Friday 10 June 2016

STEM Challenge


STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. STEM challenges are rich tasks that build problem solving, team work, inquiry and academic skills like math and science in a fun way. 

Our students are often doing STEM tasks, though they usually instigate them on their own during play at centres. For example, the child who is trying to build a house for cars with a roof out of blocks is using STEM skills. 

This week, we tried doing a teacher-directed challenge. We started by reading a book about a young engineer dealing with failures and frustrations as she builds a scooter for her and her dog.


Then the teams each got a mystery bag filled with items to use, and given the challenge of building a Pom Pom Launcher. 



They got to work tinkering with the materials and trying out different models. 








Some teams worked together, others worked in parallel. Some teams talked and talked about their plans, others didn't communicate at all.

Some teams also ran into frustrations and failures, like the girl in the book.  We talked about how all builders feel frustrated, and that's how problems are solved. 

In the end, we had some proud builders!













In the end, we had a contest to see who's launcher sent the Pom Pom the furthest. Ben took the gold, while Lily and Violet we runners up. 


Great work by our little engineers!

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