Looking for Valentine engineering challenges? These creative engineering activities for Valentine’s Day are suitable for any classroom. Pick out a few to try in the STEM classroom this Valentine’s Day!
Kids will have fun exploring their creativity and power of critical thinking in these engineering challenges that fit in perfectly with valentines STEM activities!
Creative Engineering Activities for Valentine’s Day
If your kids love engineering, or you need an engineering challenge for your STEM lessons, why not try these fun Valentine’s Day engineering challenges for kids? They are creative and tons of fun for kids in elementary or middle school.
The Benefits of Engineering Activities for Kids
Engineering is a cool thing to teach kids because it acts as the bridge between so many things that a child considers abstract, like math and science.
Engineering requires careful planning and thought and consideration of things like climate, the use of an object or place, what kind of materials would be best, how to make the thing durable, and many other practical considerations.
When kids practice engineering challenges, they learn to apply creative thinking to challenges and must access data from science, technology, math, and art or design to complete the task.
For this reason, engineering challenges are some of the best STEM activities to introduce to kids.
How to Complete a Valentine Engineering Challenge
A Valentine engineering challenge, just like any other engineering challenge, needs to have a problem and a set of parameters. The problem can be as simple as, can you make a structure from conversation hearts,” or as complicated as “can you make a working model of a heart.”
The learning level of the children completing the activity should be taken into account. Young elementary kids might enjoy the simple challenge of creating something without instructions. While older kids need a real-life problem to solve, like how to keep a person alive during heart surgery.
The Complete List of Valentine Engineering Challenges
Introduce these fun engineering challenges to your classroom this Valentine’s Day!
It’s trickier to make a heart shape out of LEGOs that kids might think at first. That’s because a heart has rounded sides, while LEGOs don’t! It is challenging to get kids to think of how to mimic the heart shape.
Complete lessons in electrical engineering with a light-up heart. This activity uses Squishy Circuits, which are an easy and (relatively) safe way to introduce kids to circuitry.
Even young kids can get in on the engineering action by designing hearts using pattern blocks. This teaches geometry, design, spatial awareness, and following directions.
Explore the creative side of engineering and design when kids design a love bug. This open-ened craft will produce some amazing results!
When you use conversation hearts as building materials, who knows what can happen? Kids will have fun building conversation heart towers and other structures.
Can you use marshmallows to build? Of course you can! These marshmallow hearts are a fun Valentine addition to the classic marshmallow and toothpick engineering challenge.
Build your own working heart model in this fun engineering challenge!
Kids will have a blast completing this Cupid’s bow engineering challenge. Learn about the physics behind a bow and arrow!