5 Spooky Halloween STEM Activities
Originally Posted: October 4, 2020
Updated: October 2024
Trick or treat! Get in the Halloween spirit with our favorite spooky STEM activities! Read on for free Halloween paper circuit templates, a robot hand candy grabber, a Haunted House STEM challenge, and more! Plus a new FREE monster STEM challenge perfect for Halloween!
Click above to watch the robot hand in action!
Robot Hand Candy Grabber STEM Activity
Trick or Treat? Or how about both! We adapted our robot hand STEM challenge to a creepy Halloween themed engineering design activity.
Students pick up candy with paper while learning about human anatomy and real-world biomedical engineering. And they can use their designs to spook trick-or-treaters too! All you need is:
Scissors
Tape
String
5 straws
Markers
Construction paper or cardstock
Click below to watch the instructional video on how to build the hand or download our Robot Hand Candy Grabber STEM Lesson.
Code a Pumpkin STEM Activity
Try an unplugged coding activity this Halloween! Ask your students to “code” a paper pumpkin following the steps below:
List all the steps on sticky notes (in random order).
Ask your kids to first arrange the steps in a flow that makes sense.
Then they must execute their code to create their pumpkin!
To add difficulty, have older kids write additional “lines of code” describing how to cut out the shapes or even add a grid on the pumpkin and list where exactly to place them.
Find this and other Halloween STEM activities in this article by Care.com.
(FREE) Halloween STEM: Monster Genetics
Who doesn’t love monsters? This Halloween, task your students with designing and building a unique monster using any available supplies in your classroom! The twist is that students must first flip a coin to determine which features are included. This is a perfect introduction to genetics!
Find four free Halloween-themed paper circuit templates in The STEM Space library.
Halloween Paper Circuits
Have some spooky fun with a light-up paper circuit! These are perfect for a classroom activity or during a STEM Family Night.
Print out the free templates found in our The STEM Space library.
Provide students with an LED light, coin cell battery, clear tape, and 6 inches of conductive tape: we highly recommend this tape by Brown Dog Gadgets!
Students follow instructions to create a circuit that connects the battery to the LED light for a spooky card!
Grab the free resource in the STEM Explorer Library! Search “Halloween” to find this and related resources.
Click to watch an example of the Haunted House Paper Circuit design challenge!
Haunted House Paper Circuit Design Challenge
What’s more spooktacular than a haunted house? One that your students make while learning the basics of circuits!
All you need is some paper, tape, copper tape, LEDs, and coin cell batteries. Then create your creepy castle or cottage. Check out the video above for a haunted house with a lit up window ghost and jack-o-lantern that includes two LED lights in a series circuit. This makes for a great engineering design challenge team project (fueled by all the Halloween candy!).
Spider Parachute Design Challenge
Design a parachute to save a spider! This is a fun Halloween STEM activity that your students will love.
When some spiders are born, they make parachutes out of their silk in order to safely drop from their mother’s web. They release a few strands of silk that form a triangular-shaped parachute that catches the breeze and lifts them in the air! Here is a video of this phenomenon. But in this challenge, one of the baby spiders is unable to deploy their parachute and needs your help to get down! Click here for the full lesson.
Rescue the Witch STEM Challenge
Complementing the wonderful book, "Room on the Broom," read the poetic storyline as the witch continues on her journey. Then accept the mission to rescue the witch who has fallen into her cauldron! Your kids will use the Engineering Design Process and design a device to save the witch.
Want more Halloween STEM challenges? Check out our Fall STEM Challenges Bundle below or jump over to this Halloween post that includes spider parachutes and more!
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