Summer STEAM Challenge: Build a Dam!

We have lived in a lot of places over the years, and every one of our properties has had water close at hand, usually a brook. One of our summer pleasures was building things in streams, and it doesn’t stop just because you grow up.  Here is part of my family enjoying the Gale River a year or so ago.

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(Raging Rapids Raft Race contest at the Brown family reunion)

So this week’s STEAM challenge is to experiment with dams.  Since water safety is very serious, please communicate with your parents about your activity ideas, as always.  We would love if you would share your photos and comments about your exploration with all of us on this blog.

***If you have a stream handy, like the Gale River above, try building your own swimming hole.

***Just have a hose?  Check out these starting places.  You can use all sorts of supplies you might have in your backyard, such as buckets, flower boxes, sticks, rocks, screen pieces, or a sandbox.

Zoom:  Build a Dam

Peep and the Big Wide World:  Build a Dam  (I know Peep is for younger kids, but I still love that show and they have great ideas.  Plus you might be entertaining a younger brother or sister with this engineering, right?)

***Want to know more about the engineering behind building dams?  Check these out!

Building Big . . . Dams (from PBS)

Dam Facts (Notice the different types of dams)

Animal Planet:  Beaver Dams

Other dam links

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STEAM Challenge of the Week!

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(nature sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy)

Use what you have learned this year about engineering in the great outdoors.  This week’s challenge is to go outside wherever you are (your yard, the woods by your home, the campground where your family is staying, the lakeshore, . . . ) and build something using only items you find there.  It could be something useful, something artistic, something to play with, or . . .

Check out the imaginative sculptures this artist created as surprises for people to find in the woods! Artist Spencer Byles spent a year in the woods making his organic art.

You can attach your thoughts as a comment or e-mail me photos of your engineering design.  Kick off the summer by digging into the outdoors!