Valentine’s Day – STEM Challenges

Valentine's Day STEM Challenges

Looking for some Valentine’s Day activities that your students will love but are more than just a craft or activity to pass the time? Valentine’s STEM Challenges (or STEAM Challenges) engage your students in brain-busting work disguised as fun!

From this hub page, you will find everything you need to know about all five Valentine’s Day STEM challenges: links to resources, blog posts, video walk-throughs, and teacher feedback on each resource.

Valentine’s Day STEM Challenge Basics:

Students work in partners or groups against criteria & constraints lists to design and build Valentine’s-themed items using science, technology, engineering, and math skills to complete the tasks and extensions. Modification suggestions are included to make these challenges engaging and productive for students in grades 2 – 8.

Teacher Feedback on the Valentine's Day Bundle

Thanks! Helped me move into STEM projects - and worked over various ages.

Tonya Z.-Valentine's Day Bundle

I can't wait to use this in my classroom! I have your October, November and December STEM Project and I love them! My students love them! Thank you for sharing your work!

Gifted Girl-Valentine's Day Bundle

Very easy to use with clear directions and materials list. The kids are always engaged!

Williamson’s Fun in Fifth-Valentine's Day Bundle

Loved it. Used it with my students and they were engaged and enjoyed the activities. Thanks!

Sandra P.-Valentine's Day Bundle

As usual this seller does not disappoint! My Gifted & talented groups absolutely love her STEM projects as we have done numerous ones I purchased this year from her! So well organized, so well thought out and the extensions are awesome! I also love the videos I can really see how it will all play out when I do the STEM with my students. Thank you so much! I am buying the St. Patrick's bundle today!!

H4 Teacher_V-Valentine's Day Bundle

Love! Well laid out. Enough wiggle room to adapt to different age groups.

Catherine S.-Valentine's Day Bundle

Cupid's Quiver

Working against a criteria/constraints list in groups, students will design and build a bow & arrow set for Cupid’s Valentine’s Day target practice. (Designing the quiver is optional.)

– Option: if you find bow & arrow design too difficult, modify the challenge to make throwing darts instead.

– Students will aim for high scores as they take three shots each at a Valentine’s themed target. Final scores are taken as the sum or average of their personal and/or team results.

As with all my challenges, modifications are included to make it appropriate for grades 2-8. More details can be found in resource, blog, and video linked below the teacher feedback.

Teacher Feedback on Cupid's Quiver

This was a wonderful activity. All students were engaged and excited. You broke it up and made it easy for teachers to understand each step.

Amy O.-Cupid's Quiver

You could definitely do this for a whole afternoon, or over a few days. My fifth graders loved it! I chose to take the whole afternoon so we could design, build, get in all the trials, revise our designs, and try again. Very engaging!

Laura R.-Cupid's Quiver

Great resource that can easily be adapted to younger or older students.

Aimee R.-Cupid's Quiver

Used this as a substitute teacher activity with a very difficult 6/7 class. Worked like a charm. Everyone had fun!

Colleen B.-Cupid's Quiver

Students loved it! Easy to use with our STEM buddies in K & 1!

Kathrin M.-Cupid's Quiver

My sixth graders LOVED this STEM challenge. I really appreciated the data collection pages and precise directions that were included. The videos linked to the product were also very helpful.

Lisa W.-Cupid's Quiver

The “M” in this STEM challenge should be an extra-large capital letter, because it is definitely the focus in this 2-D challenge!

Working against a criteria/constraints list individually or with partners, students will design the “heaviest” heart possible.

– Using a criteria/constraints list, students create small hearts of various colors & sizes. Point values are assigned to each color group based on its size. Students arrange various configurations of their smaller hearts inside a large, outer heart in order to create the “heaviest” possible heart. (“Heaviest” is in quotation marks because we are not measuring weight; rather, we are assigning point values to inner hearts.)

This challenge can be run simply (focusing on shape creation & manipulation, measurement, addition, and symmetry), or you can add complexity (focusing on length/width ratios, multiplying & dividing decimals, percent contribution, etc.). Two criteria/constraints lists are provided to highlight either end of the spectrum along with editable versions.

