7th grade STEM activities

What 7th grade STEM looks like

Six things that turn a build contest into engineering

1. 1. A real problem with stakes the class can feel.

   “Get the marble to the end” is a contest. “The park won’t open a ride that throws its rider” is a problem.

2. 2. Apply, don't recall.

   A prediction before every run, made with the energy budget. If the loop holds by luck and nobody can say where the energy went, the energy unit wasn’t needed.

3. 3. Group goals with individual accountability.

   The one most builds miss: the kid who likes folding builds the whole coaster. Four roles, one job each, and a box each student signs.

4. 4. The teacher leads the thinking.

   The questions are yours, asked at the base between runs. The release isn’t yours: the Test Runner lets go, and you listen for which team can say where the energy went.

5. 5. A debrief where the class argues it out.

   Two coasters side by side, and the class decides which one better meets the criteria, with evidence.

6. 6. A way to see who did what.

   If you can’t tell who predicted the failure and who taped what they were handed, you’re grading the tape.

A roller coaster is an energy budget with a cup at the end.

The free printable at the end of the next section puts all six on the base, ready to copy. Get the sheet →

The paper roller coaster, rebuilt for 7th grade

Needs

Per team: 10 strips of cardstock, one cardboard base, tape, a marble, a cup. One pack of 80 strips covers eight teams. About $12 for eight teams.

Time

70 minutes, so most teachers run it over two periods. 45 minutes with the strips folded the day before: one build round and the debrief, with the second round on day two.

Groups

Fours. A team of five adds a second Energy Auditor, who checks the first one’s predictions. Never a group of one: with 29 students, make one team of five.

Standards

MS-ETS1-2 (evaluate competing designs against the criteria) and MS-PS3-5 (a change in kinetic energy means energy was transferred). “Potential energy” as a word is fine here; the coaster needs no energy equations.

1. 1Teach first, 10 minutesApply

   Roll a marble from two heights on one strip of track and ask where it’s fastest, and why. Name it once: height is stored energy, speed is energy in motion, and the marble can never climb higher than it started without help. Then name the rule they’ll build by: the first hill is the budget, and every hill and loop spends it.

2. 2The problem, 2 minutesStakes

   A theme park has ordered a coaster with one loop and one hill after the loop, and the marble has to stop in the station (a cup), not fly past it. The park’s safety inspector is you, and you reject any coaster where the marble leaves the track, because a rider who leaves the track gets hurt. Each team writes the criteria and constraints in the box before touching a strip.

   • Criteria: the marble completes the loop, clears one hill after it, and stops in the cup, three runs in a row.
   • Constraints: 10 strips of cardstock, one base, tape, 15 minutes per build round.

3. 3Four roles, one job eachAccountability

   On the sheet, and everyone signs their role’s box.

   • Builder

     The only hands on the track.

   • Energy Auditor

     Before each test, writes the start height and predicts where the marble will fail, using the budget rule.

   • Test Runner

     Releases from the same mark every time, three runs, no push.

   • Recorder

     Logs each run: completed or not, where it left the track, what changed.

4. 4Build, 15 minutes, then three runsApply

   The Energy Auditor writes a prediction before each run, and the Recorder logs what happened next to it. A run that matches the prediction is evidence; a run that doesn’t is the best thing on the sheet.

5. 5Change one thing, 3 minutesApply

   Change one element. The Recorder writes what changed and why. Then the Builder and the Test Runner swap jobs, and the team runs three more.

6. 6The questions, at the baseTeacher leads

   Between runs, at each base: Where is your energy budget being spent fastest? What did the last failure tell you about the loop, in energy words? What one change are you making, and why that one? Then step back and let them argue it; the inspector’s job is to sign off on runs.

7. 7The debrief, 10 minutesDebrief

   Coasters on the tables. Where did most coasters fail, and what does that say about loops? Pick two teams’ coasters: which one better meets the criteria, and what’s your evidence? (That’s MS-ETS1-2 as a question.) Whose prediction on your team came true? Wait on the last one.

8. 8See who did whatSee who did what

   The observation sheet, four behaviors per student: made a prediction with an energy reason, proposed a change, disagreed with a reason, changed their mind with a reason. Folding time is quiet, so walk the bases then; the runs are a crowd. You’ll catch about half the room in one period; the Energy Auditor’s predictions and the Recorder’s log catch the rest, at a glance, before you grade anything.

9. 9Two periods, or four sections in a row

   The two-period version: teach, the problem, and the first build round with its three runs on day one, the coaster left on its base with the log taped to it; the change, the second round, and the debrief on day two. Bases stack, so a labeled box per section holds a whole class overnight. Four sections in a row: count the strips into bags the day before (10 per team), keep one marble and one cup per bag, and let the fold guide travel with the bag to the next.

(Somebody always builds the loop first and the first hill last. The Energy Auditor is the one who gets to say so.)

