Storytime STEM: The Noisy Paintbox Overdue

STEM Concept: Sound and Engineering Design

Vibrating matter can make sounds and sound can make matter vibrate.

A sound wave needs a medium through which it is transmitted.

Developing and Optimizing Design Solutions

This Storytime STEM-Pack includes all the materials you need to engage kids in science activities that explore how vibrating matter can make sound, and how sound can travel through air, water, and an object. Children apply this learning to engage in an engineering design task. Children visit three different stations, exploring how to talk through a balloon, what happens when rocks are hit together under water, and what you can hear when you strike a metal object attached with a string to a cup held up to your ear. After reading the popular children’s book The Noisy Paint Box, children work in teams of four to design a communication device choosing from a combination of different types of strings and cups. Included in this set, you'll find:

• Detailed instructions (i.e., lesson plan) for the learning activities
• 12 craft sticks
• 4 balloons
• 2 small rocks
• 4 paper cups, 4 pieces of string, 4 paper clips, 4 metal spoons to make a spoon gong system
• 12 paper cups, 12 plastic cups, 12 foam cups
• 1 roll of heavy cotton twine
• 3 small rolls of thin cotton twine
• 1 roll of fishing line
• 1 roll of masking tape
• 1 box of paper clips
• 6 Abstract Paintings Cards (8.5x11)
• 1 Sound Concept Card (8.5x11)
• 1 Engineering Design Concept Card (8.5x11)
• Word wall cards to use in context
• A copy of The Noisy Paintbox by Barb Rosenstock

The entire activity takes approximately 45 minutes to complete.  This STEM-pack is suitable for grades 1-4.