Protect the Pie! Thanksgiving STEM Challenge Middle School Engineering Activity

Can your students protect a pumpkin pie during a delivery mishap?

Bring a little Thanksgiving excitement to your classroom with Protect the Pie!, a hands-on STEM challenge that gives students a reason to plan carefully, test their ideas, and learn from what happens—even when the crust doesn’t survive.

Students become packaging engineers for a bakery. Their job? Design a package that protects a real mini pumpkin pie or pumpkin pie slice during a drop, using approved materials and a 20-credit budget.

After the first test, teams examine the evidence, choose a design improvement, and retest with a fresh, similar pie portion. Along the way, students consider how gravity, energy changes, cushioning, and support affect their delivery.

Purposeful science behind the seasonal fun

Throughout the challenge, students practice:

• Engineering design: Work within criteria, constraints, and a materials budget.
• Data collection: Document starting conditions and compare results using clear rating guides.
• Evidence-based reasoning: Explain what happened and justify a design change.
• Physical science: Connect observations to gravity, potential and kinetic energy, cushioning, and impact.
• Collaboration: Make decisions, solve problems, and manage shared resources.

What’s included?

Student activity pages

• Bakery delivery scenario and clear challenge directions
• Success criteria, design constraints, and safety reminders
• Materials price list and budget tracking
• Labeled design space and prediction prompts
• Starting-condition observations and damage-rating guides
• Results tables for both tests
• Redesign planning and individual science analysis

Detailed teacher guide

• Objectives and NGSS connections
• Materials, preparation, and testing guidance
• Troubleshooting and classroom management suggestions
• Differentiation and accessibility ideas
• Suggested answers and a 20-point grading rubric
• Discussion prompts, extensions, and debrief guidance
• Lower-cost materials options, food-free model instructions, and suggestions for year-round use

🍂 A flexible addition to your fall plans

Use this challenge during an engineering design or physical science unit, as a Thanksgiving STEM activity, or as seasonal enrichment that keeps students planning, measuring, and explaining their thinking.

Food isn’t an option? The teacher guide includes instructions for a paper-and-pom-pom pie model, along with guidance for adjusting the student pages and scoring. Food-free and year-round adaptations are provided as teacher guidance; separate student packets are not included.

Before you begin: Gather the physical supplies and prepare the testing area. The real-pie version uses two similar pie portions per team, matching foil dishes, and common building materials. Plan for an extended class period or split the challenge across shorter sessions.

Give your students a delivery worth protecting—and a reason to rethink their design after the first landing.

Grades: 6–8 | Contents: Student activity and teacher guide
Focus: Engineering design, gravity, energy transfer, and cushioning