Mayflower STEM - Thanksgiving STEM

Thanksgiving STEM - Mayflower STEM Challenge - This boat building STEM challenge meets several NGSS standards and encourages critical thinking, budgeting, and engineering skills and is a perfect Thanksgiving activity. Oh no! The Pilgrims need a boat to travel to the New World. The Pilgrims have a limited budget so the students must use the available supplies to build a ship for the 102 passengers. The strength of the ship will be test by adding 102 pennies (passengers) to see if the Mayflower will float. This STEM will get your students using their critical thinking skills to solve this challenge! Students must stick to a budget and use the available supplies.

Suggested Plan of Implementation:

Prior Week: Send home the parent letter requesting supplies. Gather needed materials.
Day One – Introduce the Problem and the STEM Challenge.
Day Two – Introduce and discuss the budget options. Use the planning page to illustrate or write out the building idea.
Day Three – “Purchase” supplies for the build. Work on budget. Begin the building process.
Day Four – Work on and complete the structure.
Day Five – Complete the Self-Evaluation Page

This is certainly not the only way to use these materials. They are designed to be flexible and be used to best suit each classroom and teacher based on the ability of the learner, time constraints and teacher preference.

Please check out the preview to get a glimpse of everything that is included.

You will get:

"The Problem" slide to discuss the problem with the students.

"The Challenge" slide to discuss with students

"Let's Talk About It - The Mayflower" Slide

NGSS standards

Plan for Implementation

Supply List

Parent Letter requesting supplies

Student Building Plan (2 versions)

STEM Challenge Journal Page (or stand alone printable)

The Mayflower Coloring Page

Budget Page

Budget Spending Page (2 versions for differentiation)

Self-Evaluation

"Check it Out Walk" page - recording sheet to look at other students' work

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STEM Mega Bundle - A Growing Bundle for the Year

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