Challenge
This is the time of year when we often start noticing more spiders and their webs. We tend to associate spiders and webs with Halloween. Why? Well, many spiders reach adulthood in the late summer and early fall. So, they become more visible to us, and there are more spiders to create even more webs. Spider silk, the strongest fiber in nature, is used to make their webs. It is stronger than steel and thinner than a strand of hair! Webs are used to help spiders catch their prey and to help alert the spider of predators. If you haven’t guessed it by now, this month’s challenge has to deal with spider webs. Your challenge is to create a spider web to capture the most items. What material would work best for capturing the items? What shape, size, and design should the web be to be most effective? Can you emulate an actual spider’s web from nature?
Your spider web creation does have some criteria and constraints. Determine specific dimensions for your webs so they turn out to be generally the same size. The web must look like a spider web, meaning with strands and holes. The objects being caught in the web must be the same with identical processes of how the objects reach the webs.

Materials

• various types of tape (scotch, masking, packing, duct, etc.)
• various types of string (thick, thin, yarn, thread, fishing, kite, etc.)
• scissors
• paper clips
• straws
• Velcro
• various cups
• objects to catch in web (plastic spider rings, Styrofoam peanuts, pom poms, connecting cubes, bits of paper, etc.)
• any other additional materials

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the items to see how flexible, movable, and heavy they are. Also, let students experiment with the objects they are catching in their webs.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their design by drawing it out and labeling their materials being used. Include as many ways to improve their webs as needed.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use, add any additional materials, take away certain materials, show them different kinds of spider webs, challenge them to collect a certain number of objects or more, change the dimensions or shape of the web, use different objects to catch. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Make sure to standardize the dimensions of the web so testing can be fair for all creations. Also, standardize how the objects will be reaching the webs. Will groups hold their webs up in one place and throw the objects at the web from another? Will the web be held horizontally or vertically? Will they be tossed one at a time or all at the same time? Will the students develop some kind of launcher so tosses are all the same? OR will the students think of something completely different?
5. Connect to math by discussing dimensions and what that means, measurement, shapes, symmetry, translations, angles, etc.
6. Connect to science by discussing predator, prey, survival behavior, food chains/webs, habitats, structure and function of spiders, how humans mimic organisms, etc.
7. Connect to ELA by researching the different kinds of spiders, the webs they weave, and why they weave them that way and/or by reading The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, Spiders by Aaron Carr, Spiders and Their Webs by Linda Taglianferro, Weaving Wonders by Nancy Loewen, Spinning Spiders by Melvin Berger or National Geographic Readers: Spiders by Laura Marsh to explore different kinds of spiders, spider facts, and more about spider webs. 

Challenge
Arrrrrre you aware that September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day? Get ye mateys aboard for this month’s challenge, which is pirate themed. Treasure maps were popular among the crew to look for their booty. They included symbols, directions, pictures, booby traps, keys, and other forms of communication to help remember where their treasure was hidden. Your challenge this month is to create a treasure map to locate a certain place or object. It focuses on the engineering practice of generating and comparing multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria of the problem. What kind of map will be best? What should be included on a map? How can the communication be clear and directions easy to follow?
 
Your treasure map does have some criteria and constraints. Make sure all groups are creating a treasure map to the same place and starting from the same location. This way groups will be able to compare their solutions. A rubric or system of comparing should be devised to regulate map comparisons. Rubric components could include ease of reading map, ability to find the treasure according to the map, design, or type of directions.

Materials

• various large, colors and sizes of paper
• markers
• pens
• pencils

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning, discussion, and research time to decide how they would like to set up their maps, what symbols to use, and how they will communicate their directions on the map.
2. After research, allow student groups to plan and create their final design. Include as many ways to improve their maps as needed.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use, add any additional materials, show students map examples, start with an easy map/location, include multiple stops or treasure items. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Make sure to standardize the locations students have to start and stop at. If needed, secretly provide different locations students need to map so students are not all going to the same place.
5. Discuss pros and cons of map making.
6. Connect to social studies by discussing map keys, cartography, map scale, pirate history, directions, compass rose, etc.
7. Connect to art by discussing scale, proportion, quantity, distance, viewpoint, etc.
8. Connect to math by discussing the coordinate grid system, measurement, conversions, etc. 

Challenge
Summer is nearing an end but there is still time to build a sandcastle! The good news is you don't even need to go to the beach to do so. The beach experiences way too much erosion by wind and rain anyway to keep a sandcastle around for multiple days. Can you think of other ways erosion affects the land or other things? What does all this have to do with this month's challenge? This month, your challenge is to engineer sand so it can withstand the erosion elements of wind and water. You're going to test out different recipes to determine which sand would be best to keep a sandcastle in tact during a windy day or a wet one. What ingredients might we need to do so? How much of each ingredient? How can we test out a recipe before building an entire sandcastle? 

Your sand recipe does have some criteria and constraints. Only the materials provided can be used in your recipe. The same kind of sand should be used when performing tests against each other. Other sands can be used as long as all groups have access to the same sand. Try to change only one variable at a time so fair tests can be done. Use a Dixie cup as the standard size of a brick to measure the effects of erosion.

*This idea and challenge can be further explored in the Advancing STEM Grade 4 Unit, Centuries of Change: Processes That Shape the Earth. 

Materials

• sand
• liquid white glue
• Dixie cups
• non-stick spray
• water
• watering can (shower head spout)
• small fan
• plastic spoons
• mixing bowls

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Provide sample castles for students to improve. These will act as a baseline and starting point for them. Mix together 1 Dixie cup of sand and 3 teaspoons of water. Spray the inside of the Dixie cup with the non-stick spray. Pack the mixture into the cup and let sit. Pack another cup with sand but without mixing in the water. 
2. Turnover the cups to expose the small sand castles. You might have to tear the cup off of the sand. Share the recipes for those two mixtures with the students. Allow the fan to blow on each. Dump about 1 cup of water on each with the watering can. Collect and discuss the data and evidence of each test. Charge students with the challenge.
3. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the items to see how they mix together. Students could conduct mini experiments by placing small amounts of the mixing items together to see how they interact in very small doses.
4. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their recipe of what will go in 1 Dixie cup. Include as many ways to improve their sand castle recipes as needed. 
5. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use (limit the amout of glue allowed to be added), add any additional materials, take away certain materials, show them different versions others have created, use different sized cups, use different types of sand. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
6. Make sure to always standardize their tests when collecting results such as distance fan is from the sandcastle, speed of the fan, amount of water being poured on it, how high the spout is above the sandcastle, ways of collecting data and evidence.
7. Connect to mathematics by discussing measurement, ratios, conversions, etc.
8. Connect to science by discussing erosion, weathering, natural disasters, human preparation for events such as natural disasters, mixtures, solutions, matter, etc.

Challenge
The days from July 3 to August 11 are known as the Dog Days of Summer, usually the hottest, muggiest of the year. This is the period when Sirius, the Dog Star, rises at the same time as the Sun. The ancient Romans defined this period and believed the weather was warmer because Sirius was also providing heat for the Earth, hence Dog Days of Summer. So, how can this heat help us with this month’s STEM challenge? Heat rises which is going to be a good fact to know when building your solar updraft tower, which harnesses the Sun’s heat energy to do work. Our version to going to use empty cylinders with a pinwheel attached to the top. The goal is to get the pinwheel to rotate from the heat rising through the solar tower. What materials would be best to use for the tower sections? Do certain items warm up faster or more than others? How can the pinwheel be attached so it can spin freely? How high off the ground should your updraft tower be? Your challenge is to create an updraft tower that uses the Sun’s heat energy to spin the pinwheel the most amount of times. Updraft Tower Example.

Your updraft tower does have some criteria and constraints. Only the materials provided can be used in your design. The tower needs to be at least 1 foot tall. Every group should build and construct the same type of pinwheel for fair testing during the rotations.
 
*This idea and challenge can be further explored in the Advancing STEM Grade 4 Unit, Full of Potential: The Effects of Energy.

