STEM Starters
What is a total eclipse?
How do you approach the problem?
How would you determine the
thickness of the ice on
a frozen lake using only a ruler?
How could some places get colder, while most have gotten hotter?
What is a leap year?
How do trees grow so tall & hold up their limbs?
Architecture is classified as a STEM career. Can you explain why?
Read the list, and note activities you’ve done.
Explain this school humor
Draw some, as you think about how they form.
Think about snow. List five questions you have about it.
Which of these are STEM careers? STEAM careers? Neither? Explain your answers.
Why is the area around this piece of rock salt clean when there is still snow on the driveway?
Note increasing magnification
where have you seen them? Explain how they work.
What are the “things” and what evidence do you have?
Can you determine which sign is truthful and which tent your sleeping bag is in?
Where was this picture of the eagle NOT taken? Use clues to determine where this picture would not likely have been taken.
Find the slope of the bridge. Remember, it reaches its highest point halfway across.
Image credit: littlethings.com
Search-Find-Locate-Discover-Observe-Notice-Detect-Hunt-Explore-Spot-Uncover as many of these Eye Spy items in the time allotted.
Look closely at the 3 photos and compose a story that relates your hypothesis of what’s occurring in photos 2 & 3.
Hobbies are fun, educational, and constructive, you can meet new friends, and more! Do you have any?
Pick at least one image that is striking to you.
What did you pick? Why?
Look at these photos. Compose 10 questions about acorns.
If you had a robot at you house, list 2 chores you’d like to program it to do. Think of a challenge you would encounter for programming each chore.
What question could you ask to determine whether you are chatting with a bot or with a human being?
Make a sketch for a piece of playground equipment, and share your idea.
Maple seeds fall from their mother tree in sort of a whirlybird motion. Why is that a good adaptation for species survival?
Have you ever used a 3D printer?
Match the “naked number” with a sensible unit.
This lit candle with nails is an ancient alarm clock.
What is your hypothesis as to how it works?
List at least 5 ways that you personally can save water.
Why are trees important in life and our environment?
Which of these items can be recycled in your recycling bin?
Why do you think beavers have rust-orange colored teeth?
Can you find it in this pyramid in Egypt?
A decision Sharon came to regret.
Can you explain this cartoon?
Choose a simple item you use often. How would you improve upon its design?
What do these have in common?
Note the two ping pong balls. What do you notice about them?
How do you think these trees grew these ways?
Using 5-7 items around you, sketch a design for an invention.
Explain how this works. Are there any pieces of the table that are not necessary?
Put these in a logical order using clues from the context of the sentences.
Can you think of ways technology imitates animals?
If I have read up to the bookmark, do I need to take another book, or is there enough left of this one for the trip?
Let your creative juice run and make up a story behind it.
If the likelihood of having a girl is 50%, after many years, what’s the expected ratio of girls to boys in Trafalgeron?
We think of spider webs as food traps. Do you think there are other purposes for these webs?
Describe your day if you lived in a world without gravity.
Match the animal with its superpower
How much does it cost? (20 ounces of plain coffee averages about $2.10) How much would that be per gallon?
The U.S. Drought Monitor recently published this graphic showing the drought conditions in the United States.
Record 5 observations as you look at this tree.
Which is quoted in red?
Which is quoted in blue?
There are five ways you can arrange four congruent squares to form a polygon.
Compare these breakfast cereals. Which would you choose as the best for your health?
Sort the figures above into classes and subclasses.
Think of 5 things you know about our nearest star.
Write them down and be
prepared to share.
image credit: NSO/NSF/AURA
Fill in the entries in each sequence.
Use your height and weight to calculate how big the food would be in proportion to you.
Can you put these sounds in order-first to last-of when they appeared?
How fast would you have to move to travel across the Aroostook County model at the speed of light?
Record 5 observations & then take a guess.
What more information would you like to have to identify it?
Tell your own story for each graph.
What are the units on your axes?
What fraction of the teams are eliminated each round?
What’s the most snow we’ve had in one year?
What’s the least snow we’ve had?
More questions click photo
How many black dots do you see in this picture?
