Best Summer STEM Activities for Kids

When we’re discussing the education of our children, it’s easy for us to just focus on the schooling aspect. We often obsess about getting them into top-level schools and providing them with the very best of conditions for learning.

That being said, school is just one side of the coin when we’re talking about education. But the fact is, by the age of 18, your child spends about 13% of their waking hours at school. Take out a portion of that for school-related activities, projects, and homework and you’re still left with a big chunk of time. And how they’re spending that time will affect the way they’re developing as well.

Engaging your kids in fun learning activities outside of a school setting is just as important for their development.

Why STEM Activities?

When we’re discussing non-academic activities, STEM has plenty to offer. These topics are somewhat related to their school subjects, but most of them can’t be explored in a standardized educational setting.

Through STEM projects, games, or challenges your kids will learn by playing, develop essential skills such as critical thinking, and get an opportunity to express themselves creatively.

Another important reason could be that the popularity of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is rising, meaning a lot of future job opportunities are bound to be related to STEM. Helping our children acquire the essential skills for the jobs of tomorrow will play a pivotal role in their career development.

Since your kids will be spending much of their time over the summer outside of school, it’s up to you to create a setting where they can pursue their interests and explore new topics. Learning about science, technology, engineering, and math can be lots of fun if you approach these topics in the right way.

Learning by doing is the best way to learn. Getting your kids hooked on STEM activities and games can be a fantastic way for them to spend the summer playing with their friends and having fun while setting a strong foundation for their future careers.

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Nobel Explorers is an online STEM camp where kids solve age-appropriate challenges in international teams by making products that have real-life value.

We have an entire range of engaging STEM projects for you to choose from!

Registration is OPEN!

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Top Four Fun Summer STEM Activities for Kids

These are our top suggestions for STEM activities for kids that you can put to the test this summer. We picked them out based on the fact they’re particularly entertaining but also give your children a chance to develop skills in multiple areas, both in STEM and in general.

1. Create a Solar Updraft Tower

More and more countries are acknowledging the importance of renewable energy sources. Aside from educating our kids on the value of protecting our environment, teaching them about renewable energy can also inspire them to pursue a career in this ever-growing field.

Solar updraft towers are an example of how scientific phenomena can be applied to use natural processes for generating power. And you can make your very own model by using tin cans, duct tape, a pin, and a hand-made paper fan!

The solar updraft tower uses sunlight to heat air, causing it to move upward, thus making the pinwheel rotate. It’s a simple, cheap, and easy-to-do design. You can experiment by using more cans and creating different propellers of different shapes.

This STEM challenge is the perfect prototype of a cool science project to do on a warm summer day. It’s a great way for them to pick up the basic principles behind renewable energy while testing out some basic engineering principles using basic household items!

2. Design an Obstacle Course

Sports activities are also very important for children. If you can combine STEM challenges with sports to create a fun activity for your kids, they’ll surely benefit in more ways than one.

Obstacle courses are usually great fun for kids. Mostly because they get to spend a day mimicking some of their favorite action super-heroes. But if you include them in the design process it’s a great opportunity for developing engineering skills as well.

In order to gain the most out of the activity, it’s important to allow them to take charge of the process. You can use open-ended questions to spark divergent thinking and pose them with real issues where they can improve their problem-solving.

Building fun obstacle courses is an awesome way for your child to express themselves creatively as well. Let their imagination run wild and go for it!

There are countless ways in which you can utilize mundane objects to create challenging obstacles. Taping balloons to the bottom of a desk for your kids to crawl under would be an example. Stick pool noodles in the ground for them to zigzag through, or use swim rings as a running grid. Encourage them to add specific challenges like throwing tennis balls through hoops or balancing a bag of peas on their head.

Lastly, if they’re having friends over, challenge them further by splitting the course into different sections. By doing so, each child will complete one challenge and they’ll have to work together to finish the course successfully. That way, you’ll provide them with a perfect setting for developing teamwork and leadership skills.

3. Humanoid Coding Grid Game

Getting kids into coding often collides with parents’ tactics of reducing their children’s screen time. However, there are plenty of ways you can teach them how to think like a coder off-screen.

One of the best real-life, unplugged coding games for kids is ‘The Humanoid Coding Game’. All you need to do to get started is to design a grid by using painter’s tape or chalk, for example.

The best thing about the game is that the concept is very simple, yet flexible, so you can adjust the difficulty by adding or removing components.

The basic version of the game consists of a small grid, a “coder”, and one or more “humanoids”. The goal is to use simple instructions such as “forward”, “left”, and “right” get your “humanoid” across the grid following a specified path. These instructions resemble lines of code and a set of these lines represents a complete function.

The game becomes more challenging if the coder has to write out instructions beforehand. They’ll be more likely to make mistakes but that makes the game a better teaching tool. Now they’ll have an opportunity to learn by adjusting or “debugging” their code and optimizing it further.

You can always add other features to make the game more difficult and also more fun – for instance, specific tiles which act as obstacles or activate certain behaviors and activities. So if a person stands on the tile marked “crawl”, they’ll have to get through the rest of the grid on all fours.

Once they’ve mastered the basics, encourage your kids to play on a larger grid and use more humanoids. The end game is for them to be able to design their own grid amongst themselves and use these principles creatively.

4. Start a Small Business

Entrepreneurial skills are a huge asset for anyone looking to build a career. Twenty years from now such skills will probably be a common job requirement. The best way to gain relevant experience is to actually start your own business. This summer, you could give your kids a chance to test the entrepreneurial waters!

There are plenty of small business ideas that require minimal investments but will in return provide your children with unique opportunities for development and growth. Lemonade stands are a classic, but anything that encourages them to apply themselves to produce value will work. They can sell other stuff like custom T-shirts or hand-crafted jewelry. And on those especially warm summer days, running a neighborhood car-wash can be a tremendous way to cool down!

The key thing is to make sure your kids go through all the essential steps of running a business. Processes such as planning, branding, or placement apply to all businesses and you need to nudge them towards exploring each and every one.

Planning a budget and handling finances will surely give their math skills a huge boost. If they have “co-founders”, they’ll learn teamwork and leadership skills while solving practical issues.

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Our STEM project ‘Introduction to Start Up Like Silicon Valley’ is the perfect way for your kids to develop fundamental entrepreneurial skills.

They will create their own business from scratch in a global team guided by expert mentors!

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How Your Kids Can Benefit Most from Summer STEM Activities

Each of these STEM activities is a captivating opportunity for your kids to develop relevant skills for their future. Through advanced, structured play they will acquire both technical, teamwork, and leadership skills that will skyrocket their careers!

Your role as a parent in these fun STEM projects is to facilitate their learning by asking the right questions. You should also remember to point out and emphasize important lessons they might overlook. These activities are also fun for adults but the key is to empower the kids to organize their own play in line with their interests.

Adding a specific theme to every activity will crank up the excitement to a whole new level. Just think about the joy of having little Avengers run through a backyard obstacle course they’ve designed themselves. Or the excitement of having junior coders solve a Jumanji-themed maze.

We hope these STEM activities for kids will make this and every other summer a blast! Keep in mind that having fun should always be the main guiding force. It will be a key factor for creating the perfect learning context.

“Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.” – Diane Ackerman