STEM Project: Extreme Environment Technology Design & Persuasive Presentation

STEM Project: Extreme Environment Technology Design & Persuasive Presentation

Here's a fun and exciting science project to help bring your extreme environment unit to life and incorporate some design and technology aspects too! Students brainstorm ideas and design a new or improved technology to help explore an extreme environment. Then they persuasively present their idea to the class!

How to Use:

• Students (individually or in pairs) select an extreme environment like a volcano, arctic region, desert, deep sea or space. They envision a brand new or much improved technology that can ease exploration in such challenging conditions.

• Graphic Organizers: The package includes research graphic organizers to help students stay on track as they think about the challenges of exploring their selected environment, the existing exploration tools related to it, and what they could design to make exploration smoother.

• There is space for students to draw a detailed and labelled diagram of their invention. They can also make a prototype!

• Persuasive Presentation: The engagement extends further as students prepare persuasive presentations. With the aid of a brainstorming sheet and speech plan, each student will decide how to share their idea: PowerPoint slides, posters, models or pamphlet form.

• Audience Interaction & Voting System: On presentation day, peers watch presentations actively and vote for their favourite concepts using the provided voting slips. This cultivates critical analysis & decision-making skills among participants while maintaining a competitive yet learning-friendly environment.

This resource aligns well with NGSS3-5-ETS1-1 standards as students tackle a simple design problem and consider materials, constraints, and implementation.

Grades to Use With:

This project is designed for middle grades students in grades 4-8 who are studying extreme environments in a science unit or working on technology and design in a STEM unit.

What's Included:

A total of 8 pages in PDF Format

Title Page

Sample Projects

Two-page graphic organizer for ideas and research

Diagram page

Presentation Brainstorm page

Speech Plan

Voting Slips