Holy Innocents' Hosts Young 'Engineers' For A Day at STEMsational Saturday

Youngsters ages 3–5 were invited to the Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School campus Saturday, Nov. 5, to launch rockets, learn about robotics, create volcanoes and more during STEMsational Saturday.

Students received “passports” at the beginning of the day, and then stickers after each experience was completed. At the end of the day, each student became a certified HIES engineer and received a mini-hardhat.

Since the event was open to the public, some youngsters who attended were HIES students, but many others were from the community.

In addition to launching rockets and operating robots with Upper School Computer Science and Engineering teacher Ian Frame Saturday morning, HIES students—some members of the Science National Honor Society—guided activities such as using static electricity to make tissue butterfly wings flap and creating marble runs from sturdy pieces of pre-formed “track.”

Sophomore Libby Malcolm liked seeing the youngsters’ reactions while she was helping them to create chemical reactions with the baking soda volcanoes. Junior Andrea Smith liked watching little ones “use their heads” to figure out magnets. And junior Meredith Weiss, who’s interested in physics, devoted time to STEMsational Saturday to help little ones learn about science. “I’m so glad to be here and help them learn about science so they’re excited to do it,” she said.

The slime room was popular at the event and robotics had its draw, but 5-year-old visitor Henry declared the rocket launch to be the best interactive event at STEMsational Saturday. “It shoots way up in the air,” he explained, excitedly, “and I can shoot it because I’m 5!”