word origins. Equi comes from the word “equal” and nox is a Latin word for “night”. Equal, night which describes what happens on the Vernal Equinox. Your challenge this month has to deal with collecting data with sunlight and shadows. Set up an item near a window where the Sun shines or outside. Do not move this item once it is in position. Measure the length of the shadow at the same time of day for the month of March and record the data. Also, collect data for the amount of daylight and darkness for everyday in March and graph the results (https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ is a great resource for this data collection). After the data is collected, your real challenge is to analyze the data in order to look for patterns. What do you notice about the shadows and daylight/darkness hours? What day was the Spring Equinox? What does this data mean or show with the Earth’s revolution? Why are the shadows changing length? When will the patterns noticed about the shadows change? When will the hours of daylight/darkness pattern change? Materials
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The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is on February 11. This date allows us to honor women’s significant achievements in science and place a much-needed focus on girls entering Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers. Celebrating the day not only allows girls to feel more comfortable in STEM programs, but it also lets boys know that girls need to be there. Boys can learn to respect and recognize their female counterparts as well as to seek women in science as their mentors and role models. And vice versa. As the fastest-growing segment of jobs with employers finding it hard to find available talent, STEM needs women. Your challenge this month is to learn about women charting their course as techie trailblazers and support young women to pursue their passions in STEM. There are 10 Women in Tech lesson plans available from math to history to computer science from the Girls Who Code website. Use any or of these lessons so students can explore the hidden history of women in tech and uncover how to think like a computer scientist. These lessons are aligned to the Computer Science Teacher’s Association Standards, CC ELA Standards, and CC Math Standards. Materials
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A new year means time for a resolution, which means determined to do something. All around the world these resolutions are made. The most common one has something to do with fitness. In fact, about 14% of people making resolutions are determined to exercise more. This also matches the data of how gym memberships increase about 10-15% every January. 2021 is no different! People are finding innovative ways to make their resolutions come true while still following appropriate guidelines regarding the pandemic. What are gyms doing to remain open? How do you participate in gym class while following guidelines? What is your favorite exercise in gym class or at home? How can you get the most out of exercise in gym class or at home? These questions, of course, relate to the STEM Challenge for this month. Your challenge is to design an experiment to see which exercise raises your heart rate the most. What exercises will be tested? How long should you perform each activity? How do you test your heart rate? Your challenge does have some criteria and constraints. All testing perimeters should be the same for each activity (duration, vigorousness, person conducting, etc.). If testing back-to-back, resting heart rate should be back to the original. At least three different types of exercises need to be tested. Materials
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This month's challenge is a little different than previous months'. It is based on the Hour of Code! The challenge is to have every student in your classroom complete at least an Hour of Code in the month of December. The Hour of Code initiative takes place each year during Computer Science Education Week, which is December 7-13. You can experience this at any time of the year, though! It is held annually in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906). The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts. Head here, https://hourofcode.com/us/learn, to checkout the free tutorials and experiences for all grade levels. Additional information about completing the challenge and on the initiative can be found at https://hourofcode.com/us. Happy Coding! Challenge
Are you ready for some football? For most Americans, football is the epitome of fall. It is in full swing now and gives us great reasons to eat yummy snacks. Americans actually have a day set aside to celebrate football. November 5 is American Football Day, and it reminds us about the great sport and that the season is halfway over. So, how can football be translated into a STEM Challenge? There are actually many different possibilities for challenges that could connect to the real world that engineers work on. Creating helmets to prevent injuries, making gloves that provide the best grip, designing shoes that get the best traction on fields, and testing materials that make the ball aerodynamic to name a few. What others can you think of? For this STEM Challenge, you will be tasked with designing the goalposts and a “kicker”. The object of the challenge is to design a little catapult-esque contraption that flings the “football” through the goalposts. What materials would work best for this and for accuracy? What shape, size, and design should the “kicker” be to be most effective? Can you replicate something out there already designed? Your “kicker” creation does have some criteria and constraints. Determine specific dimensions for your goalposts so all groups experience fairness with their accuracy. The “kicker” should be self-sufficient in the manner that the “football” is flung by the “kicker” with limited help from the designer. Standardize the distance the “kicker” must be from the goalposts and then see if the design will work from further out. Track the accuracy of the “kicker”: out of 10 attempts, what is the accuracy percentage? Standardize the “football” for all groups (a crumbled piece of paper, small ball, eraser, pom poms, etc) Materials