As with all my challenges, modifications are included to make it appropriate for grades 2-8. More details can be found in resource, blog, and video linked below the teacher feedback.

Teacher Feedback on Heavy Hearts

This was PERFECT for Valentine's Day. My students were totally engaged and have asked me to find/create a St. Patrick's Day activity like this. They want more opportunities to critically think - why of course!

Classroom Connection-Heavy Hearts

Seemed like an easy challenge but I loved seeing the kids have to really work for it.

Jessica M.-Heavy Hearts

Love how I could adapt it to my 2nd graders!

Lauren H.-Heavy Hearts

This is the third STEM project I have done and it was just as good as the others! I usually do these activities with my homeroom kids during Science. This time, I did it with my math class (which is a mixture of kids from all three fifth grades - and the lowest ability group) and they LOVED it! Many of the kids in this Math group can easily be off task and make poor choices. Not during this activity. They were SO ENGAGED! Can't wait to get to get to the next month to do my next activity! Thanks also for the youtube clips for each activity. They've been really helpful!

Pamela M.-Heavy Hearts

Super fun, and super challenging! Loved doing this with my kids. It was fun to see all the different ways of thinking and the designs.

Katie H.-Heavy Hearts

My students loved this! Great options to adjust the difficulty as needed.

Erika M.-Heavy Hearts

I only had the chance to do the heavy hearts activity, but the kids loved it! They were so totally engrossed and working so well in cooperative groups that I could have left the room and they wouldn't have known! Thanks for putting this together!

Jennifer Y.-Heavy Hearts

Working against a criteria/constraints list individually or in partners/groups, students will design and build the tallest “tower of love” possible using Valentine’s Day cards they were probably just going to throw away anyway! (Note: for older students or those who don’t exchange cards, an alternative love-notes handout is included.)

As with all my challenges, modifications are included to make it appropriate for grades 2-8. More details can be found in resource, blog, and video linked below the teacher feedback.

Teacher Feedback on Cards in the Clouds

Great teaching tool, used as an observation lesson and my principal loved it!

Rachel J.-Cards in the Clouds

This was another very fun challenge for my class! They loved using the Valentine cards to build the towers. Very challenging! You're so creative; thanks, Kerry!!

Tried and True Teaching Tools-Cards in the Clouds

Kids loved the challenge. I loved that we could find a use for our valentines that would have ended up in the trash right away 🙂

Vanessa S.-Cards in the Clouds

Very engaging! I left this activity for my sub and they had a great time!

Brooke H.-Cards in the Clouds

Candy / Confection Container

Working against a criteria/constraints list individually or in partners/groups, students will design and build the smallest container possible to house a candy assortment.

– “Confection Container” alternative: students will design and build the smallest container possible to house one or more cupcakes (keeping frosting on the cupcakes, not the box!)

– Because this can be treated as two separate challenges, two criteria/constraints lists have been provided: one for candy and another for confection (cupcake).

As with all my challenges, modifications are included to make it appropriate for grades 2-8. More details can be found in resource, blog, and video linked below the teacher feedback.

Teacher Feedback on Candy/Confection Container

Fun project. Great way to keep 6th graders engaged.

Jordan F.-Candy Container (paperless)

Your challenges are super fun, and your resources are top notch! My students will be excited to work this out. Thank you!

Alexis M.-Candy Container (paperless)

Well thought out and easy to implement. I'm actually using this to go along with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Taylor V.-Candy Container

My kids loved this and did very well in planning and construction.

Science ETC-Candy Container

Extremely thorough, well written resource. Fun and engaging!

Stacey M.-Candy Container

Individually or in partners/groups, students will design and build a uniquely talented bouquet of flowers! This STEM challenge actually contains four challenge prompts that can be taken separately or simultaneously in groups:

– Floating Flowers

– Fluff & Flatten Flowers

– Functional Flowers

– Firmly Fixed Flowers

I will never apologize for my love of alliterative titles. ☺

Note: Although it is part of the Valentine’s Day bundle, this challenge works well for spring, Easter, and Mother’s Day as well.

As with all my challenges, modifications are included to make it appropriate for grades 2-8. More details can be found in resource, blog, and video linked below the teacher feedback.