Teachers Impacted: Brittni Sosa
Grade Levels Impacted: 6th
Students Impacted: 200
Description: The Great Maze Challenge is a hands-on, interactive STEM experience designed to bring our Force and Motion unit to life. Using a tactile maze system, students will design, construct, and navigate a maze by arranging foam barriers and slopes to guide a small foam ball from start to finish.
This grant will enhance authentic learning experiences in FISD by allowing students to directly apply the principles of force, motion, gravity, and friction in a tangible, engaging way. Instead of reading about how these forces interact, students will see and feel the results as they experiment with different maze designs, track how the ball moves, and make predictions about speed and direction.
As teams build and test their mazes, they will engage in critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration, discussing how changes in design affect the motion of the ball. These discussions connect directly to real-world engineering and physics applications. The activity also supports differentiated learning, allowing all students to participate meaningfully, whether they are leading design ideas, recording observations, or testing solutions.
By transforming a scientific concept into a physical challenge, the Maze Run will make the Force and Motion unit more memorable, interactive, and student-centered, enhancing both understanding and engagement across all learners.