Combine science, technology, engineering and mathematics and you get STEM, real learning opportunities that are both educational and entertaining. Here are 9 ideas for home STEM projects for children.
STEM education is changing the way we spend time with our children and help them learn skills such as reading https://www.howtodiyeverything.com/2019/09/11/how-to-teach-a-child-to-read-easily/, which arouses their interest in a variety of areas. But you don’t have to live near a children’s museum to give your children the opportunity to familiarize themselves with STEM learning tools.
Home STEM projects for children
There are many STEM activities that parents can do at home with their children. https://www.howtodiyeverything.com/category/parenting-children-kids/
Build a weather station
Learn more about atmospheric science when you build a weather station at home. You can start with a rain meter and slowly build up a complete weather station with barometer, hygrometer and anemometer. From measuring precipitation to relative humidity, help your children keep a diary to track the weather and learn more about the science behind fronts, jet streams, weather forecasts and why the water cycle for our weather is crucial.
Make shaving foam rain clouds
Learn more about the science of weather with a variety of cloud projects, including shaving foam rain clouds. This popular and simple STEM activity. You just need shaving cream, water and food coloring, and it’s so easy, kids can do it themselves. What they learn with this visual experiment is how the rain (food coloring) makes the cloud (shaving cream) heavier and heavier until the rain comes out of the bottom of the cloud.
Serve ice in a bag
Step into the kitchen to learn the science of how ice forms at a freezing point. You probably already have the ingredients for this STEM activity, so you can make ice in a bag. Within an hour minutes, your children can learn about the science of turning a liquid into a solid.
Learn basic computer coding
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that STEM-related jobs will grow to more than nine million between 2012 and 2022. Scratch computer programming is the future for today’s children, whether they’re making careers or not. The good news is that Scratch is free and fun to learn, even for mom and dad who might know nothing about the programming language. MIT has an easy-to-use website that helps teach your kids basic coding. In a few minutes you can create your own code projects, share them with other children, and see other people’s projects.
Create a web site
Building a website with your children is another way to develop their technical skills. Learning the behind-the-scenes coding needed to run a website is an invaluable tool for children in today’s modern world. Children can not only learn the technical aspect of building a website, they can also add a creative element so that they can maintain their own website with a unique web design, blog and website theme.
Plant a garden
Grow memories in the garden with fun garden activities for children of all ages. https://www.howtodiyeverything.com/category/garden/ Bring your whole family outside and plant a garden. Use a diary to create a chart of what you planted when and where. Use the scientific method to make observations, form a hypothesis, experiment, analyze your results, and see if your hypothesis is valid. Gardening is one of many STEM activities that you can customize for children of all ages.
Create ice sculptures with hot ice
For one of the most super cool home STEM projects for children, make hot ice cream from baking powder and vinegar. The children learn about the melting point and observe how the liquid crystallizes. The hot ice even makes it possible to make sculptures of it. After you have made hot ice, try the opposite and learn about freezing points by hypothermia of water.
Build a birdhouse
There is more to building a birdhouse than putting together some walls and a roof. Children can learn many developmental steps by designing a prototype, examining the best materials, and improving their construction plans. After this STEM activity, the children can continue to build a house, a doll’s house. Children can take technique and mathematics to the next level by designing a doll’s house. Now they’re ready to learn about scaling and even add some science and technology by creating more of their own dollhouse miniatures, including work lights and a flickering fire.
Add LEGOs at learning time
LEGOs are one of many great STEM toys. In fact, many schools now include LEGOs in the curriculum to teach children about all aspects of STEM. Students use LEGOs to create environments where they can study science. They learn about technology by programming and building their own robots and computers with LEGOs. They study mechanical engineering by planning, designing and creating structures. They continue to develop their mathematical skills to learn more about parts of a whole and fractions and use mathematics for more demanding projects, such as building pistes and analyzing project data – all with LEGOs. The construction toys have become so popular that LEGO has added a learning section to their site, complete with lesson plans to get families into STEM classes. This makes them perfect for home STEM projects for children.