Fun with Forces in STEM!
While learning about the forces of push and pull this week in STEM, the fourth and fifth graders had so much fun creating standing structures with index cards. There first task was to make the index stand up on its own without bending or folding the card. Hard right? Surprisingly there were a few students who managed to it! After a lot of trial and error, their next task was to create a standing structure with everyone's cards at their table. Pretty much everyone was able to do that, most tables had three cards and a few had four. So, to take it up a notch just for fun, they were tasked with having every student add their index card to one big structure until it fell down. Through these fun activities, students learned that in order for objects to stay standing they need to have equal forces on all sides of them. As they added more index cards together for a bigger structure they had to take into consideration where the most force was already and where it was lacking. If they tried to put it where it was lacking it was more likely to fall over. They had so much fun!