Third-grader Elena Erickson wants to be a scientist.

She had already checked out a code-and-go mouse and a xylophone; now she was building with KEVA planks with her first-grade brother, Stephen.

“Music is fun,” Elena said. “I’ve learned you can play many different and amazing songs on the xylophone and the ones we built only have seven bars.”

They were at Ridgecrest Elementary’s first STEAM night with their dad, Dane; it was held shortly before the end of the school year.

“I hope they’re having fun while constructing and hopefully getting a couple of vocab words in,” he said. “They build stuff all the time so adding a little bit of extra learning here outside of what they’re experiencing at home is a good for them.”

During the night, students could try their hand at solving Tetris puzzles, building contraptions with K’nex, figuring out the magnetic challenge or one of several activities created by Canyons School District’s Digital Teaching and Learning Specialist Chandra Martz, who created the STEAM kits for schools to use with a portion of a grant she received from the Utah STEM Action Center.

In the kits that come with dozens of challenges, students learn to ask questions, analyze data, investigate and recognize similarities and patterns. They could develop and test solutions and explore learning using tools—or in many cases, try fun learning tools such as coding a robotic dog or exploring snap circuits.

“We included the activities they can do at home, so they learn STEAM is anywhere,” she said. “As long as they’re asking the right questions, STEAM can be implemented into pretty much any activity.

Some of those questions may be ‘how can you break down the problem to make it easier to solve’ or ‘what resources can you use to solve the problem.’”

Principal Sara Allen said it’s also an opportunity for kids to discover with their families.

“It’s fun to watch the kids exploring and they don’t even know they’re learning at the same time,” she said. “They’re having fun together and having fun with the adults. There’s a big push in education right now to make sure students have the chance to explore and to apply what they’re learning. That’s a tricky thing to do within the parameters of a school day. So, by having these things available tonight, they can take those skills and apply them in more authentic ways.”

Ridgecrest PTA secretary Brooke Schneider and her fourth-grade daughter, Safron, were two volunteers who helped students investigate the magnet station.

“They’re learning about how magnets work; North and the South Pole polarized magnets, and their properties,” said Brooke Schneider, who appreciates the opportunity for students to have the hands-on experience. “They’re learning to investigate, analyze the data and problem solve.” 

Her daughter is a member of the 60-member school STEAM Squad; those students had the option of helping at various stations.

“I like STEAM because it helps me when I’m learning science in school,” Safron said. “When we started learning about kinetic energy, I already knew some about that because I did a project about it in STEAM Squad. I like getting to do the projects and challenges.”

In addition to those stations, using virtual reality goggles were popular, said STEAM Night organizer and school STEM instructor Alicia Freeman.

“The kids love that,” she said. “They could visit ancient Egypt and the Great Wall of China and even prehistoric times. So many of them said, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool.’”

Freeman invited Code Ninjas to be part of the school STEAM night, where they learned more about coding on a free website.

“They could then go home and create their own games, so some of the kids were excited about that,” she said. “We like having that community support and being able to provide things for our students that are outside of the school that we don’t normally have in our classroom. STEAM night also gives the parents a chance to better understand what STEM is and how all those components combine to create an integrated learning experience for students.”

Freeman said students rotate into her STEM classes during the weekdays and learn how it is part of their daily lives.

“Every day, we see and need skills we use in STEM, like being able to problem solve and use critical thinking to function in the real world,” she said. “In class, I teach them how to do coding with Scratch and Scratch Jr. I also focus on filmmaking for the district film festival; they love learning about stop motion animation. We have a lot of cool different robots we code like Spheros and Dash bots.”

In addition, STEAM Squad meets twice per week before school and she offers those students challenges, which are “a little more challenging to do. The kids like the problem-solving component of them, trying to figure them out,” she said, adding STEAM Squad is funded by Girls Who Code, who also provide online lessons for the group. “It’s a big push for them to let girls know STEM has career opportunities for them and they can be successful in those areas. I like that it introduces them to possible career paths.”

Martz hopes students and parents realize the potential in the field.

“I want as many kids as possible to be able to see STEAM in their future. I want girls to be able to see that they can be engineers. I want children of color to see that they can get a job in the field that pays well. I feel a lot of people in some of our Canyons communities are working three jobs just to try to make ends meet. There are careers that their children can enter, and they can make $100,000 out of high school. I just want them to be able to see that this could be their future,” she said.

Martz said this is in line with the school district’s motto: “Every student who attends Canyons School District will graduate college-and-career ready.”

“That’s what we’re doing with STEAM, AI (artificial intelligence), technology—it’s the way of the future,” she said. “We’re giving them problem-solving skills and skills in critical thinking, so when they graduate, they are college and career ready.”