Christmas STEM Activity: Santa's Transportation Device

lesson overview

Get your students in the Christmas spirit by helping Santa and his elves move presents! This is a perfect STEM activity for the Christmas holidays that includes a storyline about transporting presents to Santa's sleigh!

Activity Overview: Santa needs your help! The elves built a really heavy present that they are unable to move! Your mission is to design a way to transport the heavy present from Santa’s Workshop to his sleigh. Students will learn about circuits and use a coin cell battery and vibrating motor to transport “presents” across a distance. 

**This product is a seasonal version of the Rover Mars Challenge.

Engineering Challenge: Students will use a vibrating motor and coin cell battery to power a mini transportation device. The students will need to design and build a device to transport a ping pong ball using materials such as paper cups, construction paper, tape, and index cards.

As with many STEM activities, this challenge can be tailored to students of various skill levels and abilities.

Included in this product:

• Detailed teachers guide with links to resources

• Photos of student examples

• Student handouts to guide them through the design process

• Editable Google Slides STEM journal for distance learning

• STEM Career Connection on Robotics Engineer & Electrical Engineer

• STEM Real-World Connection on sleds and sleighs

• Student recording sheet for each step of the process

• Math connection problems including rates and speed

Recommended Materials:

• Scissors

• Clear tape

• Coin Cell Battery (3V)

• Vibrating Motor

• Bendy Straws

• Index cards or cardstock

• Optional for younger students: paper cup

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Looking for more STEM lessons? Find the Vivify resource guide here: bit.ly/VivifyResourceGuide

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