Ski Jumping Winter Olympics STEM Activity Make a Ski Jumper

Bring the excitement of the Winter Games into your classroom with this Ski Jumping Winter Games STEM challenge.

In this ski jumping STEM activity, students design and build a ski jumper and skis, then test how far their jumper can fly while staying upright.

Perfect for a winter Olympics–themed STEM lesson, January/February science unit, or upper elementary STEM center, this hands-on challenge teaches forces, motion, and the engineering design process through play.

What Students Do

• Learn key ski jumping vocabulary such as inrun, takeoff, and landing hill using kid-friendly picture cards.
• Explore How Ski Jumping Works with a simple visual poster describing how jumpers slide down the ramp, launch, glide in the air, and land safely.
• Engineer skis and a ski jumper using only the provided materials: straws, pipe cleaners, construction paper, tape, and metal weights (washers, nuts, or pennies).
• Decide how much weight to add and how to balance their jumper so it lands upright and jumps the greatest distance off a tabletop ramp.
• Measure and record jump distances, compare results across teams, and discuss how weight, balance, and design affected performance.
• Read an informational passage titled “What is Ski Jumping?” and answer comprehension questions about the sport’s history, scoring, and techniques.
• Reflect on their learning and write about “What I Know About Ski Jumping” using differentiated writing pages.

What’s Included

• Teacher instructions with materials list, testing procedures, and tips for helping students think about weight, balance, and distance.
• Color and blackline Engineering Design Process posters and guiding questions (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Test, Improve, Share).
• A Makerspace consumables list to help stock your STEM cart with easy-to-find supplies.
• Vocabulary cards for ski jumping terms plus “How Ski Jumping Works” posters.
• A student-friendly challenge letter that sets the scene: students are helping design skis and a jumper for a winter competition.
• Planning page for the Ski Jumping Winter Games challenge (Ask/Imagine/Plan) and multiple “What I Know About Ski Jumping” writing templates.
• Informational text on the history of ski jumping and the global journey of the Winter Games, plus response questions.