Changing the DIFFICULTY of any STEM Challenge with a FREEBIE!

Have you ever done a STEM challenge in your classroom and it was too easy or too hard for your students?

There are a few quick and easy ways to challenge the difficulty of ANY STEM challenge or activity!

If you want to make a STEM challenge EASIER...

• Increase the amount of time for the challenge.
• Eliminate timed challenges.
• Give students a second chance at the STEM challenge using what they learned from their first experience to guide them.
• Give hints!
• Increase the amount of tape or any other supplies that were limited in the challenge.
• Let students switch teams.
• Turn an individual challenge into a pair or team challenge.
• Give struggling groups a hand.
• Allow groups to attach towers, bridges, or other structures to a table or the floor.

If you want to make a STEM challenge HARDER...

• Decrease the amount of time for the challenge.
• Add a time component to a challenge if it is not already a timed challenge.
• Reduce the amount of materials, like tape, that students get for the challenge.
• Take away supplies like scissors at a certain time during the challenge.  You can make it a known time or a surprise!
• Turn a team challenge into a challenge for individuals or pairs.
• Make student teams move to a new table and begin work on another team's project.  Try moving teams every 10 minutes!  This change makes them crazy!

I believe ANY group of kids can do ANY of the different STEM challenges that are out there.  Adjusting each challenge to meet the needs of their students is up to the classroom teacher.

Finding the perfect balance of frustration and success during a STEM challenge is so important!

Click here to grab a FREE and FUN STEM Challenge to do with your students the first week of school!

Get those kids engineering right away this fall!