S.T.E.M. projects that don't suck
[Get it? That was a vacuum joke 😉]
The main goal of the James Dyson Foundation, the charitable arm – or valve – of the Dyson company of vacuum cleaner and hand dryer fame, is to promote engineering and engineering education. To that end, they have created a series of 44 science and engineering challenge cards.
You can read more about the challenges and watch videos about them on their website. You could also directly download a pdf of them here. The Foundation has also been posting daily challenges on their Instagram account.
Each challenge card has a list of materials needed, the steps you need to take to carry it out, and an explanation of the scientific or engineering principals behind the challenge. Most of what you need you probably have lying around your house or in your junk drawer(s).
I'm especially interested in the building challenges, like geodesic dome, spaghetti bridge, balloon car race, and cardboard chair.
These cards would be great fun for distance learning, as back-to-school team-building challenges, as weekly hands-on labs, and so on.
P.S. Dyson is a British company, so it's fun seeing words like "lolly stick," "torch," and "washing up liquid."
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