Every teacher knows that STEM-based learning is the wave of the future. Most also know that STEM is incomplete without art and literature. Project-based learning is an ideal way to master STEAM skills in a way that feels relevant to students. Projects help students master useful skills, keep learning fun, and allow students to direct the course of their own education. That’s a win for everyone. It’s also a way to produce higher test scores without teaching to the test.
The following project-based learning examples in science can engage even bored and frustrated students in STEAM:
PBL STEAM Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
A few tweaks to the following activities can make them more or less challenging, depending on student competencies, curriculum goals, and similar factors. Help your early learners master STEM with these projects:
Build a cardboard tree or buy one at the local craft store. Any cardboard shape will work, so you can try a ball, flower, or any other shape if students prefer not to use a tree. Mix the crystal solution together: four tablespoons of warm water, four tablespoons table salt, two tablespoons ammonia, and four tablespoons of Mrs. Stewart’s bluing solution. Paint the cardboard with food coloring, then apply the crystal solution. The crystals will appear after several hours and continue to develop for a day or so.
Kids love candy, and many parents are eager to get rid of their kids’ candy. Kill two birds with one stone by incorporating candy into classroom projects. Check out some of these fabulous experiments:
Find out whether ants prefer sweet or sour flavors.
STEM activities for young children can be a challenge, but those preschoolers have many questions that they keep asking, such as: What is a cloud? Why do boats float? How does a car work? To satisfy their insatiable curiosity, here are a few projects that you can do with your preschoolers:
- Cloud in a jar – in this activity students cover condensation, water cycles and states of matter with a few simple household ingredients (water and hairspray) that come together to demonstrate the formation of a cloud for kids.
- Oil spill – in this activity, students mix oil and water in a large container and add a few feathers to the mix. Then the children try to remove the oil from the water and feathers by using sponges, paper towels or little spoons
- Post It number match – in this activity, students are using sticky notes to work on a movement-oriented math activity that helps them understand the meaning of numeric values.
- Coding a lego maze – in this activity, children can learn the basics of coding. This activity from ResearchParent offers suggestions on how to scale the activity down for younger kids, as well as how to complicate it for elementary school and even middle school children.
- Growing a crystal garden – in this activity, students learn how to grow salt crystals overnight using easy to find materials.
- Building a hand crank winch – in this engineering project, students can learn about simple machines by building a hand crank winch–a tool that people use to lift or pull heavy things.
- Jelly Beans Engineering – in this activity students will start to understand the thought, design and technology behind structural engineering. All they’ll need is a pile of jelly beans (or large marshmallows) and toothpicks to start learning about structures.
- Stop-Motion animation – in this activity students can learn about the technology behind movie-making and create a video unique to their own likes and interests. By using a smartphone or iPad® and a stop-motion app, students can experiment with creative STEM learning.
Are your students constantly throwing things at one another? Channel that energy into something more productive. Help them make a simple catapult with this guide.
PBL STEAM Activities for Grade Schoolers
Grade schoolers are surprisingly adept at STEM activities if given the chance. Even first and second graders can enjoy projects that last for several weeks and require substantial critical thinking. Try some of the following, adjusting as necessary to fit student needs and interests.
Wildlife Observation Projects
Help students learn about wild animals by observing them in their natural habitats. The Secret Life of Wild Animals is an excellent beginner resource. Some projects include:
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Solve an animal mystery. Why do certain birds disappear during the cold months? Where do they go? How do animals keep warm when it’s cold outside? Do animals watch people?
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Observe a small ecosystem over several weeks. How does the dirt change during the transition to spring? How do ant hills change over time?
Growing Plants
Growing plants is a delicate science that offers quick rewards and a chance to learn about botany, cooking, and even the geometry of plant design. Ask students to take succulent cuttings and grow them into fresh plants, then create a succulent design. Or create a classroom herb or vegetable garden. Growing plants outside is an excellent chance to learn about the carbon cycle. Consider also helping students find safe and environmentally friendly ways to protect against pests and weeds.
To get even more out of a gardening project, consider having each student develop recipes for the foods they’ve grown and then create a class recipe book.
Want to teach students about pollinators and the effect that small environmental changes can have on these vital animal resources? Check out this guide.
