STEM Tales - A new bed for Golidlocks!

Fairy Tale STEM Activity - Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Try a hands-on STEM challenge with Goldilocks and the Three Bears!

This STEM activity is designed for lower elementary kids. I am so excited to share some details about it! STEM tales introduce the youngest budding engineers to STEM, by taking a familiar story and using it to walk through the engineering design process. Do you love telling and re-telling stories with your kids? Do you ever change the ending to spice it up a bit? That's exactly what STEM tales is all about!

Integrate Literacy and STEM with Fairy Tales

The 8-page book provides an alternative ending to this story. Your students need to help make a bed for Goldilocks. Goldilocks is simply a printed out figure, which you can add weigh to with either small masses, pennies, or washers.

Using whatever crafting materials you have handy (index cards and tape are really all that is needed, but feel free to use other supplies as well), create a new bed for Goldilocks.

The Testing Phase of the STEM Challenge

Is the bed large enough? Will it hold the weight of the figure? You will be surprised at the designs your students come up with! Designing and creating a bed for Goldilocks is a way for students to bring the fairy tale alive.

After you have tested out the beds, it's time to introduce the bear family to the challenge (mama, papa, and baby, who is the same size as Goldilocks).

You will add heavier weights to mama and papa bear, and then test the designs again. This is a great way to demonstrate why it's important to know your design criteria before starting a STEM challenge! Mama bear may fit on some and not others, or papa bear may fit but weigh too much and collapse the bed.

Get the Goldilocks Fairy Tale STEM Challenge

Here is the link to the full resource. In addition to all the steps above, the 8-page story book guides students through the engineering design process and also includes a self-evaluation check list.