Engage Your Students in our 2024 STEM Challenge:
Extreme Zoo Makeover: A STEM Approach to Habitat Design
As part of Massachusetts’ 2024 STEM Week, the Wade Institute for Science Education will be running a STEM Design Challenge through a grant from the Department of Higher Education and the Massachusetts STEM Advisory Council. We will be offering a two-tiered engineering design challenge. For those not familiar with it we will offer the original Extreme Zoo Makeover: A STEM Approach to Habitat Design. This Design Challenge will engage students in grades 5-8 in a unique experience that integrates science and engineering concepts in a series of inquiry-based investigations that lead up to a student-driven challenge. The Design Challenge is designed for middle school students but is easily adaptable to elementary or high school level. The Wade Institute is partnering on this Design Challenge with the Lloyd Center for Environment and Buttonwood Park Zoo.
Design Challenge: Your local Zoo wants a makeover! As we learn more about animals’ needs, we’ve realized the Zoo’s old habitats are no longer adequate and it’s up to you and your engineering team to redesign them. You must find a way to 1) design habitats that meet the specific needs of the animals for which you are designing them, 2) engineer an enrichment item for your animal species that will stimulate natural behaviors, and 3) create an interpretive sign and interactive features that will engage the public in your animal habitat.
Photo courtesy of the Lloyd Center for the Environment.
We will be offering a two-tiered engineering design challenge. The new, second level of the challenge will guide students to develop plans that incorporate Arduino sensor technology in their habitat designs.
Anyone who registers for the Challenge will receive a curriculum packet that includes both pre-challenge investigations and the Design Challenge itself. Any Massachusetts educator who registers for the Challenge is eligible to receive both a curriculum packet and a materials kits for classroom use.
Pre-Challenge Professional learning workshops will be offered on Saturday, September 28th at Buttonwood Park Zoo for teachers interested in either design challenge. During the workshop, you’ll participate in elements of the challenge and have the opportunity to try out your enrichment toys with animals at Buttonwood Park Zoo. For those interested in the new technology component of the Design Challenge, we will include a session on engaging participants in examples of the technology-based component of the challenge, working with Arduino-based solutions. With these two challenges, the Wade Institute welcomes new participants as well as former participants who would like to build on the Extreme Zoo Makeover challenge with their students this year.
Registration Information:
Please note: Any Massachusetts educator who signs up for the Challenge is eligible to receive a materials kit. While we welcome out-of-state participants to join in this Challenge, we will not be able to provide non-Massachusetts educators with a materials kit. The Curriculum Guide will be available for any teachers participating in the Challenge.
Cost: FREE
In-person Workshops (Original or Level 2): Saturday, September 28th, 2024 (8:30 AM – 3:30 PM ET), Buttonwood Park Zoo, New Bedford, MA
Challenge Partners: Lloyd Center for the Environment; Buttonwood Park Zoo
Participants must pre-register for the workshop and the Design Challenge.
Registration is now closed. Good luck with the Challenge!
STEM Week (October 21st – 25th) is sponsored by the Executive Office of Education and the MA STEM Advisory Council.
The STEM Challenge is funded by a grant from the MA STEM Advisory Council.