Paper Chain Challenge

Today our boys and girls worked very hard on their first STEM challenge of the year.  STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  STEM challenges encourage our students to work together and use skills within these four areas to solve a problem.  Today our students were posed with the following "challenge":

First, the students worked independently for 10 minutes to sketch and write about their own ideas.  This helped them begin the planning process.  Next, they worked with their groups (2-3 students) to share their own ideas and determine which ideas will work the best.  

Finally, the boys and girls had 30 minutes to build their chains!  They implemented their plans and made adjustments when needed!  At the end, we measured all of our chains.  Check out the pictures below and the final measurements!

The final  paper chains! 

1. 21 feet 4 inches

2. 15 feet 3 inches

3.  9 feet

4. 7 feet 1 inch

5. 4 feet 1 inch

6.  3 feet 11 inches

The challenge proved that every person and group approaches problems differently!  What a fantastic job!