Garver Chain Reaction Challenge
Your Garver STEM Kit
As one of 100 schools selected to receive a Garver STEM kit donation, you are now a part of Garver’s first 100 years of positive momentum—a link in a chain reaction. We hope this hand-on experience sparks an interest in you to explore engineering-related activities and learn about this exciting career that blends science, creativity, and problem solving.
With your STEM kit, you can create a machine that accomplishes a menial task in a complicated way. We also encourage you to use additional items beyond those provided in the Garver Chain Reaction STEM kit.
Need ideas? Check out videos from the #GarverChainReaction Challenge winners.
Get to know your STEM kit
From ramps and balls to a rubber mallet, a sink strainer, and a DC motor, brainstorm the engineering possibilities for each item.
Find inspiration
Search the internet to discover what others have created. Watch videos of Chain Reactions and Rube Goldberg Machines.
Think outside the box
Use everyday objects, recycled items, and whimsical toys to make your chain reaction contraption amazing.
Need Help Getting Started?
Click here to download BANA Braille-formatted activity cards
Tinker with Toppling
Words to know:
Row – dominoes balanced on their ends in a line
Curve – a smoothly flowing line with no sharp edges
Corner – the shape formed by a 90-degree angle
Topple – a chain reaction fall initiated by only touching the first object
Tasks:
- Topple a row of 20 dominoes
- Build and topple a row that creates a V-shape
- Build and topple a row that curves
- Build and topple a row in that forms a circle
- Build and topple a row that turns a corner
- Build and topple a row that has two corners and a curve
Fiddle with Force
Words to know:
Force – the strength or energy as an attribute of physical action or movement
Speed – how fast or slow an object is moving
Mass – the amount of matter or substance that makes up an object
Tasks:
- Build a single ramp and roll a steel ball, golf ball, ping pong ball, and bouncy ball. Which one rolls farthest?
- How does changing the angle of the ramp affect the distance?
- Roll a ball down the ramp to knock over a wooden block. Which ball could knock it down?
Dabble with Drops
Words to know:
Gravity – a force which tries to pull two objects toward each other
Lever – a rigid bar resting on a pivot, a simple machine used to help move a heavy or firmly fixed load with one end when pressure is applied to the other
Fulcrum – the point on which a lever rests or is supported and on which it pivots
Catapult – a machine worked by a lever for hurling large objects
Tasks:
- Build an element that causes the monster truck to roll down a ramp and off the table
- Add an element that makes the falling truck cause something else to fall or move
- Build a lever that launches an object
