STEM Activities Inspired By Kings Dominion

Learning is everywhere – even when you’re staying at home! We partnered with Richmond’s MathScience and Innovation Center (MSiC) to adapt our Education Days elementary workbooks for use at home while making real-world and theme park connections to Virginia’s SOL and Common Core principles for K-5. 

Download the STEM activity workbook for step by step instructions and complete an activity each day. Activities are open-ended to allow for exploration and discovery. Here’s a sneak peek:

• Rate and rank rides based on what is important to you: Is the ride long? Does it go upside down? Is it the fastest ride in the park, or do you get to take in the sights with a slow, gentle ride? Then, rank which one you’d go to first!
• Create a mascot for a park about you: Are you fierce like a tiger or sly like a fox? What area is suitable for your animal mascot? What elements of your theme park matter to this animal? 
• Design a midway game: How do you play? Do you flip a coin or roll dice? How do you win? What is the prize?
• Design your perfect day to visit the park based on weather: Is it sunny and warm? Cool and overcast?
• Discover and identify simple machines: Did you know what simple machines are used to help our rides? Find inspiration from a wheel and axel in Americana to inclined planes on our roller coasters and see how many simple machines you can find in your home. 
• Calculate height using angles: Can you find the height of objects in your house without using a measuring stick? Use the clinometer template in the workbook to use angles to help! 
• Hunt for shapes in your home: Find as many shapes in your home as you can and write them down. Will you find more than 10 and be the Great Finder?