STEM Challenge: Magical Tree of Emotions
Context for Challenge
Students will step into the role of imaginative engineers and emotional explorers to build their very own Magical Tree of Emotions! This challenge encourages students to express feelings through design while practicing engineering and creative thinking.
Their mission? To create a 3D tree that can stand on its own—a tree that represents different emotions through its parts, colors, or materials.
Materials
Set Up
- Prepare Materials: Ensure you have all the necessary materials ready beforehand and organize them so that they are easily accessible to students. Students should use no more than three 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!
- Provide Guidelines and Constraints: Reiterate the challenge to students, as needed. Building time is 45 minutes!
- Model the Design Process: Before students begin, demonstrate the design process by going through the steps yourself. Discuss how to brainstorm ideas, create prototypes, test them, and make iterations based on the results, as needed.
- Encourage Collaboration: Foster a collaborative environment where students can work together in pairs. Encourage them to share ideas, help each other troubleshoot challenges, and provide constructive feedback throughout the process. But no groups of three!
- Support Adaptation: Encourage students to embrace the mindset of adaptation and problem-solving. Help them see that setbacks and failures are opportunities to learn and make improvements. Guide them in identifying areas for adaptation and brainstorming alternative solutions.
- Facilitate Reflection: Set aside time for students to reflect on their design process and decision-making. Ask questions that prompt them to think critically about their choices, challenges they faced, and what they learned from the experience. Students can reflect individually, in pairs, or as a whole-class discussion.
- Celebrate and Showcase: Celebrate students’ efforts and showcase their work.
CASEL Discussion Questions
Five questions aligned to Social Awareness and Relationship Skills
- If someone else built a tree showing different emotions, how could you tell what they were feeling? What clues would you look for in the colors, shapes, or materials they used?
- Why is it important to recognize and understand other people’s emotions? How can that help us be better friends, teammates, or classmates?
- If you could build a tree for someone else based on how they might feel, how would it look different from your own? What would you change and why?
- How can sharing our trees with each other help us connect or feel closer? Did you notice anything about someone else’s tree that helped you understand them better?
- How can we use creative projects like this one to support each other when someone is feeling sad, angry, or excited? What can we do to show empathy or offer kindness through art and teamwork?
