What our world needs now is Love Sweet Love! 

Use February STEM challenges to enhance your positive classroom culture and teach life lessons promoting innovative thinking and collaboration! 

Start with this acrostic for LOVE:

Putting others first is not natural for our children. This is a concept that needs to be taught and reinforced by the power of noticing as it is demonstrated through STEM activities and collaboration. Focusing on others first by finding ways to spotlight their strengths and celebrate their uniqueness will help our kids build their own self-confidence and increase their self worth.  

Candy Tower Challenge

Any kind of a class challenge always offers opportunities to motivate and engage students to learn through the  integration of interesting content. Kids love learning facts so I like to start my STEM challenges with a “Research Tease”, just enough information to leave them wanting more!   

• The tallest tower in the world is ½ a mile high and it’s known as the Khalifa Tower, it is a skyscraper, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 
• Good structured towers use a minimum of two different geometrical shapes. 

A follow up activity to the Candy Tower could be time to research more about the tallest towers. 

Then close with a

 “Quick Write, Sketch and Share” 

for the win!

Cupid Challenge 

Warning: Your kids may “Fall in Love” with Math! 

Cupid was known as the Roman god of affection. When you were shot with his arrow, you were IN LOVE! 

So sharpen those arrows and mental math skills. 

Cupid Challenge #1 Accuracy

Using Cupid to “sharpen” your math skills is a super fun way to spread the of math. 

In math terms: C + —> =

Use this Cupid Challenge and watch your students fall deeply in with math! 

Cupid Challenge #2 Distance

Being cupid in training means “going the distance” for love! So sharpen those rulers and get ready to collect data in multiple ways. 

These Cupid STEM challenges  help provide the spiral learning some of my students need to bring them closer to  mastery. For students that have mastered the concepts the application and practice helps them to retain and build a deeper understanding through the application process. 

Candy Heart Experiments

Embracing the Process of Learning

Teach students to question and wonder through scientific inquiry and the scientific process with Candy Hearts. 

My students love the empowerment of learning that comes through the repetitive use of the scientific process as they gather and analyze their data. (Not to mention getting to use all of the essentials that make us look and feel like  scientists:  lab coats, goggles, tweezers, droppers, test tubes, etc.)

Candy Heart Slingshot

Permission to make a slingshot and even launch it – are you kidding? This challenge always makes me feel like the “cool” teacher, because they LOVE it AND they are learning! 

Recording and analyzing data are included in the process and a special reflection opportunity to redesign the slingshot based on the data. This is such an important opportunity to teach the concept of redesign based on the data.

Newspaper Eiffel Tower Challenge

Teaching and expecting innovative thinking is something that is always on my mind. The Eiffel Tower Challenge offers a great opportunity to reinforce and expect this creative thinking. 

Historically, the people of Paris did not like the design and structure of the Eiffel Tower because it looked so different from any structure in Paris and it stood out!  The book, Where is the Eiffel Tower is great to use to showcase this history and help students understand the power that comes through innovative thinking. After 100 designers submitted their plans for the tower, Gustave Eiffel’s design was selected. The Eiffel Tower today is a landmark that is known worldwide.

Sketching and planning are a huge part of designing. I love to use the site Quick Draw to warm my students up for Quick Writes. Quick drawing and writing helps students with fluency of thought and brainstorming when they are in the design stage of their projects. 

Valentine Candy Catapult

You’ve heard of

 “Throwing Kindness Around like Confetti”, 

what about 

“Catapulting Candy Around for FUN”? 

Here’s another chance for you to be “that teacher”!  

By using the same innovative design plan organizer, teach students to systematically question, create, design, plan, improve, and think creatively.