K, my partner in crime in this chaotic lifestyle of homeschooling, suggested we do STEM activities 2x/month, each mom responsible for 1x/month. I love all of those subjects (except the T). We have actually gotten to it so far total only once a month, but each time has been great!
STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Now, I am not so sure what is new with calling it 'STEM' but I guess these activities just needed a new name, clumped together. I tell my kids everything revolves around math pretty much...
When it was my week I focused on Engineering (structural). And introduced them to the 'Engineering Design Process:'
None of these ideas are original with me. They all came from a blog somewhere.
We had 4 engineering feats to conquer and only 3 objects to use, and each object had to be used.
The objects:
-Jumbo craft sticks
-1 inch wooden cubes
-small plastic cups
The four designs:
1. design something using only a block for a base
(no pics, sorry)
This was so much fun to do with 7 kids! They all did fabulous and each came up with different ideas. I did not have them work in teams, which worked great because the individual creativity flourished. But I didn't condemn borrowing ideas from others, because that is exactly what good engineers do, take it and improve.
At the end of each 'feat' we came back and talked for five minutes and I had them write in their notebooks what was hard about building that structure or draw a picture of what they did.
They even enjoyed that part of it.
I hope we keep fitting this in our schedule because it was so fun and challenging!
