5th-Grade Girls Get Day of Hands-On STEM Education
Emma Delk Trending
Fifth-grade girls across Marshall County had the opportunity to fly drones, make lava lamps, code robots and more during the third annual Marshall County CTE Girls in STEM Day.
The girls gathered at John Marshall High School to participate in various science, technology, engineering and math-centered activities to spark their interest in the subjects.
Superintendent Shelby Haines said the event was devised three years ago based on the "historic underrepresentation" of girls in STEM fields. She noted Tuesday's programming would encourage Marshall County school's fifth-grade girls to engage in STEM activities.
The morning session included students from Hilltop, Glen Dale and Washington Lands elementary schools, while the afternoon session included students from Cameron, Center McMechen, Central and Sand Hill elementary schools.
"It's a great collaboration between the schools, and it's fun to have everyone come together," Marshall County Schools Adult Education and CTE services coordinator Heather McCord said. "The girls get to mix up with other schools, so they're not just with their classmates but other fifth graders across the county."
Students were split into three blue and three purple groups at each session. Each group participated in three 30-minute "mini sessions" taught by county STEM and CTE teachers, with help from John Marshall and Cameron High School students in the Rising Educators program and Marshall County Extension Agency employees.
"It's a nice day for them to come and engage and interact with kids from other schools," Haines said. "They also meet some positive female role models through the high school students in STEM areas of study and CTE programs."
The "mini sessions" included stations dedicated to slime-making, robot coding, lava lamp building, drone piloting, bridge building and tunnel building.
Following the breakout sessions, the fifth graders gathered to watch Marshall County middle and high school students in the robotics program demonstrate a game on their course with their robots.
Beyond getting the fifth graders involved in hands-on activities, McCord noted the program also exposed participants to the different STEM activities and programs available to the county's middle and high school students.
These programs include robotics, Project Lead the Way courses and career technical education courses in biomedical and nursing.
"It's important for them to start liking STEM at a young age, so they know they have activities they can get involved with in middle and high school," McCord said. "We want the students to remember the fun they had today, so STEM stands out to them, and they can hopefully get a positive start in the STEM fields."
STEM day was a positive introduction to drone piloting for Center McMechen Elementary School students Gia Macon and Tahiri Mason. Both said the drone station was their favorite activity and were excited to explore more drone-centered activities in middle and high school.
"My favorite activity was the drones because we learned how to fly them, and I had never flown a drone before," Mason said. "I might have crashed mine a couple of times, but it's okay."
Macon admitted that she had crashed her drone "a couple of times" as well, including flying it into the basketball hoop and sending it "surfing across the floor."
Macon and Mason both said their second favorite activity was making lava lamps. Mason said she enjoyed participating in a "more creative" activity and experimenting with the different colors she could add to the lamp.
John Marshall High School juniors Jordan Hughes and Brianna Shaw, who helped out students at the slime-making table, said they wished they could've had a STEM day during their time in elementary school.
Both said they became interested in science in middle school. Shaw noted that she would have loved the lava lamp-making station in elementary school.
"Participating in this as an elementary school student definitely would have interested me in science earlier," Hughes said. "It was a lot of fun to help out the fifth graders today."