Westridge Elementary was packed for STEAM Night Thursday! Even ten minutes before the event started, families lined out the doors, excited to explore hands-on activities throughout the school.
Inside, staff greeted families with a hello, offering a double-sided STEAM Night Passport and map. The passports gave students a choice: visit at least four STEAM stations, collect a sticker at each one, then make one required stop at the Central Utah STEM Fair station. There, students and families learned how to begin thinking about projects for Westridge’s upcoming STEM Fair.
Across the school, local universities, museums and STEM organizations gave students plenty to choose from.
At the BYU Bean Museum station, students handled taxidermied animal specimens, compared their features and voted for a favorite. The Central Utah STEM Fair brought science demonstrations, giveaways and a PVC stomp launcher where students could build and launch their own rockets.
Students explored light with magnifying glasses, prisms and lasers; experimented with batteries, foil and electricity; stepped into a glow-in-the-dark sea-life room focused on bioluminescence– and, in the library, robotics and maker activities offered some more hands-on family activities, while STEM-Fair-styled cardboard presentations offered explanations of the research involved with each maker activities. (Your correspondent learned a little about sterilizing biofilms with cold plasma!)
The BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures shared images and information from archaeological work. BYU science and engineering groups introduced students to physics, biology and other fields, while members of the BYU Mars Rover Team operated a rover by remote control.
At the UVU Aviation station, model airplanes and a spinning chair helped students explore flight and G-forces. UVU Prep and other university representatives also gave families a chance to learn about programs that can help students begin preparing for college.
The Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program added a side of STEAM to a night that moved freely between science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics, including a room dedicated to glow-in-the-dark art crafts, offering a mini-lesson on bioluminescent sea-life!
The passport let students build their own route through it. One child could begin with animals. Another could head toward robotics, aviation, archaeology, electricity or light.
After completing their passport and visiting the STEM Fair station, students could take home a free STEM kit containing a battery, circuits and components for experimenting with builds such as a fan and light.
Students left with something new to experiment with at home, a better idea of how many fields can fit under the umbrella of STEAM, and an invitation to come back with an investigation of their own at Westridge’s STEM Fair.
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