Lego NXT's

Let the fun begin!

STAR LAB

STAR LAB, our School District's digital planetarium, recently made its way to Crossroads Elementary School. Every student had the opportunity to experience the wonders of space travel. Could we be looking at the next generation of astronomers and astronauts?

STAR Lab

Check out what some of our Kindergarten friends learned while they were in the Star Lab!

Hold Your Horses

The third grade students recently engineered and tested their horse pastures. The criteria required the pasture to withstand the force of a bumping horse (marble) and to have a working gate. This third grade team accomplished the challenge with flying colors!

Speedometry

These young engineers used Hot Wheels ramps and cars to deepen their understanding of potential and kinetic energy. Hypothesis were developed, experiments were designed and data was collected. Finally, students were challenged to engineer a racecourse that would keep their car moving as long and as far as possible. 

Be sure to check out the video below!

STEM Connections

It is so exciting to see STEM come to life! This young man couldn't wait to show his classmates the human powered light that he engineered at home. I think we are looking at a future electrical engineer!

Ramp It Up!

The first grade students at CES are becoming experts on force and motion. After exploring how an incline plane can make both a "push" and a "pull" a bit easier, these young engineers were challenged to design and build a platform/ramp system that would allow their hot wheels car to travel at least 2 meters powered only by the force of gravity! 

Bubble Bonanza

The kindergarten students recently discovered that bubbles have some pretty amazing properties. In addition to being able to float, stretch, stack, split, bounce, and drip - bubbles act as a prism and reflect the full spectrum of light. They even discovered that bubbles do indeed have a shadow.

These young engineers were then challenged to apply what they had just learned about bubbles to engineer their very own bubble wand. Although the goal was to produce a bubble that would not pop for at least 3 seconds, some of the wands actually produced bubbles that remained intact for more than 30 seconds! Now that's amazing!

Hold Your Horses

The Engineering Challenge

       The third grade students were recently challenged to engineer a model of a new horse pasture for the Quantico Stables that met a stringent set of criteria and constraints. Although the perimeter of fencing was designated, the students were tasked with optimizing the square area available for the horses. These young engineers quickly realized that Math is indeed an essential component of STEM!

Engineering a Puff Mobile

As an introduction to the Engineering Design Process, the second grade students have been challenged to engineer a vehicle that can be powered by one puff of air. The challenge sounded easy at first, but as these young engineers are quickly finding out, it isn’t!

Do you think you could design a vehicle based on this set of criteria and constraints?

• The vehicle must move in a forward direction.
• You may only use 1 puff of air.
• You may not touch the vehicle during the test.
• Your vehicle must remain on the track.
• You may only use the following materials: 4 mints, 2 straws, 2 paper clips, 1 piece of paper, and clear tape.
• 
  
  
  
  
  

Harmless Holders

After viewing pictures of animals that were entangled in the plastic holders that are commonly used to bundle bottles of water together, the fourth and fifth grade students unanimously agreed that this was a STEM challenge worthy of their expertise. These packaging engineers are now diligently working to design an animal friendly way to carry six water bottles. Check out their great thinking and their current design plans.  

Sink, Float or Flink

The Problem:

When STEM dog was at the beach, his balls would either float on top of the water or sink to the bottom of the ocean. He didn't like either option so he challenged the young engineers at Crossroads Elementary School to solve his problem.  

The Challenge:

Engineer an object that neither floats nor sinks. Instead it must flink, which is a combination of float and sink.

 After exploring the buoyancy of the individual materials, the students worked in collaborative teams to engineer something that would flink in the middle of their testing tub. The designs went through countless iterations, and eventually, some of these young engineers were successful in their endeavor. 

Developing a love for STEM!

The Pipe Cleaner Challenge

As an introduction to STEM, the fourth and fifth grade students were challenged to build the tallest free standing structure that they could using nothing other than 15 pipe cleaners. The students quickly discovered that team work and collaboration would be necessary to accomplish this task.  To represent a loss of manpower, the students were asked to spend the last five minutes of the challenge working with one hand behind their back. With only two minutes to go, these young engineers were informed that their company had been purchased and relocated to a foreign country. Since they could no longer speak the language of their new colleagues, they were now forced to find a way to communicate without talking. Despite all of the obstacles encountered, many teams were able to design a structure that could indeed stand on its own! Well done Engineers!

The Adventures of STEM Dog - Part 1

Welcome back to school my Crossroads Friends. I know that we are going to have a lot of fun with STEM this year.  I can't wait to tell you all about the incredible adventures I had over the summer.  I even made a movie to give you a little preview. I hope you are as excited for this year's STEM Dog challenges as I am!


Your Friend-

STEM Dog

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July from STEM Dog 

July 4, 2012 and July 4, 2015

STEM Dog says, "Hi Friends!"

There will be a new STEM Dog Challenge coming soon!