STEM Challenge- Building a Trampoline for Peter Rabbit

Last year I building a fence STEM activity. Children were asked to create a fence to keep Peter Rabbit away from a plastic carrot. This year’s Peter Rabbit STEM challenge is to create a trampoline Peter can use to get over a fence and into the garden.

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If your children are not familiar with The Tale of Peter Rabbit, you will want to read them the book. If they are unfamiliar with trampoline,s below you will find several books that feature them.

Getting Ready for the STEM Challenge

Each of your children will need the following building supplies:

Rubberbands
Disposable Bowl
Hole Punch
Felt
Toothpicks (We cut our toothpicks in half.)
Rocks or other Small Objects to Weigh Down the Bowl

You will also need to print out a copy of the STEM Challenge- Building a Trampoline for Peter Rabbit document.

Building the Trampolines

The first thing your children are going to need to do is to fill out the planning document. It will ask them to decide the following things.

How many holes will you place in the bowl?
How many rubber bands will you need?
The number of toothpicks you will use.

Next, they will draw and label a diagram of their trampoline on the planning document.

Finally, they will construct the trampoline by doing the following things.

Trace the shape they want the mat to be onto the felt.
Cut out the felt shape.
Place the number of holes they have decided they are going to need in the bowl.
Attach each end of the rubber band to the bowl. Put a toothpick through the loops at end of the rubber band to hold the rubber band in place.
Repeat the steps to attach each of the other holes to the bowl
Place rocks or other small objects in the bowl to weigh it down.

Testing Out the Trampoline

Your children will need to drop a toy rabbit or stone with a rabbit painted onto it. If it bounces off the trampoline, you have successfully created a trampoline.