6 Outdoor STEM Game Ideas

Kids are curious about everything. To encourage that curiosity, get them involved in dynamic, high-energy experiences that share the joy of STEM exploration.

With games that inspire teamwork, creativity and self-led discovery, learning through play benefits children through the development of persistence, collaboration and creativity. Read on to find six easy-to-implement activities that take STEM outdoors!

Water Balloon Toss

Sunny days are perfect for STEM games. Strengthen collaboration and coordination skills with a suspenseful game of water balloon toss!

1. Group students into pairs.
    
2. Cut a piece of string approximately 12 feet long, and place it on the ground in the middle of the playing area. Have pairs face each other, standing on opposite sides of the string.
    
3. The players' goal is to keep their water balloons from breaking. Ask one player in each pair to start the game by tossing a water balloon over the string to the other player.
    
4. After each successful toss, students will take one step backward. The player who catches the balloon will then toss it back.
    
5. The pair that moves apart the farthest distance from the string without breaking their water balloon wins the game!

Foam Flyer

Inspire students to explore aerodynamics and physics in a hands-on STEM experiment. Developing gross motor skills along the way, this silly game involves foam flying across the sky!

1. In a large, outdoor play field, form two teams.
    
2. Dispense shaving cream on top of a flying disc.
    
3. Children must throw the disc from one team to the other without letting the disc hit the ground. After one minute, the team with the most catches wins.
    
4. Play again using two foam-covered flying discs!

Recycle Hockey

Introduce a sustainable activity that highlights creativity and ingenuity as children explore engineering design concepts and develop gross motor skills.

1. Divide players into two teams.
    
2. Ask teams to create hockey sticks using recycled and miscellaneous craft items.

3. Teams also may choose to create pucks using recyclables and duct tape. Otherwise, you can use a beach ball.
    
4. Explain that they will play a game of hockey using hoops as goals and a beach ball as the puck.

Masking Tape Maze

Guide children to practice cooperation and develop gross motor skills in a game of tag within a student-made maze!

1. Give each player three 5-foot pieces of masking tape to place on the ground. Tell players that all of the tape lines must touch or connect. Players may only move on masking tape lines.

2. Choose one person to be the Tagger. As players move along tape lines, if they get tagged, they must sit down where they are tagged. They now become roadblocks that other players cannot pass (except for the Tagger).
    
3. The last person left then becomes the new Tagger. The object of the game is to be the last person tagged.

Foil Charades

Great for indoor or outdoor STEM exploration, children spark their imagination with a foil-sculpting game of charades. (You might consider saving this shape-shifting activity for a rainy day!)

1. Divide players into two teams.
    
2. Ask each team to choose a team member who will be "It." Instruct these two players to face their teams.
    
3. Give the two players who are "It" a piece of aluminum foil, and discretely share a noun on a piece of paper, such as dog, flower, brain, boat, candy and so on.
    
4. Have the person who is "It" mold this object out of the foil. Then, teammates must guess the object. The first person to correctly guess the object becomes "It" and will receive the next noun to mold.

Treasure Chest

In a game of stolen treasure and strategic thinking, this engaging activity combines STEM and playful challenges.

1. Divide the group into two teams. Assign a color to represent each team.
    
2. Crumple up 20 sheets of construction paper (10 of each color) into balls.
    
3. Designate a playfield, either outdoors or in a gym. Pile each team's paper balls at opposite ends of the playfield.
    
4. Each team must defend their treasure (i.e., pile of paper balls) while attempting to steal the other team's treasure.
    
5. Treasure can be stolen by taking it from the pile and moving it to the opposite pile. Once treasure is stolen and placed in the other team's pile, it cannot be stolen back.

6. If a team member is tagged while the treasure is in transit, the treasure will go back to the original pile.
    
7. Play the game for three minutes. When the time ends, each piece of a team's treasure still in their possession counts as 100 points.
    
8. Additionally, treasure that has been stolen from the other team counts as 200 points each!

Keep Finding New Ways to Explore STEM

To uncover more activity ideas for indoor or outdoor fun and STEM learning, continue exploring our blog!