Virtual Discovery Day
Normally, Nemesis hosts Discovery Day and Engineering Day fundraiser/outreach events that are designed to inspire a love of all things STEM within the community. Unfortunately due to the Coronavirus pandemic and all of us pitching in to help flatten the curve with social distancing, you might be thinking “what should I do” while stuck at home. Never fear, Nemesis 2590 is here!
There are a ton of fun and exciting STEM-related challenges you can do at home with readily available materials. We encourage you to get the family together and check out the list of challenges we’ve suggested for you! Watch our challenge videos with the links below for in-depth instructions. Please check with your parents before trying any challenges.
Watch our introduction video here!
Challenges
Rube Goldberg Machine
Build an elaborate machine to achieve a simple task!
Watch our explanation video here!
Difficulty Level: Medium
Materials: Bottles, cans, paper towel rolls, popsicle sticks, toys, dominoes, playing cards, string, rubber bands, tape, cardboard, or anything you can find in your house!
Click here for examples!
Want to go above and beyond? Enter the Rube Goldberg Hand-Washing Contraption Competition for a chance to win fame and fortune! Click here for more information!
Penny boat
Build a boat out of aluminum foil and see how many pennies it can hold while floating in water!
Watch our explanation video here!
Constraints: You may only use a 6-inch by 6-inch piece of aluminum foil to build your boat
Difficulty Level: Easy
Materials: Aluminum foil, Pennies
Alternate materials: 8.5" by 11" paper and 2 inches of tape
*Note: Please do this challenge in a basin or bowl; avoid doing this challenge in your sink or bathtub because pennies can fall down the drain and clog it.
Paper Tower
Build the tallest free-standing tower you can with standard-sized (8.5"x11") sheets of paper and tape!
Watch our explanation video here!
Constraints: You may only use 4 sheets of standard-sized (8.5"x11") paper and 1 foot of tape.
Difficulty Level: Medium
Materials: Tape, Standard letter-sized paper (8.5"x11")
Advanced Paper Tower
Build a 1 meter tall paper tower that can hold one pound of weight using only standards sized sheets of paper, no tape or glue!
Watch our explanation video here!
Constraints: The tower should be 1 meter (3 feet and 3 inches) tall and you may not use any tape.
Difficulty Level: Hard
Materials: Standard letter-sized paper (8.5"x11"), Pennies
Questions?
If you have any questions about any of the challenges, please send an email to frc2590 at gmail.com
Posting on Facebook
After completing the challenges, create a video of your project in action and post it on our Facebook page, @frc2590. Make sure you get your parent's permission before posting!
- Step 1: Open Facebook
- Step 2: Search for @frc2590
- Step 3: There are four posts named "Post your Rube Goldberg videos here," "Post your Penny Boat videos here," "Post your Paper Tower videos here," and "Post your Advanced Paper Tower videos here." Find the post with your challenge's name.
- Step 4: Post a comment and include a video of your projects as a reply.
Make sure you do your best and have fun! We will be posting our favorites here on our website!