If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know that I love to create STEM challenges and activities for kids. Since I use these challenges in my classroom, I like to use materials and supplies that I already have on hand. I find these challenges are a great way to use common materials in a whole new way while providing a great hands-on experience for kids. This Easy STEM Challenge for Kids uses only cotton swabs and clothes pins for a fun challenge kids will love.

STEM challenges are a great way to develop problem solving and critical thinking, through a fun and positive activity. There’s very little to no prep required for teachers or adults in order to do this activity. Simply gather the materials, print the task card and you’re ready to go!

STEM activities mix science, technology, engineering and math. This challenge focuses on engineering, but you can easy add other areas of STEM for the ultimate activity. Make sure to grab your free copy of the task card to make explaining easy!

I have done multiple challenges with my students over the years and they get very good at STEM activities. I wanted to find some materials that would provide a greater challenge to build with. These supplies are perfect! If you are just starting out and working with young children, I suggest this cup and stick STEM Challenge that Kids will love; however, if you have experienced builders that embrace some difficulties while building, this challenge is for you.

For more STEM focused ideas and activities check out these top posts from Hands-On Teaching Ideas: 45+ STEM Challenge Ideas for Kids and 60 Best STEM Activities for Kids

Easy STEM Challenge for Kids with Free Task Card

One of the great things about STEM challenges is that you don’t need any expensive materials or hours of prep. For this STEM challenge, all you need are cotton swabs and clothes pins. Collect as many as you can, but a handful of cotton swabs and a few handfuls of clothes pins should be enough. Gather your materials, print the task card and you’re ready!

The task card is included in color and black and white. The color copy is great to print, or laminate and set up as a center in your classroom or project on your board for children to reference. The black and white card is perfect to give to kids who can then color it after building. Choose whichever is best for you. The printables are available at the bottom of this page.

For more task cards, make sure to visit, 33 STEM Task Cards where you can find all of the most popular building challenges and grab the card for each task.

Setting Up Your STEM Challenge

Once you have given each child, or group their collection of supplies, let them know their challenge: “Use the materials to build a structure. How tall can you make it?” The challenge is simple. Using only the two supplies given make a tower or structure of some kind.

It seems simple, but this challenge is more challenging than others. The cotton swabs are not fully stable and can bend and wobble. This can actually be a great feature of the cotton swabs and can be used to help build, but if you think this may be frustrating for your group, start with an animal home STEM using similar materials. Once your kids have the materials and understand the challenge, they can start building. Avoid giving too many directions and let kids build and come up with their own solutions.

STEM Activity for Kids Solutions

One of the great things about STEM challenges, is that there is more than one possible solution. Each of your kids, or groups may come up with their own solution and no two may be the same. This is a great opportunity for everyone to share and see different solutions and ideas.

Below I am showing you some examples of what my kids came up with. They often used the materials in different ways. Some groups decided to rely only on the clothes pins and didn’t use cotton swabs at all. That’s okay! As long as they are focusing on the materials at hand, and not adding others, they’re successful in the challenge.

As children, build encourage them to talk about what their strategies are and have them look around as others build for ideas and inspiration.

STEM Challenge for Kids

As children build, remind them that their structure falling down is all part of the challenge. Their building will fall several times. That’s part of the challenge. As it falls down, challenge them to figure out why it fell and what parts of it stayed standing. Using this information they can then rebuild and make it even better and stronger.

Once groups have created some structure with the materials, you can add some math to the activity by measuring how tall each structure is. You can even place a small weight or item on top of each structure to check the strength.

The more of each of the materials you can supply each group, the better. Generally the more supplies each child or group has to work with, the better and more detailed their creations become. However, if you want to add an extra level to this challenge, you can limit the materials, such as 25 clothes pins and 25 cotton swabs to each child. This can help control the amount of supplies you need, add in some math and challenge children to be mindful with every piece they use.

Over the years I have started to create STEM kits for my students. Over breaks, such as summer, you can easily create a STEM kit where each child receives a small sealable bag with the task card, cotton swabs and clothes pins. Children can then open and build virtually anywhere. They’re a great option for screen-free fun when travelling or visiting friends.

Download the Free Task Card

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Grab your free copy of the task card for the easy STEM challenge for kids featured above. Click the box below and subscribe to Hands-On Teaching Ideas through Grow. Once you have subscribed the file with the printables will download right away. After subscribing you will also receive an email with a link to the Free Resource Library. The library is filled with over 150 free resources for you to use.

You’ll find everything from math and language printables to escape room games and more STEM resources. Best of all, they’re all free! You’ll also receive emails with the latest products, promotions and activity ideas.