Are you facing the challenge of maintaining full engagement in your middle school STEM classroom? As educators, striking the right balance between rigor and excitement is an ongoing struggle. Luckily, we have the perfect solution to transform your STEM lessons into captivating experiences – our Middle School STEM Projects Bundle!
The Middle School STEM Dilemma
Middle schoolers can be a tough crowd, making it an ongoing challenge for STEM teachers to balance academic rigor with engaging, hands-on activities. How can we ensure that our students not only grasp complex concepts but also develop a genuine interest in STEM disciplines? The answer lies in sparking their curiosity through innovative, real-world STEM challenges.
Unlocking the Potential of STEM Challenges
Our Middle School STEM Projects Bundle is designed to do just that. With 20 thoughtfully crafted challenges, this comprehensive bundle seamlessly integrates engineering concepts and skills into your curriculum. Each project is intentionally structured to promote critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork – essential skills for future STEM professionals.
What’s Inside the Bundle?
Let’s take a closer look at the exciting challenges included in our bundle.
Fall STEM Projects
- Cook the Corn Solar Oven Challenge: Create a solar oven to warm canned corn for Thanksgiving dinner.
- Corn Maze Design Challenge: Create a 3D marble maze modeled after a corn maze.
- Football Helmet STEM Challenge: Learn about the dangers of concussions and design a football helmet to protect a model skull.
- Halloween Candy Bucket Design Challenge: Create a bucket to hold the greatest amount of Halloween candy.
- Thanksgiving Table Design Challenge: Create a model table for Thanksgiving dinner that can hold the greatest amount of food.
Winter STEM Projects
- Circuit-Powered Valentine Challenge: Build a light-up Valentine’s Day card using circuitry.
- Cookie Delivery Challenge: Design a package to protect a cookie during shipping.
- Hot Cocoa Cup Challenge: Design an insulated cup for hot chocolate.
- Snowflake Design Challenge: Design a snowflake with six sides and rotational symmetry.
Spring STEM Projects
- Bee House Challenge: Create a nesting site for mason bees to support pollination.
- Easter Egg Drop Challenge: Assist the Easter bunny with new egg delivery technology and create protective packages.
- Plant Maze STEM Challenge: Design a plant maze to demonstrate phototropism.
- Wind-Powered Car Design Challenge: Learn about climate change and renewable energy sources, then design a wind-powered car.
Anytime STEM Projects
- Animal Prosthesis Challenge: Design a prosthetic device to improve an animal client’s quality of life.
- Bottle Rocket Challenge: Design and test bottle rockets launched with a baking soda and vinegar reaction.
- Cold Pack Design Challenge: Use knowledge of endothermic and exothermic reactions to design a cold pack.
- Fidget Spinner Design Challenge: Design and build a personalized fidget spinner using the engineering design process.
- Newton’s Laws Car Safety Challenge: Use Newton’s Third Law to design a car that keeps an egg safe during collisions.
- Space Needle Design Challenge: Design and build a model space needle tower for a town.
- Water Balloon Catapult Challenge: Create a catapult to launch water balloons as far as possible.
What Sets Our Projects Apart?
1. Comprehensive
Printable, Google, and Easel versions of student activities and worksheets so you can choose the format that best suits your classroom needs. Detailed lesson plans and slideshows for seamless facilitation. Easy-to-use grading rubrics and assessments to make evaluation and feedback simple. Flexible building materials allow you to adapt the project based on what you have readily available. Printable certificates are included with each challenge to celebrate your students’ success.
2. Time-Saving
Each STEM challenge is ready to go with a materials list, detailed lesson plan, slideshow, digital and printable student materials, and grading rubrics. You’ll gain back hours each week to spend on other important teaching tasks or enjoying your life outside of work.
3. Easy-to-Use
Each project includes detailed lesson plans, slideshows, and grading rubrics to make lesson facilitation a breeze. This will help you use your precious planning time for other tasks on your to-do list. It also makes these resources perfect for a substitute teacher with limited STEM teaching experience.
4. Designed for Middle School
Our middle school STEM projects are designed to pique your older students’ interest and challenge them appropriately. Each STEM challenge in this bundle has been successfully implemented in other middle school classrooms.
Middle School Teacher Testimonials
How to Implement the Middle School STEM Challenges
Our STEM Project Bundle can be seamlessly integrated into your classroom in a variety of ways:
Problem-Solving Practice
Use these STEM projects to introduce and practice problem-solving with the engineering design process. The open-ended nature of each project allows students to devise innovative solutions.
STEM Career Exposure
Help your students discover new STEM disciplines and professions through engaging, fun activities. Connections to real-world STEM careers are detailed in the teacher notes and embedded in the students’ background research activities.
Leverage STEM challenges to provide opportunities for students to hone crucial soft skills that extend beyond science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These valuable experiences will benefit your students in any future workplace.
High Engagement on Challenging School Days
Keep the STEM projects on hand to use on days when you and your students are having trouble staying focused on work. The projects with seasonal or holiday themes can be used to keep students focused and learning before school breaks.
Substitute Lesson Plans
Ensure continuity in STEM learning by leaving the challenges for engaging substitute lesson plans. The detailed teacher plans, guided student activities, and grading rubrics make these projects accessible to any teacher.
Transforming STEM Education
Ready to elevate your STEM curriculum and inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators? The Middle School STEM Projects Bundle is your ticket to a classroom filled with engaged, enthusiastic learners. Purchase the bundle today and witness the magic of STEM education come to life in your middle school classroom!
