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Ever wondered how the tendons in your hand work? This science project shows you how!

Instructions:

# Cut out cardboard pieces for arm, hand slot, and back support.

# Use a ruler to bend the joints in the cardboard hand.

# Cut bendy straws into smaller pieces. 20 small pieces that go in between the joints. 4 pieces that have the bendy part of the straw. 4 pieces that are twice as long as the pieces in between the joints.

# Hot glue straw pieces onto front of cardboard hand.

# Poke a hole through the cardboard for right beneath the thumb and continue hot gluing straw pieces on the other side of the arm.

# Cut the big rectangle piece into an "H" pattern. Fold cardboard pieces inward and hot glue the edges. Stick onto cardboard arm.

# With 5 pieces of string, thread each one through the corresponding straw on each finger. Tie the ends and tie a finger loop at the bottom of each. (Optional: add a drop of hot glue to the knot)

# Hot glue longer rectangles together and use more hot glue to stick to the back of arm.

# Decorate if you want to!

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Make Your Own Robotic Hand With This Anatomical DIY

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Cut out cardboard pieces for arm, hand slot, and back support. # Use a ruler to bend the joints in the cardboard hand. # Cut bendy straws into smaller pieces. 20 small pieces that go in between the joints. 4 pieces that have the bendy part of the straw.

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It's always right before bed when my son asks to build things like a "castle catapult" out of LEGO®. Terrific, I thought, but time for bed! What do you know, bright and early the next morning, he was ready to make one. We built an easy LEGO catapult using basic bricks for amazingly easy STEM and physics activities. This is a fun homemade catapult just about everyone will be able to make! I love building cool things with just basic LEGO bricks®.

Why do I want to build our easy LEGO catapult with just basic bricks?

Wouldn't it be cooler with specialty pieces that did this and did that? Maybe, but then it wouldn't necessarily be easy or be able to be built by most kids with a smaller LEGO® collection! In fact you can build a catapult from popsicle sticks if you wanted.

My son is 6, and he is still learning the ins and outs of different LEGO® pieces. I did not want to build all of this catapult for him. Instead, I prefer to help him troubleshoot his ideas.

I like to ask questions to help him when he gets stuck. Sometimes it's as simple as redirecting the question back to him to help him come up with his own solution. This is great STEM practice.

Make sure to check out our new book, The Unofficial Guide to Learning with LEGO®.

EASY LEGO CATAPULT MATERIALS
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Building any sort of creation with LEGO® is a little bit about trial and error which actually makes it even more fun. What would we learn if everything always worked perfectly the first time? Not much.

You may have the same or different lengths and sizes of bricks, but you can use our idea for building this easy LEGO catapult to get you started. Maybe you will even come up with a better one, and share it with us.
LEGO CATAPULT BASE Large base plate any color
Small plate that is 20 studs long and at least 10 wide {or as close as you can get it!}
2×2, 2×4 bricks 1×2, 1×4, 1×6 bricks
Rubberbands (we only had these large ones handy but you can try other sizes too)
LEVER ARM
4×4 plate for the part that holds the marshmallow surrounded by 1×2 bricks to make a holder

(2) 2×12 flats for lever arm and (2) 2×8 bricks

At any point you can try to modify this easy LEGO catapult to fit the bricks you have. For instance you may have (2) 1×8 bricks that you can sub for the 2×8 bricks. See if it works! Get creative.

BUILD A LEGO CATAPULT

We made a single wide wall out of 1×4 and 1×6 bricks across the small plate and attached it to the base plate.

Next we added supports on the front and back with double wide bricks. Notice that we left a gap of 4 studs in the middle. The majority of the base is three bricks worth high and then one extra layer of 1×8 bricks were added onto the top of each side, still keeping the middle clear.
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Check out our launcher to make your own. The red bricks are 2×8.

The bucket part is flush with the end of the red brick. The white plate is not under it.

