What do you do when a global pandemic makes in-person STEM Family Events in the Delran Innovation & Fabrication Lab impossible? You bring the STEM directly to the families, right in their own homes!
DelranSTEM partner, the Delran Education Association, secured a FAST Grant through NJEA to support STEM@HOME, and DelranSTEM partner Lockheed Martin continues to support us through a community grant. Thanks to this grant funding, we are able to bring STEM into the homes of all Delran students in grades 2-5! That's over 850 kids who received a free STEM@HOME kit! In addition to this first event, the grant funding will support materials kits for 2 more STEM@HOME activities throughout the 2020-2021 school year.
The theme for this first STEM@HOME event is "Help the Gingerbread Bear Escape!" and features a read aloud of the book The Gingerbread Bear. After watching the video of the story being read aloud by Delran teacher and Fab Lab Manager Mr. DeLoche, students will use the materials in their STEM@HOME kit to build items to help the Gingerbread Bear escape the various situations in the story. Check out the intro video below, featuring STEMbassadors Emma & Abby.
As students build solutions to help the Gingerbread Bear, they will be supported by examples and encouragement from some of our Delran High School student STEMbassadors, who have recorded videos to help inspire the younger students. In addition to the intro video above, STEMbassadors recorded videos showing bridges, staircases, gliders, towers, and even a catapult that they built to help the Gingerbread Bear get to safety!
Students will upload a picture or video of their own creations, and we will select highlights from each grade level to share at our live, virtual, Family STEM Celebration in December. Families can register to attend the online family celebration on the events page of this website, and will receive a link to participate before the event.
Our STEMbassadors were instrumental in helping to assemble nearly 900 kits. Using masks and gloves, they stayed socially distant as they assembled the materials for each child's STEM@HOME kit.
We can't wait to see what our 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders (and their families) come up with to help the Gingerbread Bear escape!