Exploring Gears with PASTA! I dyed some pasta one night to use for some crafts. One of the kinds I had was mini wagon wheels, and when I brought them inside from drying in the garage overnight, my brain was chanting "gears!" so I grabbed some toothpicks and cardboard boxes and made a wagon wheel gear train. I had to share it with the kids (and you too)! Materials needed for gear pasta: wagon wheel pasta (dye if desired) toothpicks cardboard box Get started on this gear STEM activity Pick out the most circular ones to make this easier. All you have to do is put a wagon wheel on the cardboard box and impale the cardboard right through the center hole. Put another wheel next to it and poke your next toothpick through. Try this with a mix of mini and large wagon wheel pasta as well to make this even more fun! Here's a short video of the pasta gears in action: Engage your students by going in depth with more STEM challenges This activity was so beneficial for hands-on learning that I developed it into a STEM challenge lesson for upper elementary students. It can be found as one of the challenges in this STEM challenges resource: Pin these ideas for later:
