STEM Education Resources for Engaging Science Teaching
Save Sam Activity, a Saving Sam Team Challenge
Exciting and Engaging Team Challenge Saving Sam the Gummy Worm!
This is a fantastic activity to start the school year in both 4th Grade Science and 5th Grade Science classes. It's easy to prep for and serves as an excellent team-building activity aligned with the NGSS Science curriculum. I like to group students in threes or fours, as they can only successfully complete the challenge if they work together. It is impossible for one person to finish it alone. Students have to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate, which are essential skills in STEM activities. They also need to overcome frustrations, especially if other teams are finding success while they have not yet managed to complete the challenge.
Engaging Students Before Saving Sam!
Sam's Ocean Adventure
This is a fantastic activity to start the school year in both 4th Grade Science and 5th Grade Science classes. It's easy to prep for and serves as an excellent team-building activity aligned with the NGSS Science curriculum. I like to group students in threes or fours, as they can only successfully complete the challenge if they work together. It is impossible for one person to finish it alone. Students have to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate, which are essential skills in STEM activities. They also need to overcome frustrations, especially if other teams are finding success while they have not yet managed to complete the challenge.
Materials and Set up Needed for Saving Sam!
Materials Per Group:
Set Up:
1. Put Life Saver gummy underneath the plastic cup.
2. Put Sam the Gummy Worm on top of the cup.
3. Put 4 paper clips next to the cup.
Rules for the Save Sam Team Challenge
To be successful students should
This is a fantastic activity to start the school year in both 4th Grade Science and 5th Grade Science classes. It's easy to prep for and serves as an excellent team-building activity aligned with the NGSS Science curriculum. I like to group students in threes or fours, as they can only successfully complete the challenge if they work together. It is impossible for one person to finish it alone. Students have to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate, which are essential skills in STEM activities. They also need to overcome frustrations, especially if other teams are finding success while they have not yet managed to complete the challenge.
Successfully Saving Sam!
A Successful Save
A completed challenge should result in an undamaged Sam the gummy worm inside the plastic cup. Sam should be inside an undamaged gummy life saver.
After the challenge, I ask students to evaluate their challenge by reflecting on how their team worked together to complete the activity.
I will generally provide each team, or each student a worksheet with the full directions on, and the evaluation questions.
Evaluate the Team Challenge
I think it is important for students to evaluate how their team completed the challenge, and what they would do differently to be more successful in the future.
The Complete Unit for Teaching 'Save Sam'
Visit the TPT STEM Voyage Store
All the resources needed for the Save Sam challenge can be found on my STEM Voyage TPT store.
They include:
- The Illustrated 'Sam's Ocean Adventure' story on Google Slides.
- A Google Slide of full directions for Saving Sam, complete with photos to show to the class while completing the challenge.
- A printable worksheet of directions and reflection questions to evaluate the activity.
- A Teacher Information Guide.
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