4-H STEM Challenge

Since 2008, 4-H STEM Challenge, formerly known as National Youth Science Day (NYSD), has been the premier nationally rallying event for year-round 4-H science programming, brining together youth, volunteers and educators from all over the country to complete hands-on STEM activities. For more information go to 4-H STEM Challenge.

Kids learn foundational STEM skills while they wrestle with the same questions as today’s top aerospace scientists and engineers! Activities can be done all at once or individually, making it great for classrooms, after-school programs, clubs, parents, and more. The following is a list of the activities in the kit:

Astro Adventure
This unplugged board game promotes teamwork as kids gather the resources needed to live and work in deep space.

Stellar Optics
In this offline activity, kids build a telescope and learn about physics and light and how telescopes have been used to explore space. 

Cosmic Claw
Kids work hands-on to engineer a mechanical arm that works to harvest crops in space.

Cyber Satellite
In this computer science activity, kids learn about cyber security and decoding to stay safe from obstacles in orbit.

Be the first to set up camp on Mars! Accept the mission and challenge your STEM skills!

The race to land humans on Mars is on! The 2020 4‑H STEM Challenge will explore sending a mission to Mars with the activity, Mars Base Camp. Developed by Google and Virginia Cooperative Extension, Mars Base Camp is a collection of activities that teaches kids ages 8-14 STEM skills like mechanical engineering, physics, computer science, and agriculture.

Supported by national partners—Bayer, Toyota, and U.S. Air Force—Mars Base Camp is the perfect topic to empower young people to explore a wide range of subject areas in an exciting thematic package, one that allows kids to think about the same problems that today’s top scientists and engineers are working on right now.

Featuring four hands-on activities that can be enjoyed with or without internet access and individually or all together, the challenge teaches kids STEM skills like mechanical engineering, physics, computer science, and agriculture.

• Landing Zone Surveyor is an unplugged activity where kids will attempt to land on Mars and discover features that are important for setting up a base camp.

• Red Planet Odyssey is an unplugged activity where kids will use engineering skills to build a vehicle that can explore the surface of Mars.

• Crop Curiosity is an unplugged activity where kids will learn about biology, environmental science, and agriculture to grow nutritionally efficient food on Mars.

• Insight from Mars is an activity that can be done unplugged or online that teaches kids to code and share a discovery they made on Mars using CS First and Scratch.