Do you think you can stand on a paper cup, or would you expect it to break? We thought our cup might break, but we checked just to be sure. We were right. Easy STEM Challenge How can you stand on a paper cup without breaking it? Try spacing several cups evenly, then place a…
I’ve got a fun building bridges STEM Challenge for you to try today. Engineers have to think about many, many things when they design bridges. They have to choose a strong material that is weather resistant. The materials also need to be shaped in a way that makes them extra strong. We’ve learned about dome…
As Halloween is approaching we thought a spider themed drawing robot would be fun to make. These are great fun to design and build and very satisfying to watch as they draw circles all over a page. The movement of the drawing robot can be unpredictable so an interesting extension challenge is to work out…
Did you know you can make a circle from a square by folding and making a couple of tiny cuts? Once you’ve got the hang of the process try it again using bigger and smaller squares. Materials Square sheet of paper Scissors Instructions First fold your sheet of square paper in half and then…
Mobile launch platforms were used to transport the Saturn V rockets and space shuttles to the launch pad. This activity introduces children to the concept of a mobile launch platform and uses the idea as inspiration for a fun engineering challenge. Challenge Design and build a mobile launch platform for a rocket. The platform should be moveable…
Discover how force affects the motion of a projectile and how changing the launch angle affects the distance travelled with this easy catapult investigation based on the Cow Jumped Over the Moon nursery rhyme. You can see how to build a simple lolly stick catapult in this video. I’ve designed this activity to appeal to…
This wasn’t actually meant to be a crane, I was supposed to be creating a robotic arm like on the ISS, but it worked so well, I wanted to share anyway. Materials K’nex Syringes and tubing A small tub Pipecleaners Bean bags Lego Instructions Build a K’nex crane like in the picture above, the…
Rugby World Cup fever seems to have taken over our house in the last few weeks so we’ve developed some fun rugby themed science activity ideas to keep everyone busy in between matches. First up is this LEGO rugby pitch. It’s built as much to scale as we could manage. We also engineered a kicking…
I was searching for small motors for a STEM project when it occurred to me that I could use a Hexbug instead, which has the big advantage of no wires whilst still vibrating brilliantly. I’ve got lots of ideas for fun things we can make, but first up are these spinning pens. We also tried a…
A shoebox catapult is a fun way to learn about elasticity, elastic energy, potential energy and kinetic energy. Children can experiment with different size and shape objects to catapult and with how far they push down the catapult arm. Shoebox catapults are a great activity for practising correct scientific procedures or as a fun engineering project. How…
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