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STEM Activities

At-Home Edition

Candy Structures

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Materials needed:

  • Candy: starburst, gummy bears, or jelly beans work well!

  • toothpicks

 

How to:

  1. Gather up your candy! If using Starburst, use a plastic knife to cut candy into halves or quarters.

  2. Use a small piece of candy to connect two toothpicks together.

  3. Try building different shapes like a square and a triangle. Can you connect them to make a pyramid? A cube?

  4. Can you make a tower? Try testing out your tower with weights like books to see how much it can hold.

  5. Build two structures and try to connect them with a bridge.

  6. What other kinds of structures can you build? Look at the architecture books in this kit for inspiration!

 

Architecture Fun Facts:

  • The tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE. It reaches 2,717 feet in height.

  • Besides Egypt, pyramids of various types and sizes were built in many parts of the ancient world including Mexico and Central America, Greece, and China.

  • It took 1 year and 45 days to build the Empire State Building in 1931 with about 3500 workers.

  • The Eiffel Tower took 18,000 pieces of iron and 2.5 million rivets to make. It was built as the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the French Revolution.

(From https://kidworldcitizen.org/world-architecture-for-kids/, 2019)

Want to learn more?

Check out these eBooks (available on Hoopla with your library card):

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