Build a Bobsled Winter Olympic Games STEM Activity

Bring the excitement of the Winter Games into your classroom with this Bobsled Winter Games STEM challenge for grades 3-5.

In this winter engineering design activity, students design, build, and race their own bobsleds using simple materials.

This hands-on STEM challenge is perfect for teaching forces and motion, fair testing, and the engineering design process while building literacy and writing skills.

What Students Do:

• Learn key bobsled vocabulary such as runners, hull, driver, and brakeman using kid-friendly vocabulary cards.
• Read informational text about how bobsledding works, the history of the Winter Games, and how tracks and bobsleds are designed.
• Use a toilet paper tube, straws, tape, and metal washers or pennies to design and engineer a bobsled that can travel fastest down a ramp or slide.
• Decide how much weight to add and where to place it, then race bobsleds and compare results in head-to-head runs.
• Reflect on what they know about bobsledding and answer comprehension questions using the included reading and writing pages.

What’s Included

• Teacher instructions with materials list, setup tips, and racing ideas (including tournament-style heats).
• Full-color and blackline Engineering Design Process posters and question prompts (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Test, Improve, Share).
• A student challenge letter that sets the scene: students are helping prepare for the Winter Games by designing a new bobsled.
• Planning and recording pages for students to sketch their design, list materials, and reflect on their results.
• Vocabulary cards, “How Bobsledding Works” poster, informational passages on bobsledding and Winter Games history, and accompanying response sheet.
• “What I Know About Bobsledding” writing pages in multiple formats for differentiation.