Keep the loop. Give it a budget before the build and an argument after it, and the coaster is doing physics.

Five more 7th grade STEM challenges, fixed

• Our part · We make Missions

  Then the unit has somewhere to go

  Plenty of teachers rebuild these by hand every unit, and it works. A Mission is a teacher-led, whole-class simulation on the standard the unit was teaching: your class becomes the crew, the scenario is built from the unit you just taught, and the only way through is using it together. The coaster belongs to the energy unit, and the Mission we’d run in 7th grade, Mount Katastrofi, belongs to plate tectonics. The Missions on the coaster’s own engineering standard (MS-ETS1-2) are the first three rows of the Engineering table below.

  You're at the helm, not on the hook.

  Mount Katastrofi: the Mission we'd run in 7th grade

  Mount Katastrofi · Grades 5 to 8 · About 24 minutes · One device per student, plus your projector · Free with a teacher account

  

  A settlement on Vespus 1 has been damaged by seismic activity, and it needs the crew to work out the cause and what other geological events could come next. The crew analyzes a set of maps for patterns and picks a safer place to move the settlement (MS-ESS2-2). The story plays on the projector. The work happens at seven stations (Command, Engineering, Medical, Security, Science, I.T., Operations) and in the arguments between them.

  Every student is assigned to a team, and each team’s work is themed to it, from its own information and challenge to the same problem the rest of the crew is solving. The team gives a student a role in the story and people to lean on while you move between teams. You’re at the helm, asking what the maps show and why the new site is safer than the old one.

  The library asks that students already know volcanoes and earthquakes cluster near plate boundaries, so it fits the end of the plate tectonics unit.

  “It’s been a while since students left my period saying that was the best class ever.”

  Will it work in my room?

  Students join with a class code: no student accounts, no student email, no passwords. Chromebooks, laptops, or tablets, plus your projector. Free for teachers, no credit card. Student data is covered by COPPA and FERPA, and we signed the Student Privacy Pledge. Teach a STEM elective or a once-a-week lab? Then the lab is where the Mission runs and the science classroom is where the unit runs: ask the 7th grade science teacher what they just finished, pick that row below, and run it the week after.

  START FREE →

  Communication first, then two for 7th grade

  • The Communication MissionA version for every grade, K to 8Run this one first. It gives your class the training to run any Mission in the library.
  • Mount KatastrofiGrades 5 to 8 · About 24 minutesSeismic damage on Vespus 1. Read the maps for the pattern and move the settlement somewhere safer.
  • Spine-Backed GlobsterGrades 6 to 12 · About 36 minutesThe Mission on the coaster’s standard (MS-ETS1-2): compare solutions to an invasive species and restore a reef.

  What the report shows

  

  Every Mission produces a report for every student, built from what that student did across the whole Mission, on the skills the Mission captured. The six it can capture are Knowledge, Application, Initiative, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Resilience. The first two are what a test already sees. The other four are the human skills every school promises. The test shows what they know. The report shows the rest. SEE THE EVIDENCE →

  You taught it. Now find out who can use it.

  Who's behind it

  Mission.io is a research and design organization with one job: make collaborative, active learning something a teacher can run every unit instead of once a semester, and put a report in your hands when it’s over. Over a million students have run a Mission. The research behind them is funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, and Mission.io meets ESSA Level II standards, as validated by Instructure.

  “Even my quiet or reluctant students participate because the missions are structured in a way where everyone’s voice matters.”

  Every 7th grade Mission, by subject

  Mount Katastrofi is one. There are 19 STEM Missions at 7th grade, numbered 7 to 25 below, and each one is where a unit can end: the engineering unit ends at Spine-Backed Globster, photosynthesis ends at Chloroplast Chaos, waves end at Cold Dark Planet. Every lesson finally has somewhere to go. Cart once this week and no unit in mind? Storm Front is 16 minutes.

  Engineering

  Three on the band’s engineering design standard, all three on the coaster’s MS-ETS1-2, and two about the job rather than the standard. Spine-Backed Globster carries three of the band’s four engineering codes in one story. The 7th grade engineering activities page rebuilds a classic of its own. For every grade, K to 8, see Engineering activities for students.

  Engineering Missions at 7th grade: three on the NGSS engineering design standard, two career and technical.

