SOUTH ABINGTON TWP. — South Abington Elementary School gets students from grades kindergarten to second thinking in the 21st century. The students have been learning to solve problems and broaden their creativity and curiosity with STEAM, which stands for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. The school held its first-ever STEAM night on Jan. 30 where students demonstrated challenges and projects they took on through this learning environment.
“Our STEAM nights were designed to get our students and families engaged with activities related to STEAM,” said Comet Connect teacher Lara Beth Lunger. “Our goal is to cultivate 21st century skills which include collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. We are growing the next generation of citizens by giving them challenges that require problem solving, perseverance, and resilience … and the bonus is that it is fun! It is important for us to build that foundation starting with our youngest students so they can develop the mindset that they are capable of anything!”
STEAM Night had a special theme called “Snowflake Bentley” and was based on Wilson A. Bentley, a self-educated farmer from rural Vermont known for his pioneering of snow crystal (snowflake) photography. His pictures proved no two snowflakes are alike. South Abington Elementary School had stations throughout the school. Station 1 was called Marine Engineering where students tested buoyancy by making a boat out of aluminum foil, placing it on water, and filling it with pennies until it sank. They tested parameters such as surface areas and the volume of the boat. They brainstormed the creative process before building the boat and tested, recorded and learned how to refine their design.
“As they work through the engineering-design process, they are ultimately designing a finer prototype to get to the best design,” said Sunny Weiland, PHD, a professor of science methods and chemistry at King’s College and whose son Scott is a fourth-grade student at South Abington Elementary School. She supported the vision of STEAM Night and helped develop it. H
Station 2 was the Ozobot Challenge where, using magic markers, the students colored in a certain pattern onto a drawing of a snowflake. The pattern mads a little robot move around the snowflake.
Students demonstrated their technological skills by creating characters and making them move using an app called Scratch Jr. They used coding and block programming on a screen. They also used block programming to move balls called Spheros and robot dolls from Poland called Photons, both connected through Bluetooth.
The school’s gymnasium was filled with science projects which students made at home. Six-year-old kindergarten student Patrick Monagan showed his family homemade lava lamps he made with water and cooking oil, adding antacid to make the liquid move inside the bottles. Eight-year-old second-grade student Jace Geoffroy made Ooblek, a fluid that has both solid and liquid properties, out of water and corn starch. He made it with his 6-year-old sister Cora.
“It was fun,” Jace said about STEAM Night. “The best part was the science project.”
“They (Jace and Cora) had a lot of fun preparing and presenting,” added their mother Sarah.
The gymnasium also had battery-operated robots running on wheels made by the Abington Heights Robotics Team, the Cruising Comets, a group that consists of Abington Heights High School students who demonstrated smaller versions of robots able to throw balls. They have bigger versions of these robots at the high school. They also showed the younger students a robotic arm they put together with the help of their sponsor Lockheed Martin, an engineering company in Archbald.
“I think it’s really nice to introduce elementary kids to science,” said Michael Rodyushkin, a junior who is in the robotics team.
South Abington Elementary School will have another STEAM Night on Thursday, Feb. 6 for students in third and fourth grades, including a musical performance directed by their music teacher.