LEGO Mechanics
LEGOs are fun. They’re also a great way to master spatial reasoning, geometry, and beginning engineering. Try some of these motorized LEGO projects to help your students turn the toys they love into an education.
Build a Robot
Robots aren’t as complicated as they seem. Students can build a mini-robot in an afternoon with this guide. For an even more engrossing project, try one of these robots. Have a student who prefers a more old-fashioned approach to building? Help them make this propeller-powered car instead.
Create Your Own Entertainment
Help students build their own stop-motion animation with this guide. Then ask them to set it to music, create a compelling story, and use their imaginations to create something entertaining.
One of the most exhaustive resources of STEM projects was provided by Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. They have created 4,000 of the very best STEM activities on the web. You can handpick activities from your favorite science museums, public television stations, universities, and other educational organizations. All activities are available to anyone, free of charge. Users can filter activities by age, material costs, and learning time to find exactly what they need for their educational program, class, or family.
Exploring the solar system – Students can explore the solar system with the new DIY solar system app. They can explore the solar system from anywhere, anytime. This new app, created by Howtosmile is now available on the App Store and Google Play, in both English and Spanish.
STEM projects categorized by topics – you can find STEM projects categorized by different topics. Each topic page includes national standards, big idea lists, popular media content, and concept maps. Topics pages also include a set of hands-on activities to use with students. The list of topics include: Energy, Climate, Life Sciences, Ocean Literacy, Astronomy, Cooking, PBS Shows, Health and the Human Body, and At Home Activities. For example, if you pick the Life Science topic, you can connect your students with a wide range of concepts from life cycles to ecosystems to genetics to evolution, while providing detailed ideas appropriate for learners of different ages.
The At Home Activities Collection – These activities showcase the best hands-on STEAM projects for learners at home. Whether you are looking for something fun and educational to do with your learners over the weekend or you’re looking for accessible activities for your online camp to try at home, these activities will be sure to meet your needs and leave your learners wanting more. These at home activities include large lists of projects broken down into the following categories: Build something new, Pump up your creativity, Play with your food, Explore our planet, Have a messy day, It does compute, Our amazing bodies, and mind boggling mysteries.
Vaccine confidence resources – to make young children become more comfortable with the idea of COVID-19 vaccination, Lawrence Hall of Science developed a series of new activities, in which learners review and sort COVID-19 and vaccine science information and need to decide whether each piece of information makes them more or less confident that the COVID-19 vaccine will help, or whether it raises more questions. Learners can empathize with different fictional characters and decide how those characters might feel. The materials include support to help educators productively engage learners with a wide range of perspectives on vaccination.
Museums offering at-home activities – the Howtosmile team has curated a list of science center, planetarium, aquarium, and children’s museum websites offering at-home activities and related learning resources.
PBL STEAM Activities for High Schoolers
High school students are overwhelmed by endless tests and stress. Yet, many of them feel that school is irrelevant to real life. Project-based learning shifts high school student’s attention back to the pleasures of learning. Dream big and set high expectations. You’ll be surprised by the ways that the right project can captivate even the most disconnected learners.
Design Your Own Project
Effective learning engages students, encouraging them to set their own goals and timeline. Rather than assigning a project, ask students to come up with their own. Set specific guidelines, then solicit input. For instance, you might ask students to devise a four-week experiment or develop a STEM-based solution to a daily problem.
One popular project helps students bring crime scene investigation shows into the real world. Try The Cooler and Delivery Truck Evidence.
Video Game Physics
The physics laws of video games are often quite different from those in the real world. Ask students to figure out the basic laws their favorite video games follow using simple physics formulas. One popular program uses Angry Birds to better understand physics.
Zombie Survival
Teens love a good apocalyptic moment. Help them think more deeply about their favorite zombie movies by contemplating real survival issues. This simple driving survival puzzle deeply engages students in math, science, and everyday problem-solving.
