Locally in Coventry and Warwickshire we have developed the following Challenges In A Box for school teachers to use to assist in educating pupils of various ages. We are keen to have feedback and new ideas for these challenges.

Each challenge has visual aids and, where relevant, pupil guides and teacher guides.

Challenges In A Box are copyright © Derrick Willer.

However you are free to copy for use in schools and for instructing children of school age and for use by children of school age. Please feedback to: Derrick Willer, dw@dwiller.com

However, I suggest that you give a small donation (e.g. £25, $30) to the Memusi Schools in remote Kenya so that they can install electricity and then get computers.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/electricity Thank you.

Primary Schools

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Title

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Anemometer	Make an Anemometer out of some plastic sheets, a dowel, a pin and a heavy base
Animals in Danger	Ten examples of endangered animals. What are they? Where do they live? What do the eat? And What is the danger?
Arithmetic Bricks	Sum Fun with Arithmetic Bricks. Learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squares, pythagoras and Pi using bricks. Suitable for ages 5-8.
Arithmetic Bricks For Five Year Olds	Sum Fun with Arithmetic Bricks. Learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squares, pythagoras and Pi using bricks. Suitable for ages 5-8.
Balloon Car	Make a car powered by a balloon from recycled materials
Bridges	A paper based exercise suitable for 7-13 year old pupils. Pupils make a bridge out of paper into a U" shape and find out how much weight (pennies or model cars) it will take with different depths of the "U" versus the remaining area for the bridge. They graph the results. The project is then extended to bridge the gap between two chairs with paper, sticky tape, etc. costing them "money" – e.g. cheapest to hold a 100gm weight wins. (30 mins)
Burglar Alarm Primary	An introduction to electrical circuits for Primary School pupils, KS2, using low cost materials. About 30-60 minutes as individuals or small teams.
Car Crash	An exercise to discover that cars have crumple zones to keep passengers safe from crashes. The pupils are asked to construct a car from available materials and work out how to protect the passengers and also have crumple zones front and back.
Chinese New Year	This activity is for pupils to make a rotating table with lights.
Clown	This exercise introduces pupils to levers by making a dancing clown, robot or Santa They discover new words including Mechanical Advantage and Pivot or Fulcrum
Compressed Air Car	Make a model car from recycled materials and use compressed air to race it across the playground
Compressed Air Plane	Make a model plane from recycled materials and use compressed air to fly it across the playground
Crackers	This activity is for pupils to make some Christmas or Party Crackers
Diwali	This activity is for pupils to make a rotating Dwali table with lights
Downhill Racer	An activity to make a downhill racing car using a pre-made base and wheels. Pupils can work alone or in teams. Approximately 1 hour
Eco Power Challenge	This activity is for pupils to see how they can reduce the carbon footprint of their home. Then to scale this up for their school.
Egg Drop	Using raw eggs the teams have to make a cradle to hold the egg and protect the egg when it is dropped from height. For younger ones you may want to use boiled eggs. Teams should consider safety, strength, crumple zone, what happens if the cradle turns upside-down, etc.
Electricity Is Fun	Utilising the AchidistviQ Physics Science Lab Circuit Learning Electronics Exploration Kit,STEM Electric Education Tools for Beginner, Junior and Senior High School Pupils
Even More Funny Maths	Apples and bags, twins? Ladder and tide, Hare and tortoise, Polar Bear. Alien money, and more
Festive Season Crackers	Make a party cracker and decorate it.
Festive Season Santa Volcano	Make a Santa and turn him into a volcano with baking soda and vinegar
Fossils	Discover fossils and their age. Make a replica fossil with dough.
Flashing Festive Lights	Using LEDS and electronic components to make an A-Stable Multivibrator to power flashing LED festive lights
Flight	A paper based exercise helping 5-13 year olds to understand flight. There are different planes to be made and different wing arrangements demonstrate how lift affects flight – canard versus tail-plane, etc. (30 mins)
Funny Maths	Exploring some unusual arithmetic, geometry, etc. used by ourselves and, maybe, aliens. Including Thales Theorem, Hippocrates of Chios, Mesolabe Compass, multiplying using your hands and unusual multiplication by some earlier humans. Years 5 and 6.
Gaia	Gaia is the idea that living organisms on a planet will affect the nature of their environment. Can the pupils list some of the problems and their possible solutions?
