Last year my students finished their end of unit presentations two days before winter break. Rather then start a new unit, I wanted to give them an engineering challenge that reinforced circuits, a concept that we were having difficulty with in class fully understanding. Looking through ideas online and given that it was the holiday season, I quickly decided on presenting them with a challenge where they had to build a gingerbread house and wire it with LED lights. With that, I was off to the $1 store to stock up on supplies. |
In addition to the graham crackers and candy I purchased, students had access to copper tape, metallic thread, LED diodes, and coin cell batteries. We broke with tradition and used hot glue to assemble our houses instead of frosting.
The project was a two day challenge with two different difficulty levels. The base challenge was to build a one floor structure with at least three lights. For the difficult or "extra spicy" challenge the house had to be two floors and/or have at least 10 lights. Students were able to decided with their group on which level challenge they wanted to attempt, and I was surprised out how many students decided to go for the more difficult challenge.
I was amazed at the level of detail students put in. One group created a dance party using Swedish Fish as people and another group put stairs and bedroom complete with beds in their design.
All-in-all the project was a huge success. Both days I had students coming to my room with passes from their other teachers so they could keep adding on to their houses. It says a lot when students decide to work on a STEM challenge when they could be watching a movie or hanging with their friends on the last day before break. Check out some of the finished products below and assembly photos below.
The project was a two day challenge with two different difficulty levels. The base challenge was to build a one floor structure with at least three lights. For the difficult or "extra spicy" challenge the house had to be two floors and/or have at least 10 lights. Students were able to decided with their group on which level challenge they wanted to attempt, and I was surprised out how many students decided to go for the more difficult challenge.
I was amazed at the level of detail students put in. One group created a dance party using Swedish Fish as people and another group put stairs and bedroom complete with beds in their design.
All-in-all the project was a huge success. Both days I had students coming to my room with passes from their other teachers so they could keep adding on to their houses. It says a lot when students decide to work on a STEM challenge when they could be watching a movie or hanging with their friends on the last day before break. Check out some of the finished products below and assembly photos below.