Sample Projects

Saint Mary School is integrating dynamic “hands-on” Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) labs at our school.  These labs compliment core curriculum and are designed to pique student interest in STEM areas through participating in interactive and collaborative labs. All grades levels, from Kindergarten to Eighth grade will participate in a variety of labs each year. The labs vary in length and subject matter, but are truly unique and sometimes, well, wild!

FALL 2018 STEM LABS:

Pre-K worked in pairs to create a tree using popsicle sticks and blocks to replicate the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom story. They then had to stack letters on to see how sturdy their trees were.

Kindergarten has been working on creating and testing towers as well as making homes/habitats for animals. These students also worked together to build a fence that will hold five pumpkins by incorporating the story “Five Little Pumpkins.”

First and second grades worked on a project together, designing a container to hold a given amount of crayons. This project was a great combination of reading and math standards as they read the story, “The Day the Crayons Quit.” They also started celebrating Halloween by creating freestanding monsters, learning to work collaboratively along the way. 

Third and fourth grade were challenged to work collaboratively to plan, design, and build a themed, freestanding scarecrow for the Fall Festival. During this process the students had to create and test a prototype of their scarecrow before they were able to build their final product. The children were encouraged to communicate their results with others on what was successful and what failed. 

Fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades worked together to build games for the Fall Festival. They had to invent and build a game that would last three hours while numerous people played it. This put their engineering skills to the test. They also had to come up with the directions and prizes that would be awarded, as well as schedule running their games during the Fall Festival. This was a major undertaking and took an incredible amount of collaboration and teamwork to make their games successful. 

Fifth graders were challenged to build the tallest tower out of spaghetti, marshmallows, and tape. They had to research bridges and collaborate to be successful with this challenge.

Sixth graders kicked off their STEM year with an airplane challenge and also did a SOLE on the design process.

Seventh graders completed a challenge to make a shelter from newspaper and masking tape. They will continue to learn about the design process as they prepare for the upcoming X-Stream Games Expo. They will be challenged to learn about solar and wind power.

Eighth grade has started researching six-pack rings and the problems they pose on the environment. They will create a prototype and then design a solution. They have also started their Future City Project where they will have to build a city that is equipped to handle a natural disaster.