The Brain Workout Academy - out-of-school-time STEM enrichment programs

The Brain Workout Academy develops and delivers playful STEM curriculum in 4 main areas:

Our activities are designed for students in grades 3-12 during OST - Out of School Time in South Florida. We provide curriculum, materials and excellent instructors.

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Tower, Design, Build

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This session serves as a gentle introduction to our program, presenting students with two challenges: constructing a 2-foot tower and then increasing its height by 1 foot. Each challenge comes with constraints - a limited number of straws and tape. Following the first task, we facilitate a reflective discussion to help students consider principles for building taller towers. They then apply these principles to the second challenge. The primary objective is to foster critical thinking. Students engage in classic problem-solving, utilizing resources to construct a free-standing tower. Many initially focus solely on tower height, resulting in leaning structures. Through trial and observation, innovative thinking, teamwork, and application of discussed principles, they discover how to build sturdy, tall towers.

Cars 1

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This is a 2-session unit. Session 1 focuses on building a car with its 3 basic parts and making sure the wheels spin. Session 2 focuses on making the car run using the energy stored in a rubber band. Each session is 60 minutes long. After students built their cars in session 1 they are stored in the room until we meet the next time.

Cars 2

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Paper Airplanes

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This is a 2-session unit.

Session 2: Students receive their cars and have a few minutes to add some decorations, car shield, or fix any breakage using hot glue. Then student receive rubber bands. Their task is to make their car run using the rubber band. Students use their imagination and trial and error. After a few minutes we remind them the power of rubber to launch – we used it in paper airplanes and in catapults. We ask them to build a launcher on the floor. Eventually we show them the floor launcher and ask them to build the same one and try different rubber bands: long and short, thick and thin, and find the best launcher for their car.

This session provides a fun experience making paper airplanes and building launchers for these airplanes. Students learn concepts in aerodynamics and how symmetry affects the stability of their paper airplanes. They also experiment how different variables affect how far their paper airplane flies.

Catapult, Design, Build

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In this session, students participate in a fun engineering challenge following the engineering design process. This process involves planning, building, testing, and then improving based on test results. It's crucial for students to grasp that initial test outcomes aren't final, providing them with an opportunity to enhance their creation.Students face two challenges: constructing a sturdy catapult capable of withstanding the tension of a rubber band pull for launching, and then propelling an object a specific distance (4 feet, then 6 feet). We discuss the rubber band's role and allow students to choose between a triangular or square shape for their catapult. While our experience favors the triangular shape for stability, we encourage children to experiment and discover for themselves.

Geometry 2D

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The main goals of the sessions are:- Deepen familiarity of types of triangles (equilateral, Isosceles, Scalene) and learn about congruent triangles: if two triangles have the same 3 sides, they are congruent (the same).- Deepen understanding of the relationship between a square and a rectangle (a square is a special rectangle).- Use creativity to design a fun tessellation using different shapes.

Geometry 3D

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This session helps students deepen their understanding of 3D shape using two approaches: nets and sticks. The session offers opportunities for hands-on, experiential learning. Combining both approaches provides a comprehensive understanding of geometric concepts and cater to different learning styles and preferences.Benefits of using nets: Nets provide a two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional shapes, allowing students to visualize how the shape is constructed and folded to form the solid shape. Students can physically manipulate nets by folding and assembling them to create the corresponding 3D shape, which enhances their understanding of spatial relationships and geometric concepts. Working with nets helps students develop a concrete understanding of the faces, edges, and vertices of 3D shapes, as they can see how each face contributes to the final shape.Benefits of Using Sticks: Sticks provide a hands-on approach to building 3D shapes by connecting vertices with edges, allowing students to explore how edges form the framework of the shape. When using straws students can be more creative than nets. Sticks offer flexibility in constructing various shapes, enabling students to experiment with different arrangements and configurations to create unique shapes and explore geometric properties.

