CaughtUpInSTEM

St. Patrick’s Day STEM Catapult Engineering Design ProjectBring hands-on excitement to your classroom this March with this engaging St. Patrick’s Day Engineering Design Challenge! In this festive STEM activity, students work in teams to design, build, test, and improve a catapult that launches a ping pong ball into the “pot of gold.” This challenge reinforces key physics concepts while encouraging collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. What's Included?Page 1. Design Brief Page 2: Ca

Cup Stacking Algorithms – Intro to Coding ActivityThis is a hands-on, unplugged activity I use to introduce my coding unit. Students practice writing clear, step-by-step directions (algorithms) by guiding a partner to build a cup stack design. How it works: Students work in pairs. One student is the "programmer" and completes the worksheet by writing an algorithm using the provided symbols. The other student is the "robot "and works on a separate independent task while waiting. ( I used a fre