We’ve discovered an awesome new building material: pool noodles and pipe cleaners!
Join Caitlin Luttjohann, Director of STEAM Education at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center to get creative! This activity is powered by our friends at Evergy.
What you need:
- Pool noodles
- Pipe cleaners
- Scissors
Directions:
- Cut the pool noodles into different shapes and sizes.
- Cut the pipe cleaner into different lengths as needed.
- Create!
Ways to Expand the Activity:
- Add a constraint. You could add a time limit, only use a certain number of pieces, etc.
- Add an objective. Create a structure that can hold two books using only pipe cleaners and pool noodles.
What Kids Learn:
- Basic engineering skills. Engineers solve problems with constraints. They learn to solve problems by using the engineering design process: asking questions, coming up with solutions, building, testing and improving.
- Spatial or visual thinking. Being able to imagine the positions of objects and how they interact is an important skill for learning math.
- Fine motor skills. Kids practice using the small muscles in their hands later used for writing.
- Experimentation! When kids experiment, they’re learning how to learn. Failure is an important part of experimenting, so let kids try things that won’t work. It’s how they figure things out!
- Creativity! There are so many different ways to create when it’s up to your imagination. These exercises build skills to help broaden creativity.