Over the past six few months, we’ve released more than 35 new (and free!) STEAM challenges to keep kids creative and learning while they’re stuck at home. Many of these challenges can be done virtually between kids and their friends, through distance learning or homeschool, or as a family activity. They’re also great practice for teams participating in our upcoming season of Destination Imagination! Check out 10 of our most popular ones.
- Spaghetti Tower: For this challenge, students will build a spaghetti tower as tall as possible that can hold a marshmallow on top.
- Rube Goldberg: Kids of all ages will have fun using everyday household materials to build one of the most popular engineering STEAM projects. Can you get your Rube Goldberg machine to launch a tennis ball?
- Unknown Structure: At the start of COVID-19, we designed our first virtual STEAM activity for groups of students to do together online. Students will need to use a specific set of materials to build a structure that can hold a Ping-Pong ball. They will not know ahead of time what they will be scored on for this challenge.
- Roller Coaster: Roller coasters are one of the most popular attractions at amusement parks. In this activity, students will explore the world of structural engineering, as well as the motion and speed of an object, as they create their own small-scale roller coaster model.
- May the Forks Be with You: Using forks and a sheet of paper, kids will challenge friends online to see who can build the tallest freestanding tower possible. To make it more fun, they will NOT know what they will be scored on until after they’ve completed the challenge.
- Water Works: For this challenge, kids will build a structure as tall as possible that can support a cup of water. You may want to go outside for this one!
- Famous Landmarks: From the Statue of Liberty to The Great Wall of China, there are many famous landmarks that attract people from all over the world. For this Challenge, kids will use their creativity, quick thinking and problem-solving skills to recreate famous landmarks.
- Marshmallow Catapult: Got marshmallows? Kids will have a blast building a catapult and then launching marshmallows to knock down a stack of cups.
- Multitasking: This activity includes a short performance! Kids will use a set of materials to build a device that can do three different, creative things. Then they will present a performance in which they showcase the three different things their device can do.
- Spoon Tower: Using a set of materials, kids will create a freestanding structure as tall as possible that can hold two metal spoons as far apart as possible.
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