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Printable resource - famous structures around the world

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Printable resource - famous structures around the world

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Print to put with blocks or lego - Can you build it?

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The marshmallow challenge is an ideal introduction to several key aspects of innovation - idea generation, collaboration, creativity and teamwork. It's a simple experiential activity where teams of students are given a challenge to build the tallest freestanding structure that will support the weight of one marshmallow.

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Building a Bridge for the Three Billy Goats Gruff

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Building a Bridge for the Three Billy Goats Gruff

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Building a Bridge for the Three Billy Goats Gruff

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Building Strong Bridges

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Building Strong Bridges - Kids Science Experiments

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What makes bridges so strong?

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What Makes Bridges So Strong? | Engineering for Kids | STEAM | SciShow Kids

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Building Bridges

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Building Bridges

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Preschool Engineering Stem Series: Building Bridges

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Sarah is a wife, daughter of the King and Granola Mama to 4 children ages 16-5. She is a Charlotte Mason style homeschooler and has been homeschooling for 13 years now. She is still trying to find the balance between work and keeping a home and says she can only do it by the Grace of God, Coffee and Green Smoothies!

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Four engineering challenges

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Here's a simple open-ended building activity for kids of all ages - Colored craft sticks, wooden cubes, and small plastic cups! Simple materials, and yet we have been having a blast building all kinds of amazing structures with them.

This project is the second project in our Summer STEAM Camp series! This week, we are exploring with the sense of touch.

Here are the materials we used for this project: (Amazon affiliate links)

Who knew that craft sticks, cubes, and cups could be so interesting? Extend the play and learning with these fun engineering challenges.
Challenge #1: Build a structure with one cube as the base. Yes, just one cube!
When I announced this one, the boys told me it would be impossible. So I showed them this construction which I had already built:

So then Owen came up with this:

And Gresham built this:

As long as you add pieces on both sides of your structure simultaneously, you can build some amazing designs!
Challenge #2: Using any size base, build the tallest possible structure.
Stacking craft sticks on top of plastic cups allows you to build a much more vertical structure than what you can make with cups alone.
Challenge #3: Feats of Balance. Make something stick out in an impressive way!
This structure that Aidan built seemed to defy gravity! Those cubes are really lightweight, and it was hard to believe that they could counterbalance the craft sticks and cups sticking out like that. But add enough of them...

How many cups can it hold?

One more...

And one more...

OOPS!

Dad made this one:
Challenge #4: What can you build with just one cup as the base?
More than you might think!
Bonus Challenge: Build a chain reaction!
Remove the first cup, and the sticks fall down in a chain! See how to make it here: Simple Popsicle Stick Chain Reactions
Like these engineering challenges? Here are more with simple materials: 5 Engineering Challenges with Clothespins, Binder Clips, and Craft Sticks Be sure to stop by the rest of the posts in the Summer STEAM Camp series!
Easy and Colorful Magnetic Sculpture - Pink Stripey Socks

Creative Pool Noodle STEAM Fun - One Time Through

String and Bead Puzzle - What Do We Do All Day?

Learning About Slugs - Why Do Slugs Have Slime? - Lemon Lime Adventures

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4 Engineering Challenges for Kids (Cups, Craft Sticks, and Cubes!)

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Here's a simple open-ended building activity for kids of all ages - Colored craft sticks, wooden cubes, and small plastic cups! Simple materials, and yet we have been having a blast building all kinds of amazing structures with them. This project is the second project in our Summer STEAM Camp series!

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STEM Engineering - Bridge Building

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JDaniel loves to build so; recently took him aside and posed a building question to him. I asked him how we can get some farm animals across a busy road. His answer was that we needed to build a bridge.

I gathered together some toys and some build materials that we could use to build the bridge.
What was gathered?

Small potato chip containers

Paper clips

Hole punch

Strips of cardboard

Train track

Plastic farm animals

Toy cars

How we put the bridge together:

Two holes were punched in each potato chip container. One hole close to the rim of the container and one beneath the first hole.

Holes were punched into the cardboard strips. Two near the front of the strip. One hole was placed on the right and one on the left. Two holes were placed in the back of each strip one on each side.

The end of a paperclip was threaded through the holes in each of the cans.

The end of a paperclip was threaded through the holes in each of the cardboard strips.

