Are you looking for some winter STEM activities to keep your students engaged through the long winter season? We’ve rounded up a few that you might like to try!
With the holidays over, the reality of winter hits and it can seem like there’s no end in sight. In some areas winter can last 7 or 8 months of the year! Just longing for it to be over does no good, so why not embrace it? Get your students outside (if you can) and measure the latest snowfall. Or how about taking the temperature, or searching for animal tracks in the snow? If you have a window, set out a bird feeder and enjoy watching the birds come and eat. Look up what kinds you see and keep a chart.
Winter also lends itself well to doing some STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) activities with your kids. Keep reading to get some fun ideas!
Winter STEM: Snow Science
Snow, Ice or Water?
This is a really simple activity that will help your students understand how the volume of water is very different between the three phases of water.
You’ll need 3 matching jars with lids – Mason jars work really well for this. Then you’ll need snow, ice cubes and water. Make sure to use cubes and not crushed or shaved ice … you need air space around them.
Fill a jar with just water and put the lid on it. Talk with your students about why you need a jar with just water (as a control to compare the other jars with) and why you need a lid (to prevent evaporation).
Now fill a jar with ice cubes and put the lid on. Fill the third jar with snow (pack it in as much as you can) and put the lid on.
Put the jars near a heater if possible, but now it’s a waiting game. Ask your students which jar they think will have the most water after it’s all melted.
SPOILER! The jar with the ice cubes will have the most water. That’s because the water molecules in ice are in crystalline form and packed much closer together. So there will actually be more of them than in the snow, which has much more air around it.
Make Snow!
If you happen to live in an area that doesn’t get snow, here’s a quick, simple recipe to make your own. Your students can even make snowmen with it!
You’ll need: 1 cup of corn starch, 1 cup of FOAM shaving cream, 5 or 6 drops of blue food coloring and a large bowl.
Put the corn starch and shaving cream together in the bowl, and add in the food coloring. Use a spoon to start mixing it together.
Once its mixed fairly well, use your hands to mix it further. When you can form it into a dough-like ball, it’s all ready.
Students can build snowmen, icicles, or even make an igloo!
This works because of the science of surface tension. The corn starch floats on top of the shaving cream which is made up of tiny bubbles.
Snowflake Symmetry
This craft activity could easily be inserted into a math unit on symmetry or patterns.
You’ll need: different silver and white craft supplies, such as pompoms or cottonballs, cotton swabs (cut some in half), sequins, silver or white wire ties (like you’d find in a pack of garbage bags), and anything else you can find. You’ll also need some glue.
For a base for your snowflakes, cut out some large squares of black construction paper. To help your students see the symmetry, glue a white hexagon shape in the middle of the black square. Here’s a FREE HEXAGON PATTERN page to download.
Now, let them start creating their snowflake patterns by arranging the craft supplies on the paper around the hexagon and them gluing them down.
More Winter STEM Ideas
Celebrate winter with your students by doing some hands-on winter STEM activities! Do you have another one you’d like to share? We’d love to hear about it!
If you’d like further ideas and want to explore some more, check out this great Pinterest board!
