STEM Challenge: Calm Down, Sulk!
Hook, Challenge, and Constraints
Hook
The Amazing Brainiac has a new roommate, the Incorrigible Sulk. She’s a superhero with super strength as well as a great friend, but she gets upset easily and whenever that happens, she tends to destroy everything! When she went to the ice cream shop to get some mint chocolate chip and they were all out, she turned green and started throwing chairs, tables, and even people.
Challenge and Constraint
Brainiac has asked us to design a room for the Incorrigible Sulk that is not only strong enough to hold her but can also help her calm down and balance on top of Brainiac’s mountaintop hideout.
Materials
You may also provide these optional materials: cereal boxes, toilet paper rolls, Dixie cups, and aluminum foil.
Logistics
- Materials: Students can use no more than five of any one material per creation! For example, a student can use five straws and five pieces of paper, but not ten straws. If you provide aluminum foil, no more than one arm’s length piece for each student!
- Groups: Students can work with a partner or on their own. No groups of three!
- Time to Build: 45 minutes
