With summer just around the corner, now is a great time to wrap up the school year with fun outdoor STEM activities. Here are three that your students will love.
Making solar s’mores is a fun engineering activity for both students and teachers. It requires technical skills and teaches about solar energy as well as convection. This classic experiment also results in a sweet treat for everyone! To make a solar oven, you will need:
- Cardboard box with lid attached (for example a cereal box or shoe box)
- Aluminum foil
- Clear plastic wrap
- Glue stick
- Tape
- ~1 foot-long stick
- Straight-edge
- Box cutter (with teacher help)
- Aluminum pie pan
- S’mores ingredients – chocolate, graham crackers, marshmallows
To make the oven, use the box cutter (or have an adult do it, depending on the age of the students) to cut a three-sided flap on the top of the box. Then, glue foil to the insides of the box, including the flap, keeping the foil as smooth as possible. Now to cook the s’mores, graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate and aluminum pie pans are needed. Be sure to account for any allergies any students have and take proper precautions. Make sure the solar oven is heated before you put in the ingredients, and keep propped open with the stick. When assembling the s’more in the oven, put the pie tin in first, then the ingredients. Cover the opening with clear plastic wrap.
Sundials How to Make a Sundial for Kids | STEM Project – Edventures with Kids (kcedventures.com)
Sundials are one of the first STEM tools to be invented. This ancient clock can easily be replicated outside the classroom. You will need
-Stick or rod of some kind
-12 rocks or wheels
-Markers
– A sunny spot
To start this STEM activity, have students number the rocks or shells one through twelve. Next, place the stick in the ground of the sunny area, with the opposite end to the sky. Once you find the shortest shadow from the stick, place the rock or shell that corresponds to the current time. After that, place all the rocks clockwise around the stick. Note, this is not an exact science, it is more of a learning tool. If times are off by a little, do not worry. This is a fun experiment to come back to when it’s sunny with students and tell the time. This is a fun activity to learn math, science and shadows.
Boat Experiment Floating boat kids science experiment (Stem Activity) Craftionary
This STEM based activity is very hands on and fun for students. For this project you will need:
-Body of water or container for water (kiddie pool, plastic shortage container. Etc)
-Paper
-Legos
-Aluminum foil
-Popsicle sticks
-Straw
-Coloring pencils
-Glue stick
-Pennies or coins
-Play-Doh
This activity involves making three separate boats out of three different materials. The boats are super simple for students to make and can range depending on the material you choose. For th foil boats, take a sheet of foil and roll the sides to form an edge to create a raft-like boat. The Lego boat is where students can get creative and test out different structures. The paper boat is a traditional origami-like paper boat, again students can be creative with it. Note this might require assistance. The experiment is for students to add coins and see if each boat floats and how many coins they can hold.
Written by Olivia Kirven
