Celebrate the Winter Solstice with a STEM Challenge

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Dec 6

Celebrate the Winter Solstice with a STEM Challenge

Post by Julie Lyons

December 6, 2022

Australia is definitely called by the right name during the month of December…it is “down under” the cold side of the solstice line. As a matter of fact, Australia is not experiencing anything that the northern hemisphere is right now. But for those of us in the northern hemisphere, we are fast approaching Winter Solstice.

Read below for a STEM activity all about the Winter Solstice! Students will explore how light reflects and refracts and how materials can be transparent, translucent, or opaque. Teams will then use the engineering design process to build a lantern to expand the light cast by a flashlight. Plus tons of videos and real-world STEM connections!

What exactly is the Winter Solstice?

It is the shortest day OR longest night of the year. It occurs around December 21st or 22nd, depending on the year. During this time, the sun appears lower in the sky and stays out for a shorter amount of time due to the tilt of the earth. The northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun. This tilt causes light rays to hit less directly, our temperatures begin to fall, and our days decrease in length. Here is a video of the Winter Solstice explained by NASA:

Winter Solstice STEM Challenge

What do we do when all of these things occur? We make our own light sources! Things like cozy fires, pretty Christmas lights, and scented candles warm us up. It is also the perfect time to bring a light challenge into our classrooms to celebrate the shortest day of the year!

Activity Overview: In our classroom, we set up the activity with the following storyline. The winter solstice is coming, and it will be dark for most of the day! In case of a power outage, your engineering team must climb a hill on foot to repair the problem. You only have one flashlight but are in charge of safely guiding your team to the top of the hill. Your mission is to use the engineering design process to design and build a device to spread the light of one flashlight to illuminate the path for your team.

Science of Light

Before tackling this challenge, we provide some background on important science concepts. First, students will participate in an optics demonstration and learn about reflection and refraction. Watch the video below for the demonstration and another optics STEM challenge - pinhole camera or Camera Obscura.

The Build

Students then tackle the engineering challenge of designing a device to spread the light of one flashlight to illuminate the path for your team. Design constraints include:

Must carry the device in one hand.
Flashlight must be pointed upwards.
Light must be reflected to shine on the ground from 3 feet (about 1 meter).

To complete the build, students are provided with these materials:

Scissors
Clear tape
2 Bendy Straws
3 index cards, cardstock, or paper plates
Plastic or paper cups
Plastic or paper bowls
Aluminum foil (2 sheets)
3 pipe cleaners
Several small binder clips
Recyclables (clear plastic packaging, cardboard tubes, etc.)
Screwdriver or sharp pencils if students would like to poke holes

Real-World Connections

This challenge is linked to two STEM careers: Optical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Optical engineers study light and how it behaves. They build and design devices like cameras, telescopes and lenses that cause light to behave in a helpful way to solve a problem. Optical engineers help design all types of lenses from eyeglass lenses to iPhone lenses. Mechanical engineers are the broadest type of engineer, and they have designed virtually every object in our lives!

Here are some great videos to share with your students.