Corinth Hosts I LOVE STEM Saturday

The Corinth School District’s fourth STEM Saturday was held on February 11 with over 140 students registered for the “I LOVE STEM” event. This new series of Saturday camps helps students discover how STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) connects to the world around us through fun, hands-on experiments and experiences.

During the February camp, pre-k students discovered various properties of material through examining and then painting wood and stone hearts. Students in kindergarten learned about a flower’s xylem and how flowers use water from a vase to provide nourishment through a fun water and flower color-changing activity.

Students in first grade deepened their understanding of math by using conversation hearts to complete graphing and patterning activities. Students also learned about the viscosity of liquids through making their own glitter heart sensory bottles.

Second and third grade students created Valentine’s cards through a process that combines shaving cream and food coloring to create a marbled effect. Students also learned about density of liquids by creating a lava lamp. Students explored binary coding through using colorful beads to create messages in the form of necklaces, keychains, and other items.

Students in fourth grade forged pathways for working circuits, creating Valentine’s cards that light up. The students also practiced their engineering skills through creating Valentine’s heart towers. These structures were designed to withstand various weight-bearing loads.

Fifth and sixth grade students created their own functioning heart model using recycled materials. Students also used tools to build robots with mechanical functionality.

A representative of Magnolia Regional Health Center explained how the heart functions to second through sixth graders and demonstrated basic life saving techniques. Chris Harville, RN, BSN-Cardiac Outcomes Manager at Magnolia Regional Health Center said, “I taught early heart attack care including hands-only CPR. These school-aged children were the best group that I have had the opportunity to speak to in a long time.  They were so eager to learn and so interactive and intelligent.  STEM Saturday helped re-affirm why I became a nurse.”

All STEM Saturday students participated in a robotics center, using iPad apps to create pathways and navigating the Dash and Dot robots around obstacles toward a set location.

All students also created their own Valentine’s themed item during a Makerspace activity, using recycled materials and craft supplies. “Students enjoyed making string art in the third through sixth grade Makerspace,” said Tasha Grace, Corinth Middle School teacher. “There were a lot of creative hearts made that day. This particular exercise portrayed the unique individuality of all students; there were no two hearts that were the same. I enjoyed seeing their finished projects because it was something that took skill (getting the push pins into the wood), precision (making the shape of a heart with no guide), and then uniqueness was displayed as each student completed the wrapping portion of the Makerspace heart string art.”

Join us for our next STEM Saturday on April 15 with a theme of “Spring into STEM.” Activities will feature spring-based themes. Sign up at this link.

The camps are open only to Corinth School District students in grades pre-K-6. Parents must pre-register their child on the Corinth School District website (www.corinth.k12.ms.us).