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SPIDERS
They're creepy, they're
crawly, and they're incredible builders. Before this
challenge, I like to share this short video so the students can see the step by step process of an orb spider. It’s important for the kids to see that even spiders have a plan!
Some students want to just quickly
wrap the yarn around the
outside edges of the plate, so I require them to draw
their plans first, and try to copy their sketches.
Then the fun begins! To assess each web, paper bugs are dropped from above. Each bug has a value (the smaller the bug, the greater the value). To make scoring easier, I have the students write each point value on the back of the bug.
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The most effective designs might surprise them!​
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BEES
When our students think of bees,
their first response is usually negative. But bees are fascinating, helpful, and skilled insects. They are also perfect models of what can be accomplished with cooperation and collaboration!
Honeycomb is not only functional and beautiful, it is architecturally brilliant. The hexagonal cells ensure that the least amount of wax is used to hold the greatest amount of honey. And those hexagons! If your students aren't impressed, ask them to draw a perfect hexagon. They will quickly see that it's not easy!
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In this challenge, students use straws
and pipe cleaners to first build flat
shapes, and then construct 3D
figures. Pyramids and cubes aren't
too hard, but try a dodecahedron!
This is also a great opportunity to
discuss which shapes require the
pipe cleaners to be acute angles,
right angles, or obtuse angles.
PRAIRIE DOGS
TERMITES
BIRDS
BEAVERS
Beavers are some of the best known animal engineers. My students love learning about these clever, hard-working, big-toothed rodents! There are lots of great videos on YouTube to introduce this lesson. Some of my favorites are this one from PBS, the one from BBC, and just for entertainment, this one from Dodo.
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For this activity, all you need are some plastic paint trays (I bought mine at the Dollar Tree), modeling clay, rocks, and sticks. The students' goal is to keep water that is poured into the top of the tray from reaching the paper towel at the bottom.
The kids really enjoy this challenge and come to appreciate that building a dam not only requires a lot of work, but also a lot of skill.
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***This is the same STEM challenge that is used in the Backpack Jack "Build Like a Beaver" resource. ***
There are an estimated 9,000-10,000 species of birds, and many, but not all, construct nests. The sizes, shapes, and designs of the nests vary and so do the materials. While birds adapt well to their environments, they are also opportunistic gatherers.
This challenge differs a bit from the others in this series because students must choose four materials from a variety of options. Like actual birds, they will need to select the materials they feel will make the best nest.
While there are a lot of materials to be gathered for this task, most of them are free and can be found right outside. If the weather is nice enough, you may even allow your students some time to gather the materials themselves! Here are some of the materials you might want to include: yarn, sticks, pine needles, leaves, tissues, paper, twist ties, pipe cleaners, and feathers.