What do you need to know in order to find out…
What are these mystery pictures under the microscope?
How many people does it take to clear an invasive species out of an acre of forest preserve over a particular period of time?
Which laboratory equipment would accurately measure 25mL of water?
An inference is a conclusion reached based on evidence and reasoning.
Count the Pine tree’s dark rings to determine the tree’s age.
How do you think this happens?
What are the jobs of the magnets, the battery, and the coil?
Which coupon is more valuable the “fall rolling” or “home, happier”?
Give an example that supports your answer.
How many gloves are being worn on North American hands at this moment?
What are some conditions to consider that may result in a more usable estimate?
Are hand dryers better for the environment than paper towels?
What are some of the questions you would need to answer to make that decision? Write at least 5 questions.
Indiana Jones, a famous treasure hunter was stuck at a cave with 4 doors…
What questions would you ask to solve these problems?
A lamp won’t light.
A shirt doesn’t fit.
A bad grade in Social Studies.
A dog keeps licking its paws.
What is the difference between a squash and a gourd? How do squashes and gourds grow? Did you know that pumpkins are fruits? Why are they classified as such? Are they squashes or gourds?
Can you find the mistake in this training slide?
How would you correct it?
both pictures are of the same thing, different focus point
Give 5 pieces of evidence for your answer.
Hint: the pictures were taken November 16th, 2021
Compare a burning candle on Earth to a candle burning in Space on the International Space Station (ISS).
mage Credit: Science@NASA
Read down the list of relationships on the left and match it with its counterpart on the right to create an analogy. Describe the relationship in words.
How many dollar bills are on this wall?
How are they different than internal combustion vehicles-those that are powered by the burning of gasoline?
Image Credit: https://www.howitworksdaily.com/why-do-birds-flock-together/
The distance from the indicated location (blue dot) to Aurora is 30 miles. By comparing the weather map to the graph, can you tell in which direction the storm is moving?
Does your family garden? What are your favorite fruits and vegetables? And, what does gardening have to do with STEM?
The numbers in each column of the table relate to each other in a certain way. Can you fill in the missing numbers?
Use these pictures to write a short story. It can be fiction, science fiction, or non-fiction.
My Aunt Jo uses 2 3-pound sacks of flour to make 10 pies. How many pies could she bake with 3 5-pound bags?
Have you ever thought about the dashes down the center of a road? How long do you think they are? Without using a ruler or checking on line, how would you check your answer?
“A huge Chinese rocket will fall to earth this weekend!”
This news was reported over and over the first week of May 2021.
What is the likelihood of the rocket debris hitting a populated area?
Image Credit: : BEIJING (AP)
Find the camouflage animal in these nature scenes.
How would you define camouflage? Why is camouflage important?
mage Credit: ati
Which bird is the leader?
How do these starlings behave as one?
Explain your answers.
Which combination gives you a number other than 5?
Answer one of the questions and be prepared to share your finding
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and TSTcl
Fungus are important to ecosystems. Use this photo to explain why.
This photo was taken on the coldest day of 2021!
What are these objects, and explain why you think so.
Give him directions to get him back to where he started.
How did you arrive at that answer?
The Tower’s shape is known as frustums designed by Jeanne Gang.
What is a frustum?
Can you think of a letter that does NOT fit the criteria?
Could you have done it with less work? why or why not?
Explain your idea using evidence from the picture.
For what careers is finding areas an important skill?
Try to list 5 viral diseases that you have been vaccinated against.
Describe what will happen to the soda when the can is opened after being shaken.
If it takes 15 minutes to drive around a city, how long do you estimate that it would take to drive through that city?
Find a picture on the internet that supports your hypothesis.
These are male & female Great Horned Owls.
Write 5 things you know about owls.
One of these is unlike the others.
Which is it and why?
Choose the correct answer to these questions:
89 x 4,231
339 ÷ (2/3)
If you worked for the Suez Canal Port Authority scheduling convoys crossing the canal, what information would you need in order to manage the traffic most efficiently?
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2021, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
To make a portable rectangular cage for your pet lizard to run around outside.
Which dimensions would give the lizard the most freedom?
Some insects can walk on water. How do you think they do it?