STEM Challenge...Can you build a free-standing tower from all of the noodle pieces?

My kids love STEM challenges!  I have created a whole collection of them to use in my classroom.  They are a great way for kids to communicate, collaborate, and challenge themselves to solve problems in creative ways!

As the STEM Coordinator for my building, I am assembling STEM challenge kits for the teachers in my school to use with their students.  These kits will include lab sheets as well as any materials needed to complete the challenge.  This one is pretty easy to set-up and pretty cheap (which is always a great thing)!  For a classroom kit for this Noodle Challenge, I spent about $8!  Most of the cost was for the pool noodles (which should last a good, long time)!

Engineering Challenge:

Can you construct a tower on the bridge using all of the cut pieces of the pool noodle?

Here are some of our solutions...

Isn't it amazing how many different ways the kids solved the challenge?  Many of the teams were able to come up with multiple solutions!

Here is the link to the Stem Challenge Packet! Stay tuned for more...