Pioneer STEM Activities Set of 5 Challenges
$9.50
A new life on the wild frontier is full of danger and unforeseen obstacles. This set of pioneer STEM challenges includes 5 full-planned activities that students complete to survive in this new and strange land.
➡️ View on TpT: The Great Pioneer Town STEM Challenge
Pioneer STEM Activities
This is a set of 5 STEM challenges centered around the story of a pioneer family. After hearing about their travels west during the Land Rush of 1889, students will read about different parts of the journey. Each one will challenge them to design something to help the family build their new life.
Includes 5 different STEM projects:
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Thirsty Travelers: Design A Water Filter
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Home Sweet Home: Construct A Cabin
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Whose Territory?: Build A Tower
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Bath Time: Solar Water Heater
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Digging A Well: Design A Rock Mover
These STEM challenges use common materials that you probably already have in your classroom (see preview for suggested list). They incorporate concepts of linear measurement, area, force and motion, energy, simple machines, data, and scientific process.
Each challenge in this pack includes:
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teacher instructions
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student challenge sheet
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planning and design pages
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scoring rubric
There is also a set of team member role cards, design process cards, a master score sheet to find out which group is the most successful at helping the explorers, and associated NGSS standards.
This file includes both metric and standard/imperial versions.
PLEASE NOTE: One part of the storyline in this pack includes the term “Indians”. The story is meant to appear as something written during pioneer times by a child whose family was traveling through unfamiliar territory. The term “Native Americans” was not used at that time (nor was “First Nations” which is not a term generally used in the U.S. even today). This was not written with any racist ideas or intentions. I do not refer to our Native peoples as “Indians” nor do I think we should teach our students to. However, this provides an opportunity for discussion about our nation’s past and our treatment of native tribes allowing you to integrate social studies into this project.
The challenges in this pack are highly engaging because students are involved in solving a real-life problem.
What other teachers say about these pioneer stem activities:
✪ “I am using these for a STEM camp that we are having at our school this summer. I love that they have a theme and a story for the students to relate to. It makes it more meaningful for them. Great projects and very detailed supply list. Wonderful resource!” – Teresa
✪ “I used The Great Deserted Island STEM Challenge and absolutely loved it!! I had to purchase the other two sets right away. My students are engaged, working together, and love the outcomes. Thanks for your hard work!” – Nicole
Additional information
| Grade Level | 4th, 6th |
|---|---|
| Pages | 79 |
| Resource Type | Activity |
| File Type |
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Open in new tab FAQ
How long does each challenge take to complete?
This somewhat depends on the age of your students. I have found that the older students spend more time brainstorming and really planning their designs. They are also more careful when building and testing. Each challenge includes reading part of the storyline. This may take 5 minutes or 15, depending on if your students engage in conversation about it. Then students will need to brainstorm, plan, and collect their materials. The actual building and testing portion of the challenges usually takes about an hour. If you want your students to go back and make improvements to their designs, that will add more time. Overall, I would plan on using two class periods to complete each challenge from start to finish.
Why don’t you list specific quantities for each material?
It is important to remember that STEM is a process that requires brainstorming, hypothesizing, planning, designing, and testing. If you tell students how much to use of certain items, they will use exactly that much. This completely defeats the purpose of STEM and turns it into doing a craft. We want students to think about what would work best to meet their goal. When you tell them exactly what to use and how much, you’re doing the thinking for them. You can certainly limit how much students can take of each material. The challenges are very flexible. They include a list of suggested materials and note which ones are actually required. You can eliminate, limit, or add any other materials you like.
2 reviews for Pioneer STEM Activities Set of 5 Challenges
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Meghan Anderson –
Thank you for a great resource! I used it for a stem camp I taught this week. It was a great theme and the kids liked the activities. Thanks!
Angela M. –
I am using this for a gifted and talented class. The students have loved the challenges. They have been competing in teams for each challenge and are about to complete the final raft challenge. Great resource that includes everything you need.