This summer, Lancaster ISD George Washington Carver 6th grade Stem Learning Center is hosting SEEK Camp sponsored by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). The camp goal is to increase elementary school students's aptitude in math and science and their interest in pursuing STEM career fields, by having them engage in interactive, team-based engineering projects that teaches the art of Engineering, how it works, and why it’s important to today’s society. Each week students work on building projects, learning not only the basics of what it is or simply how will they accomplish the task, but why? They’re incorporating different laws of physics to determine why it’s important to follow certain procedures in order to ensure their building designs are successful. This week the students are creating gravity cruisers, a vehicle with a lever of balanced pennies fighting against gravity that causes movement They are becoming familiar with the product and learning vocabulary pertaining to the works of it eventually leading towards actual construction time. By the end of the week students will showcase their learning by competitively racing their cruisers against their peers to see which is best.
Article and photos by: Alexis Thames, Lancaster ISD Communications Summer Intern