Materials

• aluminum cans (various sizes without tops and bottoms)
• can opener
• cardboard tubes (various sizes)
• plastic cylinder containers (various sizes)
• different colored duct tape
• clear tape
• paper clips (for attaching the pinwheel)
• paper for pinwheel
• simple pinwheel template

​
Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the items to see how flexible, movable, and heavy they are. Students could conduct mini experiments by placing different items in the heat to see which warm up the fastest or are the warmest by the end of a set time period. Students could also experiment with different sized pinwheels and the type of paper used to make them to see which spins easiest or the best.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their design. Include as many ways to improve their updraft towers as needed.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use, add any additional materials, take away certain materials, show them different versions others have created, help determine how to attach the pinwheel or how to raise the bottom so air may enter. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Make sure to standardize the pinwheel students are using and the area they are placing their towers. Or, the latter could be part of their experiment/challenge. Additionally, how high the towers are placed off the ground could impact how well it works. This could also be standardized.
5. Connect to science by discussing solar power/energy, renewable/non-renewable energy, convection, weather patterns, energy, work, etc.

Challenge
Since it is now officially spring, the flora will start blooming and then before you know it, be ready to disperse their seeds. Flora depends and relies on their seeds to help with expansion and growth into different areas. Some plants have structures that allow their seeds to become airborne and soar long distances. What do you think these seeds look like? How far do you think the seeds can travel? How will you test it out? Enter this month’s challenge. You and your group need to design a wind dispersed seed structure to carry a single seed the farthest distance possible. The seed you will be carrying is a lima bean.

Your seed structure does have some criteria and constraints. You can only use a single piece of paper of your choice. The seed must stay attached to the structure. If the seed falls out during flight, the distance will be calculated as zero. You can test your structure during the build process with the fan. For the final test, you will have three trials, measure each distance, and average them together for your final distance.

Materials

• fan
• lima bean seeds
• computer paper
• construction paper
• card stock paper
• scissors
• tape measures

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the different paper types to see how durable and heavy they are. Also, let students handle the lima beans to get a sense of their mass.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their design. Students may start fresh with a new piece of paper if they would like to change their design, but you may want to limit how many pieces of paper they can do this with.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use, add any additional materials (tape, glue, string), take away certain materials, show them different wind dispersed seeds from nature, make something without a seed or with more seeds. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Make sure to standardize the height and distance students are dropping their seeds in front or the fan. For example, tape a ruler or pole to the back of the fan then an index card to the top of the ruler or pole jutting out it front of the fan. Students then would drop their dispersal structure with the bottom touching the edge of the card.
5. Allow students to build and experiment with their designs and perform their final three trials. Students should average the three trials together.  If possible, discuss the outcomes, compare and contrast structures based upon distance, relate to the real world, and share improvements to be made, and allow students to improve their seed dispersal structure.
6. Connect to science by discussing gravity, weight, mass, structure and function of organisms, growth, reproduction.
7. Connect to ELA by reading Travelling Seeds by Rebecca Bielawski, Who Will Plant a Tree by Jerry Pallotta, or Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move by JoAnn Early Macken, to explore concepts related to how seeds are dispersed in nature. 

Challenge
Earth Day is celebrated every year on April 22nd. It was first celebrated in 1970. It is a day used to promote and support environmental protection for our Earth. We don't need a special day to celebrate. We can celebrate this day year round! We have to think of our future and generations to come.  Taking care of the Earth is best for every organism in the future.  What are some things you do to protect our Earth?  What are some things others can do to help the Earth? This leads right into the challenge for the month.  How can you reuse materials to reduce your impact on the environment?

For this challenge, there are not any criteria or constraints! Use your imagination to think of different ways to use something, especially plastic items since they take a very long time to decompose.  Search the web.  Learn how others or reusing items to make art, clothing, fashion accessories, bags/wallets, jewelry, etc.   

*This idea and challenge can be further explored in the Advancing STEM Kindergarten Unit, Spot the Differences: Changes to the Environment

Materials

• various reusable items
• tape
• glue
• rubber bands

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning, research, and discussion time to decide what they would like to reuse, how they would like to reuse it, and what they are going to create.
2. After the initial step, allow student groups to plan their design and collect any materials they will need for their creation.
3. For differentiation, provide ideas students could possibly make, show students websites and artifacts of items that have been reused, assign students parts of a whole, keep track of the waste the classroom makes in a day/week/month, etc.
4. Discuss pros and cons of using different materials and items and why it is important to reuse/recycle them instead of throwing them away.
5. Connect to science by discussing environment, human impact, natural and non-renewable resources, reduce, reuse, recycle, pollution, etc.
6. Connect to ELA by reading Don’t Throw That Away by Lara Bergen or The Adventures of the Plastic Bottle by Alison Inches.  Both stories follow the paths of items being recycled and how to reuse them. 

