Who has the Tallest Tower? A STEM Activity.

For many girls and boys middle school is their first real experience in a science class.  Including STEM activities in middle school science is one way to increase their engagement in science. The acronym STEM is fairly specific in nature— referring to science, technology, engineering and math.  This is the topic that I am researching for my master degree.  We had to complete a Action Research project.  My question was how does incorporating STEM activities into the science class impact the confidence of female students in science?  
Each week I am trying to incorporate more STEM activities for my students to complete.

This is our first attempt at doing a STEM activity and it couldn't be easier. I call it TOWER TUMBLE, you will see what I mean when they start building.   All you need are some plastic cups and students to create the tallest tower.  My classes really stepped up to the challenge.  6th hour surprised me.  Until that hour only one other group had gone above 14 cups.  Once a group in 6th hour achieved 16 cups the other groups got motivated to keep trying.  The group ended up with a tower that was 17 cups tall, they got this after I took the picture of their 16 cup tall tower. Darn!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The winning height was 17 cups high.  Way to go 6th hour.