By: Nishita Gudipati
Egg drop challenge: the classic egg drop challenge perfectly captures the spirit of easter and involves STEM as kids have to try and protect a raw egg dropped from various heights. You can even paint the egg to give it the real easter feel.
Materials: All you need are household items like rubber bands, cardboard, tape, cotton (or anything else soft) and ofcourse raw eggs.
Accessibility: This activity is great for anyone in elementary school and above since the designs can be as easy or as difficult it needs to be.
STEM lessons: this challenge perfectly displays the simple basics of engineering and physics. Kids must keep in mind gravity and force and the speed of the egg hitting the ground and how to protect their egg without breaking it. It also encourages critical thinking skills.
Supervisions: This activity is very vague and can be done individually or in teams. Older kids usually can be left alone although younger children might need assistance especially with trying to handle the eggs.
Easter Egg Catapult: This is another great activity that hones the STEM spirit with an added Easter spin to it. Participants build a small catapult with household items and launch easter eggs off it.
Materials: This activity requires relatively easily found materials including popsicle sticks (jumbo), rubber bands, a spoon, and plastic easter eggs.
Accessibility: Once again this activity is great for anyone elementary and above.
STEM Lesson: this activity involves physics and energy, while utilizing angles and trajectory. It can also be experimented on with different sizes of eggs.
Supervisions: There isn't any supervision needed but some kids may need assistance with certain parts of the activity.
Egg parachute: This activity consists of being able to throw the egg into the air tied to a homemade parachute and making sure it can float slowly down to the ground.
Materials: plastic egg halves, plastic straight straws, bendy straws, popsicle sticks, wooden ice cream spoons, wood chopsticks, coffee filters, masking tape.
Accessibility: once again this activity is fairly simple and can be done by children of ages around 6/7 and above.
STEM Lesson: Participants learn about gravity which causes the egg to drag down along with that they also notice air resistance and friction that causes drag in the egg and the reason why it falls so slowly with the parachute.
Supervision: once again there isn’t anything dangerous or risky with this activity hence safety supervision isn’t completely necessary however assistance from adults might be needed.
In conclusion, Easter eggs are no longer just for hiding but rather they provide a variety of fun-filled and educational opportunities to be explored on this holiday alongside with the traditional games as well. Whether it’s protecting these eggs, launching them, or making them fly, all of these activities provide unique ways to explore STEM ideas with a little holiday twist.
Works Cited:
Deirdre. “Science Experiments with Egg Parachutes.” JDaniel4s Mom, 14 March 2016, https://jdaniel4smom.com/2016/03/science-experiments-egg-parachutes.html. Accessed 5 April 2024.
“Egg Drop Challenge - Museum of Science and Industry.” Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, https://www.msichicago.org/science-at-home/hands-on-science/egg-drop-challenge/. Accessed 6 April 2024.
McClelland, Sarah. “Easter Catapult STEM Activity.” Little Bins for Little Hands, https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/easter-catapult-stem-activity-kids/. Accessed 5 April 2024.
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