Abstract
Recent trends in STEM education indicate a decline in interest starting in the middle grades and continuing through high school. Previous studies showed that recapturing student interest in STEM is increasingly difficult. In this Best Practices paper, we discuss how a simple scale model of a medieval war machine spawned learning engagement in a summer math enrichment program and how we used a STEM challenge station to foster curiosity. The activities used project-based learning while attending to cognitive demand through peer collaboration and highlighted the importance of conceptual relationships in math and science through probative questioning. Positive feedback was received at the end of each activity, indicating this practice was well-received among the secondary student participants in sustaining STEM interest. Furthermore, the activity could be modified to intersect and extend mathematical modeling and various science disciplines to capture ideas in real-world-based problems.