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Halloween is a hot topic floating around the communities. Families are debating whether to go door-to-door to interact with different households to experience Halloween. What might this look like with social distancing guidelines in place? How can we safely administer candy to children without potentially spreading germs? Should Halloween be cancelled or is there an alternative that can be designed to continue the tradition? If you haven’t guessed it by now, this month’s challenge has to deal with distributing candy to trick-or-treaters in a sanitary manner. Your challenge is to create a contraption that will deliver candy from one area into a trick-or-treat bag at least 6 feet away. What possibilities can you think of to deliver the candy? Will your design be tough enough to deliver all shapes and sizes of candy? Can you replicate anything that already exists to help you out? Your candy deliverer does have some criteria and constraints. As stated before, it must span a distance of 6 feet to maintain social distancing guidelines. The candy must also be easily obtainable by the trick-or-treater to put in their candy bag. Upon delivery, the candy shouldn’t be damaged for the trick-or-treater. Finally, the candy deliverer should be suitable for all types of different candy, not just the test candy. Materials
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Time: to measure or record the speed, duration, or rate of something. That is just one definition of the word, and there are many others. But this is the most accurate definition that will be needed for this month’s STEM challenge. There are many ways to measure time and the challenge will test different ways to measure time in seconds. What are the different ways to measure time? How many measurements can you think of that involve some kind of time? How much time does it take to do different tasks? Answering these questions could help you design a timer, which is the STEM Challenge. Your timer though is going to be manual and not electronic! What items can you use to build a timer? How will you test it to know it measures the time you want it to? Do you need a timer to measure your timer? Your goal is to build a timer using some kind of block or item that can be knocked over like dominoes. The timer must go for almost exactly 5 or 10 seconds. Your timer does have some criteria and constraints. The timer starts from when the first item gets pushed over to when the last item falls. Only items being knocked over can be used in the creation. You can mix and match different items to create the domino effect. Materials
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Did you know in August there are two separate special days dedicated to marshmallows? One day is August 10, which is National S’mores Day, and you can’t have a s’more without a marshmallow! The other day is August 30, which is Toasted Marshmallow Day! So of course, this month’s challenge has to do with marshmallows, especially toasting them AND making s’mores! Your challenge is to create a contraption that will make a marshmallow warm and soft along with chocolate to make a s’mores. You probably will not be able to really toast it since fire will not be used. You’ll be using the sun’s heat energy to help you accomplish the task. What materials will work best to capture the heat? How large should the contraption be? What shape, size, and design should it be to be most effective? How can you measure the effectiveness of the contraption? Your contraption and creation do have some criteria and constraints. Each contraption or solar oven should test one marshmallow or piece of chocolate at a time. All the marshmallows and chocolate should be about the same size and type. While testing, the solar ovens should be placed in the same sunny area. Use the same thermometer for taking the temperature inside the box. Materials