STEM Engineering Project Bridge Building Questions

How many paper clips need to be added to the ones hanging from the cans before connecting them to the cardboard strip?

How far apart do the cans need from the bridge to keep them flat on the ground?

How many animals can fit on each of the cardboard strips while keeping the cans flat?

What amount of space needs to between each animal?

Which bridge is the easiest for the animals to cross?

Do you need to add more paperclips to the narrowest cardboard bridge?

You don't have to explore each of these questions. You can just pick one or two. As my son was building, I posed these questions organically. Each of these could be the essential question for the STEM Engineering project.

We did a lot of higher level thinking in this engineering project. We found that the bridge needs to be able to swing for it to work well with animals traveling on it.

It was such fun to build a variety of bridges and see which worked best. After completing our investigation, I placed all the building supplies in a basket in my son's room. I was thrilled to later see him exploring more ways to build bridge with the materials when I peeked in his room.
Here are some other fun experiments we have done: Blowing Up a Balloon on a Bottle How to Make Things Sink How to Make Water Flow
If you try this STEM engineering project, please share a picture of your bridge with me on my Facebook page.

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JDaniel loves to build so; recently took him aside and posed a building question to him. I asked him how we can get some farm animals across a busy road. His answer was that we needed to build a bridge. I gathered together some toys and some build materials that we could use to build the bridge.

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A week of STEM activities

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I decided to take on my own challenge of incorporating a STEM activity every day for a week. It turned out to be a huge success where both my students and I had a blast. Here were the various STEM tasks that they took on:
STEM activity 1: Newspaper towers!
For these towers, the only prep work is collecting old newspapers and rolling them into dowels. It is a bit tedious; however, if you get students to help you before or after school, it's not so bad! I gave mine classroom tickets as a thank you (read more about my ticket reward system in this post).

The only supplies students were given were: 7 newspaper dowels and two feet of painters tape. They were told that their "tower" needed to be a free standing structure (not taped to the table and not being braced by binders, etc.) and they were only allowed to use the supplies they were given. I did allow them to trade materials; they could trade in an unused dowel for five additional inches of tape or vise verse.

Each group had approximately 35 minutes to complete their tower. What they came up with was impressive:

A few groups even drew up plans for their designs (awesome!)

Once completed, we had about 10 minutes left in class for their creations to be put to the test. Their height was measured as was their strength. The tallest stood 2.5 meters tall (it was pretty weak). The strongest held 10 weights (approximately 5 lbs), very impressive!

These were the weights I used to test strength of the towers:

Here is one of them being tested for strength. It wasn't our top "winner", but it did well!

STEM activity 2: Army Man Launcher!

For this activity, The setup was pretty simple-just buying the materials and getting them laid out. Students were given: one cup, one army man, one spoon, six Popsicle sticks, two rubber bands two feet of tape (they got the tape separately so it didn't tangle) and two feet of string. They did not have to use all of the materials, but they did need to use at least 2.

This is how I prepped all of the materials on my lab cart (normally, I just put out the materials and have them help themselves since it's less prep for me, but I had more time so I decided to do it this way):

Students came up with some amazing ideas and we all had an absolute blast testing them out!

After they field-tested their inventions, I took them outside and they lined up and launched all at the same time. The farthest of the day when over 20 feet! Very impressive!

STEM activity 3: Popsicle Bridges!

For this activity, the set-up was simple. I separated the students desks by 1 foot, gave each group 25 Popsicle sticks and 3 feet of tape. Their goal was to make the strongest and most aesthetically pleasing bridge across the great desk divide! (So, I guess because of the artistic component of this bridge, this challenge could be classified as STEAM rather than STEM). Some students initially grumbled about having to air their bridge nice looking; however, when I explained that this is a real issue addressed when bridges are built because people don't want to look at an eye-sore, they want bridges to be beautiful!

Super easy setup for this one! Here are my lovely bundles of sticks:

The students really rose to the challenge and came up with some amazing bridge designs:

To test the strength of each bridge, I used the same half pound weights I tested the towers with. The winners of the day were able to hold between 5 and 7 pounds! Outstanding!

STEM activity 4: Designing Life Jackets for Babies!

