STEM Experimental (6-9 years old)

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STEM Experimental (6-9 years old)

At the early years of entering primary school, it is important to engage children’s mind with hand-eye coordination to simulate their five senses. Through the STEM challenges by project basis, they will be learning about real world problem solving by critical thinking.

STEM Experimental programmed is designed on theme-based to continuously train the children on the creativity and innovation in a period of 20 weeks. The programme involves individual and group task.

Week

Challenge

Description

1 Water Raft

In this building challenge students learnt about engineering design by building a raft that should hold maximum weight before sinking. They learnt the physical principles of buoyancy and how to make raft more stable with the given limited materials.

2 Rescue Device

In this challenge students got to experience a real-life situation in which they were supposed to rescue 3 puppies (small marshmallows) from a pit. They brainstorm the possible solutions and built a device that should rescue puppies in shortest time period. They learnt about challenges and difficulties engineers face while building such devices and while rescuing people or animals from dangerous situations

3 Pasta Tower

In this engineering challenge students were given raw spaghetti and marshmallows to build a tallest, most stable tower possible. Students used their critical thinking and problem-solving skills to build a strong tower with fragile material.

4 Cell Phone Stand

In this design challenge students were again given a real-life situation that “you were watching a program on your iPhone but your hands got tired by holding the phone for too long. Now you have these materials and you have to build a phone stand with it which will give you solution to your current problem”. The cell phone stand should be stable and strong enough to hold weight of an iPhone. Students came up with many interesting ideas

5 Drawing Robot

This challenge is a fun combination of Arts, electronics and engineering. Students built a simple electrical circuit in order to bring robots to life. Coloured markers were attached with the robots as legs. So, the robot should move/vibrate and make a drawing on a sheet of paper.

6 Ndebele African Housing project

In this engineering and architectural challenge student learnt about the African nation of Ndebele, its culture and its distinctive art style. Students then asked to create their own Ndebele-inspired geometric house project. The challenge was that the pattern on the houses should be a mixed collection of geometric shapes and lines.

7 Kandinsky inspired circles

In this challenge students learnt about work of famous Russian artist Kandinsky. Then students were asked to recreate one of his famous paintings “centric circles in squares”. The idea behind this painting was that Kandinsky believed that colours can be used to express emotions. Students made 8 different centric circles and each should have depicted a feeling/emotion.

8 Sorting machine

In this design challenge students learnt about sorting and different kinds of sorting machines used in factories etc. Then they were given a challenge that “you have to build such a sorting machine that should be able to sort beads according to their size”. After brainstorming students came up with creative ideas

9 Marble maze run

This challenge will involve students to investigate marble mazes and then designing and making one of their own. They must follow all elements of a design process including brainstorming, blueprints, prototypes and testing their design. The challenge is to build a maze with cardboard and straws which should follow a set path including at least 5 obstacles. Students will thick outside the box to make dead ends in their maze.

10 Wind Vane

In this activity students will learn how to check the direction of wind by building a wind vane. Students will be given materials needed and make their own wind vane which will later be tested by a fan

11 Water slide

In this challenge students are required to build stairs and waterproof slide from daily life material. The slide should be water proof and water should flow down from the upper level of the slide into the cup put at the end of the slide when tested. They will recreate a slide that they have seen in real life. It will improve their observation and engineering skills

12 Shelter for wild weather

In this challenge different weathers and natural disasters will be discussed and then students will be asked to choose any one wild weather like flood, hurricane, snow storm etc and build a structure with given materials. The shelter should withstand when tested later. They will learn cause and effect and requirements of houses according to the weather.

13 Paper playground

In this engineering and architectural challenge student will be divided into groups and required to write out their plan before building their playground using paper only. then they will write a reflective report on what difficulties they have faced during the process of building it. This activity enhances the engineering skills and creativity of the students

14 Strong Straw Tower

In this engineering challenge students will learn Stability, practice engineering design, understand different types of towers, learn how to make tower strong and sturdy.

15 Three-story Earthquake proof structure

Students will be challenged to make a 3-story building that can withstand simulated earthquake vibrations and increasing weight and pressure. Doing so, they learn basic principles of design and earthquake engineering while practicing team skills.

16 Neighbourhood design

In this design challenge students will work collaboratively to identify how they can fulfil the needs of the inhabitants of their city. They will use inspiration from other cities around the world to include in their city planning, identify ways they could further improve on their planning to create a more sustainable city and recognise the essential things that are needed for a city and its inhabitants to survive

17 Pocket flash light

In this electronics activity students will learn how flashlight works, how basic circuit using LED light and coin battery can be made. They will practice creativity and designing.

18 Safe topping Robot

This electronics challenge will help children learn about open and close circuits while building a robot that should stop itself when going out to the “No Robot Zone” area. They will learn about conductors and non-conductors of electricity by trial and error

19 Fuel level detector

In this activity students will be able to learn how actual fuel level detectors work in rockets, learn about advantages of using fuel level detectors. They will learn examples of detectors in daily life and learn how to build a fuel level detector with given materials.

20 Electric boat

In this activity students will be able to build a boat using given material that should move in water when the power turned on. Students will learn to join motor and propeller in an electric circuit and will also learn about which material of the boat make it move faster than other materials.