While
classes may have been canceled yesterday to honor the life and work of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr, 29 students from the Oberlin area were keeping their
minds sharp at a workshop hosted by Get With the Program. This organization,
founded by Obie alum Jason Williams, engages elementary school kids in fun STEM
themed events regularly. The programs
goal is to get kids involved with STEM concepts early, encouraging their
excitement and curiosity about these subjects before they can become scary or
overwhelming. Each event has a different focus; in the fall there was a petting
zoo teaching the kids to about zoology and the classification of farm animals, yesterday
the kids were able to learn about Crypto-currencies and the next event in February
will be focused on neuroscience!
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| Photo from the petting-zoo in early Septemeber |
The
day started at 9:45AM, with the first hour and half or so being focused on
getting to know each other. Most of the kids had come to some events before,
but were also new faces and introductions to be made! After some intense rounds
of heads-up seven-up and a Simon says-charades combination game, we had our
first introduction to crypto-currencies. The “watered down” explanation of computers solving complex math
problems to encode and decode keys, which then have to be checked against a
decentralized nodal-network still mostly goes over my head. After that we introduced
them to one more: STEMCoins. Every student was handed their own paper-wallet
with a unique QR-code inside, letting us add those coins to a student’s balance
if they answered questions or helped others throughout the day. I’m not sure
how much these 3rd graders fully understood, but they loved getting
to do their own code-breaking. We showed them the “Pigpen” cypher, where every
letter is turned into a combination of lines and dots, and had them decode a
series of messages on the board. It was a great way to get them thinking, and
they were so excited to create their own encrypted messages.
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| Investigating what might be in the beakers! |
After
that we had a lunch break at the lovely Stevenson dining hall before starting
the second part of the day. Freshly fueled with healthy dose of pizza and ice
cream, the kids began their adventures around the science center. All the kids
were broken into four groups and two of them began a scavenger hunt while the other
two competed in a relay race. The teams
that completed each event the fastest were awarded the most STEM coins. The pairs of teams then swapped roles after each finished, allowing everyone to participate in all of the activities. At the
end of the day we scanned in everyone’s QR code one more time and opened up the
STEM-Store, a place for them to spend their hard earned coins. Prizes included
extremely fashionable slap-on wristbands, XL T-shirts, and some wacky LED
Sunglasses. Overall, it was a pretty fun day, and a great way to get children
thinking about math and science in a fun and engaging way.
Marcus
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| Proudly showing off the folders that they decorated to remember the day |
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| Orange team celebrating their victory |
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