First, what is STEM? STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math. It’s the new word on the street because of our tech-rich society and the lean towards the sciences and getting kids engaged early. Weight Constraint: Introduce the maximum weight constraint for the entire contraption. This requires students to think about the trade-off between protection and weight. force: Anything that tends to change the state of rest or motion of an object. Force is represented by two quantities; its magnitude and direction in space. The magnitude of a force is represented by quantities such as pounds, tons or Newtons. Direction in space refers literally to the direction a force is applied. This means that force is a vector and requires two pieces of information to define it completely. When a number of forces act simultaneously on an object, the object moves as if acted on by a single force with a magnitude and direction that are the sum of the applied forces. Although this activity is most popular in high school physics classes, we’ve adapted it for elementary aged children and have done it with my husband’s 4th grade class for years in a row. (You can even do it with preschool aged children!)

In addition to the information below, the associated lesson, Move It!, provides an introduction to this activity. The activity motivation is also discussed in the Assessment and Lesson Extension sections.)STEM doesn’t have to be boring, expensive, or time-consuming. We love to always try out neat STEM activities, and you can use super simple supplies to make great STEM projects. Make it an Egg Drop Experiment. Design "something" that will protect your egg, which represents fragile relief supplies, so it survives the air drops. This activity is aimed at secondary school students and could be used as a main lesson activity, to teach learners about the strength of structural forms. It could also be used as one of several activities within a wider scheme of learning focusing on gravity.

Set out enough tables so there’s one for each group (where people are in groups of between three and five people). Find a good spot from which to make the test airdrops. Ideally, drop the devices from three or four different heights such as 3, 6 (if the teacher holds it above their head), 15 feet (a second story window) and higher, if possible.Be sure the drop location remains clear for quite a surrounding distance, especially on a windy day. Falling eggs could harm someone, and raw eggs are messy and unsanitary.

Divide the class into groups of two students each. Randomly divided groups better mimic how engineering problems require teamwork among people who may not know each other well nor get along. On the other hand, randomly divided groups may be more disruptive. The kids were super excited to take part in the egg drop project, and one student even suggested we do it again later in the year taking into account what we learned from the current egg drop challenge. I’m sure we’ll be doing it again soon! Kids were instructed to bring in materials from home for their egg contraptions.This year we changed the rules up a bit and eliminated a few materials the kids usually use in their egg contraptions- no boxes and no battery powered items. An Egg Drop Challenge PowerPoint presentation - This can be used to guide and structure the activity. It explains to children what they need to do and encourages them to think about the strengths and weaknesses of the different materials they could use.Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions. mass: A measure of how much matter an object contains, or the total number of particles in an object. Mass is not weight. Weight is the force caused on a mass by gravity. Thus, a person's mass would not change on different planets, but their weight would. For instance, you would weigh about 1/6th of your body weight now if you were on the moon.