Popsicle Stick STEM Challenges - Fun Craft Stick Activities for Kids

Craft Stick STEM Challenges Your Kids will Love

Whether you call them popsicle sticks, craft sticks, tongue depressors, or paddlepop sticks, you are probably familiar with a number of ways to use this versatile material.
 

Get Started with Popsicle Stick STEM

Disclaimer: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you downloads of value and information about educational resources. The links below are Amazon affiliate links. You can read my full disclosure here.
 
You can use standard popsicle sticks, but I find them much more challenging to work with than large, 6" x 3/4" sticks. Make sure you sort through them and remove any that are broken, split, or have splintering edges. If you are looking for jumbo colorful ones like the ones above, I got mine here.

Create a Popsicle Stick Bridge

A really easy challenge to get started with is to create a popsicle stick bridge. Use binder clips to hold the sticks together and make it easily reconfigurable. You can create a simple ladder style design or try something a little more funky. Get creative and see what works! For older kids, you can use hot glue to create some really intricate and large bridges with a long span.

Make it easier for little ones:Binder clips can be hard to work for small fingers. Attach Velcro/hook & loop stickers to the ends of craft sticks for easy building. In addition to bridges, they can use the sticks to create 2D shapes and even letters.

Create a Stick Bomb Chain Reaction 

This one will entice even reluctant kids to get in on the STEM action! Use a weaving technique to apply tension to the sticks. You can work with a variety of patterns, from simple to the more complex. For very simple designs, visit this YouTube channel
as he has some great tutorials (tip - watch at .75 speed because he talks really quickly!). Or you can try to create a pattern like the one below - just search "stick bomb" on YouTube and you'll find a variety of videos explaining how to weave it. I recommend working on a carpet if possible because it's easier to slide the sticks into place.

Popsicle Stick Marble Maze STEM

This one is a bit tricky but SO much fun! Create a marble maze in a box. If you are working with your own kid(s), you can use a box cutter to poke the sticks through the cardboard to secure them. Otherwise, duct tape works well. Pro tip: tilt the box back slightly to help keep the marble from falling out, or construct "channels" by making an L-shape with two sticks.

See a few popsicle stick STEM ideas in action

 

Other Craft Stick STEM Ideas

Craft Stick Art or Bow and Arrow

If you want to get really creative, you can soak them in water for a few hours or overnight, and then bend to the desired shape. This is a lot of fun, but takes some careful planning ahead. You'll need to then clamp the sticks in place somehow until they dry. There are some amazing designs you can create!

Craft Stick Harmonica or Kazoo

Use craft sticks in your STEM station!

Craft stick shapes match up game

Try These STEM Challenges with the Engineering Design Process

If you want to add more rigor to these challenges by following the engineering design process, please visit the resource I put together. It includes the 3 challenges above plus two more. With this  guided STEM resource, students need to meet the design criteria specified to complete the challenge. It's even easy enough to leave with a sub!

You can find Craft Stick STEM Challenges here:

Pin these Popsicle Stick STEM Ideas for Later: