[aisle] Favorite STEAMs?

Janet Jenkins jjenkins at robinsonschools.com
Thu Jan 9 14:56:17 CST 2020


Our high school students enjoyed having a flight simulator. A former
student who works at an aeronautical design/manufacturing business brought
in the software and his gear -- multiple computer flat screens, foot
pedals, cockpit "sticks," etc.  Although the software allowed the students
to take off and land anywhere in the world with any kind of airplane, he
set it to local area maps so the kids could see their farms and the Wabash
River. He could program emergencies like a cockpit fire and rain during
landing. One student at a time was allowed to be pilot and while the
"passengers" listened to instructions until it was their turn to "fly."

This year, our local police department is going to demo their special drone
which has a feature for finding human heat signals for injured hunters,
dementia patients, lost children, etc.
We are also hoping to get a local archery team to talk about and
demonstrate the physics of recurve, compound, and crossbows. (One of my
students on the library staff is a competitive archer.)

Simpler things we've done:
*Composer Days:* Played classical music during the passing period (because
music is very mathematical!) and highlighted facts about the composer each
day on sandwich boards in the hallways: Bach, John Williams, Aaron
Copeland, Glenn Miller, and John Phillip Sousa. We'll pick new ones this
year.
*Strings and Friends Day: *We invited students to bring their guitars,
ukeleles, basses, and other stringed instruments and had a mini-jam
session. Our superintendent brought his 12-string guitar and our head
custodian played a fine banjo. Some students gave ukelele lessons.
*20 Minute Masterpieces: *With only a mixed-up crate of old crayons and a
white piece of paper, students had to recreate a masterpiece of a famous
artist. We posted the results on the library windows and made our library
ceiling into an art gallery. See attachment.
*DaVinci Bridge: *It is a bridge without fasteners (check Youtube). After
completing a popsicle bridge, they were given lumber to build a human size
one.
And a shout-out to Jacob Roskovensky who shared his #STEAM activities with
me. We started two years ago with his *100 Cup Challenge* -- build the
tallest structure you can with 100 Solo cups WITHOUT using your hands!
With the exception of the flight simulator which was an all-day event,
these activities were done in the library or the adjacent courtyard during
our 30 minute homeroom time during the month of March.

On Thu, Jan 9, 2020 at 12:35 PM Sullivan, Kathy via AISLE <
aisle at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:

> We've hosted optional "Design-It Days" two to three times per year, which
> are STEM/STEAM activities with a different name.
> I just wrote a grant to purchase items that would enable us to host these
> days monthly, as our district is adopting the project-bases Defined STEM
> platform to augment our curriculum.
> *My question:** What's your favorite STEM / STEAM activity? *
> We serve grades 6-12, but we can probably adapt ideas that target younger
> grades too.
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
> :) Kathy
>
> *Kathy Sullivan*
> *Princeville Junior Senior High School*
> *P.C.U.S.D. #326*
> *302 Cordis Avenue, **Princeville, IL  61559*
> *309.385-4660  x1574*
> *ksullivan at princeville326.org <ksullivan at princeville326.org> *
>
> *"Literature is the safest key to a nation's treasure." *- Chaim Nachman
> Bialik
>
> MAILMAN_MIMEDEFANG
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-- 
Janet Jenkins
Robinson High School Librarian
Library Forum Sponsor
Beta Club Co-Sponsor
Illinois Heartland Library System Board Member
jjenkins at robinsonschools.com
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