Short, Hands-On Outreach Ideas?

[Dinokaiz2]

Originally Posted by CalTran

If you want all 3 covered in the span of an hour, you'll probably have to abandon the literal concepts. What's the age group you're expecting?

Probably something middle-school level. We're also trying to make it more STEM-oriented fun than a seminar type thing just for learning.

[Phoenix Spud]

"Squishy circuits" is one of our favorites. Takes a bit of prep work, but is cheap and great for all ages!

[DonRotolo]

Legos and a movie - aimed at younger middle-schoolers, they see an age-appropriate movie and get to build a lego creation.

For older students, an egg drop. They get 8' of twine, 3 napkins, 2 sheets of paper, 6 soda straws and a roll of scotch tape. And an egg. Whose contraption can drop furthest without breaking? (Modify the materials and quantities as desired. Have a place you can drop 30 feet, it can come to that).

Soda-bottle rockets. 2 soda bottles, scissors and tape. Put water in the bottle, add compressed air*, whose goes furthest? *You will need to build a bicycle-pump-powered inflator with release mechanism. Google it.

[Billfred]

1398 used to do a demo called the Half-Hour of Power with two R/C cars, paper, tape, (I think some popsicle sticks?), balloons, and a couple copy-paper boxes lined with pins. They'd divide the group up and they'd modify the cars to push the balloons into the boxes. Most pops wins.