Building Meaningful Projects - Week 1: Commercial STEM Kits Aren’t Broken, But They’re Not Enough
A Guide to Deeper Thinking in Middle School STEM
This is Week 1 of a 4-week series dedicated to explaining how to build and apply meaningful STEM-based challenges that evoke deep thought and a love of learning.
I was excited. For Christmas, my wife and I decided to get our kids STEM kits designed by a famous YouTuber / engineer that our kids loved. We were sure they were going to inspire curiosity. Instead, what we got out of their first kit was a 30-minute sprint-to-completion from one child, a half-finished build from another, and no lasting interest.
We had paid for 6 months of these kits, and realized that our kids were going to get minimal enjoyment and nearly no learning out of them. And this isn’t the first kit set we had bought, hoping that each different type might spur some thought and experimentation with engineering… to no avail.
Why do so many of these kits fail to inspire learning, especially for middle schoolers?
Observations About STEM Kits
Notice that I titled this section “observations.” Not “complaints,” “concerns,” or “issues.” Many of these STEM kits are great at getting kids interested in the STEM subject areas, but they have shortfalls when it comes to stimulating deep thought.
They focus on building over thinking — the vast majority of these kits are designed like a LEGO set, with several pages of step-by-step instructions to create a build, and little room for creativity or thinking. Imagine a student who skips a step. Instead of troubleshooting their design, they just back-track and rebuild until their design matches the instruction set.
They prioritize product over process — the end goal is a device or experiment. It’s nearly impossible to fail and learn from mistakes, unless it’s from not following the directions. The emphasis is on the material the learner creates or the result of the experiment, not the STEM mindset or a learning experience. There is often not enough academic depth, challenge, or room for creativity to feed the learning process.
They don’t scale for age or ability — the kits are typically designed for a narrow target audience, such as young learners or advanced learners, without providing a way to bridge the gap.
What Happens When Kids Only Follow Instructions?
Ultimately, when kids are taught to follow a regimented format, they are being trained to be good “doers” who can follow checklists. But how many things in life strictly follow a checklist? Sure, it helps when building a piece of furniture from IKEA or following a recipe, but what happens when the recipe doesn’t taste quite right?
This type of “education” does such a disservice to young learners. Missing are opportunities to encourage creativity. Learners don’t own and work problems. When faced with an unclear math problem or real-world challenge, they may freeze because they’ve been taught to wait for instructions, not initiate the problem-solving process.
Kids who only follow steps become task-completers, not problem-solvers.
Rethinking the STEM Experience: Projects vs Project-Based Learning (PBL)
Too often, the terms “project” and “project-based learning” are considered synonymous with each other. However, a project is an object, while project-based learning is a process… and it’s not just the process of making a project.
A Project:
Usually comes at the end of a unit
Often product-focused: “build a model,” “make a poster”
Instructions are often rigid or decorative
Can be completed without deep understanding
Project-Based Learning:
The vehicle for learning, not just the final display
Starts with a real problem or challenge
Requires inquiry, iteration, and reflection
Integrates multiple subjects (science, math, writing, communication)
“In a project, the goal is to make something. In project-based learning, the goal is to learn something by making.”
Ideally, an instance of PBL starts with a real-world problem. The more applicable to life, the better! Problems that kids will relate to will resonate much better than abstract ideas or “pointless” projects.
The learners will work to come up with several solutions to the problem, understanding that there isn’t one single solution, nor is there an instruction manual to follow.
They’ll design and build their solution, test it, and make updates based on results from their testing. Finally, they’ll explain their project and reflect on their thought process, decisions, and the results they obtained.
Along the way, a teacher or parent will act as a coach, not an instructor, to facilitate the learning process.
What Middle Schoolers Need in a STEM Experience
Middle schoolers are at a cross-roads in education. They have outgrown the simple elementary school PBL challenges that are focused more towards discovery, but are not quite ready for complex challenges such as designing a product or planning a major school event.
Here are the basic tenents that should be incorporated into middle-school STEM challenges to provide opportunities for deep thinking:
Autonomy — allow the learner a degree of freedom in the thought process and ownership of their solutions. There is no one right answer!
Challenge — stretch their minds towards deeper learning, being deliberate with tools (such as a sketch) that provide a process to help them think through solutions
Relevance — provide interesting, real-world problems that cause learners to want to solve the problem
Reflection — ensure learners have an opportunity to evaluate, iterate on, and explain their ideas to others. This is often where the real learning occurs!
Coaching — build kits so that adults are prepared to guide rather than instruct learners in their problem-solving and solution development
So how do we fold these tenets into meaningful learning opportunities? Building upon these tenets, STEM challenges tailored for middle schoolers should include the following aspects:
Be open-ended with multiple solutions
Integrate science, math, and writing into a single experience
When possible, use common materials to focus on creativity, not cost
Follow a clear thinking structure (e.g., the engineering design process)
Encourage coaching conversations, not lectures
These STEM challenges build resilient critical thinkers that take ownership over their own learning and can apply academics to real-world problems.
Pulling It All Together with Operation: Nature Haul
In the Nova Scholars sample challenge Operation: Nature Haul, learners are presented with a simple problem — design a solution to move an object at least 6 feet using only materials found in your backyard.
Of utmost importance is that there is no single correct answer.
Throughout this challenge, learners brainstorm, sketch designs, choose a solution, prototype and test it, evaluate results, and iterate as needed.
Nowhere is there pressure to “get it right the first time” or the implication that “you need to figure out the best way to solve the problem.”
Throughout the challenge, the adult acts as a coach, helping guide the learner through the process steps. Kids learn core concepts like friction, force, and material properties simply because they needed them to solve the problem!
This isn’t just building for fun. It’s guided experimentation with real scientific principles embedded in the process!
Final Thoughts: Building Better Thinkers for Tomorrow
Traditional commercial STEM kits do decent job of introducing science and engineering to today’s youth, but they are very structured and often require learners to follow step-by-step instructions.
Instead, build more meaningful challenges via project-based learning to:
Build confident, curious thinkers that can dissect real-world problems
Keep kids engaged with a love of learning, not a mentality of “I just need to get this right and then be done with it”
Explore opportunities that don’t necessarily lead to a great product or prototype, but instead leads to a great experience that results in knowledge that “sticks” for years
Our kids need to learn so much more than just how to follow instructions in completing a project. We need to show them how to think their way through the unknown.
— Greg
Next week we’ll explore how to build truly meaningful, powerful STEM projects that spur innovation and deep thought. Talk with you then!
Have you experimented with Project Based Learning?
How did it go? I’d love to hear about project you’ve tried and the challenges you had along the way!
If you haven’t tried my free sample challenge, you can download it here:
