EASY Stem Activity to Get Your Students Excited {FREEBIE}


Are you looking for something that will have ALL of your elementary students engaged from young kids to older? Do you hate planning out stem projects that use hard-to-find equipment and are exhausting to prepare? Have you tried easy STEM activities yet in your classroom? Easy stem challenges are a great way to have students working together to attack problem-solving skills and critical thinking during a fun activity! You will want to try this FREE and simple STEM activity that will have teachers amazed at the cooperative learning taking place and students having so much fun!!!



Looking for a free STEM activity for the elementary classroom?  Teachers are loving STEM because it's fun, hands-on, and engaging. The challenges are great for team building.  This challenge is free and easy to implement.  Great for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders.  I usually use this challenge for back to school stem, but it can be done at any time.  Students will have a great time working together to discuss, design, build, and reflect. #elementaryisland #elementarystemactivities #freestem

How Do You Teach STEM in an Elementary Classroom?

I always get this question when I talk about completing STEM challenges in my 2nd grade classroom. The answer is, easily.  STEM challenges do not need to be difficult and time-consuming. The mindset of the teacher plays an important role. Teachers need to be excited to bring STEM into the classroom!  I get it, I've been there, "but I don't have the money to be providing supplies to my students and the district won't help."  That's why I found it important to create quick STEM activities using simple supplies - supplies that probably came with your district science kits that nobody uses... but I digress.

STEM follows a designed approach that can be completed whole-group.  One important aspect is to introduce the steps of the STEM design process one at a time as we go through a STEM challenge and then hang anchor charts up around the room for reference. This Atop of the Tower challenge is a perfect starting point! 




What Exactly is STEM?

There are a variety of fun STEM activities out there, but many of them do not hit all the components of STEM or STEAM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Art, and Math - many times math skills are forgotten). So, let's talk about the benefits of STEM lessons.

  1. Helps with critical thinking skills
  2. Develops problem-solving skills 
  3. Kids of all ages can easily participate
  4. Fine motor skills are used
  5. Students acknowledge there's no "best way", there are a variety of outcomes
  6. Work together in a small group towards a common goal
  7. Engaging, hands-on project activities 
  8. Reaches all modalities of learning 


With all of those benefits, what's NOT to love about STEM?

What does a STEM Lesson look like?

This lesson is designed to meet all those needs and is also a great place to start with an introduction to STEM at the beginning of the year! Use the anchor charts above as you pass out the planning pages and take each step one at a time. Below are the teacher planning pages needed for background information, materials needed, and how to introduce the challenge. Then put your students into groups.

Planning pages for the teacher to use when introducing the STEM tower challenge.

These challenges all come with planning, recording, and reflection pages. Go through these activities with your students as you progress to the next step in the design process. This will help students understand how each step works with hands-on practice. 

Planning and recording pages students will use as they move through the design process.

Read "Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon" and discuss what it means to stand tall. For this STEM experiment, kids of all ages will try to build the tallest tower using ONLY pencils, and place a piece of paper of Molly Lou on top!  If you have older students, offering the STEM learning activity as a great "challenge," is an easy way to build excitement.

Through this activity and the planning pages, you are introducing STEM education in a fun way that young children and older children will enjoy using basic supplies! They will learn that there is no "best way," but different ways that students can tackle the challenge using their engineering skills. Here are some examples of towers that were created using pencils. {Molly Lou has been removed} 


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Looking for a free STEM activity for the elementary classroom?  Teachers are loving STEM because it's fun, hands-on, and engaging. The challenges are great for team building.  This challenge is free and easy to implement.  Great for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders.  I usually use this challenge for back to school stem, but it can be done at any time.  Students will have a great time working together to discuss, design, build, and reflect. #elementaryisland #elementarystemactivities #freestem Looking for a free STEM activity for the elementary classroom?  Teachers are loving STEM because it's fun, hands-on, and engaging. The challenges are great for team building.  This challenge is free and easy to implement.  Great for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders.  I usually use this challenge for back to school stem, but it can be done at any time.  Students will have a great time working together to discuss, design, build, and reflect. #elementaryisland #elementarystemactivities #freestem

Looking for a free STEM activity for the elementary classroom?  Teachers are loving STEM because it's fun, hands-on, and engaging. The challenges are great for team building.  This challenge is free and easy to implement.  Great for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders.  I usually use this challenge for back to school stem, but it can be done at any time.  Students will have a great time working together to discuss, design, build, and reflect. #elementaryisland #elementarystemactivities #freestem


The students had a great experience and even your usual reluctant students were engaged and working hard to come up with ideas for these hands-on activities.  It's wonderful to hear the discussion happening about how to tackle the engineering challenge using critical thinking and applying problem-solving skills when the original idea doesn't work (happens most of the time!). You'll be amazed at the creative ways students can come up with for this fun STEM activity!

Looking for a free STEM activity for the elementary classroom?  Teachers are loving STEM because it's fun, hands-on, and engaging. The challenges are great for team building.  This challenge is free and easy to implement.  Great for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders.  I usually use this challenge for back to school stem, but it can be done at any time.  Students will have a great time working together to discuss, design, build, and reflect. #elementaryisland #elementarystemactivities #freestem 

Looking for a free STEM activity for the elementary classroom?  Teachers are loving STEM because it's fun, hands-on, and engaging. The challenges are great for team building.  This challenge is free and easy to implement.  Great for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders.  I usually use this challenge for back to school stem, but it can be done at any time.  Students will have a great time working together to discuss, design, build, and reflect. #elementaryisland #elementarystemactivities #freestem

Looking for a free STEM activity for the elementary classroom?  Teachers are loving STEM because it's fun, hands-on, and engaging. The challenges are great for team building.  This challenge is free and easy to implement.  Great for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders.  I usually use this challenge for back to school stem, but it can be done at any time.  Students will have a great time working together to discuss, design, build, and reflect. #elementaryisland #elementarystemactivities #freestem

 
The best part is these STEM educational activities use simple, basic materials that most teachers will have handy: common household items or items from the dollar store! For this challenge, if you didn't have that many pencils, you could use different materials like popsicle sticks or craft sticks. **Hint-hint: That's why I do this easy project at the beginning of the year when all those classroom supplies pour in!**

If you are interested in my FREE STEM activity, you can grab it here

Are you already a tried and true STEM fan? Looking for some simple STEM activities for the holidays? check out my Seasonal STEM Activities HERE.

I'd love to read any comments you have below! Have fun!

Looking for a free STEM activity for the elementary classroom?  Teachers are loving STEM because it's fun, hands-on, and engaging. The challenges are great for team building.  This challenge is free and easy to implement.  Great for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders.  I usually use this challenge for back to school stem, but it can be done at any time.  Students will have a great time working together to discuss, design, build, and reflect. #elementaryisland #elementarystemactivities #freestem

3 comments

  1. Thank you.. It was so enjoyable!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! Can't wait to try this with my third graders! Looks engaging, and I appreciate the "cute" factor too! :)

    ReplyDelete