Pom Pom Shooter

We participated in our first STEM activity today; STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math. I first read the book 'Going Places' to my students which is about kids having to build go-karts after being given identical materials to use. Of course one child builds something very different and it happens to win the contest. I gave the kids identical materials and asked each group to build a contraption that will shoot a pom pom as far as possible. I absolutely loved the noise that immediately enveloped the Maker Space. There were several different approaches to the challenge with differing results. A special shout out to Matthew. First, he persevered after his partner took ill and left him to work all by himself. Turns out, he built the pom pom shooter that shot the pom pom the farthest, 420 centimeters. WOW, talk about embracing challenges!