Bridgeport, Bayard, and Garden County 5th graders attended Nebraska Extension’s Incredible STEM Day on January 20th at Prairie Winds Community Center. Participating youth experienced five sessions that emersed them in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in ways that are not always possible in the school day.
Students started the day with an electrical exploration while creating a light up name tag. This lesson explains electrical concepts using a small LED light bulb and conductive tape.
The next four rotations allowed for a deeper dive into more challenging concepts. The Rocks and Minerals session engage youth in geological practices allowing them to test mineral samples in order to try to identify them correctly. Codable drones allowed youth to learn about coding to fly Co-Drones through an obstacle. Egg-Streme Engineering investigates engineering principles to build a helmet to keep their egg safe during crash testing. The final lesson was designing a cardboard creation and then coding it with microbits to make it move. Microbits are tiny computers that can be paired with sensors and motors to make objects move and light up.
