USD 383’s Summer STEM program came to a close Thursday after three weeks of providing hands-on experiences to local students.
More than 200 kids participated in three activities of their choosing, each one lasting about a week. They flew drones, coded robots, built race cars, performed crime scene investigation, learned food science, developed critical thinking through games and more.
“It goes by so fast because it’s so interactive, and the kids have a blast,” said Shannon Molt, the Summer STEM administrator. “One thing we definitely want to keep the same is the relationship with our community partners and Kansas State University.”
Student teachers from K-State’s College of Education volunteered to help support teachers leading the courses.
“It’s a wonderful partnership between K-State and the school district,” said Kaylee Myers, an instructor at the K-State College of Education. “It’s a great hands-on, real-world learning for the pre-service teachers.”
Myers supervised the K-State pre-service teachers helping with Summer STEM. This is her 10th year of involvement, and the program is part of a college class she teaches called Core Teaching Skills.
Community partners included the National Agro and Bio-Defense Facility, the Riley County Police Department, the Riley County Fire Department and Sunset Zoo.
“We were super excited to get NBAF, and when they said they wanted to come and talk to our kids, it was perfect,” said Lucas Loughmiller, who helps organize the program. “They did a different topic each day and brought their people from NBAF to talk about what they do at their facility and applied them to what the kids would see on the daily.”
Loughmiller said he hopes the program inspired kids to pursue a future in STEM.
“The idea is to give students from USD 383 and surrounding schools a chance to do some in-depth STEM type lessons where they pick their favorite classes,” Loughmiller said. “They come in, and they do a deep dive on those favorite classes.”
Even activities like cooking, which is a daily life skill, has the science of chemistry behind it.
Maya Goos, who is going into the 7th grade, took the food science activity in her last week. The class was hard at work making bread and kneading dough into baking pans. Earlier in the week, the class made cookies, cupcakes and ice cream, and they learned teamwork as they worked in a group.
“I’ve always been interested in science,” Goos said. “I want to study biomedical research, or something in that field.”
During the other two weeks, Goos said she took Thinking Through Games, a course that analyzes the thinking strategies behind winning games, and Creations In Canva, a course in the techniques behind designing.
“Have fun, and don’t give up when it’s hard,” Goos said as advice for future STEM students.
Goos said she looks forward to taking Summer STEM again next summer.
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