I adapted this idea from one of the NSTA magazines. My adaptation uses: one rubber band, one plastic baby and one small peice of pipe insulation per students (This activity is cheap! The tiny babies came from a dollar store and were with the baby shower decorations and the pipe insulator was only $1.79).

The idea for this activity is that students need to design a life jacket for a baby. The head must stay above water, no matter how it enters the water. In order to keep them from getting too silly with a water activity that involves miniature plastic babies, we discussed the importance of something like this and the need for safety. They took their task seriously, but still had fun with it!

This was definitely much more challenging than they realized it would be. They spent the entire 40 minutes given to them trying to make it work. Many got very frustrated but then celebrated excessively when they finally figured it out. Overall, I would say they had fun with this one. This was the first individual task they had all week and they rose to the challenge.
STEM activity #5: The Unsinkable Ship!
The prep for this activity was fairly minimal. Each student got a 6×6 inch square of aluminum foil and about a 2×2 inch square of cardboard. Their goal: built/design a boat that could hold the most amount of mass before sinking.

Overall, I was impressed by the focus and the variety of boats I saw. I was afraid by giving them cardboard I would see a lot of flat-bottom boats; however, this was not the case! Many of the boat designs varied greatly and they seemed interested in how theirs would stack up against the others.

This week of STEM activities was astonishing to me. Not only did the students have fun, but they were so focused for every activity. Normally, I give lab sheets that they fill out as they go to keep them focused (typically these handouts include data tables, graphing, analysis questions and full written conclusions). For these activities I did not give handouts and they were just as focused without them. For some kind of follow-through, I did have them write about what they learned in their daily warm-up (what worked, what did not work, what they would do differently next time). I would highly suggest trying something like this in your classroom-allow them to play by giving a challenge and they will rise to the occasion, all while having fun learning!

-The Ardent Teacher

Want to try this in your classroom but don't have the time to create the handouts? You can now purchase the entire week's handouts as a bundle in my TpT store! Check it out!

If you enjoyed reading this post, check out this other week long STEM project I did about the Crashworthiness of cars!

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I decided to take on my own challenge of incorporating a STEM activity every day for a week. It turned out to be a huge success where both my students and I had a blast. Here were the various ...

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Challenge and Discover: Build a Bridge

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I'm excited to be hosting a new monthly science challenge link up with Science Sparks and The Imagination Tree. We are calling the party Challenge and Discover. Each month we will challenge you to complete a specific science activity with your children. This month's theme is: Build a Bridge. We will give you examples of projects for the theme on our blogs and in our Science at Home video series.

How to Build a Bridge

Our bridge is made of cardboard and plastic hangers. My husband, Patrick, gets credit for designing this bridge. I challenged him to create a bridge from a thick cardboard tube and a flat piece of cardboard.

Patrick used a serrated knife to cut the cardboard tube into 4 pieces. He cut notches into the tubes about the same width as the flat cardboard piece.

To add more stability to the bridge, he added a piece of plastic from a broken clothes hanger to each side of the bridge. He simply poked a hole in each cardboard tube.

Patrick showed Aiden how to assemble the bridge. They took it apart. Then, Aiden put it together by himself. He continued disassembling and reassembling the bridge over and over again.

Time to test how much weight the bridge holds. I weighed some containers of rocks on our kitchen scale. Each container weighed a little over 1 kg (which was perfect since the challenge is to build a bridge that holds at least 1 kg).

Aiden stacked the containers on top of the bridge. The bridge held the weight just fine. Aiden stacked a few other items on top of the bridge and had fun knocking everything off.

We originally used thick cardboard tubes for the bridge. I was curious to see how much weight regular cardboard tubes (from a paper towel roll) would hold. The thinner cardboard tubes held up at least 2 kg as well.

Both bridges need further testing to see exactly how much weight they can hold.

Science at Home Video Series

Watch the video to see 4 examples of bridges built out of different materials.

Check out the Science at Home post for more information and links to the other bridge projects.

Challenge and Discover: Build a Bridge

The theme for this month is bridge building. Link up posts that showcase bridges you and your children built. Remember your bridge must hold at least 1 kg (a little over 2 lbs) and must be constructed of at least one item from the recycling bin. By linking up, you are giving us permission to grab one picture and feature your projects on our blogs and social media sites. We'd love for you to grab a button and add it to your post.

