Mind Lab Kids and Genesis School-gen have partnered to bring teachers FREE access to a series of fun, creative experiments and problems for students to solve. Perfect for inspiring young makers, doers, thinkers and tinkerers. Genesis School-gen are providing Mind Lab Kids to all New Zealanders free for the winter months. Subscribe at any time, no questions asked. Teachers can choose to sign up Mindlab Kids and asign work to students digitally or alternatively, students can create their own accounts and guide their own learning from home alongside their whaanau.

News4Youth is a photocopiable current events resource for students ages 10 and up. This organisation produce monthly issues of resources focused on current events around the world. In this edition, students engage in a range of learning activities focusing on the COVID-19 Pandemic. Activities include reading investigations, infographic interpretation and mapping with a focus on the health impacts of COVID-19. The resource pack contains simple teacher instructions and learning activities that are ready to be delivered from a distance or at home.

This collection of resources provided by Microsoft Education is designed for teachers or whaanau to keep students engaged in learning for an hour or more with safe and simple, collaborative learning experiences for ages 3 to 12. This collection of free activities, curated out of educational resources from around the world, encourages students and their whaanau to Learn, Do and Share. Great for remote learning, homework or using in a classroom setting. The resources vary in focus however many have strong STEAM and e-Learning themes.

This one off lesson gets students to create a basic robot that draws. When partnered with a design thinking process, it allows students to ideate and problem solve as they develop their robot. Students need to think creatively about how they can change their robots drawing path by changing its design.

This lesson sees students explore ideas of force and movement. Students begin the lesson by exploring forces by conducting experiments with recycled materials to explore how weight and shape impact on force and balance. Students then apply their new understanding of force and balance to dance and in pairs or groups will create a dance sequence which demonstrates the cause and effect relationship between balanced and unbalanced types of force.

This lesson students try to complete trick shots using ping pong balls and cups. The aim is to get students engaged with this activity and get them thinking about the why/how behind how it works. Students will think about different angles and techniques that they can use in order to achieve their goal. Students then put what they have learnt into practice by creating their own trick shot to challenge the other students in class to complete. Students also take part in the other trick shots that have been created by others in the class.

This lesson students will need to work as a group to blow a ping pong ball around a maze. The aim is to get students working together to complete a challenge and to think about the best ways to use their team mates. Students then put what they have learnt into practice by creating their own maze to challenge the other students in class to complete. All students take part in a ping pong golf maze

This lesson students try to stack the cups in specific formations without using their hands and with the help of their team mates. The aim is to get students engaged with this activity and get them thinking about the best strategy to use in order to complete the challenge. Students will experience a range of different challenges which start simple and then become more difficult this will cause them to rethink strategy and how they can achieve their goal. Students also have a chance to share the strategies they used and explain why they worked as well as developing their own challenge.

In this lesson students will show and create symmetrical dance moves with a partner or a group. Students will need to collaborate, problem solve and think creatively to come up with successful shapes and actions to create a coordinated routine to music. This lesson is a great way to assist learners when learning geometry.

In this lesson students will need to work as a group to create a catapult. The aim is to get students working together to this and to think about the design process. Students can then test our their prototypes with other groups to see what catapult is the most accurate or powerful. Students can explain their thinking and learn from others in this activity.

Twinkl - Teacher Resource Database

In this lesson students will need to work as individuals or in a group to solve challenges involving paper. Students will need to think creatively, exploring concepts around both the use of paper based materials and theories of construction. They will then come up with innovative solutions to solve the 4 challenges presented.

This lesson sees students explore ideas of force and movement. Students begin the lesson by exploring forces by conducting experiments with recycled materials to explore how weight and shape impact on force and balance. Students then apply their new understanding of force and balance to dance and in pairs or groups will create a dance sequence which demonstrates the cause and effect relationship between balanced and unbalanced types of force.

Most paper crafts revolve around creating something fancy out of paper, but did you know that you could use paper as a structural material? Our simple paper building blocks are a great way to demonstrate engineering for kids. Take a material that is weak in and of itself, fold it into a robust shape, like a triangle, and viola, you are now building with paper!

How strong is it? Well, make a few blocks, build a paper structure, and put it to the test! You’ll never guess what we tested ours with……check out the results below.

The James Dyson Foundation have created this PDF of 44 challenge cards with a engineering and science focus however, there are a range of other underlying subject areas within these projects. It has been designed for any adults to use with children aged 7 and above. The learning focuses on a practical task and there is information for more in-depth learning that teachers can build on and extend to suit the needs of students. This is a really good resource with a great range of activities with pictures and examples that will engage kids and adults alike!