A STEM-ulating day at HEM

Students at Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School and Hanna Elementary School have recently spent the 3rd Friday of each month out on a limb. Or, rather, a STEM as they are involved in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program.

In February, students from the University of Wyoming visited HEM and gave presentations in their fields of study to both high school and elementary students. It was the first endeavor of this kind to mix the students of all ages in a learning program like STEM.

"We tried to incorporate the grade school and high school more together and get them to be more cohesive and on the same page," HEM Principal Eli Hobbs said. "We are really spread out in the northern part of the school district and sometimes that is nice because we can sometimes do our own thing, but it is nice to be a part of the team and reach out to the grade schools and work with them."

The STEM day fell into place, said Hobbs, with strong cooperation from both schools.

"We asked the elementary school what they did and we incorporated where we could," Hobbs said. "We had staff and teachers make it happen."

Hobbs said it was a good thing for the students to get together, especially with the younger kids coming to the high school and feeling comfortable.

"This can be very helpful when they actually come to school here if they are familiar with the place already," Hobbs said. "The transition is less daunting. Plus the idea is the older students help the younger students."

The mix of older and younger students went through various sessions to learn about the variety STEM offers at the University of Wyoming.

Katie Davis, a University of Wyoming student who is an outreach assistant, is majoring in genetics. She has been going to different schools throughout the state for over a year talking about her field of study to students of all ages.

"Today I am getting to talk to kids about genetics and how we can use them for conservation purposes," Davis said. "Having the mix of ages has been interesting. The little ones talk more, but aren't always on topic, whereas the older ones talk less but stay on topic."

Davis had the students extract DNA from strawberries. 

"Strawberries have very large genomes, so they are very easy to see," Davis said. "We used skittles and M&Ms to talk about what population genetics can do and we changed the colors of the M&M's to help them comprehend the changing gene frequencies. It helped them understand why diversity is important in wild populations."

Austin Bernard has been with the Science Fair Roadshow from the University of Wyoming for about two years.

"It is the second time I have come to HEM for the STEM day. Last year we only had older kids," Bernard said. "This year it was fun to have the littler (sic) kids involved."

Bernard taught about trees, tree rings and how a tree can be aged.

"A lot of kids were fairly knowledgeable although I was able to introduce topics they didn't know," Bernard said. "I explained how water went from the bottom to the top of the tree and the science behind it. They learned a lot of new vernacular."

Karagh Brummond is a faculty member of the University of Wyoming and director of the Science Initiative Roadshow.

"I get the opportunity to hire the amazing undergrad students and faculty members that go on the road teaching and interact with the students of the different schools we go to," Brummond said. "We get the students excited with Science by hands-on activities. I was here last year and we have also brought HEM students to the campus for our STEM Carnival we had last September."

She said last year there were four students that came to teach STEM, this year they had seven.

Brummond said usually schools have the topics they want taught. On this day, it was an open call, where the University students got to teach what they are studying.

"It doesn't happen often where a school will give us an opportunity to do an open call," Bummond said. "What I love most about what HEM is doing here, is creating a STEM day where students are engaging in a wide variety of STEM topics. I really think other schools should adopt this principle and have a STEM day and let the topics be diversified so the students can really get strong exposure to all that is out there to be learned."

HEM has a dedicated teacher to STEM in Kaitlyn Larson, who manages much of the activities concerning the subject matter. She is the person who has been reaching out to the University of Wyoming for what it can offer the students.

Alyssa Baldwin is a masters student at the University and her first time being involved in the roadshow. She was teaching about wetland ecology. Baldwin said students were surprised to learn there were wetlands in Carbon County.

"I asked them where they would find wetlands and most said Louisiana," Baldwin said. "I told them they were not wrong, but that there were some much closer. They were surprised."

Baldwin was able to delve in the subject by using materials which required the students using their hands.

"I study beaver made wetlands," Baldwin said. "I specialize in human mediation, so essentially I am learning about man made beaver dams. I was teaching the kids to make dams out of clay and showing how they can collect pollution by using laundry soap."  

She said the students enjoyed the hands-on presentation.

Kathryn Sandum led a class on engineering.

"We cut a tube in half and created different things. We are using recycled material and they get to see how things can be reused," Sandum said. "What is super fun is that most people have an intuition about building something. I also enjoyed watching how the older students helped out the smaller kids create their projects."

Lauren Kim taught about electricity.

"They learn that by holding hands currents can flow from different bodies," Kim said. "We use a special generator. The hard part is keeping the little kids to keep holding hands because if they don't the experiment won't work."

Elizabeth Lundgren taught about kinetic and potential energy. She used a roller coaster she had set up in the gym.

"I thought it was a great pairing having the little kids and older kids," Lundgren said. "The older kids took the initiative to do the harder parts of the experiment and little kids learned from them. I thought having them all together was a great pairing."

All the University students felt coming to HEM had a positive impact on the students, whether they were very young or ready to graduate.

"I grew up in a small town in Wyoming and when people came to our school to show us things, it made a big impact on me," Baldwin said. "This is why I chose to do this. Being here brings back some very positive memories of when I was a student."

"Giving students a chance to participate in hands-on experiments gives them a chance to really learn and understand," Bernard said. "In the past two years of being on the roadshow, I ask kids what their favorite subject is, and most of the time they say science. That is why it is important we are doing this."