Usher-Collier Elementary hosted STEM Day program activities for the 2014 2nd annual Georgia STEM Day earlier this spring. The activities consisted of both a STEM CAREER DAY and their end of the year Engineering Design Challenge.
STEM professionals from all over the Atlanta metro area visited Usher-Collier Elementary to speak to students about what it’s like to be a STEM career professional.
STEM Career Day professional participants included an engineer from the United States Army, Apple and Microsoft technicians, a local funeral home director, budget director and 3D printing specialist.
In addition to the STEM Career Day, students participated in their end of the year Engineering Design Challenge. Students, all grade levels, were charged with the task to create the tallest freestanding structure that could support a marshmallow using only raw spaghetti pasta, tape, and a string with an eighteen-minute window of time.
Amazingly, many of the students were able to meet the challenge by working together in teams, using their imagination and creativity while following the engineering process to build their structures.
In the true mission of STEM, Usher-Collier Elementary shared their love of the initiative by reaching out to other elementary schools in the district and invited them to a whimsical day of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Usher-Collier hosted thirty students and four educators from surrounding elementary schools who have an interest in STEM.
Students who visited the school rotated through four stations learning a different STEM lesson at each stop. Stations included, the i-Movie station, science lab, 3D station, and the astrological engineering station. Students learned how to create movies, weather instruments and 3D products. They were also given a real world problem that challenged them to build a spaceship with shock absorbers that would safely land two astronauts on planet Mars.
Usher-Collier future scientists and engineers were fascinated with the exposure they received and were left truly motivated to seek more knowledge and skills as it relates to STEM.
See video from STEM Day below.
