How to set up an Environmental Engineering challenge in Minecraft

Give your child and environment engineering challenge to fulfill on their favorite video game. This challenge is aligned with NGSS standard K-ESS3-1: Use a model to represent the relationship between needs of different plants and animals and the environment in which they live. This challenge is not affiliated with Minecraft.

 After a generous two week vacation, my children were getting a little bored. Then, after going to back to school for exactly one day, my children were treated to a snow day.

Kids Engineering:Valentines Heart Bombs!

T-Rex (my second grade son) has come up with another fun engineering project for you. This time, we're making heart bombs- just in time for Valentine's Day.

Submarines and Pitch Training with Bubble Wrap

Bubble Wrap is one of those materials that appears regularly in our household.   If you have some bubble wrap on hand, why not use it for a music lesson?

This month's challenge from Project Recycle and Create was a tough one for me.  I finally just gave up and put the box of bubble wrap Daddy had collected at work in the middle of the room.   For a couple of days it looked like our bubble wrap project would consist of pinching it with our fingers.  Not creative, but we can always use a little more fine motor practice, right?

Then T- Rex started using a craft stick as a tool and suggested that we could make a submarine, since it would not float as well after the bubbles popped. Clever, yes?

Then the Pony Artist said, "Hey Mommy, listen to this!"  And started happily snapping some bubbles.  As I listened, I realized that the bubbles had a different pitch than the ones T-Rex was popping.  

I invited her to come over to the piano, and we worked on popping bubbles of different sizes and matching them to pitch of the piano keys.  Bigger bubbles make lower sounds. Smaller bubbles make higher sounds. 

Pony Artist figured it out, but she and T-Rex most enjoyed the rhythm aspect of this activity and treated Baby Sister and I to a concert.

Following my children's lead can take me some pretty fun places!

This post originally appeared on my blog formerly, WisdomKnowledgeJoy@blogspot.com, now www.Thriving STEM.com 

Click here to go to the landing page for this project and see the host projects.

Have your own Buble Wrap idea or experience? Link up! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Must Read Science Book

Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs! by Kathleen Kudlinski is a must read science book for any child, and I would recommend it for most adults as well.

This book addresses the Next Generation Science Standard

3-LS4-1.	Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.

Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.