Challenge
March is National Music in Our Schools so this challenge will follow suit! Sound dampening materials are used in the music industry to produce high quality sound. Without these materials the sounds from outside or inside could mix together. Imagine listening to your favorite song, but there are birds chirping in the background since they were outside the recording studio that day! It probably would ruin the song. There is a need for sound proofing to create excellent recordings. What materials help reduce sounds? How much of the material is need? That’s where the challenge comes in. Your challenge is to construct a prototype room for dampening sound coming from a device. What will be the best materials to use? What already exists in the real world or your school that does this?

Your sound proofing room does have some criteria and constraints. Only the materials provided can be used in your design. Each groups’ room should be the same size. Testing the room should be placed over the same device emitting the sound. Or the device inside could be recording and sound coming from outside the room.

Materials

• poster board
• cardboard boxes
• cotton balls
• felt
• craft sticks
• foam pieces
• various fabric
• tape
• glue
• paper
• foil
• etc.
• device for playing sound
• device for decibel meter app (Decibel X)

​
Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the items to see how flexible, movable, and heavy they are. Also, let students test to see how the app or decibel meter works.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their design. Include as many ways to improve their prototype rooms as needed.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use, add any additional materials, take away certain materials, show them different sound proofing rooms, amount of time in the room. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. If using cardboard boxes of some sort, they should all be the same size with one side completely open. If using the poster board or other type of paper, create a cube net stencil that students can trace, cutout, fold, and tape to create an open box to represent their room. The unfolded net would work well for creating their room before folding it together.
5. Make sure to standardize procedure of testing the room. The app allows the user to record the data collected so students will be able to test it out and the amount of sound it is picking up either inside the room or outside of the room created.
6. The classroom will have to be as noise free as possible when testing since the meter will pick up all sounds. Ensure that the noise being played is at the same level for each room being tested.
7. Discuss with students the best way to conduct the activity and collect data.
8. Connect to science by discussing sound waves, properties of materials, absorption, reflection, refraction, etc.
9. Connect to ELA by reading How Sounds Move by Sharon Coan, Sounds All Around by Wendy Pfeffer, or Sound: Loud, Soft, High, and Low by Natalie Myra Rosinsky

Challenge
It’s the month of Febrrrrrruary according to the weather. It’s definitely providing some cold temperatures as it starts and will most likely continue. How do you stay warm when going outside in this weather? What makes you stay the warmest? Do you wear different types of clothes during the winter for different temperatures? How come? What types of fabrics are used in winter clothing? After thinking about all these questions, think which hat, glove, scarf, sock, or boot would keep you the warmest. That is your challenge this month, to find out which of these items will help you stay the warmest. Gather a bunch of different types of these in your classroom or at home to help you decide. Your ultimate challenge is to construct a method to fairly test which items will keep you the warmest. Be sure to make predictions, collect data, and share your findings.

Your method does have some criteria and constraints. Make sure to use different types of gloves, boots, scarves, and socks, the same type of thermometer, to reset the thermometers to room temperature, to allow the same amount of time when testing each item, etc.  

Materials

• thermometers
• variety of mittens/gloves
• variety of hats
• variety of scarves
• variety of boots
• variety of socks

​
Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time of how they are going to set up their experiments to be sure they are doing fair trials.
2. After planning and discussion, allow student groups to create their data charts for their experiments. Students can share their data charts and ideas of fair testing as needed, which can allow other groups to adjust their thinking.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amounts of items to be used, provide guidelines for fair testing/amounts of time to test, provide the data charts, etc.
4. After experiments, discuss results as a class to see which item keeps the body the warmest. (The data should show that the items do not make the thermometer show much, if any, in difference in temperatures). Have students ask questions after analyzing to gather their thoughts.
5. Inform class that body temperature creates the heat and these items help trap the heat to keep the body warm.
6. Have students redesign their experiments with this notion in mind repeating steps 1-4 to complete the challenge.
7. Connect to science by discussing energy, thermal energy, properties of materials, heat, energy transfer, temperature, and weather.
8. Connect to ELA by reading The Mitten by Jan Brett or How Heat Moves by Sharon Coan, or The Energy That Warms Us: A Look at Heat by Jennifer Boothroyd to explore some concepts around heat.

