PEABODY — Popsicle sticks launching into the air. Barbies bungee-jumping off balconies. The STEM competition at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School made experimenting as fun as it is educational.
Hosted by the PVMHS chapter of the National STEM Honor Society, high schoolers led groups of Higgins Middle School students and a fourth grade chapter of STEM NHS from South Elementary School as they explored different types of energy on Friday.
The first Peabody chapters of this national society were established in the fall. Friday marked the first time they’ve come together for a multi-school event.
The day allowed elementary students to be mentored by middle schoolers, who were in turn inspired by soon-to-be PVMHS graduates, said Courtney Lawrence, a digital literacy and coding teacher at the middle school.
“This is bringing excitement to children who love to do this type of material,” she said. “It’s not for everybody, but when you put them with like-minded people, the sky’s the limit and it doesn’t matter what the age group is.”
PVMHS science teacher George Hyatt led the event at the high school. His members of STEM NHS explored with younger students how science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) could be seen in two main experiments.
Students made stick bombs out of a woven chain of popsicle sticks held together by tension and a single stick at the end. Once that end stick was removed, the chain broke and its stored energy launched the sticks into the air in a wave-like motion.
They also had to figure out how to make a rubber band rope that keeps a Barbie doll safe during a bungee-jumping experiment off the balcony in the PVMHS atrium. They had to consider the doll’s height and weight, along with the durability of the rubber bands, and create a graph of the data.
Barbie did take a few headers to the tiled floor (and one group snipped off their doll’s hair). But with adjustments to the length of the rope, each group had her swaying safely from the balcony by the time pizza arrived for lunch.
“You never usually get to do super fun experiments like this in regular class because there’s not enough time,” said Kiara Evans, a 17-year-old senior who got to work with her 13-year-old sister Liliana, an eighth grader. “It’s nice to have a chance to be with the middle schoolers and elementary schoolers, even if it’s just for a day.”
Contact Caroline Enos at [email protected].
By Caroline Enos | Staff Writer
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