Marlborough STEM Students Redesign A Boat

MARLBOROUGH, MA—Story submitted by Marlborough Public Schools:

This summer, five STEM students from Marlborough High School and Andrea Morton, the Science Leader, worked countless hours designing STEM activities for children. As a team, the four rising juniors and one rising senior, brainstormed, designed, and piloted STEM activities to develop and implement a meaningful hands-on interactive STEM project for Boston Scientific’s “Take Your Child to Work Day” held on Aug 15.

The hours of preparation paid off on the actual event day when 180 employees’ children, ranging in ages from six through nine years old, built their own tin foil boat. Working in five groups of nine children, the STEM students from Marlborough High School (MHS) led the entire activity and redesign process. The children used weights to test the buoyancy of their boats and made predictions about how many stones it would take to sink the boat. As they discussed the re-engineering process, the STEM students encouraged the children to partner up to redesign a new boat that would hold more weight.

Prior to the actual “Take Your Child to Work Day,” the STEM students conducted two different pilots, one with children at Jaworek Summer School and another with children at the Marlborough Boys & Girls Club. Through these two pilots, the STEM students learned how to improve the “Build a Boat” activity.

“In addition to successfully teaching and leading a STEM project for children, the high school students interviewed Boston Scientific employees to gain knowledge about the company’s culture, the college readiness process, and career opportunities,” stated Andrea Morton, the Science Leader who is a math interventionist at the Richer Elementary School. “I was impressed with the students’ abilities to work cohesively as a team, communicate effectively, and make decisions. I witnessed the result of many years of great teaching that helped motivate these intelligent, dedicated students,” she added.

“My experience this summer with Boston Scientific was very eye opening. I had the opportunity to develop and lead an activity with other students. Not only that, but I got exposure to the employees and networked with them,” said Aliyah Nisbett, a rising senior at MHS.

“The employees at Boston Scientific gave us incredible feedback, especially about questions on college and which classes we should be taking in high school,” stated Vivian Turcios, a rising junior at MHS.

Marlborough’s involvement with Boston Scientific was made possible by Laura Bilazarian Purutyan, the STEM Career Specialist for Partnership for a Skilled Workforce, Inc. (PSW) who links local corporations with MPS students and teachers.

Photo, from left to right: Isabelle Bailey (junior), Aliyah Nisbett (senior), Daniel Pereira (junior), Vivian Turcios (junior), and Tatyana Barthold (junior)