Hailey and Leah are the Chief Science Officers from Wy’East Middle School in Odell, Oregon and this year, they started a STEAM lunch club for fellow students and it was a success. In their own words, the STEAM lunch club has been a great success for their school and classmates:
“For our action plan this year, we decided to start a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) Lunch Club to provide students at our school with an opportunity to explore STEAM activities. Our first step in initiating the club was to send a survey to the 7th and 8th graders at our school to get a better idea of STEAM interest in various areas. We also used the survey to figure out how many students would like to participate in the club.”
“Our next step was to advertise the club. By the time we held our STEAM Lunch Club meeting, we had 14 students signed up from both 7th and 8th grade to participate. All in all, 15 students, including some students who initially did not sign up, showed up for the first meeting. During the meeting, we discussed the goals we had for our club. We also asked students what activities they would like to do in the club later in the year.”
“Bottle rockets were a great starting activity for our club, and we are in the process of launching them. We have several ideas to choose from as our next STEAM activity, including chemical experiments, crystal growing, 3-D printing, laser cutting, and liquid nitrogen ice cream. The club is currently meeting every other Tuesday during the 7th and 8th grade lunch. We are hoping to get more student input in activities we choose moving forward with our club.”
