Halloween STEM Cards for Centers, Parties, or Fun

I’ve spoken about task cards before, but today I’m expanding even further to include more than questions or reading. These are task cards with action.

Halloween STEM cards a great way to use STEM challenges with your kids.

Do you have a party planned, learning centers, need something fun and educational to do with the kids? These are easy to set up and are great for group work or one on one.

If you haven’t used engineering challenges before you might want to spend a few minutes deciding if stem challenges are for you.

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Using these Halloween STEM Cards

Let me walk you through a set up for these cards.

Each task card comes with a few ideas/instructions for set up. For this card:

Using actual mini-pumpkins or a Styrofoam version or a wadded up piece of tissue paper. Kids will create a catapult to launch the pumpkin. The group/kid whose catapult launches the pumpkin the furthest horizontal distance wins. Possible materials: spoons, popsicle sticks, clothes pins, rubber bands, soda cans, rulers, tape.

Adaptable Halloween Ideas

These can be as complex or simple as you want them to be. This project could go from elementary all the way into high school physics. Students can work in groups or individuals.

Our Halloween Catapults

We have built many catapults over the years. This one is one of our favorites.

Supplies:

Clothespin with Spring
Craft Stick
A piece of Wood or Other Object to Attach the Catapult to (a cart made of building blocks is a nice edition)
Spoon or Plastic Lid
Something to launch that resembles a pumpkin
Rubber Bands
Hot Glue or Other Adhesive

Procedure:

Add a craft stick to one side of the clothespin.
Use adhesive and rubber band to hold in place
Add Spoon or Plastic Lid to the craft stick (facing up) use a rubber band and/or adhesive to attach.
Attach a clothespin to base using rubber band or adhesive.
If using a rubber band, pinch clothespin to open slightly and only attach the bottom section of the clothespin. The pin needs to open to work correctly.
Add material to launch to spoon or top.
Push on the spoon or top to retract the object (opens the clothespin)
Let go! The object should launch.
Alternative Launching: Insert a pencil at the mouth of the clothespin and remove for launching.

What is happening?

The object is launched upwards but experiences both vertical and horizontal movement. This is because of lots of things including gravity. The object that is launched will move in a curved pattern. Play with the angle of the launch, the height of the base, and length of the top of the catapult to see how far you can get your object to move.