Teaching summer school was typically my favorite time of the year. As one of the sixth-grade teachers in my building, I worked with incoming sixth graders who needed a little extra support over the summer. I loved getting the opportunity to build relationships with many of the students I knew I would be working with in the coming school year. And, because we were only provided with information on the skills students needed to work on, rather than a standard scripted curriculum that we were required to use throughout the school year, it was also the time of year when I felt truly empowered to plan whatever I could to engage students in the work we did. It is likely not a surprise that when I planned challenges and activities that were hands-on experiences, I always saw more engagement with my students. With this in mind, I’ve listed some maker challenges below that you might consider if you are gearing up for your own summer school or camp, or simply want to try some ideas out on your own children and/or kids from the neighborhood!
Make a Rain Garden
It is always fun to have an excuse to be outdoors during the warmer months of the year. Challenging students to design and plant a rain garden is a great way to get outside, and it can also be an extremely engaging project that solves a real-world problem. Rain gardens filter water and help local waterways stay clean and healthy. They also help prevent flooding, and can provide a habitat and shelter for local wildlife. This project could easily tie into a unit on water conservation, and it demonstrates to students that there are steps we all can take to help conserve and protect water in our local communities. For some ideas and direction on how to facilitate a rain garden project, check out some of the resources below:
- PBS Learning Media Grade 9-12 4-part PBL Project Guide
- Rain Garden in a Box 5 Day Activity Guide
- How to Build a Rain Garden (This Old House)
- Rain Gardens 101 – a Video
Create a Sport or Game
One of the most fun days I had with students during a summer camp was when I challenged them to invent their own sport. I used John Spencer’s Create a Sport Challenge as a guide, let the kids spend time working together to create a concept, and gave them space to play. I watched as they practiced collaboration and critical thinking to develop rules, and discovered what elements they needed to tweak based on how their games unfolded. There are a lot of components and factors to consider when inventing a sport, as Spencer reveals in the introductory video when he asks questions like, what is the goal of your sport? How will you win? Will you have points? Will you take turns? Will it be timed, or will it end when you reach a final score? Will it be a team sport or an individual sport? This project takes quite a bit of time and trial and error, but it is a worthwhile lesson in design thinking that students enjoy.
Boat Builds
Kids love exploring things in water, and summer is a great time to bring in some water-based challenges to engage them. Challenging students to create boats of different kinds can hit on buoyancy and density concepts. In addition, challenging students to design wind-powered boats or their own paddle boats can allow students to discover forces of motion and focus on engineering and design skills. And, students have a lot of fun creating them! One of my students’ favorite challenges was to make a boat that moves on its own. Students worked in partners and small groups to design a wide variety of boats including paddle boats, sailboats, and even balloon-powered boats. Some of the resources I used for inspiration were this paddle boat project, this tugboat creation, and this balloon-powered boat. Testing can be done in a variety of ways, whether there are large tubs available or even a plastic kiddie pool. I recommend testing outside and/or making sure there are plenty of towels available for drying off boats and hands!
Egg Drop
This is not a new idea, but it is one of my favorite design challenges. And summer is a great time for this challenge when the testing can be done outside. When doing this with younger students, I often explored parachutes first. I gave them an opportunity to play with different parachute sizes and materials. Then, we would create an egg drop using a parachute of their own design. For older students, I would often use constraints like, you may only use 4 materials in your design, or you may not use a parachute. One of the most difficult challenges I’ve done is to provide students with only straws and tape to create their structure.
Explore a Tool and Challenge Students with Choice
Summer camps and classes are a wonderful time to give students a chance to explore different concepts and materials. So, give students the opportunity and the space to explore a material or tool that they don’t often get to use, and learn how it works. For example, maybe there are some 3D printers that students can learn to utilize, or some robots that can be accessed in the building. Provide them with some time to learn how to use it, and then challenge them to create something with that tool.
For more making ideas, check out my some of my previous blog posts, Creating Connections to the Environment through Making, 5 Ideas for Low-Budget Making, and 4 Ways to Bring the Real World into Classrooms.
