Table of Contents
- 1. Candy Heart Catapult Challenge
- 2. Fizzing Heart Science Experiment
- 3. Invisible Ink Valentines
- 4. Valentine’s Day Coding Activity
- 5. Geometry Valentine’s Day Cards
- 6. Floating Candy Heart Experiment
- 7. Heart Parachutes
- 8. Valentine’s Day Bridge Challenge
- 9. Valentine’s Candy Diffusion
- 10. Candy Heart Math
- Tips for Making Valentine’s Day STEM Activities Successful
- Make Valentine’s Day Fun and Educational
Love (and learning) is in the air! Holidays are the perfect time to liven up your STEM curriculum to include seasonal elements that keep students excited and engaged. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, parents and educators can incorporate Valentine’s Day STEM activities into student learning in a way that is both fun and effective. Throughout this article, we will review ten easy-to-implement Valentine’s Day themed STEM activities that will help students improve their STEM literacy and get excited about the upcoming holiday.
1. Candy Heart Catapult Challenge
In this activity, students are tasked with building a catapult, which will be used to launch candy hearts as far as they can. This can easily be turned into a group activity where students compete against each other to see which catapult sends candy the farthest, allowing students to reflect on their design and see where they could make changes to have a more effective catapult.
2. Fizzing Heart Science Experiment
In this STEM lesson, students combine baking soda, red food coloring, and vinegar in heart shaped trays. Then, before their eyes, they can watch the chemical reaction take place, creating their fizzing Valentine’s Day heart. If a student does not have the same chemical reaction as their classmates, have them evaluate the ratio of baking soda to vinegar they used and encourage them to try again!
3. Invisible Ink Valentines
Turn everyday cards from classmates into a fun experience using invisible ink. Using water and lemon/lime juice, students can write their secret message to their classmates on card stock. Then, once it is dried, parents, educators, or other adults can use an iron to help reveal the secret message. This is a fun, unique way to introduce students to chemical reactions.
4. Valentine’s Day Coding Activity
Using a junior level coding platform, such as Scratch Jr, task students with creating Valentine’s Day themed animations and cards using code. This approachable introduction to coding allows students to strengthen their coding skills and their confidence, which will benefit them throughout their education and into their future careers.
5. Geometry Valentine’s Day Cards
In this STEM activity, students exercise their artistic and mathematical skills in tandem while creating their own Valentine’s Day cards. Through different shapes, students can create visually interesting designs that they are eager to share with their friends and family. This disguised approach to STEM learning allows students to improve their math skills while they think they are participating in arts and crafts.
6. Floating Candy Heart Experiment
How dense is a candy heart compared to common household liquids? In this experiment, students learn about density by adding candy hearts to various liquids (water, milk, oil, soda, orange juice, etc.). By seeing when the candy heart floats or sinks, students can begin to rank the liquids and how their density compares to the candy hearts.
7. Heart Parachutes
Using common household items like paper, plastic bags, and fabric, have students create parachutes that will hold candy heart “jumpers”. Once the parachutes are created, students will test the success of their design by seeing if their candy heart person is able to easily and safely land from different heights and under different conditions, such as wind.
8. Valentine’s Day Bridge Challenge
Turn your students into engineers during the Valentine’s Day Bridge Challenge. Each student is tasked with designing and building a bridge. Once they are built, students will compete to see which bridge holds the most candy hearts without breaking. This activity allows students to work collaboratively, using each other as a sounding board for how to create a stronger, sturdier bridge. If time allows, there is no limit to the number of bridges students can build, allowing them to iterate their designs based on their learnings from previous failures – all of which are key aspects of the Engineering Design Process (EDP).
9. Valentine’s Candy Diffusion
Using student’s favorite Valentine’s Day candy, sugar, a plate, and water, students can create a beautiful art piece created by the coating and dye found in their candy. One thing students will notice throughout this activity is each of their designs looks slightly different. This is a great time to organically bring up controlled versus uncontrolled variables in experiments and how they impact the final product – in this case, it is what candy each student chose and where they place their sugar on the plate.
10. Candy Heart Math
Candy can be used to make math class fun! Whether students are learning addition, subtraction, division, or multiplication, they will love a STEM lesson that ends with them being able to eat something sweet!
Tips for Making Valentine’s Day STEM Activities Successful
Seasonal STEM lessons are a great addition to any classroom curriculum. By incorporating seasonal elements, students will stay engaged and excited about what they are learning. But, many parents and educators get stuck on where to begin implementing seasonal activities with their students.
Here are a handful of tips for making Valentine’s Day STEM activities successful in your classroom or at-home learning environment:
- Keep It Simple: Do not make implementing STEM lessons more difficult than it has to be. Focus on incorporating lessons that work within your classroom schedule and available STEM resources.
- Focus On Collaboration: Collaboration is a key component to a student’s long-term ability to problem solve, work well with others, and think innovatively. Focus on lessons that allow for collaboration with others, giving students the chance to exercise this key skill.
- Incorporate Reflection: Mindfulness Matters! Have students set intentions for their learning before they start a lesson and ask them to reflect afterward. This awareness helps students to identify and work towards an intended outcome.
- Utilize Hands-On Learning: Learning through play is an effective way to improve STEM literacy. By incorporating seasonal hands-on activities, students will have higher engagement, comprehension, and retention.
Make Valentine’s Day Fun and Educational
Seasonal STEM activities, such as Valentine’s Day STEM lessons or winter themed STEM activities, are a great way to keep classroom learning fun and engaging. By giving students variety in their daily lessons, they are more likely to engage deeply with what they are learning. When fully present and engaged throughout the lesson, parents, teachers, and students will begin to see the difference in classroom performance and confidence.
