The Best Free STEM Teaching Materials You Can Grab Today
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That’s right! Free STEM Challenges to get you started. This is perfect for new STEM teachers or a busy teacher with a need for quick, easy activities to add STEM to your classroom!
Trust me, I have been in your shoes! I started in my STEM lab with zero resources. I had some basic idea books, but nothing for the elementary ages of my students. I started creating my own activities. Today I’m sharing all of them in one spot!
It’s free STEM Challenges Day! All the resources featured here are downloadable instantly!
“In this post, for your convenience, you may find Amazon Affiliate links to resources. This means that Amazon will pass on small percentages to me with your purchase of items. This will not create extra costs for you at all! It will help me keep this blog running!“
Are these Free STEM Challenges really easy? You betcha!
Here are the high points about these 4 challenges!
- The materials are easy. You likely already have them. These materials are the most commonly used in all my STEM Challenges.
- Many of the materials are things you can ask parents to donate (cardboard tubes, for one)!
- Because these resources are free, the page count for each download is limited. The teacher’s guides are 1-3 pages long, no fluff!
- The forms for students are still editable- in PowerPoint.
- Photos are included to help you plan!
The Famous Mystery Build Challenge
In this challenge, students will be assigned a structure to build and a list of possible materials. Teams must work together to choose the right materials to build their structure and stay within a purchasing budget for those materials. To make it really fun, every team will build something different.
The sharing time for this challenge is amazing. Each team tells about their structure and how they decided on the correct materials to build it.
Perfect for your first STEM Challenge of the year!
Cups and Sticks- a Unique STEM Freebie!
This tower challenge is one we completed purely for fun. It’s a fantastic challenge to use as a reward for your class, a sub day, a fun Friday afternoon, STEM night at your school, Grandparent’s Day, a holiday celebration using cups decorated for the holiday, and so much more.
In this challenge, students will have only two materials and the task of building the tallest tower possible.
What makes this a little bit challenging are the constraints of the task. This involves what can and cannot touch on the tower.
The rules of the task can be easily modified to accommodate a wide range of grades.
Another STEM Freebie- Foosball Sets!
Using shoeboxes and craft sticks, teams create a foosball set. Just be ready for several things:
- They will want to decorate the players. Sharpies work great.
- You need a ping pong ball or smaller to kick.
- The competitions will be fierce. Students love playing foosball and trading boxes to try every set they build.
These are perfect later in the school year and work best with 5th-6th graders!
One more Free STEM Challenge- Roll and Build!
In this challenge, students will roll a number cube and ‘earn’ six different materials. The structure the teams will build is your option. The resource includes suggestions. (cars, towers, bridges, etc.)
It’s an exciting way to engage teams as they hold their collective breath hoping to get the largest amount of tape on the number board.
Perfect classroom reward!
One last thing you need – Engineering Design Process Posters
I learned early on in my STEM lab that posters designed for STEM at the elementary level were almost non-existent. So I made my own.
Here’s a free set for you!
I hope you take advantage of all these free STEM resources. I loved creating them and my students loved testing and refining them! Click on the images to find these in my TPT shop!
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