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Spring STEAM Challenge - Beantastic Sort-O-Matic!
Oh No!
Oh No!
The Beantastic Sort-O-Matic has malfunctioned!
The Beantastic Sort-O-Matic has malfunctioned!
Welcome to our Spring STEAM Challenge! The Beantastic Sort-O-Matic has malfunctioned and our students need to help the factory manager to sort the beans!
Students will design and build a device that when beans are poured on or in it, it sorts them into their type.
*I recommend K-2 uses only 2 types of beans and 3-6 can use 3+ types of beans for this challenge.
Watch some videos about machines that sort:
Sorting E-waste components (1:30) - technical, but you can watch it on mute and get the idea
Coin Sorter (old school!) (0:54) - horrible recording but better for this activity
Candy Sorter (1:33) - mechanical, but the beginning might give some ideas, shows how it sorts the candy by thickness
Materials:
Paper Plate(s)
Bowl (for the beans)
Pipe Cleaners
Tape (scotch, masking, blue, etc.)
Scissors
Rubber Bands
Types of Beans (Jellybeans, black beans, pinto beans, lima beans, etc.)
Other Possible Materials:
Plastic baggies
String/yarn
Craft sticks (different sizes)
Straws
Coffee filters
Hole punch
Where can you get materials (other than purchasing it all yourself)?
Ask students to each bring in something
Ask parents to donate items
Science Center - I can give you many of these basic items! Just give me a bit of notice...
See if anything is already in your school's STEAM Lab
Purpose: To design and build a device that when beans are poured on or in it, it sorts them into their type.
**Note - they cannot manually pick out the beans.
Questions to pose:
How many steps will your design have?
Where will the beans go as they are being poured?
Will your design work for any type of bean, or just the ones for today's activity?
This activity should be done multiple times. Once they try to sort it, they should analyze how successful their design is and see if they can redesign it to be a better Sort-O-Matic design.
Helpful Links:
Don't forget about the Engineering Design Process! Give them time to IMPROVE their designs, to TEST them out, and SHARE their results!
Engineers and scientists and many other people in multiple industries do this all the time!
This is also a great time to talk about FAILURE!
Failure is part of life! Failure is OK and good for us! Famous people, inventors, heroes, and more FAIL all the time! We would never improve if we didn't fail!
Extensions:
Get some Math involved and have them graph their results. How many beans sorted correctly the first round, second round, third, etc. For upper grades, have them calculate their errors (how many beans didn't get sorted correctly) - they can do this with fractions or percentages.
Social Studies - relate this to the California Gold Rush! Panning for gold was essentially shaking and sorting out the rocks and gravel until all that was left was little nuggets of gold! 💰
Careers:
Mechanical Engineer: They design and build machines or devices, like automated sorting systems used in factories or recycling plants.
Industrial Engineer: Focuses on optimizing processes, which could include designing systems that efficiently sort materials like beans in factories or agriculture.
Robotics Engineer: Works on building robots that can interact with and sort objects, like in assembly lines or sorting facilities.
Agricultural Engineer: Specializes in designing machinery for farming, including sorting systems for different types of crops or beans.
Manufacturing Engineer: Works on improving processes in factories, including those that sort items for packaging or shipping.
Product Designer: Involves creating products or systems that meet specific needs, such as devices for sorting objects.
Data Analyst: While not directly related to the physical design, they could analyze data related to the sorting system's efficiency, identifying patterns in the types of beans or other objects being sorted.
Share with parents or during STEAM Night! Have students show how they made their sorting devices. Maybe even set up a station for the families to try to make their own!
The Post-Build: After the build ends, here are some ideas!
Gallery Walk: Silent, hands-behind-the-back lap around the room to check out everyone’s designs. Quick, respectful, and sparks curiosity.
Group Share-Outs: Each group gets 2–3 minutes to present their design, explain choices, and share next steps.
Student-Led Q&A: Other students ask questions based on criteria, design choices, or creative features—modeled early in the year to build strong habits.
Individual Reflection: Students complete a design analysis handout on their own. It gives space for quiet thinkers to process and reflect deeply.
Optional Group/Whole Class Discussion: You can close out with a discussion depending on time, learning style preferences, or group needs.
Don't forget to REFLECT!
Don't forget to REFLECT!
Questions to ask the students:
What was the most effective design? Why?
Was there something that worked well for each group?
Is there a material that would have worked well that we didn't have?
What frustrated you about this challenge?
If we did this challenge again in a month, what would you do differently?
How well do you think your group collaborated, cooperated, and communicated to each other?
How was this challenge about perseverance?
Why Reflect in STEM?
Why Reflect in STEM?
Reflection in STEM is essential to both student understanding and teacher evaluation of students’ learning. Reflecting helps students make connections, understand their successes and failures, and become aware of their learning. Reflections help teachers identify where different students are in their learning process.
MOST IMPORTANTLY - HAVE FUN!!!
Adapted from : Bean Bind by Feel Good Teaching
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