Lower School Students Demonstrate their Engineering and Science Skills at STEAM Night

“STEAM Nights in the Lower School occur several times a year to help ignite curiosity and creativity in our young scientists,” said Lower School Dean of Humanities Julie Barber. “Projects encourage trial and error, revision, and collaboration with others. These projects also amplify topics covered in STEAM subjects across grade levels.”

 

STEAM Nights, which began in the 2024-25 school year, kick off with an exciting demonstration to elicit students' wonder and encourage them to find delight in the evening's subjects. This year’s STEAM night focused on simple machines, including inclined planes, levers, wedges, wheel-and-axle mechanisms, pulleys, and screws. Students watched a whimsical Rube Goldberg-style chain reaction designed to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which sparked their interest and curiosity about engineering and how things operate. 

 

“STEAM Nights are designed to be truly experiential,” said Lower School Dean of STEM, Catherine Hamblet. 

 

There are a variety of STEAM-centered after-school clubs offered at Bush for Lower School students on Fridays from 3:20 - 4:20 p.m., including Amusement Parks with Brickz 4 Kidz, where students use LEGO® Bricks to build motorized models such as the Tilt-a-Whirl, Loop-de-Loop, and an upside-down Swing Boat. The engaging lessons in this club provide students with an understanding of the physical forces they experience every day, such as G-forces, inertia, and momentum. Junior Lego Robotics is another engineering-heavy club offered to Kindergarten to Second Grade students, where they learn to troubleshoot robotic behaviors through LEGO®-based engineering practices.

 

“At our STEAM night, students engaged in a small task in which they used a simple lever to aid them in picking up an object more easily, helping them better understand the concept of mechanical advantage that simple machines can provide,” explained Julie. “After this, the fun really begins. All STEAM Nights include a design challenge in which students put new learning into practice. Students at the Simple Machines Night built catapults out of popsicle sticks, spoons, and rubber bands, and then they tested and tweaked their designs to increase the distance they could hurl a projectile.”

 

STEAM Nights conclude with a discussion to socialize new learning from the design process and to encourage further study of the topic. Parents and guardians also had the rewarding opportunity to see the cohesion among students and to witness what happens when learn by doing is put into practice.