​Challenge
Happy New Year! It was officially winter on December 21st and that means the weather will continue changing this month to be more winter-ish. Colder temperatures could mean snow and ice and the possibility of water freezing on the roads and sidewalks. How does this happen? What makes the snow/water turn to ice? Better yet, what is the best way to get rid of the ice on the sidewalks or roads to prevent accidents? Snowplows do their best to prevent accidents but what are they spreading on the road? Is there something better? What do you spread on your sidewalk to get rid of the ice? Which dissolvent works the fastest? Your challenge is to figure out which ice melter is the best.

Your challenge does have some criteria and constraints. The ice cubes being used for the test should be from the same water source, the same approximate size, and conducted at the same time of an experiment. Make sure to also continually check the experiment and during the same time intervals.

Materials

• ice cube trays
• small containers for the ice cube melting
• ice cubes
• measuring device
• magnifier
• sand, dirt, tiny pebbles
• various ice melters and/or salt (non-iodized salt, iodized salt, kosher salt, rock salt, sea salt, etc. and/or store-bought ice melts)

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them examine the various melters to see how they are differently composed such as size, shape, color, and even names. A magnifier or microscope might help with some of these items.
2. After examining, allow student groups to plan their experiment. For the first experiment, you may want students to test each melter separately on small pieces of ice to get an idea on how each melter reacts to the ice. For the following experiments, allow students to mix different melters together and add any other materials they think will help the process.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use, add any additional materials, take away certain materials, allow students to shake their containers. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Make sure to standardize the experiment and the amount of melter to use. For example, if students want to individually test out all of the melters first, they should use the same amount of the melter on the ice. Also, a standardized way of measuring the melted ice needs to be considered. Students may think of finding the mass of the ice before and after it’s been melted.
5. Discuss pros and cons of the different ice melters and of the experiment. For example, one might be more expensive than another or in our experiment the temperature is warmer inside than when being outside so the ice could have melted not because of the chosen melter.
6. Connect to science by discussing weather, properties of matter, or chemistry.
7. Connect to ELA by reading about melting and freezing such as Why Does Ice Melt (How? What? Why?) by Jim Pipe, which has additional activities on melting and heating, or Snowplows by Rebecca Pettiford to discover how a snowplow gets the job done.

 

Challenge
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 3-9. 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
Apples are the fruit of the season, autumn. There are so many ways to eat an apple, from apple cider to apple pie. Apples can be picked right from the tree or off the ground if not too severely damaged from their descent. Certain technology has been engineered to pick apples from trees. Most look like 3/4 of a small wire cage to grab and catch the apple on the end of a long handle. But, what about picking apples up off the ground? Is there something better that would work for this task? Your challenge is to construct a device for lifting an apple or more off the ground. What will be the best materials to use? What already exists in the real world that lifts items? Would it be better to lift more than one apple at a time?

Your apple picker upper does have some criteria and constraints. Only the materials provided can be used in your design. Your device has to be able to lift an apple 30 cm off the ground. The device must lift the apple without too much assistance (try to use simple machines to do the work).  

Materials

• apples
• masking/duct tape
• cardboard pieces
• construction paper
• yarn
• paper clips
• clay
• straws
• cups
• any other additional materials

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the items to see how flexible, movable, and heavy they are. Also, let students test how heavy an apple is.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their design. Include as many ways to improve their apple picker uppers as needed.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use, add any additional materials, take away certain materials, show them different uses of simple machines, include more apples to be picked up at once, change the height needed to be lifted. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Make sure to standardize the platform students are building on. For example, if students are building a type of crane/pulley system, be sure to make it fair so they are placing it the same level above the ground.
5. Discuss pros and cons of different simple machines or ideas of apple picker uppers.
6. Connect to science by discussing gravity, weight, mass, weight bearing loads, strength/properties of materials, forces, Newtons.
7. Connect to ELA by reading Pull, Lift, and Lower: A Book About Pulleys or Scoop, Seesaw, and Raise: A Book About Levers both by Michael Dahl, to explore some concepts around simple machines and for students to gather ideas about what they could design.