STEAM Projects
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32
Primary
October | Chemistry
Flying Ghost
About
Students will launch a soap-powered ghost across a colorful plate of milk and watch swirling trails appear behind it. As the ghost moves, they'll explore how soap changes surface tension and creates motion in liquids.
Location
Lab
Messy Level
3
Primary
November | Physics
Parachute Drop Challenge
About
Students build mini parachutes for a small toy or pom-pom and test which canopy slows the fall most. They compare canopy size, material, or string length.
Location
Class or outside
Messy Level
1
Elementary
November | Physics
Boo-zooka
About
Halloween may be over, but the ghosts have overstayed. Children will join the ghostbusters in blasting some ghosts invading the classroom using their own air cannons. The kids will develop their blasters with the tools pre-packed and try to take down as many ghosts (paper cups decorated by children) set up in multiple pyramids.
As they experiment with distance and power, they’ll explore air pressure, motion, and vortex rings in action.
Location
Class or lab
Messy Level
2
Elementary
November | Physics
Parachute Drop Challenge
About
Students build mini parachutes for a small toy or pom-pom and test which canopy slows the fall most. They compare canopy size, material, or string length.
Location
Class or outside
Messy Level
1
Primary
November | Physics
Boo-zooka
About
Halloween may be over, but the ghosts have overstayed. Children will join the ghostbusters in blasting some ghosts invading the classroom using their own air cannons. The kids will develop their blasters with the tools pre-packed and try to take down as many ghosts (paper cups decorated by children) set up in multiple pyramids.
As they experiment with distance and power, they’ll explore air pressure, motion, and vortex rings in action.
Location
Class or lab
Messy Level
2
Primary
October | Chemistry
Monster Bubble Trouble
About
Students build a Halloween lava lamp with colored water and oil, then add an effervescent tablet. Oil and water form layers while CO₂ bubbles carry colored water droplets upward like floating ghosts.
Location
Lab
Messy Level
2
Elementary
October | Chemistry
Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde's Elixir
About
Students will create their own Jekyll and Hyde Elixir by layering colorful oil and water inside a bottle. As they build their glow in the dark mysterious potion, they’ll also discover why these two liquids refuse to mix and how that chemistry creates the elixir’s swirling effect.
Location
Lab or gym
Messy Level
3
Primary
November | Physics
Marble Run
About
In the Spiral Marble Tower Challenge, students will engineer a twisting raceway that sends marbles spiraling from the top of a tower to the bottom. As they build, test, and redesign their track, they’ll investigate gravity, potential and kinetic energy, friction, and motion.
Location
Class or lab
Messy Level
1
Elementary
November | Physics
Kinetic Kaboom: Popsicle Stick challenge
About
Students will build a pattern of popsicle sticks, we can explore the forces of tension, compression, and watch as energy moves like a wave through a system converting potential energy into kinetic motion!
Location
Lab or gym
Messy Level
2
Primary
December | Product Design
Rapunzel's Great Escape
About
In Rapunzel’s Great Escape, students become fairy-tale engineers challenged to design and build a safe way for Rapunzel to escape from her tower. They’ll imagine, sketch, build, test, and improve their inventions while discovering how engineers solve problems through creativity and experimentation.
Location
Class
Messy Level
1
Elementary
December | Product Design
Cardboard Arcade Prototype
About
Students will build a simple cardboard pinball machine using a marble, launcher, and recycled materials. The goal is to make the marble move, bounce, and hit targets while learning about force, motion, gravity, friction, and simple machines.
Location
Class or lab
Messy Level
1
Primary
December | Product Design
Toy Shop Inventor
About
In the Toy Shop Inventor Challenge, students become product designers challenged to dream up and build a brand-new toy using everyday materials. They’ll brainstorm, sketch, build, test, and improve their invention while learning how engineers turn creative ideas into real products.
Location
Class
Messy Level
1
Elementary
November | Physics
Magnetic Maze Rescue
About
Students guide a paperclip character through a cardboard maze using a magnet underneath—without touching the character.
Location
Class
Messy Level
1
Elementary
December | Product Design
Candy Kicks: Sneaker Design
About
In the Candy Kicks Design Challenge, students become sneaker designers and create a shoe inspired by the colors, shapes, and personality of candy packaging. They’ll explore color theory, branding, composition, and product design while creating a sneaker that tells a visual story.
Location
Classroom
Messy Level
1
Elementary
November | Physics
Balloon-Powered Car Grand Prix
About
Students design and build a LEGO car powered entirely by air escaping from a balloon. After creating a working prototype, they race their cars, observe what affects speed and distance, and redesign their vehicles to improve performance.
Location
Class or lab
Messy Level
1
Primary
October | Chemistry
Fizzy Cauldron
About
Students mix baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and a little dish soap in a mini 'cauldron.' The bubbling foam becomes visible evidence that a chemical reaction produced a gas.
