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.pdf

TURKEY 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

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