This was the biggest part of our grant. It was designed as a way to help kids explore STEM careers in a fun, hands on event. The materials purchased for the event would be able to remain in the district to further beused by teachers in students. Community members came out to support us and worked stations during the event.
The event was for 120 kids in grades 4,5, and 6th grade from all 3 elementary schools. Below you will find some of the set up of the day that we hope might help if anyone would like to try and do a similar day in their school district. Also there are pictures of the day and some of our data results from the days event.
SURVEY RESULTS:
92% of students felt that the hands on experiments helped them to explore STEM careers.
94% of students stated that these careers are for both male and females.
74 % of students said based on the STEM event they are more likely to explore STEM careers now.
97% stated they felt these kind of events help them to learn about careers and college majors related to STEM careers.
99% of students felt they would like to have another day similar to this one.
100% felt that hands on was a great way to learn about STEM careers.
100% felt this was a great way to promote STEM careers to girls
100% that this was a way to teach kids about college majors for STEM careers.
100% of teachers that answered the survey stated they felt that they would be able to expand on the day and use materials from the event.
85% felt their overall impression of the day was excellent. The other 15% stated it as good for their overall impression.
OUTLINE OF THE DAY:
8:30-8:45 Kids arrive from MCC and MES
8:45-9:00 Introductions
9:00-9:20 Station 1
9:25-9:45 Station 2
9:50-10:10 Station 3
10:15-10:35 Station 4
10:35-10:55 Station 5
11:00-11:30 Recess – Mento’s and maybe some rockets etc.
11:30-12:00 Lunch
12:00-12:20 Station 6
12:25-12:45 Station 7
12:50-1:10 Station 8
1:10-1:30 Closing and presentations to each school.
1:30 MES and MCC Get on Bus to return to their schools.
So one key piece was to set up a way to make sure that kids were rotating through different stations all day so below is our template we used to set up the different stations and the different groups of kids that would rotate through them
HOW THE DAY WAS SET UP WITH ROTATIONS:
Rotations:
| Group= | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Session 1 | Nature Trail 1 | Microscopes | Roboticts | Elecrtical | Computers | Nature 2 | Bio |
| Session 2 | Nature Trail 2 | Electronics | Microcope | Weather | Water Rocket | Nature 1 | Robotics |
| Session 3 | Electronics | Nature 1 | Water Rockets | microsope | Robotics | Bio | Nature 2 |
| Session
4 |
Water Rockets | Nature 2 | Bio | Computers | Microsope | Electrical | Nature 1 |
| Session
5 |
Microscopes | Computers | Nature 1 | Bio | Weather | Plants | Air Rockets |
| Session
6 |
computers | Weather | Nature 2 | Water Rocket | Plants | Air Rockets | Electrical |
| Session
7 |
Weather | Bio | Plants | Nature 1 | Air Rocket | Microscope | Water Rockets |
| Session 8 | Robotics | Plants | Air Rocket | Nature 2 | Bio | Computers | Weather |
| Group= | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Session 1 | Water Rocket | Weather | CSI | Plants | Air Rockets |
| Session 2 | Computers | Bio | CSI | Air Rockets | Plants |
| Session 3 | CSI | Plants | Air rockets | Computers | Weather |
| Session
4 |
CSI | Air Rockets | Plants | Weather | Robotics |
| Session
5 |
Nature Trail 2 | CSI | Water Rockets | Robotics | Electrical |
| Session
6 |
Nature Trail 1 | CSI | Robotics | Microscope | Bio |