As part of our 2020 celebration of women in STEM—funded, in part, by the Association for Science & Technology Centers’ and Lyda Hill Philanthropies’ If/Then initiative—we are focusing in early September on the joys of engineering! On August 30 we premiered a video on Facebook, in which members of our Education team discuss engineering, machine basics, and how to bring STEM into your own home with materials that you already have handy.

Now we’re handing over the reigns to you, our visitors…Watch the video presentation here (in case you missed it on 8/30), then read on for details on how to submit your own entry in our 2020 Rube Goldberg Machine DIY Challenge! Three winning teams (divided by age group) will win a family membership to the Discovery Center.

Dreaming of summer trips to the beach? This week we’re exploring different aspects of aquatic systems.

We need to give our fish enough weight so that it will sink more into the water of its tank, but not so much that it’s stuck on the bottom. Help your pet fish while learning about neutral buoyancy in this hands-on STEM challenge!

Rock and soil samples reveal a lot about the chemistry, physical structure, and ability to support life on a planet, moon, or asteroid.

Can you complete this engineering challenge to design a device that takes core samples of a potato “asteroid”? This activity is geared toward upper-elementary and middle-school students.

Computers work by adding binary numbers using circuits of logic gates. In this module, learn about some of the most common types of logic gates, and model them by building circuits out of dominoes.

This module is geared toward upper-middle and high school students.