21st Century Skills: STEM Up with Summer Holidays Activities

Foster your child’s creativity over the summer holidays with these STEM activities!

Did someone say summer holidays? Let’s keep the kids occupied this summer with fun (and educational) STEM activities that will test their skills and have them think outside the box.

STEM is the pathway to the future

As the world continues to advance technologically, the skills required to succeed in our professional lives are also changing. To bridge the growing digital skills gap in Australia and keep up with the pace of the world’s developments, we need to start acquiring and honing ‘21^st century skills.’ These include basic mathematics, critical and creative thinking, innovative problem-solving, and adaptability.

These skills are largely gained through STEM competencies so it’s crucial to have a workforce with satisfactory STEM comprehension, to further ensure employability and economic prosperity in Australia.

Why should STEM learning be incorporated in your child’s life?
Children are naturally curious at a young age, and this curiosity is perfectly fed by STEM learning. It’s important for parents and caretakers to foster this curiosity and start their kids’ STEM journey early, so kids can develop a highly valuable skill set for the future. Since this kind of learning includes creative thinking and finding solutions to real-world problems, it can be incorporated in your child’s everyday activities.

We’re here to make this easier for you with a list of STEM-based summer holiday activities for your children!

Day 1: Math
Make a toy wish list, find the cost of each item, and determine the cost of your list.

Day 2: Science
Pour full-cream milk in a shallow plate and add food colouring. Dip a cotton swab into dish soap and then into the milk. Watch as the soap reacts to the milk.

Day 3: Engineering
Create a super tall tower using toothpicks and jellybeans. Carefully combine the toothpicks and jellybeans together, and then stack them up high. Have a competition to see how tall you can make it without it tipping over.

Day 4: Math
Research how many kids are under the age of 16 in Australia. Question: If 20% are STEM trained, how many children aren’t?

Day 5: Nature
Make flower prints by squishing a flower between 2 pages of a book. Can you identify the type of flower?

Day 6: Engineering

Try to make a gingerbread house by combining pieces of gingerbread together with icing. Did your house stand up?

Day 7: Science
Let’s make slime! Combine school glue, baking soda, water, and any food colouring or glitter of your choice together in a bowl.

Day 8: Math
Let's get baking! Our cookie recipe requires 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 eggs, and 175g of butter. How much butter do we need If we want to triple the recipe?

Day 9: Nature
Let’s look up how long it takes for a tree to grow to its full size.

Day 10: Science
Gather 2 of your favourite-coloured M&M’s and place them into a shallow bowl with warm water. Observe what happens to the water.

Day 11: Math
Find the distance from your house to Canada. How many kilometres would you be travelling going there and back

Day 12: Science
When it’s summer in Australia, it is winter in most other continents. So, let’s create fake snow! All you need to do is mix baking soda and shaving cream in a bowl.

We hope this was a STEM-tastic experience for your kids! Happy school holidays!

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