Fifth graders put engineering skills to the test at STEM Olympics

On the Friday before February break, Warwick Valley Middle School fifth graders competed in STEM Olympics, rotating through creative, strategic Olympic-inspired games.

​Each event presented a unique creative challenge, encouraging students to adapt their thinking with every new task.

“It’s important to give students something meaningful on the day before break,” said fifth-grade teacher Isabella Zayas. “We created the STEM Olympics to keep students learning and thinking critically in a way that’s both fun and engaging.”

In Kitty Lowry’s classroom, students choreographed figure skating routines for their Ozobots, blending creativity with technology. With markers and large sheets of paper, they used a color-coded guide to program each robot’s speed, direction, and movement.

​A red-black-red pattern signaled the robot to slow down, while blue-black-blue increased its speed. Other color combinations included spins and backward glides, enabling students to merge artistic design with precise coding logic.

In Kyle Putnam’s classroom, curling – everyone’s favorite Olympic sport – featured flat washer bits as pucks gliding across rectangular tables. Teams aimed for the bull’s-eye, playing three 10-round games to determine a winner. Success required strategy, patience, and a steady hand.

Meanwhile, the bobsledding event in Kevin McGovern and Nicole Rose’s classroom challenged students to think like engineers. Limited to toilet paper rolls, popsicle sticks, tape, and straws, students quickly discovered that small design choices made a big difference.

For fifth grader Jackson Page, that meant revisiting his design after an early test run.

“When we first tried it, it kept tipping,” he said. “So I rearranged some parts, added tissue for weight and placed straws underneath to help it slide.”

Meanwhile, speed and stability were equally important in Ms. Zayas’ downhill skiing event across the hall. Skiers and snowboarders crafted from popsicle sticks and foil raced down a steep, wax paper-lined slope. The design that traveled the farthest claimed victory.

Students caught some major air nearby in Tia Thomson’s ski jump event. Using only pipe cleaners and straws, students taped their “skiers” to one end of a pipe cleaner and launched them into the air by forcefully blowing through a straw. ​Each ski jump tested force, angle, and aerodynamics with every attempt.​

This year, a new event challenged students to turn a classic hot cocoa ingredient into a design project in Isabella Voelker's classroom. First, participants received marshmallows and toothpicks. Then, with teamwork, they built sweet and sturdy igloos.

Creativity soared during this engineering challenge, with some groups breaking away from traditional igloo designs to create modern, high-rise structures. By the end of the day, the classroom had transformed into a marshmallow metropolis.​

The STEM Olympics offered a fitting send-off before break, demonstrating how creativity and critical thinking can transform simple materials into meaningful learning experiences.