Playground Tiling

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The goal of this session is to deepen understanding of composite and prime numbers. We do that by visualizing composite numbers as arrays with width and length greater than 1. For example, the number 12 is composite because we can arrange 12 as 3x4 or 2x6. However, 7 can be arranged only as 1x7. When the only possible array has a side of 1, the number is prime. This strategy allows students to validate whether numbers are prime or composite. For example, a typical misconception is that 9 is prime. Instead of telling students that 9=3x3, we ask them to try make an array (different from 1x9) from 9 tiles. They start with an array of side 2, if it isn’t working, they try an array with a side of 3, 4 and so forth until one array is found, or we exhausted all options. With the number 9 they can see the array is 3x3 therefore 9 is composite. This strategy adds a dimension of critical thinking – students can justify why a number is composite or prime, not rely on memory.

Crack The Code

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This session focuses on logic and critical thinking. Partners play against each other. One pair acts as the 'code maker' while the other pair becomes the 'code breaker.' The code maker selects a secret 3-digit number (e.g., 651, 980, 124), and the code breaker attempts to guess the code through a series of guesses. After each guess, the code maker provides feedback using the terms ‘Perfect’, ‘Almost’, ‘Reject’ to indicate whether each digit is correct, and if so if it is placed correctly or not. Based on this feedback, the code breaker refines their guesses until they correctly deduce the secret code. The game continues until the code breaker successfully guesses the code.

Cup Challenge

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This is a fun game that encourages teamwork, problem solving skills and hand-eye coordination. Student must use only rubber band and strings to arrange cups, no touching the cups with their hands! Students must strategize as a team to determine the most efficient way to stack and arrange 6 cups to complete the challenge. The game requires precise movements and coordination to stack the cups quickly and accurately. A single student cannot move the cups; the group must operate as a team, work together to achieve the goal. The reason is that the rubber band must be stretched from multiple directions in order to be released from one cup and then be placed around another cup. Arranging the cups in the appropriate place requires planning and collaboration, students must communicate to determine steps that lead them to their goal. This game also encourages perseverance and resilience as students strive to overcome difficulties and achieve success. To watch how the cup stacking works look up videos on Youtube: Cup Stacking- Team Building Exercise.

Pen Ball Challenge

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This is a fun game that encourages teamwork, problem-solving skills, and hand-eye coordination. Students must use pens as tools to press against the ball and place it on top of three upside-down cups, without touching the cups with their hands. The game requires precise movements and coordination to hold the ball only with the pens and then moving it to cup 1, then to cup 2, then to cup 3. If the ball falls, they start all over. A single student cannot move the ball; the group must operate as a team, work together to achieve the goal. The team that accomplishes the goal first wins, fostering a spirit of friendly competition and collaboration. If placing the ball on the narrow part of the cup proves too challenging, the goal can be adjusted to placing the ball on top of a table, chair, or floor.This game also encourages perseverance and resilience as students strive to overcome difficulties and achieve success. To watch how the game works look up videos on Youtube: How to play the Team Building Game: Pen Ball Bottle (we changed bottles to cups facing down).

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If you are interested in our program and you are in either Palm Beach or Broward counties, our instructors can come to you. Please let us know how we can serve you. Share your needs with us, we will contact you.

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STEM ADVENTURES Grades 3-5

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The program provides dynamic and engaging
classes in STEM - Science, Technology,
Engineering, Mathematics - with a focus
on engineering and mathematics. The program
is designed to captivate students minds
through high-energy collaboration and
competition activities. Emphasizing critical
thinking and teamwork, the program
integrates hands-on experiences that are fun and exciting. Through these engaging activities, students are empowered to learn intuitively and joyfully and enhance their understanding of STEM. Students are immersed in the excitement of the activities that they may not even realize they are acquiring deep conceptual knowledge and honing valuable skills. The curriculum is aligned to Florida Learning Standards.

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

STEM EXPLORERS Grades 6-12

Click the arrow to view in-class action

The program provides dynamic and engaging
classes in STEM - Science, Technology,
Engineering, Mathematics - with a focus
on engineering and logical reasoning. The
program integrates strategy games in small
teams and hands-on experiences that are fun
and exciting. Through these engaging
activities, students are empowered to learn
intuitively and joyfully and enhance their understanding of STEM and develop their critical thinking and excitement for mathematics. The curriculum is aligned to Florida Learning Standards.

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.