STEM Challenges

STEM Challenges -- WK Gear Up STEM consultants visit classrooms for a 2-3 day lesson and engineering challenge to support the science ideas/practices/concepts that students are learning in science class.  The teacher's role is to observe the lesson, support students, and follow up.

NEW for 2023-2024:  Teachers who participate will lead the lesson on Day 1 of the task, with the support of the consultants on Days 2 and 3, if needed.  WK Gear Up will continue to provide the materials and lesson plan.  We will continue to share all of our resources and support as teachers begin to take ownership of student-driven instructional practices.  

Build a Shoe - Students apply their learning about physics concepts such as force, pressure, and impulse to design and build different types of shoes.  Easy?  Not until you try it!

Build a Thermos - Students review important energy concepts related to kinetic, potential and thermal energy and apply it to designing and building a device that will keep water HOT the longest.  A Competition!

Build a Lava Lamp - After learning about different types of matter and how they can react with each other, students use what they have learned to design and construct a simple lava lamp-like device.  There have been some pretty ones!

Biofilm Busters!  -- Build the perfect bacteriophage.  - Students become familiar with a virus known as a bacteriophage and how they can be useful to solve everyday problems related to water purity and ecosystem health.  They are challenged to design and build a "bacteriophage" (model) that will "kill" harmful bacteria.   

Build an Ecosystem -- Students have learned a lot about ecosystems -- organisms, populations, communities, and the nonliving components involved.  But is knowing enough?  Can they create an actual ecosystem that is self-sustaining and healthy?  In this challenge, students are given materials to create an ecosystem that includes living components and nonliving components.  They must design a way to provide evidence that it is healthy.  

NEW:  Build a Mag Lev Train - Teachers use their 3D printer from the summer training session!  Students review electromagnets and how they function; in the challenge, student use their knowledge of magnetism and forces to build an electromagnet, get a pencil to levitate, and design and build their own maglev train.