Yesterday I posted Running A Summer STEM Camp. This is Part 2 of that post and covers days 2-4 of camp! We did a “no tech” STEM camp meaning it was old fashioned hands on projects and challenges, no robots or coding.
Day 2
We started the day playing one of my favorite math games, Even Stevens Odd, as a whole group (click link for my post on this game). The game is meant for 4 players but I adapted it to 8 by having the kids play with partners. One partner rolled the colored dice and one player the white dice. This worked really well and they LOVED the game.
Challenge 4 – cup stacking
Simple and fun- take a dollar store bag of 40 red solo cups and make the tallest possible tower.
Both groups started out building pyramids and had identical height. Then this group realized how they could make theirs taller. One boy added the last cup with 5 seconds left on the timer! They were all watching to see if it would fall or win- it won!
During free time several of the kids did more cup stacking- and knocking down.
Challenge 5- bridge building
My original idea was straw bridges using these instructions from Teach Engineering but the boys really wanted to use craft sticks so we just kept it more flexible and let them use a variety of materials from the supply shelf. They ended up using craft sticks, cups from the first challenge, a small amount of modeling clay, construction paper and lunch sacks. It definitely made the challenge of holding weight simpler, but they really enjoyed getting creative. This kept them engaged for over an hour.
Challenge 6- Foil Boats
We used instructions from Science Buddies for this challenge. This was to be honest most of the kids’ least favorite challenge of the week. That may have been partly because we did it after lunch and outdoor play and they were tired. It may be because they put so much effort into the bridges. And it may just be that folding foil isn’t nearly as interesting! In my school year class we did a boat challenge where they could also use straws, and that was much more engaging.
In a previous STEM camp I connected this to the bridge project where students created a bridge. They
created boats that could float in water under the bridge and hold the most plastic people. Then they also created water slides that took the plastic people from the bridge to the water! I didn’t do that this time because I didn’t have plastic people, but next time I think I will get some and do that again.
Two of the younger boys did really enjoy floating the boats around the tub of water and filling them with different materials to try to make them sink. These two played with them for a long time and throughout their free time.
Other kids used free time for playing Racko (click for my post about this game.)
Day 3
We started Day 3 learning the game Scattergories. I love it for teaching creative thinking and encouraging vocabulary. Only one of the kids had ever played it before and all of them really liked it! There is a Junior version but I just had regular so used that. I did look through the lists to choose one I thought would be good, and I did have to teach them the vocabulary word notorious!
Challenge 7- Marble Runs
Marble runs are my personal favorite STEM challenge! The kids worked in two teams. Each team got a bunch of toilet paper tubes and painters tape, and the challenge to create a marble run on the wall! One team got super creative and incorporated a table, solo cups, and a finishing touch of the marble knocking down a line of dominoes! My YouTube short of this is my most viewed video so far! See it below.
They spent a long time on this and it is actually the only challenge we did on Wednesday. I had planned to make popsicle stick catapults and balloon cars but they were having way too much fun with the marbles and dominoes. One of them did build a Tinker Toy car during free time!
As a group we also played What Do You Meme: Family Edition. None of them had played before, and they loved it.
Day 4
Our final day of STEM camp! We had 2 new campers join for the last day, so had 10 boys. Because of this we started with partner activities instead of a group game. They got to pick their partner and what they wanted to do.
One set of partners chose to play Yahtzee, one played Racko, one built domino towers, one played with magnets and one played Scattergories.
Challenge 8- Egg drop
This is always a student favorite, so we did it as our last competitive challenge.
See video here!
https://www.facebook.com/reel/859671986064528
I had planned to make elephant toothpaste outside after lunch but it was really hot and the kids didn’t even want to play outside. I did it with my school year class and can tell you it is a really fun experiment when it’s not over 100 degrees! I should have planned solar ovens instead for the July camp!
Since they were hot and sweaty from the brief recess they did have, we cooled down while watching a Science Max episode about magnets. I gave them magnets to play with while watching. We also talked about different kinds of forces. While I had my laptop hooked up to the TV I also showed them all the pics and videos from camp, which they really enjoyed.
We ended camp with everyone helping to clean up and then getting to choose a game or activity to take home. I collect games from thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace so have enough to be able to do this, and they were very excited to get to take them home!
Summary
I got really good feedback on camp from both kids and parents. The parents told me the kids had so much fun and were excited to come every day. Let me know if you use any of these ideas or have any others for a great no tech STEM camp!
