STEM Challenge with Play Dough, Popsicle Sticks, and Pipe Cleaners

Here’s a fun STEM challenge with play dough, popsicle sticks, and pipe cleaners!

What can you build with these materials? All kinds of things! Use play dough, popsicle sticks, and pipe cleaners to set up an engaging building activity that works well for a wide range of ages. This is great for preschoolers and middle schoolers and everyone in between.

While kids are engineering with these materials, they’ll be developing fine motor skills, problem solving skills, and more.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means that I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.

Supplies Needed:

Play dough
Popsicle sticks and craft sticks
Pipe cleaners in a variety of colors
A work surface – we used cookie sheets and plastic trays

I love to make my own play dough (recipe in this link), but I chose to use store bought for this activity because it’s a little more firm. You really could make your own, however! I would recommend adding an extra tablespoon or two of flour.

Homemade play dough is cheaper, especially if you need a lot.

We chose to use both popsicle sticks and craft sticks, which are longer and wider.

I have a couple of inexpensive cookie sheets that I use just for activities like this. They are non-stick and work great!

So, what can you make with play dough, popsicle sticks, and pipe cleaners?

Geometric Shapes in 2D and 3D

You can use the play dough to connect the popsicle sticks and make 2D shapes right on your tray. Or, you can make a cube or a triangular prism!

If kids build both the triangular prism and the cube, they’ll notice that the triangular prism is easier to build. Triangles are the strongest shape, and they hold together well!

Creative Structures

Make a swing set! Maybe LEGO figures or other small toy figures can ride on the swings.

Janie made a pond with a bridge going over the water.

It’s also fun to use craft sticks to make a little ramp for marbles! I pushed the craft sticks into the play dough.

Jonathan built a big house with a doorway and everything. He used the play dough like mortar to hold the building together.

Build Patterns and Artistic Projects

Janie used pipe cleaners to make this fun rainbow! You can do some many artistic things with pipe cleaners like make flowers, people, and animals. It would be fun to start with a layer of green play dough and then stick pipe cleaner flowers into the green “grass.”