Exploring Gears with PASTA!
I dyed some pasta one night to use for some crafts. One of the kinds I had was mini wagon wheels, and when I brought them inside from drying in the garage overnight, my brain was chanting "gears!" so I grabbed some toothpicks and cardboard boxes and made a wagon wheel gear train. I had to share it with the kids (and you too)!
Materials needed for gear pasta:
- wagon wheel pasta (dye if desired)
- toothpicks
- cardboard box
Get started on this gear STEM activity
Pick out the most circular ones to make this easier. All you have to do is put a wagon wheel on the cardboard box and impale the cardboard right through the center hole. Put another wheel next to it and poke your next toothpick through.
Try this with a mix of mini and large wagon wheel pasta as well to make this even more fun! Here's a short video of the pasta gears in action:
Engage your students by going in depth with more STEM challenges
This activity was so beneficial for hands-on learning that I developed it into a STEM challenge lesson for upper elementary students. It can be found as one of the challenges in this STEM challenges resource:
Pin these ideas for later:
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