NOVEMBER STEM CHALLENGES
TURKEY HIDEOUT
Design and create a hide out to protect the turkey cutout or a stuffed animal of your choice.
Download the turkey pdf. Cut it out to use for the challenge.
Constraints: hideout must be 12x12x12
Materials: blocks, Legos, cardboard, newspaper, cereal boxes, recycled materials
Optional: Download the turkey below and print it out to use in your hideout.
Turkey Printable.pdfTURKEY BOWL FOOTBALL CHALLENGE
Design and build an upright. Create a device that will launch a mini-football through your upright. How to make a paper football
Constraints: 30 minute time limit
Materials: any material you find around your home
LEAF PICKER UPPER
Design and build something that can be used to pick up leaves. Your goal is to design it to pick up the most leaves in the sortest amount of time possible. How many leaves can you pick up in a minute? Try again to beat your first attempt.
Constraints: When using it, you may not bend over or down and your hands may not touch the leaves.
Materials: craft sticks, straws, pipe cleaners, toothpicks, paper tubes, cardboard, paper plates, scissors, tape
BUILD A BRIDGE CHALLENGE
Design and construct a bridge that is strong enough to hold a measuring cup with 1 cup of water in it.
Constraints: bridge must be suspended between two objects that are 12 inches high
Materials: spaghetti, Q-Tips, sticks, straws, glue OR hot glue, string
SUPER SPINNERS
Design spinners that will balance while holding pennies.
Mechanical engineers design generators, washers, dryers, fans and other machines so that they are balanced as they spin. Even a forward pass in a football game is more effective and stable when the ball is thrown with the ideal spin.
Constraints: spinners must hold 6 pennies
Materials: cardboard, tape, 2 pencils, 6 pennies, posterboard, paper plates, scissors, dark colored marker, 2 rubber bands, stopwatch or timer, piece of paper
ALARM CHALLENGE
Sketch and create an alarm that will alert you (ex: wake you up, someone entered your room, someone took your belongings).
Constraints: none
Materials: anything you can find around the house
NEWSPAPER FORT CHALLENGE
Build a newspaper fort.
Constraints: large enough for you to sit inside without it collapsing
Materials: newpaper, magazines, tape, string
PINECONE ELEVATOR CHALLENGE
Plan and create an elevator for a pinecone.
Constraints: must raise the pinecone 2 feet in the air
Materials: cardboard, straws, sticks, dowel rods, tape, string, cereal boxes, scissors, pinecones
FANCY FEET CHALLENGE
Design a pair of shoes for yourself.
Constraints: Your shoes must fit you and you must be able to walk the perimeter of the room. Bonus points if you can wear them outside and walk up and down your driveway (we must see pictures)!
Materials: cardboard, foam, duct tape, scraps of wood, posterboard, ribbon, yard, string, beads, sparkles, bells, scissors, glue or hot glue