Oak Ridge Elementary School is hosting several ventures to make students aware of the benefits of STEM. One of these after-school activities is introducing a group of first-grade students to STEM-based activities.
The group set off to explore and play with their thought-inducing games, like building marble runs, making shapes out of dominoes and creating bridges out of Legos.
First graders Katie Williams and Gianna Simonelli chose to play with dominoes.
Williams and Simonelli collaborated with others to build a line of dominoes down the hallway.
According to Simonelli, the groups attempted to “combine their lines” of dominoes, providing a thought-inducing activity.
Her group spent their time testing the cause and effect of the dominoes.
They learned to incorporate strategies, such as leaving space between dominoes, in case they mistakenly knocked one over.
As the groups experimented with the dominoes, they found it compelling when the dominoes fell.
“When it falls it’s going to be really satisfying,” Williams said.
According to parent Wendy Weatherford, these activities change from group to group. It depends on the age, weather, and amount of kids.
“I’ve seen the kids do the activities all outside. Sometimes they have a craft. It’s fun. It’s a lot of playing,” Weatherford said.
Another opportunity the students had was building marble runs.
Marble runs entail building a structure with various ramps, tunnels and drops, and then watching the marble run through.
First grader Alivia Boadnaraine participated in this activity.
Boadnaraine, along with her fellow students, were engaged in this new experiment.
Most of the students had never been introduced to this before and had a very enjoyable experience.
“What I’m doing right now is my favorite,” Boadnaraine said. “I’ve never done this before.”
Boadnaraine and many other students stayed at this activity for the majority of their time.
The third recreational activity consisted of building Lego bridges over the paper river.
Students spent time engineering the details of the bridge, figuring out what they needed to do to hold up the bridge.
First grader Aston Focht chose to build Lego bridges. As he built, he shared his progress with friends. “I’m doing this so the bridge can stand,” Focht said.