Spring is in the air and young engineers are blooming! Try these nature-loving ways to keep your little learners entertained over spring break.
1. Building for Birdie
Help our feathered friends create the nest of their dreams in this activity, perfect for ages 5 and up. Take note with your little ones as you observe birds in your neighborhood — or just wing it! Does your rockin’ robin need lots of space for parties or does paradise parakeet need some eggcellent protection from hurricane winds? This is one of our activities for young learners, brought to you by Stanford Children’s Health.
2. Make your own Air Bee ‘n Bee 🐝
What goes hand in hand with spring blooms? Pollinators! Bees, butterflies, and lady bugs are coming out of winter dormancy or migrating, and will soon be hard at work going from flower to flower. Design their perfect resting area in this brand new Pollinator Pit Stop activity, where you take into account the unique preferences and needs of different species.
3. April showers bring... awareness to water conservation
If you live in the Northern hemisphere, you might be expecting drizzly days during spring. On days with heavier rainfall, trash can easily wash into storm drains and enter our natural waterways, polluting the environment. Be proactive with our Building a Storm Drain activity and design a storm drain cover that can keep trash out while letting water pass through.
Grades 4-7 educators, discuss the California drought with your class and talk about water conservation in our Catch It If You Can lesson plan, in which students are asked to design a rooftop water catchment system.
4. Sounds of Spring
Babbling brooks, tweeting birds, light rainfall, buzzing bees. What are your sounds of spring? Record them and see if you can identify the sound waves in this fun listening-version of Match It. All you’ll need is a smartphone and the Arduino Science Journal application.
5. Caution! Wildlife Crossing
Help the chicken (or mountain lion or deer) cross the road in this fun design challenge. Build a structure that could help wildlife get across a busy highway so they won’t get hurt finding food or getting home during their spring migration. It’s a problem real engineers are solving by creating wildlife corridors.
Love these ideas? Come visit The Tech Interactive for more hands-on learning including our new exhibit Solve for Earth Build, empowering you to fight climate change.