Try engaging campers in some friendly competition this summer with a STEM challenge! Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities are not only fun, but educational — and they are ideal for camps because they can be used with children of any age.

STEM activities work best when you use the following format:

1. Begin with a short brainstorming session. Let campers talk about the challenge, sketch out a plan, and conduct research (when appropriate).
2. Give campers time to complete the challenge. Be sure all campers are given the opportunity to use all of the same materials in the same amounts. But you don’t have to require them to use everything if they don’t want to. Give campers a set amount of time, monitor their progress, and adjust time as needed.
3. Have campers test their designs. It’s fun to give campers a chance to share their designs with the group before testing and comparing their performance. This is where the math part of the STEM challenge comes in. Campers should look for the best design based on a measurement criterion, such as which goes the furthest, is the tallest, or holds the most.
4. If time permits, allow students a chance to revisit and improve their designs to retest them. This is where the science and engineering parts of STEM really take over! Students utilize engineering and science skills as they decide how to make changes to their designs that can help them more effectively meet the challenge metric.

Here are some simple STEM challenges to try out.

Paper Airplanes

Materials: paper, paper clips, tape

Hold a paper airplane design challenge. Challenge the group to see who can design an airplane that can fly the furthest.

Try again! This time make a landing area and see which group or camper can design an airplane that can land in the target.

Try one more time. Challenge the group to see whose airplane can carry the most cargo to the target.

Moving Water

Materials: bucket of water, empty bucket, one fourth of a dish sponge, cup with a hole, string

Challenge campers to see who can get the most water from the full bucket into the empty bucket without picking it up. This activity has no time limit.

Have campers compare strategies and give them a chance to try again. Can they move more water the second time?

Spaghetti Tower

Materials: spaghetti, marshmallows

Challenge campers to see who can make the tallest spaghetti tower. The tower must be freestanding. Decide ahead of time how many marshmallows and pieces of spaghetti you will give each team.

These STEM activities are so fun that campers won’t even know they’re learning. Try including some of these activities in your camp programming this summer or any time of year.

Amy Middleton has 25 years of experience as a teacher and camp director and knows how to make every moment count with campers. Her book, 50+ Nifty Ways to Keep Little Hands Busy, available through the ACA Bookstore, shares quality activities that provide simple, hands-on fun for kids.