Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

Looking to add an element of spookiness to your STEM lessons? Well, I have the perfect amount of ideas for you. Whether you are looking for something to do with your whole class or a lot of different STEM stations. These 7 ideas are definitely going to add in that spooky factor. When I first started teaching, I taught 2nd grade for 2 years and 3rd grade for 4 years. Once I got my feet underway after teaching 2nd grade, I moved on to 3rd grade in a new school, new district, and I had parents plan and host my classroom parties. Well, after that year, that was something I told myself, never again is that ever happening. They were absolutely out of control. The kids ate way too much food, and who was left to deal with them all day? Me.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:04]:

And it was absolute chaos. So I said from that day on, any party or event, I will get this covered. I know that I can plan this perfectly fine all by myself, and the kids will be calm. And let me tell you, it definitely works and why I would do the controlled chaos, but the kids were definitely productive during my parties and had a great time, and didn't eat too much sugar. This really went on in my K through 5 STEM role where really it's like throwing a birthday party all day at least 6 different times. So whether you're hoping to add an element of STEM into a Halloween or spooky fall party, these ideas would be perfect for that, but also a great addition to your Halloween STEM bundle, which you can grab in my TPT shop Naomi Meredith, and if they're not in there yet at the time of this recording, definitely grabbed the bundle now while it's at its cheapest because whenever I add anything new, the price goes up and you always get those updates for free if you already have the bundle, so jump in on that as soon as possible. If you're looking for the link, that will be linked for you in the show notes. The 1st spooky STEM activity is a witch's hand.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:28]:

Don't worry, it's something that you will make on your own, and using cardstock, straws, plastic or paper, whatever you have, and yarn, students will actually create a hand that will open and close, and you can even have it try to pick up different things like candy corn. This activity does take some time and patience. So, if you are going to do this with younger students if you have older helpers or buddies helping out. That is a great option because it does take some time really tracing the hand, adding in those spooky elements, and then cutting the straws and placing them where the joints would be so that the hand can open and close efficiently. But once you get it, it's actually really, really cool, and it does help students understand how hands basically work with your muscles and with the joints. So pretty cool to see that inside view of a hand by adding in that spooky element. The 2nd spooky STEM activity is creating monster mouths. I tried this for the 1st time a few years ago when I hosted a Lego after-school club, and this is actually probably when I was first getting started with clubs.

Naomi Meredith [00:03:50]:

This is one of my clubs. If you wanna hear more about my clubs, I do have an episode about the 8 different types of STEM after-school clubs that you can host. So check that out. That'll be linked in the show notes. But this was really fun in our Lego 101 club where we just did some fun building challenges, and I just made this one up where students had those little Halloween monster teeth, googly eyes, and Lego bricks, and they had to design a monster that could hold the little mouth in place without being taped in, and then they put the googly eyes 2 or more or what however many googly eyes they wanted to create this cute little monster. They didn't turn out very scary. They were absolutely adorable, and even one of my students figured out how to make their monster mouth open and close, which was so cute. So you can go through the whole engineering design process with this, or if you just want to do the building challenge, that is an option as well.

Naomi Meredith [00:04:54]:

The 3rd spooky STEM activity is exploding jack-o'-lanterns. If you listened to my last episode, I shared with you all different kinds of pumpkin STEM activities. So, if you haven't checked that out, go back and listen. That'll give you some more ideas if you're looking for things that are more around pumpkins. This one is fun. You don't have to use real pumpkins unless you really want to, but instead, you can grab some orange cups, orange plastic cups, baking soda, vinegar, and even a little bit of food coloring or glitter if you would like as well. And you are going to have students create like that volcano experiment but using the cups to represent a jack-o'-lantern. So before they add in all of those elements, they can actually draw on a face, or maybe you have some stickers that they could use.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:50]:

You could even find those stickers that you see that kids decorate pumpkins, and they can decorate their cup to be their jack-o'-lantern. And then adding in those mixtures and solutions. They can have their jack-o'lantern explode. But before throwing it away, You could actually even put a glow stick in there, and this could be decoration throughout the day, and students could come and pick up their jack o'-lantern before they go home. So just a fun activity where you can talk about the states of matter but also add in that jack-o'-lantern theme. The 4th spooky STEM activity is flying ghosts. To help students understand the third law of motion by Sir Isaac Newton. With every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:39]:

So, thinking about how rockets explode, that there is all that pressure building up that when it explodes, the rocket is blasting off in the air, and then so are the flames going back out of it. So that opposite and equal reaction. So same kind of idea, students will have white balloons, and they will design their ghost face, and then they will create their rocket that the ghost will travel on to fly throughout their zip line. So this can be pretty fun, too. Students can actually design the track and how that will go and how that actually makes a difference in how fast or how far the ghost can travel, and then they can definitely experiment with the different sizes of the balloons and all of that. This can definitely keep your kids engaged with a lot of different variables, and they could even think about having a ghost race. The 5th spooky STEM activity is having jack o'lantern and skeletal system robot coding. These are 2 different activities that have similar vibes.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:45]:

So you'll have 2 different sets of cards. So don't mix them up it kind of actually won't make sense. But for the jack-o'-lantern coding on your cards, you'll have different faces that go along with different complete jack-o'-lantern faces. So, for example, 1 jack o'-lantern might have a certain pattern of eyes, nose, and mouth, and then all of the pieces on the cards are separated and mixed up. So you probably have about 5 or so complete jack-o'-lanterns, and students have to take turns coding their robot to collect the pieces to complete the jack-o'lanterns first. You could do this in a lot of variations, maybe all of the cards are facing up, and they can see the cards. You can make it a lot harder and make it a memory game and then add in that element of coding. So this would be really fun and a lot of problem solving to finishing these jack o'lantern puzzles.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:40]:

The other robot coding game that you can do is all about the skeletal system, and this can help students understand the different major parts that are in the skeletal system. Likewise, they can collect all of the pieces that are on the card to finish up the skeletal system. I recently taught a STEM field trip here at one of our local facilities. And it was all about STEM and health and wellness and the human body, and it was 5th graders, and they hadn't yet had their human body lessons, which I know that they would do eventually, that's just something that they do in science out here in Colorado, but there are all these pictures of the different body systems and the kids were like, ew, that's so gross. I'm like, you guys haven't had your human body lessons yet, have you? And they're no. I'm like, yeah. It is a little bit gross, So just be aware of your audience and also the images that you're using because this legit is probably the most spookiest of them all that I am talking about. The 6th spooky STEM activity that you can try is kid-safe slime.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:50]:

Now, I know parents don't love slime, and so this is a great opportunity to do this at school, and parents will be so grateful for that because they really don't wanna do this at home. And really, don't send it home with the kids. It's better off if they put it in the trash based on experience. But I have 3 different slime recipes that I actually broke down and rewrote them into smaller proportions. Because if you're teaching a lot of kids throughout the day, you will run out of supplies really, really fast. So, using those smaller proportions, they can try different slime experiments and compare and contrast the different types of slime, and one of those uses glue. I tried this specific recipe using glue and switching out the glue for glow in the dark glow. I was hosting a STEM after-school experience.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:45]:

It was a prize for something with our fun run. And I decided to do a STEM glow party, which I am gonna do a whole episode about it, I haven't forgotten about this. I have it saved for in the future. But one of the stations was creating glow-in-the-dark slime, and it actually worked. It was super, super cool. We did have black lights going, so it did amp up the glow feature, but I'm pretty sure if you leave the glow-in-the-dark glue in sunlight, it will glow in a dark room. The black lights just really amped it up and made it look a lot cooler. And the final spooky STEM activity that kind of as activity, but not really more of decoration, is having a magic potion bulletin board. Now, when you are thinking about STEM and really the whole purpose of teaching STEM, what is the whole purpose? Is it all of these fun and amazing hands-on activities? Yes, that's part of it.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:44]:

But a lot of the reasons why that we teach them and why it's important is all of the soft skills that you are teaching students, collaboration, perseverance, grit, creativity. Those are the true magic potions of STEM. So, just using my bulletin board kit where you just print, cut, and hang. It has all of those magic potions where you can decorate your space, your bulletin board or your door, whatever, your windows to get in the mood of spooky season. When I print these out, cut them out, and try it, I usually print out 2 sets. And I gave a whole set to one of my STEM teacher friends, and she was like, oh my gosh. This is amazing. This takes me hardly any time to hang up, and it looks really, really cute. So definitely a fun way that you can decorate for this season where it's STEM themed, but then you can also laminate and keep them for year after year.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:42]:

As a recap, here are those 7 spooky STEM activities that you can try in your classroom. 1st is the witch's hands. Next is the monster mouse. 3rd are the exploding jack-o'-lanterns. 4th are the flying ghosts. 5th, the robot coding stations with jack o'-lanterns and the skeletal system. 6th, kids safe slime but make it glow in the dark, and 7, the magic potion bulletin board. I hope that all of these activities get you in the mood for spooky season.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:21]:

And if you don't feel like putting them all together yourself, I've done all of that work for you. You can check it out in my Halloween STEM bundle at my tpt shop, Naomi Meredith, just to save you some time, and so you can just focus on your Halloween costume. Hint, hint, I am, and make sure to go and check it out on my Instagram page. Thank you so much for being here, and have a happy spooky season.