Location
Outside
Messy Level
3
Elementary
October | Chemistry
Brains!
About
Students watch as monsters lose their mind and create a chemical reaction (mini elephant toothpaste) within the monster cups that they designed.
Location
Lab or outside
Messy Level
3
Elementary
October | Chemistry
Scream Cream Lab
About
In the Scream Cream Science Lab, students will make their own ice cream and turn it into a monster-themed float. Along the way, they’ll explore chemistry by seeing how salt lowers the freezing point of ice and how fizzy liquids release carbon dioxide bubbles when mixed into their creation.
Location
Lab or outside
Messy Level
3
Primary
November | Physics
Friction Ramp Racers
About
Lego cars race down identical ramps onto different surfaces such as felt, foil, sandpaper, and wax paper. Students discover how friction changes how far and how fast an object moves.
Location
Class or lab
Messy Level
2
Primary
December | Product Design
Bubble Wand Design Lab
About
A toy company needs a new bubble wand that is fun to hold and makes bubbles reliably. Students sketch two shapes, build one with pipe cleaners and a straw, test it three times, change one feature, and retest.
Location
Classroom and outside
Messy Level
2
Elementary
December | Product Design
Simple Machines challenge
About
Students will work in teams to design and build a Rube Goldberg-inspired machine that solves a simple challenge using everyday materials and at least one simple machine. Along the way, they’ll explore cause and effect, test their ideas, and improve their designs through creative engineering.
Location
Lab
Messy Level
2
Elementary
December | Product Design
Down the Drain
About
In Down the Drain challenge, students must design and build a tool capable of retrieving an important lost object from a simulated storm drain—without using their hands. Using only everyday recycled materials, they’ll explore engineering, problem-solving, forces, and creative design as they test and improve their rescue device.
Location
Lab
Messy Level
1
Primary
December | Product Design
Candy Kicks: Sneaker Design
About
In the Candy Kicks Design Challenge, students become sneaker designers and create a shoe inspired by the colors, shapes, and personality of candy packaging. They’ll explore color theory, branding, composition, and product design while creating a sneaker that tells a visual story.
Location
Classroom
Messy Level
1
Primary
November | Physics
Balloon-Powered Car Grand Prix
About
Students design and build a LEGO car powered entirely by air escaping from a balloon. After creating a working prototype, they race their cars, observe what affects speed and distance, and redesign their vehicles to improve performance.
Location
Class or lab
Messy Level
1
Elementary
December | Product Design
Toy Shop Inventor
About
In the Toy Shop Inventor Challenge, students become product designers challenged to dream up and build a brand-new toy using everyday materials. They’ll brainstorm, sketch, build, test, and improve their invention while learning how engineers turn creative ideas into real products.
Location
Class
Messy Level
1
Primary
November | Physics
Magnetic Maze Rescue
About
Students guide a paperclip character through a cardboard maze using a magnet underneath—without touching the character.
Location
Class
Messy Level
1
Primary
October | Chemistry
Oobleck Meltdown
About
In the Oobleck Lab, students will mix cornstarch, water, and color to create a monster that can act like both a solid and a liquid. By squeezing, shaping, and watching their monster “melt,” they’ll explore the fascinating chemistry of non-Newtonian fluids.
Location
Lab or outside or gym
Messy Level
3
Elementary
October | Chemistry
Monster Mash
About
In the Monster Mash Lab, students will build their own colorful monster and then make it bubble, foam, and “melt” using vinegar. The experiment introduces acid-base chemistry as baking soda and vinegar react to produce carbon dioxide gas.
Location
Lab
Messy Level
3
Primary
November | Physics
Turkey Rocket
About
In the Turkey Rocket Lab, students will build a balloon-powered turkey rocket and launch it across a string runway. As their turkey blasts off, they’ll explore force, motion, and Newton’s Third Law by seeing how escaping air pushes the rocket in the opposite direction.
Location
Class or lab
Messy Level
1
Elementary
November | Physics
Boat Regatta
About
Experiment with speed, design and physics. The core idea involves storing energy (potential) and then releasing it (kinetic) to create motion. Students will engineer torsion powered boats to race head to head against their classmates.
Location
Outside
Messy Level
3
Primary
December | Product Design
Invent a backscratcher
About
In the Invent-a-Backscratcher Challenge, students become product designers tasked with solving a very relatable problem: how do you scratch an itch you cannot reach? They’ll sketch, build, test, and improve their own useful invention while learning how engineers turn everyday problems into new products.
Location
Classroom or lab
Messy Level
1
Elementary
December | Product Design
Assistive Device Design
About
Today, you will become product designers and engineers. Your team will receive a real-world challenge and design an assistive device that helps someone complete a task more easily, safely, or independently. You will not be given a solution—you will need to understand your user's problem, invent your own idea, build a prototype, test it, and improve it based on feedback.
Location
Classroom
Messy Level
1