Hello, Friends! Happy summer! I hope most of you are enjoying some lazy hazy days of relaxation and fun! For those of you who are still working due to year-round school, summer program, ESY or even camp, I have three exciting new summer STEM activities for you and your students to have fun with. Gather some basic supplies and cool off with some wet learning fun!

Fishermen (and women) of all ages can be seen casting their lines wherever you find fish this time of year. Your students won’t catch anything they can fry up for dinner with the Fishing Rod STEM Challenge, but they will enjoy designing and building a fishing rod with a working reel, from a wooden stick, large paper clips, bottle caps, and yarn.

If your class has younger buddies (or if you don’t, go ahead and invite some) then let your students pair up for post Fishing Challenge games. They will be proud to show off their creations and the little ones will love trying to catch some balloons or other items.

Another fun thing to do, is to make up some “privilege fish” and let students try to catch some free time, no homework, etc.

The Floating Device STEM Challenge requires students to design and build a flotation device using straws, tape, and plastic wrap and be able to hold a doll without sinking.  Be prepared for lots of laughter! While striving to complete this challenge, students found their less than successful outcomes quite amusing as Barbie unceremoniously hit the water.

After completing the original challenge, you can also encourage students to collect a variety of other plastic dolls and animals and predict which will float and which will cause the device to sink.

The Water Slide STEM Challenge completes this month’s bundle and is a very flexible challenge, in case you are working with a mixed age group. The challenge requires students to design and build a water slide from cardboard tubes, tape, aluminum foil, straws, cardboard, and a marble. The water slide must have a ladder and at least one twist and be able to move the marble quickly but safely from the top of the slide to the bottom. For mixed abilities groups, vary the difficulty of the challenge by changing the number of turns the slide must have or specify different heights for the ladder.

To add a writing component to the Water Slide Challenge, ask students to describe the best or worst water slide they ever rode.

Just like all my other STEM challenges, this packet of summer STEM activities contains clear student directions, photos of possible finished products, suggested materials, and planning, reflection, and vocabulary worksheets. Additionally, for your convenience I have added ways to modify the challenges, as well as STEAM links and the Next Generation Science Standards covered.

You can purchase each of the challenges individually or get all three in the money-saving Summer STEM Challenge Bundle! Have fun!