The 2×2 brick is used to keep the rubber bands in place. This is where you start experimenting with tension with your LEGO catapult.
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Initially we wrapped the rubber bands around the whole base but realized we needed more tension since the bands were quite large. We added an extra row on each side (5) 2×3 bricks high.
YES! THE EASY LEGO CATAPULT REALLY WORKS!
The cat also loved it. It kept her just as entertained.

CHECK THE TENSION ON YOUR LEGO CATAPULT

Although it definitely launched our candy, it didn't go as far as we would have like it too. We needed more tension. We tried adding another row next to the row we had just added, but that didn't provide the tension we needed {not shown}. Make sure the rubber bands are under not over the 2×2 brick {not like below!}

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So we went ahead and added bricks to the initial columns we had added to the side of the plate (as shown above). We decided to even it out with the plate. Oops too much tension! Look what happened! The lever arm shot right out too!

We tried a few variations of bricks before we found the perfect tension for our easy LEGO catapult {might be different for yours!} We ended up having to leave one stud free on either side of the column.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: LEGO® Coding for Kids
That's it! A cool tension science experiment to go with an awesome LEGO® building activity!

EASY LEGO CATAPULT YOU CAN MAKE WITH KIDS!

NEW! THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO LEARNING WITH LEGO!

We are so excited to announce our awesome LEGO book available now! This is a kid tested, mom approved book everyone will love. You are going to love it! 100+ Inspiring Ideas for everyone to enjoy. Perfect for early learning.
GET THE BOOK! CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS AND BUYING INFORMATION!

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Easy LEGO Catapult Physics Experiment and STEM Activity

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It's always right before bed when my son asks to build things like a 'castle catapult' out of LEGO®. Terrific, I thought, but time for bed! What do you know, bright and early the next morning, he was ready to make one. We built an easy LEGO catapult using basic bricks for amazingly easy STEM and physics activities.

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The 25 Days of Christmas STEM Countdown continues with a LEGO challenge! Build a Christmas marble maze. Can you make it from one end to the other? We have tons of fun with our LEGO bricks. Building a Christmas marble maze out of LEGO is a great STEAM challenge for even young kids to get involved with too.
Amazon Affiliate Links Included
A Christmas LEGO marble maze is super easy to make. All you need is a and different size LEGO bricks. You don't need fancy or special bricks. A basic LEGO brick assortment will do just fine. Of course, you can make it festive by choosing Christmasy colors like we did. Add a marble and you are ready to go.

The best way to start is to build a frame around the outside of the leaving a two holes, one for the start and one for the finish. Use your marble to measure. You can also check out our heart shaped maze.

A LEGO CHRISTMAS MARBLE MAZE IS AN AWESOME STEM CHALLENGE

There's lots to learn when you are building this Christmas marble maze! Planning, engineering, testing, problem solving, and designing are all a part of the process. A little trial and error is good for kids.

Mazes also make great motor planning activities. A simple maze like this works on visual planning, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination. Kids have to use patience and small movements to move the marble through the LEGO maze!

If you have multiple kids, have them race each other and use a timer. Have one kid build a maze for the other kid(s). We also have more fun Christmas LEGO challenges to try in our DIY LEGO Advent Calendar.

Join in for the 25 Days of Christmas STEM Countdown. We planned simple and inexpensive ways to enjoy a variety of STEM activities over the holidays. Creating a marble maze is also great for school vacation time! Make sure to check out our awesome new book for more cool LEGO learning ideas.
Click on the photos for more great STEM ideas this Christmas. Some of our favorite STEM tools at home! Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: I receive compensation for any items sold through this site. Our ideas are always free to enjoy and try at school or home.

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Christmas Marble Maze LEGO STEM Activity for Kids

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The 25 Days of Christmas STEM Countdown continues with a LEGO challenge! Build a Christmas marble maze. Can you make it from one end to the other? We have tons of fun with our LEGO bricks. Building a Christmas marble maze out of LEGO is a great STEAM challenge for even young kids to get involved with too.