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With recent launches of rockets and a few more happening in July, it's time to blastoff this month with the STEM Challenge! Check out the Events Calendar at Kennedy Space Center for upcoming launches to watch them live or previous launches to prepare for builidng your own rocket to launch. Your challenge is to create and design a rocket and launch pad for blastoff. Adjust the rocket fuel and rocket design to see which provides the best blastoff. What size rocket will work best? What if the rocket had fins or other designs? Does the ratio of fuel ingredients matter? What about the ratio of fuel to the rocket size? What should the rocket launch pad be? The goal is create the best rocket you can and to experiment with all those questions! Design some sort of launch pad first. The goal of the launch pad is to hold the bottle upside down in an upright position. Next, decide on a plastic bottle to use as your rocket and design your rocket. Finally, experiment with the ratio of your rocket fuel or baking soda and vinegar. Your creation does have some criteria and constraints. Make sure safety is noted at all times. After the rocket is fueled, place it in the launch pad, and back away. Only launch rockets in a wide open spaces and from the designed launch pad. For launching, fill the bottle with the chosen vinegar ratio, pour the baking soda on a 4"x4" piece of paper towel, wrap up the baking soda with the paper towel, stuff it carefully into the spout of the bottle, cork the bottle, and turn it upside down into the launcher and move quickly out of the way. Prepare for blastoff! Materials
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June 14 is the holiday known as Flag Day. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress took a break from writing the Articles of Confederation and passed a resolution stating that “the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white,” and that “the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson marked the anniversary of that decree by officially establishing June 14 as Flag Day. Being Flag Day is this month, your challenge revolves around it. Countries use flags to portray themselves to the rest of the world and can be portraits of the past. Your challenge is to keep this ideal in mind and design a flag that represents you. What shape will your flag be? What colors will it be? What symbols will be included? How does all of that information represent you? There are no criteria or constraints for this challenge. Use your creativity and showcase yourself! Materials
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Looking for something to do inside or outside? Why not start a garden? You could choose to plant flowers, vegetables, or different kinds of plants. You can find vegetable seeds almost in any vegetable in your house. The beginning of May is the perfect time to start planting! Find those seeds and plant them in a pot with some soil. Your challenge this week has to deal with planting. How will they grow best? What do they need? How much of that do they need? Can you create some kind of experiment, tracking the data, to find out? Try it with multiple seeds, different kinds of plants, different amounts or kinds of soil, different places outside or inside (shady or sunny), different amounts of water, or anything else you can think of to experiment. Your experiment does have some criteria and constraints. Make sure to collect data on your plants. Before beginning make a hypothesis about which will grow the best and why. After completing the experiment, make a claim about how to grow the plant best by using evidence and reasoning. Materials
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Are you stuck at home and looking for something fun, easy, and science to do? I’m a big fan of Rube Goldberg machines and think this might be something to tie fun, easy, and science all together! What is a Rube Goldberg machine though? Let’s start with Rube Goldberg, himself. He was an American Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor, and his work is a classic example of the melding of art and science. Goldberg began his career as an engineer, and later became a cartoonist who drew elaborate illustrations of contraptions made up of pulleys, cups, birds, balloons, and watering cans that were designed to solve a simple task such as opening a window or setting an alarm clock. Interestingly, Goldberg only drew the pictures, and never built any of his inventions. However, these pictures have since served as inspiration for makers and builders who want the challenge of making wild inventions to solve everyday problems. So, that is your challenge for today. Can you build a Rube Goldberg machine to solve a simple problem? Maybe you want to turn on a fan, pour a glass of water, knock over an item, catch something, turn on a light, pop a balloon, ring a bell etc.! The possibilities are endless. For this challenge, there is no criteria or constraints. Use your creativity, ideas, thinking, and materials to create your own contraption! Materials
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NCAA March Madness is a single-elimination basketball tournament played each spring. 68 Division I college basketball teams battle for the national championship. It’s “Madness” because it captures the excitement around sports with the tournament, the upsets that happen between teams, the filling out of brackets, and the teams vying for the top spot! Since the tournament happens mostly in March, it is going to be the theme for this month’s STEM Challenge. Your challenge is to create a “trophy” for the champions of the basketball tournament. Your trophy must hold an actual basketball at the top of the trophy. What shape, size, and design should the trophy be to hold the basketball? How tall should the trophy be? What materials can you use? Your creation does have some criteria and constraints. As mentioned, the basketball has to sit at the top of the trophy. It should support the basketball for 20 seconds without crumpling. The basketball cannot be taped to the supports. The supports cannot be taped to the building surface. It must be at least 12 inches high. You can only use the materials given. Materials
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