STEM and fundraising

There is a big push towards STEM education in schools now. Literally, it stands for science, technology, engineering, maths and looks to encourage little (and not so little) minds to gain an awareness and hands on training in these areas in an effort to encourage the take up of tertiary study in these subjects. Down the track for our kids, this means they could end up generating and contributing to scientific developments and innovations for the future.

And aside from all that, the hands on learning part of STEM can be really fun! Each week my daughter’s grade 4 teacher sends through photos of the activities that the kids have been doing for STEM that week. From making slime to construction with various items to sand and water activities and more. My daughter loves to tell me about the group competitions that her class has each week and it got me thinking that there must be a way to incorporate this into a fundraiser.

After doing a little research I came up with two fun ideas that could be run during the school day or after hours as a family event.

1. Construction Challenge This idea comes from the ‘E’ for Engineering. Firstly, you’ll need to decide on what type of ‘construction’ participants will be putting together. It might be a bridge, a robot, a castle or a vehicle.The second thing you need to do is get donations of items that you’ll need. This might include cardboard boxes – all different sizes, cardboard tubes, newspaper, scissors, string, glue, tape, thumbtacks, blue tack, toothpicks or whatever other supplies you think will help. You’ll also need to decide if all participants will be given the same supplies to work with or whether you’ll have collection points for different items.

Charge an entry fee for all participants. Maybe have an individual entry fee and a team entry fee. If you’ve only got limited space (or supplies) it might be wise to sell spots in advance. Prizes, which could be as simple as a certificate, can be awarded for ‘most creative’, ‘best looking’, ‘strongest’ and so on and should be judged by your committee.

A fun event which could be a great idea for an alternative Father’s Day activity.

PRO TIP: a great idea for getting donations for items that are not freebies is to hold a free dress day which is paid for with supplies instead of money.

1. STEM-a-thon A more current take on the typical a-thon, where students are challenged to complete a range of STEM activities over the course of a school day and are sponsored for completion of each activity. To encourage more sponsorships, you can offer a prize for the most money raised in each year level.There are literally heaps of ideas for STEM activities but you’ll want to try and stick to those that are year level/age appropriate. I would suggest six to eight activities to be completed and with a little research, most of these activities can be done with a large budget. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Make a mini model of the water cycle using a zip lock bag
• Turning your name into crystals
• Testing whether objects are magnetic
• Making different types of slime
• Building a sand volcano that actually erupts
• Density rainbow in a jar
• Building robots
• Coding
• Building a simple machine using Lego technics or even recyclables
• Building edible food structures – using pretzels and marshmallows etc.
• Popsicle stick catapults

If you’re wanting to make your STEM-a-thon an out of school hours event, you can follow a similar process but instead of sponsorship, you can charge an entry fee per family or team. Having a wider cross section of ages could give you more flexibility with the types of activities that families or teams are required to complete.

So, there you have a couple of fundraising ideas that I think schools will be very happy to jump on board with and for a good cause too!