Fun STEM Activities For Large Groups

STEM activities for large groups can be challenging to find or to get ideas for, but they present a tremendous opportunity for STEM learning and engagement en masse! It’s all about having integration between learning as well as discovery with physical contact. With a large group, you’ll want activities that will reach each individual, no matter their overall level of ability. Engagement is the priority and when STEM activities get proper development, the results are exciting to observe.

We want you to understand STEM activities and how you can adapt them to a group of any size. What we will cover includes how to plan out activities no matter how big the group is, define the outcomes you expect, plan the lesson, and execute to see all of the fun happen before your eyes.

Determining the Size of the Group

You need to start by thinking about the size and diversity of your group. STEM activities are very positive education forms that can help children of all levels develop. Seeking out new and fun ways to engage is a passion of many and STEM activities open doors to new opportunities in this space.

Before you get started, plan out the intention of your group size and activity. Do you anticipate the group size to be more than a dozen or so individuals? If so, what is the age range of these individuals? On top of that, within those age levels, what is the general ability of each of those students?

Mapping all of this data out can help you better plan the activity and execute it.

STEM Allows for Adaptation

One of the great things about STEM activities to remember is that they can adapt. Take a STEM activity, no matter what it may be, and you can likely make tweaks to it for any age group, ability, interest level, as well as group size.

As an educator, you can get creative when it comes to the STEM activities so you can be sure it accommodates your group and engages them all in a way that is beneficial to their development.

Ideas to Help You Bring STEM to a Large Group

Let us now build off all we have written about to this point and start to explore some of the STEM activities you can bring to large groups. These ideas can help point you in a direction where you can spark curiosity and exploration no matter the age group or the level of ability of the individuals. We will break these down with one subject at a time to enlighten you on how to spark different subject areas of curiosity of the children.

1. Science Activity — Creating a Cloud

One of the more inventive STEM activities in the science space allows you to create a cloud. This is something that will inspire all age groups whether they are four or five years old up to high school and even beyond. The water cycle is a topic that most kids learn about in school – to see it in action versus on a diagram is something special. The great thing about this activity is you can do it with two children or even twenty.

Have each child bring in a glass jar that can have a seal put on it. From there, you will need water as well as a hairspray. With these two things, you can show science in action and show how clouds are created, like the ones they see up in the sky.

If you want to engage the children further, bring them outdoors and let them do the activity on a day where there is a lot of fog. Helping them make the connection between what is happening in the jar and what they see in the sky can be powerful.

2. Math Activity — Team Number Match

Math is another great topic that kids buy into at an early age. It’s also a great thing that you can easily make more complicated as the years go by. What this activity is all about is taking that large group and creating a bunch of teams, split up with equal abilities of all of the children.

The idea here is to allow the children to hunt for sticky notes with numbers that help them complete the puzzle in front of them.

Use a piece of paper that you stick on the wall, use dots or something else to create a pattern and then have questions you present to the children. It could be simple math where they need a sticky note with a number on it to solve the problem. As they work together as a team the puzzle will begin to take shape and they will see the result before their eyes.

3. Engineering — Building to the Sky

This is one we call building to the sky and it is all about showing children how they can complete a structure as a group with different ideas. The only two materials you will need for this will include toothpicks as well as jellybeans. With these two things in hand, you can split the kids up into teams that can work together.

Show them how they can connect the toothpicks with the jellybeans to create some amazing designs. This is a real challenge and the age group can dictate how difficult you make it. Either allow for pure creativity or put a team-building challenge around it where they need to get to a certain height. No matter the approach you take, it is adaptation and encouragement to show children how the shapes hold together which is the pivotal piece.

Large Groups Can Benefit from STEM

STEM activities for large groups need to always be under consideration. These activities are always welcome and can be really powerful experiences for children of a young age or those that are much older as well. Whether it is a team-building activity for a group in high school or something to show young children how to get their creative minds exploring in new ways, STEM activities are amazing tools to deploy as an educator.