Straw House STEM Challenge

Kids of all ages will enjoy this Straw House STEM Challenge!

I really love open-ended building activities for kids, and it’s even better when the materials are inexpensive and readily available. For this project, all you need is straws, pipe cleaners, and scissors!

Recommended Age: 8 and up

Kids as young as 8 (and maybe even 7) will have a blast with this activity but may need a little help. My 7th grader (12 years old) really loved this activity. Middle schoolers are able to come up with more complex designs and really take this STEM challenge to the next level!

Supplies Needed:

• Straws – I bought this pack of 200 straws on Amazon
• Pipe cleaners – or chenille stems, whatever you want to call them
• Scissors
• Tape is optional. It does come in handy to add strength to structures that maybe have some design flaws…

How to Connect the Straws

There are two easy ways to connect the pipe cleaners to make houses.

1. Connect the straws by pinching one and inserting it into another one.

This makes a nice strong connection, but it doesn’t form a corner.

However, you can join bendy straws this way and then use the bendy part to make a corner.

2. Connect the straws with a pipe cleaner segment.

Bend a 2 inch pipe cleaner into a 90 degree angle. Then insert it into two straws as shown below.

You can actually fit 3+ pipe cleaners inside one drinking straw! So it’s very easy to make intersections with 3 straws. Just add more pipe cleaners!

Once they have the hang of the straw connections, kids can jump right in and start constructing their houses!

You can make a traditional house, like the one shown below.

Or try making something more complex, maybe with different rooms. It’s really easy to change things around since you’re not gluing anything. Kids can modify their houses and then change them back again.

Jonathan found a way to wrap a pipe cleaner around the middle of a straw to add straws anywhere you want.

Janie built this structure to be a horse barn!

Here’s a picture of Jonathan’s completed house. Super cool!

And then I built this one. It’s kind of boring compared to the kids’ houses!

Ways to Extend this Straw House STEM Challenge:

Try adding paper so that kids can make walls for their houses! Kids can cut the paper to the right size and attach it to the straws with tape. Cardboard from a cereal box would make a great floor. Kids can even add a second story with a cardboard floor.

Younger kids can add toy figures or animals to turn this into a pretend play activity.

Older kids may want to create paper landscaping for their houses! Make folded paper trees and bushes. Maybe even flowers!

More STEM Challenge Ideas:

We love fun STEM challenges with super simple materials! Here are some more of our favorites.

Design and Build Index Card Castles! Just index cards, scissors, and tape.

This Paper Plate Marble Track is another of my top favorites, and it’s great for the same age range as the index card castles and the straw houses.