Gingerbread Boy/Girl Problem | STEM activity

Every year during the holiday time, my class does a Gingerbread Unit, where we read all the different gingerbread stories. We have a story matrix that helps us keep track of the characters, plot, and repeated phrases. Students get to discuss with their partners and class how each story is similar and different to each other. At the end, the students write an opinion piece about which gingerbread story was their favorite story. This year we incorporate this fun STEM activity for students to do in their "engineering team." 

In my class, students are already sitting in groups so creating their "engineering team" was easy. Before starting we talked about Engineers, the Engineering Design Process and what it means to work in a team. Each group member had an assigned job (recorder, materials manager, problem solver, and facilitator). 

Group #1 Boat

Engineering Design Process

1. Ask (What is the problem?): How can the Gingerbread Boy/Girl get across the river without having to go on the fox?

Group #2 Boat

2. Image (Brainstorm ideas): As a class, we discussed ideas and picked the best one. My students agreed that a boat would have worked.

Group #3 Boat

3. Plan (draw a diagram and gather materials): Before starting this part of the process, I introduced the materials to my students. 

Materials:

sheets of foil

feathers

pom poms

tape (length of my arm)

bubble wrap

dixie cups

pipe cleaners

string

popsicle sticks

You are not limited to these materials. These were just items I had around my classroom. 

3. Plan: After introducing the materials to the students, the groups started to draw out their diagram.

Group #4 Boat

4. Create (follow the plan & test it): Students then had time to create their boat and test it out.

Group #5 Boat

 5. Improve (discuss what worked, what didn't work, and ways to improve): This stage happened for some groups during their creating stage. As each group was building their design, I was walking around to each group and talking with them about their design. During our discussions, some groups noticed that they need to change their design a little. For example, they noticed that the foil when kept flat might get water on top, so they decided to fold up the sides.

After each group tested out their design, we had a class discussion about what went well and what didn't. We also discussed about items that were their for structure and function and the items that were just more of an appearance piece to make the boat look good.

Group #6 Boat

All of my students' boats successfully carried the Gingerbread Boy/Girl across the river. 

My students really enjoyed this STEM activity! It was wonderful to see them working together to create their boats.

I have so many ideas for next year to improve this activity. I created this worksheet for next year so my students have a organized place to record their diagram instead of the blank piece of paper I gave them this year. 

Click the picture below to download the worksheet

Lots of Love,

Katie