Tower STEM Challenges: 5 Icebreaker Activities
Towers are a great STEM activity to promote collaboration, teamwork, communication, and problem solving. This challenge lays a critical foundation for more intensive STEM challenges. Working as a team, they will learn lessons in communication, innovation, hidden assumptions, and creativity that are central to the engineering process.
Grades: 2nd - 9th
Teaching Duration: 3 hours
“I used this as part of a summer stem program, and it was very easy to use. The activities were very engaging for my students. ”
lesson overview
Towers are a great STEM activity to promote collaboration, teamwork, communication, and problem solving. This challenge lays a critical foundation for more intensive STEM challenges. Working as a team, they will learn lessons in communication, innovation, hidden assumptions, and creativity that are central to the engineering process.
These activities take no more than 20 minutes as they are meant to be conducted in a set time limit. Use these activities as a warm-up or icebreaker, team building activity, or introduction to the world of engineering!
Activities are low-prep and low-cost! Materials needed for all challenges are pipecleaners, cups, rubber bands, string, spaghetti, index cards, balloons, and tape
Pipecleaner Tower Challenge: Using only pipecleaners, student teams will build the tallest, freestanding tower. However, there will be some unexpected constraints along the way!
Stack the Cups Challenge: Perfect for teams struggling with communication. Teams will build a tower of cups without touching them! Requires all members to participate.
Additional Tower Challenges: Want more towers? Instructions provided on how to implement tower challenges with index cards, spaghetti, and more!
Student Packet: A student packet is included to guide students through the engineering design process with the tower activities.
