Partners in Patriotism Grant Helps Foxborough Students Attend STEM Program

The following was submitted as part of the Foxborough School Committee Teaching and Learning Highlights series by Assistant Superintendent Amy Berdos.

The Teaching and Learning Highlight at Monday’s School Committee meeting featured four Ahern Middle School young scientists who attended Envision the Future: A 2015 Southeastern Massachusetts STEM Summer Program for Middle School Girls at Bridgewater State University. Ahern Middle School students Anna Marcucella and Grace Groves were present to share their experience in the one week residential summer program. The program was also attended by Andrea King and Nicola Carmone. Their experience was made possible through funding from our community. Along with their Principal Sue Abrams, the girls gave many thanks to Partners in Patriotism Fund who awarded them a grant to attend.

In addition to finding financial support from our community Anna and Grace explained that an additional criteria for the program included taking a concept they learned in the program and replicating it for younger students. Describing how they both remembered learning about electricity in fourth grade, they explained that this would be a good concept to replicate. “We were really focused on how we could bring something back to the elementary school.” The group utilized a product called Makey Makey (http://makeymakey.com), developed by graduate students at MIT who believe that everyone can be an inventor. Makey Makey is a product that can be used to easily connect household items to conduct electricity simply by using alligator clips. The two young Ahern scientists demonstrated the concept by using Makey Makey, alligator clips and connecting it to the banana where the banana became the power source to create their own keyboard for their computer. The girls explained, “Just as the human body can conduct electricity so can a banana!” In respect to giving back to their own school community, “We think this is a fun way to show kids how you can conduct electricity with objects you have in your everyday life.”

When asked about other activities during the week long STEM program and their overall experience, the two excitedly shared how they learned to program robots using Mindstorm and manipulate ROV vehicles that can work underwater. “We went to an actual forensic lab at Stonehill College where we learned about how DNA works and had the chance to solve a fake crime,” they shared. The long days from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm did not deter them. Both agreed they learned many practical applications, had a great experience and learned so much about everyday science, technology and math. They emphasized that there are a minority of girls in the STEM fields and the importance of increasing the number of girls interested in science by recognizing “it is important to have us engaged younger to go into a STEM field.”