BUILD A BETTER BUBBLE REAL-WORLD STEM CHALLENGE

This is a real-world STEM Challenge that combines the scientific method, problem solving, economics, cooperative learning, teamwork, and self-evaluation. Students are given the scenario of working on a science & engineering team for the Wham-O Toy Company and are challenged to build the longest-lasting bubble using the given materials without going over their budget of $100. Lab Job descriptions are included--the Materials Manager must show their Lab Safety License as their ID when they come to pick up the materials. (Students decide in their lab groups who is going to do what job. If you have more than 4 in your lab groups, the "extra" students will be Behavior Managers also. They may choose what materials they would like to use and are not required to use all of them. The only ones they have to use are the Big Bubba Bubbles (any cheap kind of bubbles will work) which is the control, and the plastic table cover to make clean-up easy. To save time, portion out the liquids into small clear plastic serving cups with lids and label them. I purchased these at Walmart for under $3.00 for a pack of 50 in the paper plate section. Give each student a pan of some sort to carry all their materials back to their lab station. NOTE: Remind students about not mixing the straws and droppers in the substances so they don't invalidate their experiment. (For younger students, you will probably have to demonstrate how to blow the bubble with a straw on the styrofoam plate. It will be helpful to trace a circle onto each plate so they have a goal of bubble size to aim for each time.) The reward of $100 for the winning team is in "school money" as we use it in 4th grade for our behavior management system. However, you could use whatever reward you would like. The age of your students will determine how much support you will have to give them in identifying variables and designing their own experiment. My 4th graders needed help in writing the steps as they had never designed their own experiment before, but I left it up to them as to what materials they wanted to test. This would work for several age groups as a pre-assessment or an assessment, depending on your purpose.