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Grab your Free Guide - 3 sTEps to stem success

3 Ways to Engineer a Great Valentine’s Day

If you are ready to design and build for Valentine’s Day here’s a treat for you – three challenges to help you celebrate and learn at the same time! We tested these last year and they were the favorites of every group! It might have had something to do with the candy involved, but the challenges were delightful, too! 

Such creativity with these, too! Take a look!

Valentine's Day STEM challenges! Here's a trio of challenges that your kids will love! Check the blog post for more!
STEM Challenge for Valentine's Day! It's a delivery zip line that takes a present down the line! Check this blog post for more!

DELIVERY ZIP LINES

These were tested with third graders! The story we used was that the post office was not delivering Valentine’s Gifts, so we needed a unique way to deliver a present to our moms! Why not a zip line?

Kids had to make the present carrier, decorate it, and determine a way to attach it to the zip line! It also had to hold the gift- which was a giant puffy heart I found at the Dollar Tree!

STEM Challenge for Valentine's Day! It's a delivery zip line that takes a present down the line! Check this blog post for more!

Such a fun challenge and another way this could be used would be to make it a homework challenge!

Have your kids take photos of the zip line that delivers an actual card or gift to their moms!

Wouldn’t that be fun!

STEM Challenge for Valentine's Day: Make a candy box that will hold a specific amount of candy! Check the blog post for more!

CANDY BOXES

This was perfect for Valentine’s Day! I bought an array of Valentine’s decorated candy and put out a specific amount for kids to see.  

Their challenge was to make the perfect candy box that would hold all the candy. Individual candy dividers were optional (and rather hard to make, I might add)!

STEM Challenge for Valentine's Day: Make a candy box that will hold a specific amount of candy! Check the blog post for more!

The other part of this challenge that made it a fourth or fifth-grade challenge was the shape of the box. Of course, it had to be heart-shaped!

Kids had so many clever ways to create the heart-shaped bottom and top! We also added that the candy box had to have a clever name in order to market it! Fun!

STEM Challenge for Valentine's Day: Make a working bow and arrow! Check the blog post for more!

BOW AND ARROWS

Yes, I know, you think I have lost my mind. And it did seem that way with the test class! I spent a lot of time saying, “Ooops, we need to make a rule for that!”  

Example: I originally had toothpicks as one of the materials. Just think about that…. Yes, they made arrows with sharp points. Of course, they did. So, I took away the toothpicks and gave them Q-tips!

The second big rule change was the target where they could practice firing the arrows. We started with shooting at the lab tables, but I quickly changed that. We made a target on the wall, drew a line not to cross on the floor, and fired arrows only when I was standing there to supervise!  

So, with a few strict rules, we turned this into a fabulous and fun fifth-grade challenge!

Have fun with your Valentine Engineering projects!

You might also enjoy these posts about seasonal events:

Valentine Engineering! Valentine's Day STEM challenges! Here's a trio of challenges that your kids will love! Check the blog post for more!