5 End of the Year STEM Activities with the Engineering Design Process

Summary

End of the Year STEM Activities to try with elementary through middle school students

You’ve (almost) made it! Testing season is (hopefully) behind you, and now it’s time to bring the excitement back into your classroom with engaging, hands-on end of the year STEM activities!

These low prep challenges are the perfect way to keep students learning, collaborating, and thinking critically right up until the last day of school. Even better? Each activity naturally incorporates the engineering design process, helping students plan, test, improve, and reflect on their designs.

If you can get outside with your students, do it!

One of the best ways to boost engagement at the end of the school year is simple: take your STEM activities outdoors! Looking for more Outdoor STEM? You’ll definitely want to read this post about bringing camping indoors with STEM!

After a long winter (especially here in New England), students are always excited to get outside when spring hits. When given the opportunity to move, explore, and learn in a new environment they will often engage more fully. Outdoor STEM challenges also create the perfect setting for testing designs, gathering data, and iterating using the engineering design process.

💡 Teacher Tip: Want to save time planning? Scroll to the bottom of this post for ready-to-use STEM challenge worksheets and printables that guide students through each step of the design process.

STEM Challenge #1: Design a Paper Airplane (Engineering Design Process in Action)

This classic activity is a must-have for any list of end of the school year STEM activities—and it requires almost no materials (you just need paper, though students can add things like paper clips or tape if desired for testing)! This one is easy enough to leave with a sub and is as close to no prep STEM as you can get!

Students will:

• Ask questions about flight and aerodynamics
• Imagine and sketch designs
• Create and test prototypes
• Improve their designs based on results

Challenge your students to design a paper airplane that:

• Flies the farthest distance
• Stays in the air the longest
• Curves left or right on purpose
• Performs tricks like loops

This is a perfect entry point for teaching or reviewing the engineering design process in a fun, accessible way.

✏️ Make it even easier: Use guided worksheets so students can track designs, test results, and improvements.

STEM Challenge #2: Design and Build a Kite

Looking for outdoor STEM activities for the end of the school year? Kite design is the perfect mix of science, engineering, and creativity.

Materials needed:

• Plastic bags, giant coffee filters, or even paper!
• Bamboo skewers or dowels
• Scissors, hot glue or tape
• String!

Students must consider:

• Lift and drag
• Materials and weight
• Balance and stability

Using the engineering design process, students can test how different shapes and materials impact flight performance.

🌬️ Pro tip: Save this challenge for a windy day or field day for maximum success (and excitement!).

STEM Challenge #3: Build a Boat, Explore Buoyancy!

This hands-on engineering challenge is always a student favorite—and a fantastic way to reinforce problem-solving skills.

The goal? Design a boat or cargo ship that can carry the most weight without sinking.

Options for differentiation:

• Give all students the same materials and compare results
• Assign different types of cargo to each group
• Challenge students to redesign after testing

Students will naturally engage in the engineering design process as they test their designs to failure.

📊 Add relevant vocabulary and recording sheets to turn this into a full STEM investigation!

STEM Challenge #4: Create a Bubble Wand

Turn a simple activity into a powerful STEM learning experience! For this one, students will use items like pipe cleaners, straws, strings, and craft sticks to create bubble makers!

Students can design a bubble wand that:

• Creates the largest bubbles
• Produces multiple bubbles at once
• Forms unique or unexpected shapes

Take it further by having students experiment with homemade bubble solutions, adjusting ratios of water, dish soap, and glycerin or corn syrup.

Simple homemade bubble solution:

• 5 parts water
• 1.5 – 2 parts dish soap
• 0.5 – 0.75 parts corn syrup

This is a great way to combine science inquiry with the engineering design process—all while keeping things fun and engaging at the end of the school year.

STEM Challenge #5: The Great Egg Drop (Ultimate Engineering Design Challenge)

No list of end of the school year STEM activities is complete without the Egg Drop Challenge!

Students must design a system to protect an egg from breaking when dropped from a height.

Materials needed:

• Hardboiled OR plastic eggs (recommended)
• Recyclables like cardboard, plastic containers
• Office supplies like tape, straws, string, rubber bands, binder clips
• Air pillows, packing peanuts, etc. for cushioning

Encourage creative problem-solving by asking:

• Will they use cushioning or shock absorption?
• Can they slow the fall with parachutes?
• How can they improve their design after testing?

You can easily scale this activity by increasing the drop height or limiting materials—making it ideal for a wide range of grade levels.

🥚 This challenge perfectly showcases the engineering design process in action—and students LOVE it.

Make These End of Year STEM Activities Easy to Implement

Want to save time while maximizing student learning?

My ready-to-use STEM challenge resources include:

• Step-by-step engineering design process worksheets
• Planning and reflection pages
• Data collection charts
• Easy-to-follow teacher instructions

These resources help students stay focused and accountable while making your life easier during the busy end of the school year.

👉 Explore the printable STEM activities and grab the resources that will make your final weeks stress-free and engaging! I have bundled 3 of these challenges (boat, bubble wand, and egg drop) into one resource pack:

You can also find all of the resources separately!

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