Helicopter	Elastic band helicopter made from paper and paper clips
House Of Gadgets	For 9 - 13 year olds. An exercise to understand sustainability and conservation. Pupils imagine what will happen if rubbish is not collected. Then there is a short story about conservation. The pupils decide on a gadget to make and are given recycled materials to make a mock-up of it. (2½-3 hours)
Japanese Multiplication	The Japanese method of multiplying two two-digit numbers is to do this by drawing lines.
Lets Crumble	Learn how to programme the Crumble computer. Then make a night-light or automated money-box using the Crumble kit and recycled materials. There are further challenges for traffic lights, car and maze, robot. Developed with DATA
Lets Be Specific About Gravity	Several samples to weigh and measure their volume using a graduated test-tube or jug. Plus you can add your own samples – maybe pebble, concrete, plastic, potato, carrot, cheese
Levers and Pulleys	Levers with up to ten to one mechanical advantage, and visa versa. One to four pulleys with up to four-to-one mechanical advantage.
Magic Roundabout	Make a roundabout from recycled cardboard, paper and wooden dowel. Decorate if for a festival or party.
Make a Barometer	Make a barometer using a jam jar and a record on graph paper
Make a Thermometer	Make a thermometer out of a drinks bottle, a straw, alcohol and water.
Measure Wind Speed	Make an anemometer and measure wind speed. Compare to weather forecasts to obtain a conversion factor between revolutions per minute and published wind speed.
More Funny Maths	Triangles, marbles, weighing, always 1089, letters represent numbers, odd x even = ? and more
More Tricky Logic	Ten more questions where the logic may not be obvious.
Paper Catapult Primary	A version of the secondary school challenge for primary school pupils where the design is limited and a recommended design is used.
Paper Towers And Bridges	Versions for Primary and Secondary Schools. Approx. 30 – 60 minutes. Secondary school pupils in teams are judged on design, budgets, actual spend, and presentations.
Pendulums	An activity with a tennis ball and a cricket ball to demonstrate pendulums and calculate their swing-time. Finally testing the formula with a playground swing.
Polyalphabetic Coding	How to Code and Decode using your Birthdate so you can send secret messages. KS2 and KS3. About 30-60 minutes as individuals or small teams.
Primary Quick Challenges	Four sets of 13 (Baker’s Dozen) challenges each taking 5-10 minutes.			Set 1 2 3 & 4
Recycled Boat	Make a sailing boat out of recycled materials
Rockets and Maths	Make a rocket and throw it horizontally and vertically and calculate the average velocity using Newton’s laws of motion.
Roundabout	Make a roundabout and turn it with a handle
Sail A Matchbox	Make a boat out of a matchbox and pencils and sail it with a hand-held fan
Singing Maths	Pictures and rhymes leading to simple arithmetic Suitable for 5-8 year olds, these include Sum Fun with Jack And Jill, Grand Old Duke of York, and Contrary Mary
Spectroscopy	Make a spectroscope out of cardboard box and a CD. Approx. 30 minutes. Suitable for Primary Schools
STEM Quiz	24 questions to tease the pupils, teachers and STEM Ambassadors complete with "Wrong" with explanation and the correct answers
Sum Pi to Chew Over	Not pork pie, ∏ ≃ 3.142 or 22/7. Calculating circumference, area and volume
Sum Prime Numbers	Sum Prime Numbers. Suitable for ages 5-8.
Table Tennis Ball Launcher	An education challenge. We have 12 kits available for use in schools in Coventry and Warwickshire. (30 mins for basic launcher kit – up to 1½ hours for loader for the launcher made from recycled materials provided by the school) Email Derrick Willer dw@dwiller.com for availability.
The Water Cycle	An experiment to show the water cycle – evaporation and condensation.
Thermometer	This activity is for pupils to discover how a thermometer works.
Towers and Bridges Made With Sweeties	Primary challenge, approx. 20-40 minutes. Make a Tower or Bridge out of either Marsh Mallows and Straws or Jelly Beans and Toothpicks
Tricky Logic	Ten questions where the logic may not be obvious.
Vinegar Rocket	Make a rocket from a plastic bottle using vinegar and baking soda.
Water Clock	Make a clock that uses water to time 30 seconds, etc.
Water Wheel Light	Make a water wheel drive a generator to light an LED
Why Lag Your House?	A simple card based exercise for younger pupils to learn how insulating your home can improve heating and save on energy. Suitable for pupils aged 5-13. (60 mins)
Win A Car	There are three closed doors. You can win a car if you open the correct door. The host opens one door which is empty, Should you change your chosen door for a greater possibility of winning? This activity is for pupils to understand probability