Andrea Scalzo Yi - 100 Easy STEAM Activities

100 EASY

STEAM

ACTIVITIES

Awesome Hands-On Projects
for Aspiring Artists and Engineers

ANDREA SCALZO YI

creator of Raising Dragons

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DEDICATION

For Tony and our four little dragonsNate, Dylan, Oliver & Alexander

Mom, Im bored! What can we do?

Does this sound familiar? Well, it did in my house, which inspired me to start doing simple STEAM activities with my kids. We ended up having so much fun that I created Raising Dragons (raisingdragons.com) to share our activities with others. I realized quickly, from the overwhelming response to our videos, that millions of other people were looking for simple ideas to engage their kids too. So in addition to Raising Dragons online, I wrote this book to provide you with super simple activities that are easy (using items found around the house), safe (no box cutters or glue guns) and take only a few minutes to set up.

What is STEM/STEAM and why is it important? STEM incorporates elements of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math into activities instead of focusing on each subject separately. STEM activities can spark curiosity and encourage you to experiment, ask questions, make predictions and have funall while learning about concepts like chemistry, motion and force. In addition to teaching important life skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving, STEM activities can help you develop a love of learning and an innate curiosity about how the world around you works. STEM activities also give kids a glimpse into the wonderful opportunities and real-world applications for STEM that lie ahead.

STEAM adds art into the mix, which I feel is the most important part of the equation. Its not only imperative for you to learn to build and problem solve, but to do so with a creative and design-focused mentality. What fun is learning about the changing seasons if you cant take a moment to reflect on the beauty of the trees or the seasonal colors of the changing leaves?

From lava lamps (), I hope this book becomes your go-to resource when you need a quick idea or fun activity.

Bringing science into your home with fun, easy experiments is a great way to spark curiosity, learn simple scientific concepts and spend quality time with your siblings and parents, all while engaging in educational activities! The experiments that follow are all SUPER simple to set up and most of them can be done with objects you already have at home. Are you ready? Lets go!

This fun, simple science experiment teaches you about weather concepts, and its lots of fun mixing colors and watching them fall through the shaving cream and into the water. You will want to do this experiment over and over. It never gets old!

MATERIALS

1 clear vase or glass jar

Water

Shaving cream

Liquid food coloring

Droppers

DIRECTIONS

Fill the clear vase about three-quarters full with water. Fill the rest of the vase with shaving cream. Add a few drops each of different colors of food coloring on top of the shaving cream. You will start to see the colors weave their way through the shaving cream cloud and into the water.

If you find its taking a while for the color to make its way through the cloud, its probably because you made a very large cloud! In this case, to speed up the process, add some plain water to the clouds to make them heavier and more likely to start falling into the water. Soon you will see lots of beautiful streaks of color making their way into the water.

THE HOWS AND WHYS

As the water gets too heavy for the cloud, it begins to release it into the atmosphere (aka the water), therefore creating rain.

VARIATIONS

Try making a small cloud and a large cloud. How much longer does it take the coloring to move through the large cloud versus the small cloud? Try making clouds of different colors and mixing various colors like blue and yellow to make the cloud rain green.

This simple science experiment demonstrates density and how changing the density of water can make an egg float.

MATERIALS

2 clear drinking glasses

2 cups (480 ml) water, divided