Edible Structures for Snack Time Engineering and STEM

There’s a few things my son likes a lot, Minecraft, LEGO, swimming. Then there’s the one thing he likes most of all, food! He plays hard, and he likes his snacks. Solution? The perfect snack time STEM activity for engineering, edible structures. Super easy to set up, uses what you have, and it covers snack time too. Our edible structures really make for tasty, hands-on learning!

Edible Structures for Snack Time Engineering

What’s more fun than eating your snack? Playing with your snack too! Specifically engineering play creating edible structures. This month we were challenged to come up with an indoor activity as part of the A-Z of Indoor Play hosted by Crafty Kids At Home. I grabbed the letter E for edible engineering with our edible structures. When you are stuck indoors, snack time is a pretty big deal. Why not make it last longer and throw in some educational play at the same time. Put out a mini buffet to create edible structures for snack time engineering!

Supplies for Edible Structures:

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Toothpicks

Common snack foods such as apples, cheese, and marshmallows (for fun). We added some crackers to use as bases or platforms. Although this is what we used, the possibilities are endless! I would love to try it again with all fruit edible structures.

I prepped the cheese and apples for our edible structures. I realized that our block of cheese was pre-sliced, so I chopped up two cheese sticks instead. A nice big honey crisp apple was perfect. Any size marshmallow should work, but we had a bag of small ones. I put each snack item in it’s own bowl and set out a paper towel and a box of toothpicks.

He was so excited to see this snack time engineering activity set up. I will tell you the end resulted in him demolishing the structures to eat them!

Let the engineering fun begin. Edible structures is a terrific STEAM or STEM activity too. We made geometric shapes. We built towers. We made sculptures. All while counting, designing, and problem solving.

When using the various building materials altogether, my son learned you have to account for the different weights of the snacks too. He also had to account for the shapes of the snacks when trying to build a stable base.

This easy snack time engineering activity kept him far busier than the time it would take to just consume the snack and move on to the next activity. You can make it as healthy or unhealthy as you want by throwing in jelly beans or gum drops too. Or you could mix in melons, grapes, and graham crackers.

We will definitely be making Edible Structures again!

Easy, fun, and convenient indoor activity on a bad weather day.

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Some of our favorite STEM tools at home! Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: I receive compensation for any items sold through this site. Our ideas are always free to enjoy and try at school or home.