STEM Activities with Candy Hearts

If you are looking for some simple but fun Valentine STEM activities to try in your classroom or with your kids at home, I’ve got some great ideas for you.

But first, let me share my opinion on conversation hearts.

Thanks Grumpy Cat.

I really do not like them. My kids disagree, but I think they taste like sweet chalk. Like slightly sweeter Tums. Yet, I always end up with an abundance of them.

If you are like me, and you are looking for something to do with your extra candy hearts, here you go:

Build a Candy Heart Wall

Maybe you could see who could build the tallest wall. Or you could see who can build a wall that can withstand wind from a straw.

Build an Index Card Bridge

This is one of the simplest STEM engineering challenges ever. Just give each student or group an index card, and see who can build the strongest bridge that will span the gap between two plastic cups. See how many conversation hearts the bridge can hold! There are so many different bridge designs that your students will come up with! The shape of the hearts makes balancing tricky, so your kiddos will have to be problems solvers to get them to balance.

Construct  a Candy Heart Barge

Create a boat using only aluminum foil that holds the most hearts. How many will yours hold? One of ours held 281!! That was when I realized I needed to use smaller pieces of foil because counting that was just crazy! Just give each group a 3-4 inch square of foil, and you’re good!

Students almost always start out creating a canoe-shaped boat, but they will quickly run into balance issues. (True for a real canoe, too, have you ever tried getting into one?!) They will figure out that a flat bottomed barge-shaped ship will hold the most cargo.

Create a Candy Heart Chute

Can you create a chute that will deliver the hearts into a plastic cup? How long can you make it? It is challenging to get the chute high enough so that gravity will pull the hearts down. Since the hearts are not marbles and do not roll, there is more than just gravity at work. Students will realize that they have to use a material that creates the least friction so the hearts will slide easy.

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These make great activities to add critical thinking and STEM to your Valentine’s Party. I have teaching packs for the barges and the chute in my TpT store if you are looking for more detailed teacher directions or student recording sheets. The others are just for fun!

Happy Teaching!

Sarah