For our STEM Day, the students were put in mixed class and school groups and traveled to five stations focused on various aspects of STEM education. The first station was run by Boeing. The students got to test paper airplane designs, modify them, and participate in a flight challenge. They also go to try out the Oculus virtual reality goggles to experience the International Space Station.
Next, the students traveled to a station focused on electricity sponsored by Ameren and Mrs. Hwande and Mr. Kearney (Glenridge science specialist). The students learned about how we get electricity, energy conservation, and got to participate in a series of circuit-building challenges.
Then the students traveled to an engineering station run by Clayton high school students. The challenge was to build a robotic arm that could bend and straighten using cardboard, straws, string, and tape. I was so impressed at the design ideas and problem solving of the students!
Many students were excited about the math station run by Clayton high school math teachers and elementary math specialists Mrs. McNamara and Mrs. Finder. The teachers used the TI Inspire calculators hooked up to a motion sensor to show how the Wii and Playstation use math in video game technology. Students were presented with a graph and had to match their motion to the graph. They worked as a team to coach each other how to match the graph .
The final station was held upstairs in the science labs, where Clayton high school teacher, Mrs. Jacus, and her high school students taught the fifth graders about bio-medicine. They used technology to measure and graph heart rate, do EKGs, microscopes to examine blood, and look at a real human heart compared with a real cow heart. Then they problem solved a situation with a "patient" based on what they learned.
What a full day of learning! I was delighted to see the amazing mindset of our Captain kids who were so focused on their learning, questioning, creating, and working collaboratively with their peers to problem-solve. They made us so proud. I hope some of their work made the dinner-table conversation, and I hope that it inspired some interest in these fields for their future learning.
Have a great weekend!
