STEM Activities, Projects & Guides for Kids
Project guides, workshop notes, and STEM explainers written for Avanza STEM students, families, and teachers.
Latest Articles
These guides come from activities we run in Avanza STEM workshops and questions families ask us often.
Engineering
Why Do Buildings Sway in the Wind?
Tall buildings sway on purpose. Learn why a little flexibility makes skyscrapers safer and how giant dampers hidden inside reduce the motion.
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AI
How Do Video Games Use AI?
Enemies that chase you, characters that react, and games that get harder as you improve are all driven by behavior rules. Learn how game AI actually works.
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Robotics
Why Robot Hands Are So Hard to Make
Gripping different objects takes movement, strength, and touch all at once. Learn why robot hands are one of the most interesting challenges in robotics.
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Science
Why Is the Sky Blue but Sunsets Are Orange?
The sky looks blue during the day, but at sunset it can turn orange, pink, or red. The reason has to do with sunlight, air, and the way tiny particles scatter colors.
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Engineering
The Hidden Engineering of a Water Bottle
Single-use plastic bottles are lightweight engineering marvels, but PET, cap friction, microplastics, and waste all come with trade-offs.
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AI
How Does Your Phone Recognize Your Face?
Your phone does not know who you are. It matches face patterns. Learn how cameras, sensors, and machine learning work together behind face unlock.
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Robotics
How Mars Rovers Drive Without a Driver
Mars is too far away for remote control. Learn how rovers use cameras, wheels, instructions from Earth, and careful software to explore another planet.
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Science
Why Do Magnets Stick to Some Metals but Not Others?
Magnets stick to some metals because of how tiny magnetic regions inside the material line up. Not all metals have the right structure for this.
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Community
What Makes a STEM Workshop Fun?
A look at how Avanza STEM designs sessions so students are building, testing, arguing, and figuring things out, not sitting quietly while someone explains.
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Engineering
Why Are Airplane Wings Curved?
Airplane wings are curved because shape controls airflow. Learn how the airfoil design creates lift and why the wings keep a plane in the sky.
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AI
Should Kids Trust Everything AI Says?
AI can be helpful and creative, but it can also be wrong. Learn how to think like a detective, what topics need extra care, and how to protect your privacy.
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Robotics
How Do Robots Know Where They Are?
Robots use cameras, wheel sensors, GPS, and lidar to estimate their location. Learn how robots sense, map, and navigate the world, and why they still get lost.
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Science
Why Do Your Ears Pop on an Airplane?
Your ears pop on airplanes because the air pressure around you changes quickly. Your body has a small pressure-balancing system that helps fix it.
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Engineering
How Roller Coasters Stay on the Track
Gravity, momentum, multi-sided wheel systems, and carefully shaped loops all work together to keep a roller coaster on the track, even upside down.
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AI
Can AI Actually Think?
AI can answer questions and write stories, but is it really thinking? Learn how AI uses pattern recognition and why that is different from how a human brain works.
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Science
Why Do Bikes Stay Balanced When Moving?
Bikes stay balanced because of motion, steering, wheel design, and constant tiny corrections from the rider.
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Robotics
Getting Started with LEGO Robotics: A Parent's Guide
Which LEGO robotics kit makes sense for your child's age, what they will actually build with it, and how to help even if you have never coded before.
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Math
Math Games That Make Learning Fun
Six low-prep games we use to practice number sense, fractions, and mental math, no worksheets required. For grades 2 through 5.
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Engineering
The Engineering Behind a Soccer Ball
Shape, air pressure, panel design, and materials all affect how a soccer ball rolls, bounces, and curves through the air.
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AI
Why AI Sometimes Gets Things Wrong
AI makes confident predictions based on patterns, but those predictions can be wrong. Learn what hallucinations are and how to fact-check what AI tells you.
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Science
5 Easy Science Experiments You Can Do at Home
Five experiments using things you already have at home, like vinegar, raisins, and paper towels, with the science behind each one explained simply enough to talk about afterward.
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Community
Building a Community: How Local STEM Workshops Change Lives
What a typical Avanza STEM session at the library looks like, and why we think libraries are the right place to run them.
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AI
Is a Robot the Same Thing as AI?
A robot is a physical machine. AI is software that makes decisions. They can work together but they are different. Learn what sensors, motors, and AI each do.
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Robotics
What Makes a Robot a Robot?
A robot senses the world, makes decisions, and takes action. Learn the three parts every robot has and why robots do not need to look like people.
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Engineering
How Elevators Know Where to Go
Elevators use buttons, sensors, motors, counterweights, and control logic to move people safely behind every simple button press.
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Science
Why Does Metal Feel Colder Than Wood?
Metal and wood can be the same temperature, but metal often feels colder because it pulls heat from your hand much faster.
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AI
What is AI? Explaining Artificial Intelligence to Kids
A plain-language way to talk with kids about how AI learns, what it gets wrong, and a hands-on activity you can try together in about 10 minutes.
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Robotics
How Factory Robots Build Cars
Factory robots weld, paint, and move car parts with precision. Learn how robotic arms are programmed, kept safe, and used alongside human workers on the assembly line.
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Engineering
Why Are Manhole Covers Round?
Manhole covers are round because the shape is safe, strong, easy to move, and impossible to drop through the hole. One design solves many problems.
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Science
How Do Noise-Canceling Headphones Work?
Noise-canceling headphones use microphones, speakers, and sound waves to reduce unwanted noise before it reaches your ears.
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Engineering
Why Your First Design Is Usually Not Your Best One
A bridge test can show students what their first design missed and what they would improve next.
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Robotics
Why Robots Are Bad at Easy Human Tasks
Folding laundry and opening doors are simple for humans but hard for robots. Learn why everyday tasks challenge robots and what that tells us about human ability.
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AI
What Is AI Actually Doing When It Answers You?
When an AI responds, it is not searching the internet or looking up stored facts. Here is what is actually happening, and why it can sound right while being wrong.
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Science
Why Do Some Things Float and Others Sink?
Floating and sinking depend on density, shape, weight, and how much water an object pushes out of the way.
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Engineering
Design a Mars Rover Out of Cardboard
A hands-on engineering challenge: design and build a cardboard Mars rover with the same constraints real space engineers face.
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AI
What Happens When You Ask AI a Question?
Between your question and the answer, AI is running through a process of prompts, training, and prediction. Here is how it works, step by step.
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Science
Why Do We Slip on Ice?
Ice is slippery because it has low friction, and a thin layer of water can make it even harder for your shoes to grip.
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Engineering
How to Build the Strongest Popsicle Stick Bridge
A simple bridge challenge we use in workshops, plus the design choices that actually make a bridge stronger.
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Engineering
How to Think Like an Inventor in 20 Minutes
A design challenge you can try right now: find a small problem, sketch a fix, build a rough prototype, and test it. The whole loop takes about 20 minutes.
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Engineering
The Engineering of a Backpack
Straps, zippers, fabric, and pockets are all engineering decisions. Here is the design thinking behind the thing you carry to school every day.
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Engineering
The Secret Engineering Inside a School Bus
A school bus is packed with engineering decisions. Learn how the color, seats, mirrors, and emergency exits all work together to move kids safely.
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Engineering
How Engineers Think When Something Breaks
A structure that breaks tells you exactly where the weak point is. Here is the thinking process that turns a failed build into a stronger second attempt.
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Engineering
Why Triangles Are an Engineer's Secret Weapon
The triangle is the strongest shape in engineering. Here is why it shows up in every bridge, tower, and truss, plus what that means for your popsicle stick bridge.
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