This week, kids will become Community Designers by exploring their neighborhood through the eyes of urban planners, engineers, architects, and community leaders.

In this engineering challenge, kids will design a space lander that protects a passenger during a landing. Through testing and redesigning, students will explore how forces like gravity and drag affect motion and how engineers use creativity, experimentation, and problem-solving to overcome challenges.

Did you know the sun provides the energy that powers nearly all life on Earth? In this activity, kids will design and build a simple solar oven using household materials to investigate how sunlight transfers heat energy. They can even use it to make s’mores! 🍫

Have you ever seen a maple seed spinning through the air like a tiny helicopter? In this activity, kids can create their own paper “helicopters” inspired by real maple tree seed pods — also known as “helicopter seeds.”