Family STEM Night Activities

McCleary Moss, Ellie Wiegert, and Sierra Womble

Jessica Crawford, Maiti Meehan, Lindsay Sanders, and Ally Stotts

Anna Ford, Amber and Julia Midyette

Heather Austin, Kim Mahoney, and Kayla Murphy

Bridgette Gaddis, Emily Hruda, and Maizie Vincent

Design a Firefly

Design and build a firefly using materials provided or at your home. Then throw your firefly and see how far it flies!

Materials:

  • Index cards

  • Tissue paper

  • Glue stick

  • Popsicle sticks

  • Constructions paper

  • Scissors

  • Use any other materials at your home that you want to create your firefly

Intro Video

Firefly STEM Video.mov

Wrap Up Video

Closing/Wrap Up.mov

Feed the Hungry Caterpillar

Feed your hungry caterpillar and count how much it can eat. Then turn your caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly!

Materials:

  • Paper cup

  • Mini marshmallows

  • Skittles

  • Pom poms

  • Scissors

  • Crayons


Steps to complete this activity:

  • First, look at the small paper cup and draw a caterpillar on the outside of the cup.

  • Then predict or guess how many skittles and/or mini marshmallows it would take to fill the cup (or caterpillar).

  • Now feed your caterpillar! See how close your prediction was by counting the skittles and/or marshmallows. Were there more or less than what you thought there would be?

  • Now turn your caterpillar into a butterfly. Make two cuts that are directly across from each other all the way down the side of the cup. Then pull the sides back and pinch the bottom of the cup together. See your butterfly!

  • Decorate your butterfly by coloring its wings!

  • Optional: You can glue the bottom parts of the cup together to hold it together and keep it as a butterfly or you can not glue it so you can change it back and forth between the caterpillar and butterfly.

Intro Video

Lindsay and Maiti modeling task.mov

Wrap Up Video

Ally and Jessica modeling butterfly.mov

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Read Aloud

Jessica reading the very hungry caterpillar.mp4

Click this link to make a copy of the interactive hungry caterpillar activity. Make sure to click “Make a Copy.”

Bee Pollen Board Game

Play this game with a family member and race your bees across flowers to spread pollen and get to the beehive!

Materials:

  • Pom poms

  • Dice

  • Clothes pins

  • Yellow circle stickers

  • Small paper cups

  • Bee Pollen Board Game handout

Rules:

Roll the dice and drop pollen on the flowers as you move around the garden. Players should use different colored pollen pom poms. The first one to put pollen on all the flowers and get to the the hive wins! But watch out! If you land on a cloud , you will get blown backwards or forwards. Don't worry, your pollen will stay on the flower. Be the first bee to reach the beehive!

Bee Pollen Board

Intro Video

Buzz Buzz Bee Garden.mp4

Build a Bug Recipe

Create your own bug with play-dough! Then count all the items you used to complete your bug recipe.

Materials:

  • Play-dough

  • Pipe cleaners

  • Googly eyes

  • Buttons

  • Bug Recipe handout

Guess That Insect Read Aloud

Introduction (Book Reading).mp4

Bug Recipe

Intro Video

Introduction.mp4

Wrap Up Video

Wrap up Video.mp4

Tower Building

Using only 10 plastic cups, build the tallest tower that you

Materials:

  • 10 large plastic cups

Challenge #1: Build the tallest tower that you can with only 10 plastic cups.

Challenge #2: Build a tower that looks like an ant hill.

Intro Video

Wrap Up Video

Insect Storytime

The Backyard Bug Book for Kids Read Aloud

The Backyard Bug_Book for Kids read by Nick Kim.mp4