Macon County elementary schools joined more than 100 other schools across North Carolina last week in celebrating STEM with Duke Energy Science Day.
A collaboration between Duke Energy, the Biogen Foundation and the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, the Science Day events are one function of the North Carolina Science Festival, a month-long initiative to promote STEM education. Festival events allow children to see more of the practical applications of science beyond the classroom. The idea is to get kids more excited about exploring STEM fields in hopes that they’ll pursue more education on their own.
“This festival cultivates a positive environment that inspires children to pursue science-related careers and encourages businesses to invest in North Carolina,” reads the North Carolina Science Festival’s website. “In an era when recent reports indicate that the United States is losing ground as the world leader in science and technology and fewer students than ever are seeking careers in science and technology, the festival energizes our state’s efforts to respond to these challenges.”
In years past, Macon County’s elementary schools hosted Science Nights in conjunction with the festival so that students and their families could sample activities together. However, with COVID-19 still a factor, schools were hesitant to host that many people at once, so they shifted their activities to happen during the school day. This may be a blessing in disguise, however, because doing everything during school makes the event more accessible for the kids.
“We had to do it during the day to reduce the number of outside visitors, so they don’t get to do it with their families, but the advantage is that every kid gets to participate,” Cartoogechaye Elementary School principal Kristin Lynch said. “They don’t have to worry about coming back to school later in the day.”
The activities students took part in for Science Day ran the gauntlet of different STEM fields. They dropped paper parachutes from varying heights to see how different factors affected trajectory, studied equal and opposite reactions by firing Galilean cannons, dyed paper flowers using capillary action and even learned how police use fingerprints to identify people. All of the materials were provided by Duke Energy and gave the students goals to pursue while they studied, which made participating all the more fun.
“My parachute didn’t hit the target when I dropped it, but I did get it to drop slower,” East Franklin second grader Tristan Winsor said of his experiment with the paper parachutes.
The STEM program at Macon County Schools has expanded quite a bit in recent years, and STEM coordinator Jennifer Love expects things will only get better next year when the pandemic is hopefully over and the school system has more access to field trips and extracurricular activities. Teachers are glad that their students have more opportunities now than ever to work with their hands in school and make their lessons come to life.
“They’ve done a really good job choosing fun activities,” Cartoogechaye kindergarten teacher Jessica Nahlen said. “Having it be hands-on makes it so much more meaningful.”