HOLLY GOEBEL AT WALLOWA PUBLIC LIBRARY
Wallowa Public Library is hoping to offer a Teen STEAM Saturday with STEAM stations set up around the library for preteens/teens to come in on their own time and try out circuit building, levers, inertia, and a gravity maze. Planning activities in-person during a huge influx of new covid cases is hard and the stations may end up set up on tables outside the library if the weather permits. These plans are still in progress.
CINDY HAWKINS AND KELLY MARTINEZ AT HERMISTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Hermiston Public Library is doing STEM as well as fun take-and-make kits for teens in our area. Our Halloween mask take-and-make kit was the most popular. Our mold experiment was also popular. The online gaming challenge didn’t work out as well as we were hoping. It seemed that with needing to be online so much for school, many of the teens were interested, but didn’t actually do it. Part of the problem was also that their school tablets didn’t allow access to the game, but they only let us know that after the deadline for submitting scores.
These are some of the very successful activities Cindy put together. We hope you enjoy them!
In November we ran a month long STEM mold experiment. We took slices of bread and wiped them on different surfaces around town. We then sealed those slices in ziplock bags, which were labeled, and placed them on a darkened, covered shelf in the library. Patrons could come in and see how the mold was developing. Below is the photo that was taken at the end of November just before we removed the display.
For Halloween we created a mask take-and-make craft. We bought the masks from Oriental Trading and added a paintbrush and paint to each kit.
For TeenTober, we challenged 6 of our closest libraries to an online gaming challenge. Each library found teens to represent them by playing an online zombie game. The teens were sent a link to the game and played from the safety of their home and then sent in their scores. The library whose teen got the highest score won. Hermiston won the brain trophy. (We are hoping to make this an annual event where each library has a chance to challenge the other libraries to an event of their choosing.)
For Thanksgiving, we put together a Gratitude Rock take-and-make kit. The kit included a rock, paintbrush, paint, and an acrylic pen. Teens could decorate their rocks with reasons to be grateful and keep them or leave them somewhere for someone to find. Tip: We gave out paint in tiny plastic containers with lids which we placed in a ziplock sandwich bag as an extra precaution.
For Christmas, we are putting together a reindeer take-and-make craft. The kit includes a reindeer kit that we bought from Oriental Trading and glue dots to put it together. Oriental Trading no longer sells these kits.
For New Years, we are doing a Photo Booth Accessories take-and-make craft. The kit will consist of a dry erase photo bubble board that we bought from Oriental Trading and dry erase makers.
Our January take-and-make craft will be a STEM craft where teens can make “stars in a jar“. The kit will consist of a glow stick, a glass jar and diamond glitter.
I recently read To Pin or Not to Pin? Choosing, Using, and Sharing High-Quality STEM Resources on the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). While the article discusses choosing STEM activities for children, it applies to teens too! I recommend reading the article to learn about when STEM isn’t really STEM and more. If you don’t have time, this is what I found to be most useful:
Questions to help you choose and use high-quality STEM resources (these are direct quotes from the article, with the word ‘teens’ replacing the word ‘children’):
Peterson, S., Hoisington, C., Ashbrook, P., Dykstra Van Meeteren, R. G., Yoshizawa, S. A., Chilton, S., & Robinson, J. B. (2019, July). To Pin or Not to Pin? Choosing, Using, and Sharing High-Quality STEM Resources . Young Children, 74(3), Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/jul2019/high-quality-stem-resources
I made a magical discovery that saved (one day of) my summer and engaged eager teens in learning fun.
After my Teen Advisory Board suggested “something like MythBusters” would make a good program to go with the Spark a Reaction Summer Reading Club, I thought I might have to call in reinforcements to get it done. Venturing out online for a few ideas, I quickly discovered that the MythBusters themselves had already come to my rescue.
http://www.mythbusterstheexhibition.com/educators/
Right there at my fingertips were 10 fully formed activities with complete instruction, supply lists, and explanations about what makes them legitimately “science-y.” Better yet, they hit on different areas of science and different skill sets and used easy to find, inexpensive materials.
I chose the five that seemed most do-able with a large group and prepared for the 40 middle and high school students that I thought were coming. When 55 showed up, I found myself very grateful that I tend to over-purchase supplies.
Here are some thoughts about the activities I chose that might be helpful to someone planning a similar program:
Spin It – Paper helicopters – Deceptively simple, really cheap, and lots of fun. Kids really got into thinking up creative modifications to improve (or not) their tiny helicopters.
Reflexes –Catching a falling ruler – Too easy, too fast, and not very interesting. Better to find another activity.
Airspeed –Balloons traveling down strings – Blowing up balloons and letting them go is just plain fun – even when their movement is controlled by a string track. I ramped up this one by setting up tracks with several different kinds of string.
Superhero Strength–Endurance test with a rubber band across your fingers – another simple, cheap activity that the participants enjoyed a great deal. Best quote of the night from a kid with crazy long endurance, “Finally, all those hours playing video games are paying off!”
Stable Structures –Building and testing marshmallow and toothpick structures – Hands down, the best activity of the bunch. The participants built some amazing structures. Some kids would have happily spent the rest of the week designing and building.
OYAN - Oregon Young Adult Network 