Tabletop Activities
Whether be it for an expo or for a short activity (10-20 minutes), the center offers the following activities.
These activities are offered by the Center or student organizations can borrow them (all materials provided) for outreach. Key: Activity Name [Target Grades] => short description | Long description
Puzzle / Engineering Challenges:
• Color Lines [K-2] => a color-based word puzzle! | students will write out word puzzles that are solved using four crayon colors. One person writes the puzzle, the other attempts to solve it. For example, a student may write a descriptive poem which invoke specific color choices, and the other student would draw horizontal lines top to bottom to match the colors described by the poem.
• Puzzle Cubes [3-8] => talk to each other to discover what’s on the bottom of the cube | students work together to solve a six-sided puzzle cube: each side has one clue to the puzzle. Students can also design and build their own puzzle cubes to challenge others – but make sure every side can be solved.
• What is this Tech? [3-8] => identity technologies from pictures and real life objects | students name and describe the purpose of various technologies. Printed handouts – or bring in your own wacky and mysterious tools for students to guess their purpose.
• Shortest Path Problem [3-8] => an industrial engineering challenge: map the shortest paths between points on a map | using USA maps and strings around specific points, students attempt to solve the classic shortest path problem by measuring the shortest path (in any order) from Point A to B,C,D,E,F,G and back to A.
• Transportation Timeline [3-8] => in what chronological order where these transportation methods invented? | students lay out the timeline and when they think they have it, they compare to the answer key.
• Backpack Design [3-8] => students re-design backpacks! | What does a good backpack have? A bad one? Do specialized backpacks exist? Look at some existing backpacks and see how you can re-design it to be better, by drawing your new design. Presentation/Handout.
• Marshmallow Towers [1-8] => design towers using marshmallows and spaghetti | students build towers with uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows, aiming for either the tallest tower, or the tower that can hold the most pennies. Can also modify this to build the longest bridges (spanning two chairs).
• 1-minute TED talks [4-8] => public speaking challenge! host a TED talk, but only for one minute | students roll a dice to determine a random topic, have 1 minute to think about it, then must present on the topic for 1 minute. Presentation
• Blind Drawings [1-8] => how well can you coordinate with a partner to draw complex shapes? | one partner is the drawer, one the instruction giver. Using just words and without the drawer seeing the shape, the instruction giver must get the drawer to recreate the shape as best as possible. Blind Drawing Shapes
• Buckyballs [K-4] => learn about the shapes of molecules by building a Buckminsterfullerene (a “bucky ball”) using paper plates! | students use paper plates and staple to build a giant geodesic dome / bucky ball.
• Estimation Challenge [4-8] => think you’re good at estimating? try this | Handout. See how good students are at estimating lengths, sizes, etc. Pairs well with bringing in a jar full of candies and having students guess the amount (then winner keeps it).
Energy
• Wind Turbines [4-8] => design and test your own wind turbine blades | using cardboard and a testing set-up, students time how long it takes to lift a weight, allowing them to measure the power output of their wind turbine blade design. Students must determine their blade shape, amount of blades, and rotor arm length.
• Paper Circuits [4-8] => build a light-up greeting card! | students use copper tape, resistors, and LEDs to build circuits that light up a greeting card when it opens
• Snap Circuits [4-8] => use snap circuits to learn about circuits and electricity | using snap circuits kits, students can build any number of circuits
• Ice Cube Houses [K-8] => insulate your ice cube to see how long it lands in the sun | using a high power lamp to represent the sun, students build houses out of a variety of materials (texture, color) to insulate their house as best as possible and to see how long it takes for an ice cube inside to melt.
MechE Design Challenges
• Penny Boats [K-8] => how many pennies can your boat hold? | using tinfoil, students design a boat to hold as many pennies as possible.
• Hurricane Paper Towers [2-8] => | can your tower resist the force of a hurricane? | using paper, index cards, or playing cards, students designs 1-foot tall towers to resist the force of a simulated hurricane: rolling marbles represent storm surge, and a fan represents high winds.
• Catapults [4-8] => can you hit the target with your catapult? | using popsicle sticks, spoons, rubber bands, and duct tape, students design and build a catapult to be as accurate and precise as possible – using skittles as ammunition.
• Hexbugs [2-8] => how do hexbugs live and fight? | this is a two-part activity: 1. using hexbug nanos, design a habitat in which they can roam about and keep out predators and 2. building sumo wrestling hexbugs, using an index card to modify the hexbug exoskeleton and fight off other sumo hexbugs.
Aeronautics
• Paper Rockets [2-8] => | how high can your paper rocket fly? | using either stomp rockets or our pneumatic rocket launcher, students design and test rockets to fly as high as possible, designing the fuselage, nose cone, and fins of their rockets.
• Paper Airplanes [2-8] => | paper airplane design challenge! fast, floaty, and strong! | design three paper airplanes – one that flies as fast as possible, one that stays airborne as long as possible, and one that can hold the most amount of clipboards whilst still traveling a pre-set distance.
• Whirlygigs [K-4] => | build your own helicopter seeds (samaras)! | using paper, students build whirligigs that rotate as they fall, emulating the samara fruit.
Environmental Engineering
• Overfishing [4-8] => | how many fish can you catch depleting your supply? | students catch simulated fish using a variety of tools, and must balance their catch rates with production rates to not overfish. Supply chain disruptions (diseases, boat failures, etc) also impact their catch rates.
• Water Filters [4-8] => | design a water filter to clean polluted water | students use a variety of materials to build the most efficient water filter
• Oil Spill Cleanup [4-8] => | can you clean up an oil spill? | using a variety of materials, students attempt to clean up an oil spill – building oil skimmers and booms
• Levees [4-8] => | can you stop the rising tide? | using various materials, students build portable (can be placed and removed quickly) levees to prevent a flood
