The River Vale Free Public Library is a member of the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS). This consortium of 77 public libraries delivers quality library service to the general public through sharing of books and other materials, purchasing, maintaining and sharing a computer system and providing common access to the cooperative's data bases. Your River Vale Library card enables you to access the collections of all members of the cooperative by using the BCCLS online catalog.
Library Cards
STEM Activities
At-Home Edition
Candy Structures

Materials needed:
-
Candy: starburst, gummy bears, or jelly beans work well!
-
toothpicks
How to:
-
Gather up your candy! If using Starburst, use a plastic knife to cut candy into halves or quarters.
-
Use a small piece of candy to connect two toothpicks together.
-
Try building different shapes like a square and a triangle. Can you connect them to make a pyramid? A cube?
-
Can you make a tower? Try testing out your tower with weights like books to see how much it can hold.
-
Build two structures and try to connect them with a bridge.
-
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):