Between Lego and STEM projects, I am not sure which would win out in our house? Why? Because my oldest is obsessed with Lego. Since he was a toddler, he has loved tinkering and building with Lego. It’s a language we can share to connect and grow together. Plus, Lego are just fun. While LEGO lends itself to STEM projects pretty easily, we always seem to find ourselves gravitating towards engineering projects involving LEGO, like this fun and simple LEGO STEM project for kids to design the best LEGO boat.
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When I was in the classroom, I gravitated towards STEM projects before they were even a thing. I loved the projects because they encouraged even the quirkiest kids to step outside their box and problem solve. I loved seeing how kids that typically struggled in reading or other subjects suddenly have magical “wins” that made them smile from ear to ear.
One of our favorite STEM projects was making foil boats that had to hold pennies without sinking. So when my kids wanted to make boats with LEGO I was excited to try this classic project with them.
All this week, I am taking part in the annual Lego Week, that is hosted by my friend at Toddler Approved. It is super fun, because each year a bunch of us get together to share how we play, create and learn with Lego, giving you tons of ideas to try with your kids! It comes at the perfect time too, because I have some pretty big news I can’t wait to share with you!
Design a LEGO Boat | Simple STEM Project for Kids
What you need for your Lego Boat Challenge:
A Big Box of Assorted Lego
A shallow dish, water table, or container
Water
Pennies
Pencil/Paper (optional)
How to Make LEGO Boats for your STEM Challenge
The best part about STEM challenges is that you get to test, problem solve and use trial and error. There are no set instructions to follow and creativity is challenged. To make a LEGO boat, you will need to create a flat surface and sides to your boat. How big, how wide or how deep of a boat you make is completely part of the fun.
While my middle son stuck with a traditional rectangle boat, my oldest got a little fancier with his in an attempt to make it more aerodynamic. The choice is yours.
When you are making (or having your child) a boat, you want to make sure that water can’t leak into the base of the boat and that you have enough room to put pennies inside the boat.
Once you have built a few boats to your liking you are ready to test!
Testing Your Lego Boats | Which Boat is the Best?
How do you determine which boat is the best?
For the purpose of this STEM challenge, we are testing how many pennies your boat can hold before sinking.
However, you might want to set up another challenge….
* Which boat floats the longest?
* Which boat flows down a river the fastest?
* Which boat holds the most minifigures?
The possibilities are endless!
What kind of boat do you think you would make? Long? Skinny? Wide? Flat? or Fancy?
For more Lego STEM Challenges, you will love our book, The Unofficial Guide to Learning with LEGO® brings you tons of awesome, LEGO®-based ideas to work on every aspect of education and development. Starting with the basics like learning colors and counting, all the way up to engineering and other STEM topics – we cover it all.
Lego Science Learning Ideas
Lego Science: An Ice Excavation Experiment
Lego Displacement Experiment
Super Simple Lego Seed Starters
Lego Shadow Towers | Simple Summer Science
Lego STEM Building Challenges
Magically Endless LEGO Fidget Cube
DIY LEGO Fidget Cube (with endless possibilities)
LEGO Summer Bucket List Challenges
As I mentioned before, this is part of a week long celebration of all things LEGO over at Toddler Approved. She and a group of us bloggers will be sharing LEGO ideas on our blogs and Facebook Pages all week long!
NEED SOME MORE LEGO BRICK CHALLENGES? TRY
Building a LEGO drawing machine with Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls
Ocean Themed LEGO Counting Sheets from JDaniel’s Mom
LEGO Mini Figure Knock Down Game with Toddler Approved
Fidget Spinner Lego Challenge from Educator’s Spin on It
Duplo Lego Wash Sensory Bin from Mama.Papa. Bubba
I will be sharing, pinning and collecting all the great posts from the week. You can follow along by following my LEGO LEARNING board on Pinterest.
Do you have a favorite LEGO activity? What are your favorite simple summer fun ideas? I would love to hear! Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram or subscribe by email. I can’t wait to hear your ideas.