#STEMontheCheap – Page 11 – STEMAZing Systems Thinking

Two Looper Airplanes

The two looper airplane is a great model for having students engineer other designs. Fantastic to iterate through the engineering design process multiple times because it only takes straws, tape, and index cards to let them play to learn!

Wack-a-Pack Science – PQRST

Our favorite phenomenon – Wack-a-Packs from Dollar Tree! These can generally be found for every holiday and also in the birthday section. Use this phenomenon to drive questions for lots of different avenues of exploration. See attached PQRST for more details.

STEM Night Stations

The STEMAZing Project Cultivating STEM Minds

Looking for ways to engage families for STEM or Math Nights? We recommend using these stations but with students facilitating the learning experiences! In preparation for STEM night, have students master the art of facilitating one of the stations and learn the “What the heck?’ explanation. Then, set students up in 45 minute to 1…

The Science Toy Maker – Slater Harrison

From Walkalong Gliders, like the new Jagwing, to making your own helicopter propellers out of 2-liter soda bottles, this is a makers dream site!

Geological Columns

Using fossils, plaster of Paris, and sand, create geological columns for your students to explore and discover. A great nature of science lesson! Digging Through the Columns Worksheet Rock Column Lab Revised

The Great Fossil Find

Students are taken on an imaginary fossil hunt. Following a script read by the teacher, students “find” (remove from envelope) paper “fossils” of some unknown creature, only a few at a time. Each time, they attempt to reconstruct the creature, and each time their interpretation tends to…

Eddy Current Tube Demo

This classic physics demonstration shows how a magnet falling through a copper pipe will slow down as it transfers some of its energy to move electrons in the conductive copper pipe. Those moving electrons create a magnetic field which interacts with the magnetic field of the magnet to slow it down. This document describes how…

RGB Primary Color Light Show Paper Circuit

Let students build this paper circuit to explore the REAL primary colors, which are NOT blue, yellow, and red! For detailed step-by-step instructions, check out our Instructable for this paper circuit: #STEMontheCheap RGB Light Show Paper Circuit If you are interested in a 3rd grade science unit to introduce the REAL primary colors, you might…

Perplexing Parallel Paper Circuit

Let your students explore the nature of science and use the science practices when they build this paper circuit and explore the rules that govern which LEDs will light at the same time and which ones will not. Extend their learning into constructing an explanation as you challenge them to provide a claim, supported by…

Flag and Primary Color Afterimage Optical Illusions

You can either print these out in color or just look at them on a screen to see an afterimage based on how your red, green, and blue color receptors work in your eye. Scroll completely to the bottom to find a document best used for on screen viewing. What colors do you see? The…