<div align="center"><a href="http://inspirationlaboratories.com/" title="Inspiration Laboratories" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8122/8631618164_9ea44b9587_m.jpg" alt="Inspiration Laboratories" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

You can also share photos of your bridges on our Facebook pages or in the Science for Kids community on Google+.

Link up your bridge projects from today until May 10th.

Thanks for sharing your bridge building ideas!

Linking up here.

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Challenge and Discover: Build a Bridge | Inspiration Laboratories

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I'm excited to be hosting a new monthly science challenge link up with Science Sparks and The Imagination Tree. We are calling the party Challenge and Discover. Each month we will challenge you to complete a specific science activity with your children. This month's theme is: Build a Bridge.

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This year, I skipped the traditional "spring" theme in favor of something that would really hit a home run with my preschool boys, (there are four in my class of six), but would still be very enjoyable for my two girls who are little mathematicians. I opted to teach about bridges this month, and doing so lead us through a study that has been unlike our previous preschool months.

This post may contain affiliate links.

Instead of doing several activities and crafts relating to bridges, we read lots and lots of books, and spent our time building a testing various bridges from a small set of materials. The students used wooden blocks and different weights of paper to build their bridges, and we tested their strength by the amount of floral pebbles each bridges could hold. I modeled first, with discussion and input from the students, and they worked on their own. Soon my students were tweaking the designs and building bridges of their own.

Picture Books About Bridges

Build and Test in Bridges Theme for Preschoolers

Beam Bridge

Students used same sized wooden blocks and card stock paper to build a beam bridge. I presented the materials to the students and they guided me through how I might build a beam bridge. I demonstrated how to test the bridge and then handed the materials to the students to try on their own. We used floral pebbles as weights to test the bridge, counting each time to see how many it could hold.

Beam Bridge Version II

The next day students used the same materials as above and experimented with the materials make a second version of a beam bridge. This was the most common design the students generated. They quickly discovered that the more piers the bridge has and the closer together they are, the more the bridge will be able to hold.

Beam Bridge Version III

Next the students experimented with ways to make the bridge stronger while using minimal piers. It was decided that adding more paper would improve a bridge's strength. I challenged the students to play with the paper to find if it could be folded to make it stronger. After some unsuccessful manipulation, I showed the students how to fold the paper like an accordion. After some more experimentation, the students found that placing the accordion folded paper on top of the yellow card stock limited the amount of slipping, thus allowing the beam bridge to hold even more floral pebbles.

Arch Bridge

We first tested this bridge with only the orange arch, but found that the floral pebbles slipped off the arch before it was weakened enough to fall, so we added the yellow card stock to the top. The students found that because of the arch there needed to be extra thick piers.

Bridge Experimentation

Mostly, and most importantly, I gave students access to materials and allowed them to experiment on their own. It was the most valuable learning time I could have given them.

This student wanted a taller bridge, which meant that he had to position the piers closer together and make the arch more extreme. He found it was not a strong as the original arch bridge we tested.

William thought to try out a bridge with "weights" on the top so hold the beam, or card stock in place.

Of course it also had to be tried a little taller, too.

There a a ton of other ways to study bridges with preschoolers. My son asked that we find bridges on the greenbelt, which we did, and the students also shared ways that bridges could be made for different circumstances. For example, in the forest, a log might make a good bridge, or to cross a ditch a wide plank of wood might work. For more awesome activities, and I mean totally and completely awesome activities, take a look at these two books: Bridges: Amazing Structures to Design, Build & Test (Kaleidoscope Kids) and Bridges and Tunnels: Investigate Feats of Engineering with 25 Projects (Build It Yourself)

LOOKING FOR MORE THEME ACTIVITIES AND LESSON PLANS?

I love teaching by theme because I get to teach an inch wide and a mile deep. This is not to say that I don't listen what my preschoolers want to learn, but I love providing tons of activities related to a single theme so that my preschoolers can really become familiar with a specific topic.

I have an entire landing page dedicated to planning for preschool. You'll find tons of other lesson planning recourses there.

They are available for purchse. (These are aso avaiable at my Teachers Pay Teachers store).

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Build and Test in Bridges Theme in Preschool

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This year, I skipped the traditional "spring" theme in favor of something that would really hit a home run with my preschool boys, (there are four in my class of six), but would still be very enjoyable for my two girls who are little mathematicians.