Thanksgiving STEM Challenge: The Great Turkey Race - PPT - Grades 5-8

The Thanksgiving STEM Challenge: The Great Turkey Race will get your students thinking and team-building in those days leading up to Thanksgiving Break! Plus, this activity incorporates critical thinking, collaboration, drawing, and measurement in addition to scientific engineering skills.


This product presents a scenario to the students where the turkeys on Farmer Dave's farm must win a race to prevent them from being the main entree at a Thanksgiving feast. The turkeys decide they need a design team to build a turkey stunt double that could move fast! The students are given a materials list of common household items that they may use in the process of developing their turkey stunt double prototype. Students complete the STEM Design Steps throughout this process and eventually will test their prototypes, troubleshoot any issues, and redesign to try to yield a better product. Students can compete against each other in a friendly competition to see whose turkey stunt double prototypes have the fastest time crossing the finish line.

Click here to see an example of a turkey stunt double prototype on my blog!

Included in this Package:
• Corresponding PowerPoint Presentation (23 slides)
→ Prefer SMART Board? Click Here!
→ Also available for grades 3-5! Click Here!
• Student Lab Handout (4 pages)
• Detailed Lesson Plan (4 pages)

You May Also Like:
STEM Challenge Bundle Volume 1 - PowerPoint Edition
The Marshmallow Challenge STEM and Team Building Activity - PowerPoint Lesson
Egg-ceptional Packaging Egg Drop STEM Challenge - PowerPoint Lesson
Make a Boat STEM Watercraft 4-Day Challenge PowerPoint Lesson
Leprechaun Trap Science and Persuasive Writing 4-Day Challenge PPT {St. Patrick's Day}
Flying the Coop Spring STEM Catapult Challenge PowerPoint Lesson
Rube Goldberg 5-Day PBL and STEM Energy Transformation Powerpoint Unit
Cupid's Catapult STEM Challenge PowerPoint Lesson {Valentine's Day}
The Great Pumpkin Slinger Fall STEM Activity PowerPoint Lesson
STEM Survivor 2-Day Design Challenge PowerPoint Lessons

How to receive TpT credit to use on future purchases:
Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Once you click this link, you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you provide feedback, TpT rewards you with feedback credits that you may use toward future purchases. Your feedback allows me to continue providing quality products that are useful in your classroom!

Follow Me!
Make sure to receive notifications of new products and sale events by clicking the green ‘Follow Me’ button next to my seller picture. You can also follow me on:
→ Facebook at Mrs. Willyerd’s Virtual Classroom
→ Twitter @angelawillyerd
→ Pinterest @awillyerd
→ Instagram @AngelaWillyerd

Most Grateful to…
Kimberly Geswein Fonts for her great font designs!
Lindy du Plessis on TpT for her doodle frames and farm clip art.
Jen Hart Design on TpT for the turkey clip art.

Terms of Use
© Angela Willyerd. Please see Creative Commons license below for more details.


Thanksgiving STEM Challenge: The Great Turkey Race - PowerPoint Edition - Grades 5-8 by Angela Willyerd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.