Investigate a Real-World Problem
Your students may be the ones to solve some of math and science’s biggest challenges. Ask them to look deeply into a contemporary issue, such as cleaning up an oil spill or understanding climate change. A resource to get started includes:
Your imagination is the only thing limiting your options for PBL. The goal of this education style is to spark students’ love of learning, not forcing them to memorize a list of facts. Be creative. Ask students what they want to learn. Follow your intuition, and ignore approaches that don’t appeal to you or your students. By finding ways to make STEM relevant and interesting, you may spark a new passion—and perhaps even help your students chart a course to a fulfilling career.
Nature-based lessons by the Nature Conservancy organization – this organization provides lessons that cover urban runoff, biomimicry, climate change and more! Each lesson plan comes with a free teacher’s guide and video. Here are some of the projects that they provide:
Gray, Green, Blue: Water Security and YOU! – In this project, students are exploring how to make sure that there’s enough reliable, clean water for the health and livelihoods of people and natural environments. Students learn how nature can play a role in ensuring water security and what they can do to help.
Recording the Rainforest -In this project, students explore how to use science and acoustic technology to care for the land and protect the plants and animals in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions.
Coastline Erosion Protection – In this project, students use an online tool to find historic tide data in a selected coastal location and compare the use of strong (but expensive) construction materials with the less robust (but cheaper) oyster reefs in protecting coastlines.
Science Bodies high school science projects – these projects are the perfect way for high school students to have fun exploring science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The projects are written and tested by scientists. Here are a few projects that they provide:
Can Nanotechnology Help Clean Up Ocean Oil Spills? Try It Yourself with Ferrofluid – how can you succeed in separating oil from water? Cleaning up oil spills in oceans and seas is very difficult. Scientists have developed a new technique that combines nanotechnology and magnetism. In this science project, students will test the proposed technique themselves.
Chemistry of Ice-Cream Making: Lowering the Freezing Point of Water – How does adding salt or sugar affect the freezing point of water? Find out with this ice-cold science project and use your results to make your own delicious ice cream!
Build a Miniature Self-Driving Car – How do self-driving cars stay on the road? How do vehicles with autonomous or driver-assist features automatically brake, steer around obstacles, or perform tasks like adaptive cruise control? Experiment with these behaviors and more in this science project as you build and program your own autonomous Arduino robot.
Build a Color-Detecting Rover – The Mars Curiosity and Perseverance rovers use scientific instruments, nicknamed ChemCam and SuperCam respectively, to help them analyze the composition of rocks and soil on Mars. In this project, you will build your own model Mars rover with a sensor that can detect and react to different colors? Different colors can represent different types of rocks.
Now You’re Cooking! Building a Simple Solar Oven – In this project, you will be using direct solar power, gathering the sun’s rays for heating/sterilizing water or cooking. It is a low-cost technology that seems to have everything going for it. Does it work? Can you find ways to improve it?
Create a Facial Recognition System with Machine Learning – In this project, you will explore how to create and modify a facial recognition model using a type of artificial intelligence known as neural networks. This project is designed for beginners and requires little to no coding experience.
Discover Engineering – DiscoverE works to provide every student with a STEM experience and the resources, programs, and connections to improve the understanding of engineering through a united voice and a global distribution network. Here are a few of the projects they are offering:
Building the road to clean water – in this project, students will first research the global water crisis and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of every person on the planet having clean water and sanitation by 2030. Then, using design thinking, they will tackle the problem to develop technological innovations that could positively help those affected. At the end of the lesson, students will consider how they can inspire their own community to learn more about the problem, empathize with those in need, and perform an action that contributes to positive change. They will create a brief plan that details how they could influence this change and take action in their own community.
Soilless Farming – in this project, students will research the global effects of traditional agricultural practices. Considering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, students will determine how many goals could be advanced through sustainable agriculture. They will then research solutions to this global problem as they learn about close-looped and soilless (hydroponic) farming. They will ultimately design a sustainable agriculture solution that illustrates how their family or community could implement hydroponic farming on a smaller scale.
Assembly Line – In this project, students work as a team of engineers to help a local toy company implement time savings methods to manufacture “color bricks.” Each member of the team will design and construct their own brick as quickly as possible. Then, the team will work together to design an assembly line to manufacture bricks as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Finally, here is another great source for Simple STEAM activities to do with household items. I hope that these project resources will provide you with plenty of opportunities to engage in meaningful project-based learning. Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Ready to harness the power of PBL in your school?
