Easter STEM Challenge - Carrot Carriage

Whether or not you celebrate Easter, the Carrot Carriage STEM Challenge is too much brain-busting fun to pass up.

Working against a criteria & constraints list, students design a vehicle made primarily of carrots for the Easter Bunny. If you don’t celebrate Easter, not to worry! Just substitute another rider: imagine Cinderella’s fairy godmother ran out of pumpkins. Or you could use any random figurine on hand or even make it about shipping cargo of base ten blocks.

The only limitation is your imagination (and, of course, the materials you have on hand).

Carrot Carriage is a perfect introduction to simple machines and all kinds of measurement & geometry standards. Read & watch on for details!

How to Implement the Challenge

Check out this video walk-through of the challenge where I talk you through all the materials, criteria & constraints, measuring results, cross-curricular extensions and more. It’s the fastest way to get a handle on what to expect and how to make the challenge perfectly tailored for your age group.

Materials Needed

Sample/suggested materials for each student or group:

Materials you’ll need to do the activity are easily modified. Amazon Affiliate links are included below.

Large carrots (4-6)
Small carrots (4 – 8)
Peeps bunnies (1)
Plastic eggs (1)
Butter knife or plastic knife (1)
Straws (1-2)
Toothpicks (10 – 20)
Brass fasteners (4 – 8)
Scissors
Ramp (1)
- Simple ramp will be used to test designs (e.g. textbook propped at an angle)
Ruler (1)
- Used to measure travel distance of carriages
Design analysis handouts (included in resource)

Optional:

Content Connections

Simple machines
Measurement
- Standard & nonstandard units
- Convert from customary to metric
- Mass – estimate & measure
Geometry
- Circumference of carrot slices
- Volume of cones, cylinders, & irregular objects
  - Baby carrots tend to be cylinders (or close to it)
  - Regular carrots are conical (or close to it)
Calculate speed