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Neighbors | Zack Shively.Stadium Drive Elementary School had a STEM day for all students in the school. The kindergarten, first-grade and second-grade students had the program on May 17 and the third and fourth had the event the next day. Pictured, first-grader Eli Sedlacko hammered a nail in a board during the event.
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Neighbors | Zack Shively.Each day of Stadium Drive's STEM event began with an assembly by OH WOW! The Roger and Gloria Jones Children's Center for Science and Technology. Ralf Urbach, from the science center, led the assembly. He also set up a station during the STEM program.
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Neighbors | Zack Shively.Ken Timmings and KTSDI organized the STEM event for Stadium Drive Elementary. He brought in more than 20 organizations in the course of the two day event. Each of the organizations brought hands-on activities for the students.
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Neighbors | Zack Shively.All of the students at Stadium Drive Elementary got to participate in the STEM event for at least 85 minutes. They spent from five to six minutes at each of the stations in the school's gym and near the front of the building. Pictured is Adelynn Rudge playing with one of the pieces of equipment brought by the science center.
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Neighbors | Zack Shively.KTSDI brought in a STEM event to get students interested in the STEM field at a younger age. The program married STEM learning (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) with fun activities. Pictured, a Stadium Elementary student blew a bubble at an activitie station from YSU's chemistry department.
By ZACK SHIVELY
Stadium Drive Elementary hosted a large STEM event for the kindergarten through second-grade on May 17 and the third- and fourth-grade on May 18.
KTSDI’s manager Ken Timmings organized the event with the school in an attempt to gain student interest in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics at a young age. They brought in more than 20 organizations between the two days.
Timmings has done these types of events for older students, but he feels the best way to get the future generations involved in these types of fields is to introduce STEM at a young age. He hopes to see an increase in STEM fields between 2025 and 2030.
The students spent five to six minutes at stations while completing fun, hands-on activities, such as the YMCA’s buoyancy game. For the game, the students made small floating platforms out of aluminum foil and tried to see how many pennies they could put on their platform before it sank.
The event also included fun activities from the OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology, Lego WeDo Robots tasks with robotics mentor Andy Yantes of Austintown Schools and a range of technology in a mobile lab from MCCTC’s Valley STEM group.
“I like how you can learn something and experiment and have fun,” said first grade student Harlow Kolesar. Both she and fellow student Zane Khoury enjoyed their time at the event. They both liked working with Rockwell Automation’s robot station the most. Both spoke highly about the amount of stations where they could do fun activities.
Each day began with a presentation from Ralf Urbach of the OH WOW! center. The students filled out a questionnaire of what they already knew about STEM and what they wanted to be when they grew up. The sheet also had a drawing activity where the students made their own business cards.
The organizations at the event set up either in the gym or in the front of the building. The kindergarten students spent 85 minutes at the event, the first- and second-grade students each had their own 95 minute programs and the third and fourth grade students had separate two hour long STEM sessions.
KTSDI based their program on Kessler and Company’s STEM events in Germany. They have also collaborated with the science center for Silly Science Sunday at the center in Youngstown, the Youngstown Phantoms for Phantom Hockey Get Schooled Game Day and MCCTC for their Cutting Edge Manufacturing Event for other fun, educational programs for children.