STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. This curriculum is designed to pique children’s interest in these career fields from a young age.
Classroom STEM activities range from computer programming to making paper airplanes – and everything in between.
STEM challenges are special STEM activities that put children’s creative problem-solving skills to the test. Teachers present students with a set of supplies and it’s up to the students to figure out to use those supplies to accomplish a specific task.
Students find STEM challenges to be rewarding and fun.
Here are 30 fun third grade STEM challenges your students are sure to enjoy!
1. Make a chain reaction with dominoes and 3 other items.
- dominoes
- 3 other items of the child’s choosing
2. Make a mini basketball hoop with pipe cleaners, cardstock, craft sticks, straws, and tulle.
3. Build the tallest tower possible using spaghetti noodles and marshmallows.
4. Make 1 snowflake that falls quickly and 1 snowflake that falls slowly.
5. Build a tall tower using Hershey’s Kisses and card stock.
6. Make a leaf out of paper and fold it into a glider.
7. Design a Hotwheels track out of toilet paper rolls and tape.
- empty toilet paper rolls
- Hotwheels car
- electrical tape
8. Build a lava lamp using vegetable oil, food coloring, and Alka-Seltzer.
- Alka-Seltzer tablets
- water bottle
- vegetable oil
- food coloring
9. Build the tallest tower possible from toothpicks and playdough.
10. Build a car using a plastic bottle, wooden skewers, straws, and rubber bands. Power it with a balloon.
- plastic bottle caps
- wooden skewers
- plastic bottle
- straws
- balloons
- rubber bands
- tape
- scissors
11. Build your name with Legos.
12. Make a kaleidoscope using an empty chip can, tissue paper, aluminum foil, glitter, and sequins.
- empty chip can
- hammer
- nails
- clear glue
- aluminum foil
- tissue paper
- glitter
- sequins
13. Use a pool noddle to make a marble run.
- pool noodles
- marbles
- knife
- empty tissue box
14. Fill balloons with different solutions to test their buoyancy. Record your results.
- kiddie pool
- water balloons
- 60ml syringe
- variety of solutions (water, saltwater, cooking oil, juice, etc.)
- sharpie
15. Figure out how to step through an index card.
16. Stab a straw through a potato without breaking the straw.
- drinking straw
- scissors
- potato
17. Make a rubberband guitar from a tissue box, pencils, and rubber bands.
- pencils
- rubber bands
- tissue box
18. Make a working parachute for a Lego person.
- Lego person
- link-56″>tissue paper
19. Make a kite out of straws, string, and tissue paper.
- tissue paper
- drinking straws
- tape
- scissors
- 20. Build a tower of cups as tall as you.
21. Build a tower as tall as possible using construction paper and tape.
22. Build an animal habitat from Legos.
23. Use a penny and paper to make a spiral penny spinner.
- paper plate
- cup
- link-69″>ruler
- penny
- scissors
- red marker
24. Make 2D models of the 8 land and water formations using playdough.
25. Build a marble maze from Legos.
26. Design 3 level structure using mini marshmallows and toothpicks.
27. Make a Lego car and power it with a balloon.
28. Create a geometric shape mosaic using playdough and plastic shapes.
- playdough
- geometric shapes
29. Build a mini 3D replica of your family using playdough.
30. Build hollow 3D shapes from straws and playdough.
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