Wooden Planks: A Tool for Youth Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Exploration

Wooden planks are a tool for developing youth skills through science, technology, engineering, and math exploration. These are small planks that can be stacked to create complex structures as youths explore math and physical relationships in an applied context. Building with wooden planks also cultivates planning, reasoning, and team skills as youths design and build structures. We developed an event in which adult and youth teams competed to build structures from wooden planks. Our Building Challenge proved to be effective in cultivating youth-adult engagement and expanding Extension's reach to new audiences while also raising funds for youth programs.