Lego Challenge–Cookie Drop!

This one was the biggest hit I’ve had in awhile. It seems like the best things in STEM have already been done and it’s always hard to find new ideas. Over the years I’ve based a lot of my challenges off of classic STEM experiments, like my Lego Parachute challenge is based off an egg drop challenge. So I was thinking about that again while trying to come up with a new idea. But this time, I thought about what if you can’t save the egg, but instead had to try to make the floor better for a collision. Is that even possible?? So the cookie drop challenge was born.

I chose Chips Ahoy because I remember them being really crumbly as a kid–perfect for dropping. So after rules, I told my kiddos that at the end of the hour I would drop a cookie first from 2 feet, and then from 3 feet on to their base plate. Their job was to come up with a way to slow down the collision with layers, levels, some sort of interference. If they win they would get a cookie, if they lost they would get crumbs 🙂

I didn’t know how this would work since I didn’t test it out or show an example at all. But once again I was blown away. Most of the kids did it and loved it, the older kiddos definitely got more into it. I saw a lot of towers, tire pits, some slides, and one really cool one that used some stretchy bumpers.

When it came time to drop, I would drop them flat, so it was easier to see a split, but kids also got to pick where on the board the drop would happen, and I would do my best to drop right on that spot. Most people passed the 2 ft. challenge, even those that did nothing at all. And almost everyone passed the 3 ft. challenge, as long as they had some sort of interference or idea, so everyone walks away feeling great.

Everyone got to keep their cookie at the end. If a kid didn’t do the challenge, they still got a cookie just to make it fair. I had stickers for anyone that couldn’t have a cookie for whatever reason.

Hope you like it and I hope this one gets added to the STEM canon.

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