In short, I am busy: STEM challenge: Building

Overall project: Cardboard Engineering

I usually have a separate project and experiment, but this doesn't lend itself well to that. I had a large board up with instructions for the kids

1. Think: What are you making?
2. Plan: Draw a plan! Collect supplies!
3. Measure = 2, Cut = 1
4. Build!

Don't have what you need? Didn't work? Back to step 1!

I've also tried cardboard squares for building - it didn't work quite right, but I probably didn't get the squares cut correctly.

Supplies

• Cardboard (every box for the last month and then some!)
• Duct tape, packing tape, regular tape
• Scissors, hole punches, staplers
• Pencils, scratch paper, rulers
• Markers and stickers
• Duct tape. Lots and lots of duct tape
• Cardboard boxes. Many, many cardboard boxes
• Lots of little pasteboard sticks (donated)
• Shape stickers, colored masking tape, yarn
• Scissors, regular tape, staplers

Project/Experiment: Bridges

• Supplies
• Cardboard/boxes
• Books on bridges
• Popsicle sticks (2 sizes)
• Yarn
• Tape (regular, duct tape, packing tape)
• Scissors (big and small)
• Glue dots
• Staplers, hole punches

Experiment: Pendulums

• Supplies
• Playground balls, sensory balls, ladders, yarn etc. to hang them with
• Blocks
• How it works
• I got this idea from a defunct blog. Basically we hung the playground balls from a ladder and swung them to knock over block towers. It didn't work perfectly, mostly because I had trouble getting the balls attached to the ladder but the kids really liked it.

Project/Experiment: Cardboard Mini City

• Supplies
• Recyclables including a vast number of boxes
• Scissors, regular and heavy-duty, xacto knives, hot glue
• Masking and duct tape
• Acrylic paint, ice cube trays, paint brushes
• Resources
• I adapted this from Art Workshop for Children by Barbara Rucci
• How it works
• I showed kids (and their parents) pictures in the book of some sample mini cities. Then they came up with their own creations!