  #Number	Mission	Topic (code)	MinutesMin
  7	Infection	Map infected tissue by area and plan a clean removal (6.G.A.1, MS-ETS1-2; grades 6 to 9)	34
  8	Spine-Backed Globster	Stop an invasive species and restore a reef (MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-2, MS-ETS1-3, MS-LS2-4, MS-LS2-5; grades 6 to 12)	36
  9	Tsunami	Design defenses for islands in a tsunami’s path (MS-ETS1-2, MS-ETS1-3, with its 3-5 codes; grades 5 to 8)	33
  10	Unstoppable Force	Pick the drill bits to tunnel through an asteroid (career and technical; no NGSS code)	34
  11	Mission to Mars	Space engineering: a route, a landing point, a first shelter (career and technical; no NGSS code)	45

  Science

  Eleven, from atoms to plate tectonics: the deepest shelf at the grade. The 7th grade science activities page sets each one against the investigation that teaches it. The last one is a 5th grade Mission that reaches 7th, worth it as a gravity review before forces. For every grade, K to 8, see Science activities for the classroom.

  Science Missions at 7th grade, by NGSS code; the last one carries a 5th grade code.

  #Number	Mission	Topic (code)	MinutesMin
  12	Escape Route	Atoms and molecules (MS-PS1-1)	34
  13	The State of Things	States of matter: contain a new element (MS-PS1-4)	40
  14	Laser Labyrinth	Force, mass, and motion (MS-PS2-2; grades 5 to 8)	32
  15	Cold Dark Planet	Waves and the energy they carry (MS-PS4-1, MS-PS4-2; grades 7 to 8)	34
  16	System Shutdown	Body systems, from cells to organs (MS-LS1-3; grades 5 to 8)	34
  17	Chloroplast Chaos	Photosynthesis: why the plants are dying (MS-LS1-6; grades 7 to 8)	31
  18	Ecosystem Patterns	Patterns in ecosystems (MS-LS2-2; grades 3 and 6 to 8)	39
  19	Encrypted Escape	Properties of planets and other bodies in the solar system (MS-ESS1-3)	30
  20	Mount Katastrofi	How geological events change the surface (MS-ESS2-2; grades 5 to 8)	24
  21	Storm Front	Warm fronts, cold fronts, and where the storm goes (MS-ESS2-5)	16
  22	Defying Gravity	Gravity pulls down (5-PS2-1; grades 5 and 7)	25

  Math

  One, and it carries a 6th grade code: a coordinate plane review before the 7th grade units lean on it. The 7th grade math activities page rebuilds a classic for probability. For every grade, K to 8, see Math activities for students.

  The math Mission at 7th grade, by CCSS code.

  #Number	Mission	Topic (code)	MinutesMin
  23	Brace for Impact	Coordinate graphing: protect a power plant from an asteroid (6.NS.C.8; grades 6 to 8)	30

  Technology

  One at this grade; if the unit is digital citizenship, this is where it ends. The 7th grade technology activities page carries activities a room can run without a lab. For every grade, K to 8, see Technology activities for students.

  The technology Mission at 7th grade.

  #Number	Mission	Topic (code)	MinutesMin
  24	Cyber Defense Force	Digital citizenship: spot the phishing scams (grades 4 to 12)	37

  Careers

  One that doesn’t belong to a unit: a veterinary case read from body system data, so it sits well after System Shutdown.

  The career Mission at 7th grade.

  #Number	Mission	Topic (code)	MinutesMin
  25	Do No Harm	Veterinary science (career and technical; grades 5 to 12)	28

  START FREEMISSION BRIEF →

  Free teacher account, no card. Start with the Communication Mission, marked Start here in your library, then Mount Katastrofi, each after its 5-minute Teacher Preview.

  Also at this grade

  The Collaboration and Critical Thinking Missions for 4th grade and up (24 minutes each), plus the Communication Mission in the tiles above; the skill Missions live on the 7th grade collaboration activities and 7th grade critical thinking activities pages. And the reading, writing, and design Missions: At Odds, Dawn of the Scarecrow, On the Edge of Tomorrow, Strokes of Genius, and Showstopper.

Questions 7th grade teachers ask

I teach a 7th grade STEM elective once a week. What fits?

The rubber band helicopter fits one visit as is; the coaster fits two, with the strips folded and bagged before the first. A Mission is one visit, and three on this page run 25 minutes or less (Storm Front, 16; Mount Katastrofi, 24; Defying Gravity, 25). Ask the science teacher what unit just ended and pick that row.

Is the paper roller coaster physics or engineering?

Both, and the rebuild uses both. The energy budget is the physics: the marble’s speed rises and falls as energy moves between height and motion (MS-PS3-5). The two-coaster comparison in the debrief is the engineering: which design better meets the criteria, and what’s the evidence (MS-ETS1-2).

What if no team's marble makes the loop?

Then the debrief has its best question already: where did they fail, and what does that say about loops? The fix is nearly always more first hill or a smaller loop, which is the budget rule in one sentence. A team that finds it on run five learned more than a team that got it on run one.

How do I grade a group build without grading the folding?

Grade the predictions and the behaviors, not whether the loop held. The Energy Auditor’s predictions with their reasons and the Recorder’s log are one grade; the four-behavior tally over two or three challenges is the other. The signed role boxes tell you who wrote what.