Simple STEM Activities for families
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Create a treasure hunt with a map and clues
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Learn to identify trees by their leaves
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Read a book with a STEM theme
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Make the alphabet from stickers or other natural items
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Make your name out of recycled materials
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Interview a relative using storycorps.org
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Take your bike apart and put it back together
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Make something out of old puzzle pieces
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Watch the movie Hidden Figures
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Make a LEGO maze
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Test objects in your house to see if they will sink or float
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Write instructions on how to make a sandwich and let someone follow them exactly
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Use the cards A-10 and play war, but see who can add, subtract, or multiply fastest
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Play battleship
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Build a paper airplane launcher
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Build a fort using couch cushions and blankets
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Plant some flowers
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Make something useful from duct tape
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Invent something to solve a problem in your home
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Make “rubber stamps” out of cardboard and pasta
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Learn to solve a Rubik’s Cube
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Write your own book, including drawings and a cover
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Rearrange furniture in a room to improve function and movement in the room
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Track and graph your high score in a game
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Make ice cubes from various liquids and see how long each takes to freeze
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Make dinner for your family
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Determine how much waste there is from cooking a meal
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Invent your own musical instrument
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Try making gears using the website gearsket.ch
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Create a secret code using a shift or “Caesar” cipher
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Pick a word and see how many other words you can make from the letters
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Measure and graph temperature or rain totals
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Make a time capsule to open in 10 years
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Make artwork using shaving cream, food coloring, and a toothpick
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Plant a butterfly garden
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Invent a toy for your pet
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Watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
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Freeze a small toy or coin in water and make a timelapse video of it melting
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Put different amounts of water in glass containers and tap gently to make music
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Make paper airplanes using foldnfly.com
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Try sprouting a carrot top, dried bean or fruit seed
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Put some dirty pennies in vinegar
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Put celery or flowers in water that contains food coloring
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Learn bird calls
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Build the tallest tower with one piece of paper and tape
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Turn an old book into a secret hiding place
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Learn to cook a new recipe or invent your own
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Observe the moon each night and take pictures to make a timelapse video
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Measure things with a tape measure
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Learn to read a ruler
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Build a model city with items in your house
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Make a bird feeder using a pinecone, suet and birdseed
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Count how many and what time of birds come to your feeder or yard
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Read a book and make a “book trailer”
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Paint rocks with encouraging words
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Weave a bracelet
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Learn about a STEM career
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Write a story, act it out with your family and record it
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Make a sundial
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Invent a board game using bottle caps or other small items as pieces
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Draw something with isometric dot paper
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Make a slow motion video of something in nature
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Learn to fold cloth napkins
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Make bread using yeast
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Draw 20 circles and turn each into something (pizza, planets, wheels, ect)
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Build something using toothpicks or straws
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Practice coding using scratch.org or code.org
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Learn to crochet or knit
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Make your own tangrams
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Learn how cell phones work
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Draw a detailed map of a room in your home
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Learn to sew
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Make something new from an empty toothpaste tube
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Look at and identify types of clouds
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Learn about the history of technology in your area
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Make a cardboard automata (movable sculpture)
STEM Lesson Plans