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Summer with the scientific method

Marshalltown elementary students get hands-on STEM education

T-R PHOTOS BY ADAM SODDERS - Top - These Woodbury Elementary students learned about the many places water can exist, from rivers and lakes to clouds and groundwater, at Summer STEM Camp Monday. This activity saw them collecting beads of different colors, each representing a different type of water body, to put them on a string to make bracelets. - Bottom - In another activity, Woodbury students sat in a circle and rolled a globe to one another. Each student stopped the globe from rolling with a finger and the instructor tallied how many times students’ fingers landed on water or land.

It’s summer break for Marshalltown students, but that doesn’t mean the learning has stopped.

“The Summer STEM Camp is a five-day program for any elementary youth in Marshalltown,” said Iowa State University Marshall County Extension Office 4-H Youth Coordinator Megan Henry. “This year, the focus is on water and water quality, so the kids will be learning about how they can help protect their water and about the water cycle.”

She said it is important for children to understand where their water comes from and all the different forms it can take. Henry also said they should understand some of the issues surrounding water quality.

“They will be doing lessons on different contaminants in water and how they can prevent those contaminants,” she said. “I think it’s really important for students to be exposed to different aspects of the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.”

All six of the Marshalltown Schools elementary buildings will host Summer STEM Camp over the next few months. Woodbury Elementary’s camp is currently under way during the afternoons.

Henry said area teachers and volunteers will deliver the program this summer. The teachers come from area school districts and are hired as program instructors.

“I just think it’s a good program,” said Beaman-Conrad-Liscomb-Union-Whitten (BCLUW) Middle School teacher and Summer STEM Camp instructor Tony Pieper. “I did this last year and had a lot of fun with it.”

Along with providing kids with “fun” and “hands-on” educational activities, he said the program helps them retain information they learned in the previous school year.

“They have to use a lot of reasoning skills,” Pieper said. “It really gives them a lot of practice with the scientific method.”

Henry said the program is getting help from 15 volunteer Marshalltown High School students participating in the ISU-funded Science Bound program.

“I think it’s a really good opportunity for students to still learn during the summer,” said Luis Castellanos, an MHS sophomore in Science Bound. “This is my first year, hopefully I’ll be doing this every single year.”

Henry said Marshalltown Water Works staff will teach the students about how water is treated to be safe to drink. Educational readings and videos will also be part of the curriculum.

“We’re working in cooperation this year with Bobcat University and utilizing their afternoon enrichment time at the elementaries and doing our STEM Camps during that portion of their week,” she said.

Food will also be served to the students through the district’s free summer meals program.

“We’re still accepting registrations for next week, June 18-22, at Fisher Elementary in the morning and afternoon session,” Henry said. “We also are accepting registrations at our open enrollment week at Franklin Elementary, and that week is July 16-20 from 8:30-11:30 (a.m.).”

For more information and to register, call the ISU Marshall County Extension Office at 641-752-1551.

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Contact Adam Sodders at (641) 753-6611 or asodders@timesrepublican.com

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