The Green S.T.E.M. Club

Don't Forget!

2012-02-15T10:00:00.001-08:00

Don't forget your materials for the egg drop!

You will need these for next week's meeting (2/22)

Remember: You don't want your egg to end up looking like this!

Winter Green S.T.E.M. Club Members

2012-02-09T10:46:00.001-08:00

Edible Aquifers

2012-02-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we learned all about aquifers. We talked about the different layers of the ground, and how groundwater is stored. We used gummy bears, chocolate chips, and crushed cookies to represent the sand and gravel found deep in the earth. We then "made it rain" using Sprite (which represented our groundwater.) We "protected" our groundwater with a confining layer (ice cream) then added more gravel and sand and soil (sprinkles).

Next, we put a few drops of food coloring into our aquifer. This represents pollution. At first it didn't do much but set on top of the confining layer. However, once we "dug a well" (put a straw into our aquifer), and started "pumping the well" we noticed the pollution started seeping down into our groundwater! YUCK! The it "rained" again, and the pollution spread EVERYWHERE!

So what did we learn??? To protect our Earth, of course! It is so easy to pollute our drinking water, so we need to be extra careful.

Before we polluted our aquifer

After the pollution!

Pictures!

2012-02-09T07:59:00.001-08:00

For some reason, Smilebox and our blog do not want to communicate! I have tried and tried, and I just can't get them to work! So... click STEM Club Pictures to see some recent pictures from our last couple of meetings. Hopefully that will work!

Welcome!

2012-01-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome Winter Session of S.T.E.M. Club! We are so excited you all have joined us! We have had two meetings already, and are looking forward to many more in the next few weeks!

Pictures from our last two meetings will be up on the blog soon. We are planning to make our S.T.E.M. Club T-shirts next week. After your T-shirts are made, please be sure to wear them to S.T.E.M. Club on meeting days. We want to show our spirit!

Just a reminder to parents: We do meet every Wednesday after school. Pick-up is in front of the school at 4:00. If you are late, we do have to send your child to EDEP. We will try to call and contact you if that happens. Behavior is important in S.T.E.M. Club, as our time together is limited, and we do a lot of things that require very specific directions.

We are glad to have you, and can't wait to continue working on many more new and exciting projects! Don't forget to save those lunch scraps for the composting bin, and get your friends to do the same!

Fall Session Pictures

2012-01-27T13:27:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from our Laws of Motion meeting, and Science Night!

More Pictures...

2011-12-21T09:55:00.001-08:00

More pictures are coming soon. Check back over winter break to see pictures from our last few sessions, and some from Family Science Night. Have a wonderful break with friends and family!

Don't Forget!

2011-12-13T19:23:00.000-08:00

Science Night will be this Thursday, December 15th beginning at 6:00. S.T.E.M. Club is hosting the Tallahassee Astronomical Society. We will be doing demonstrations with our Galileo Scopes, which we will learn all about at our club meeting tomorrow. Please make arrangements to attend Science Night, and don't forget to wear your cool new S.T.E.M. Club shirt!

On an unrelated note, pictures from the last two meetings will be up soon!

See you tomorrow afternoon for our last meeting of the Fall Session!

Do You Have What It Takes to Build a Roller Coaster?

2011-12-01T12:43:00.001-08:00

Our Green S.T.E.M. Club members do! Check out these engineers at work!

Edible Aquifer

2011-11-16T04:11:00.001-08:00

I got a little behind on updating the blog! A few weeks ago, we discovered the wet world of aquifers!

A lot of our drinking water comes from underneath the ground. When it rains, water soaks deep into the ground and is stored in what we call an aquifer. However, we learned that aquifers can easily become polluted if we do not take care of our earth. If the aquifer becomes polluted, our drinking water also becomes polluted. Not a good combo! Here are some pictures from our tasty activity we did to learn all about aquifers.

Gummys, chocolate chips, and crushed Oreos represent gravel, sand, and soil

Adding ice cream to represent the confining layer (usually clay).

This protects the aquifer.

Adding Sprite ro represent a rain shower.

Adding food coloring to represent the pollution.

Jahann "digs a well" with his straw and "pumps" the water from the aquifer.

The food coloring got all in his mouth! This shows how easily

an aquifer can be polluted, even though it is protected by

the confining layer.

Be sure you are taking care of our planet

to prevent this from happening!

The Creepy, Crawly, Life Cycle

2011-11-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, we were visited by some very creepy, crawly friends: mealworm beetles! We were exploring the life cycle, and got to learn all about the stages of life a mealworm beetle goes through. Here is what we learned:

We got to view each one of the stages in real life! Mrs Rodriguez brought in mealworm beetles in various stages of life. Their habitat was not the most pleasant, so we did a little "house cleaning." Here are some pictures!

Learning about the life stages.

Observing the mealworms.

More observations.

Getting a closer look.

Beginning to separate the adult beetles from the larva

and pupa staged beetles.

Look at all those mealworms!

Still separating... it wasn't as easy as it looks.

A clean, fresh environment for the larva.

I am also happy to report that, despite being totally grossed out at first, EVERY S.T.E.M. Club member touched the mealworms!

Way to go, everybody! See you next week!

Pictures???

2011-11-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

I am not quite sure what is going on with the Smilebox slideshow I made of our first meeting! I have tried to post it over and over, and it is still not working! I will look into getting some help from the Smilebox people, but until then, we will have to wait to view the pictures from our first meeting. :(

First Meeting

2011-10-27T20:22:00.001-07:00

Our first S.T.E.M Club meeting was a success! We planted flowers around the school, and learned all about composting. Stay tuned. Pictures are coming soon!

Welcome!

2011-10-19T06:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Green S.T.E.M. Club! We have some exciting experiments and activities we will be working on this year!

Don't forget, our club meets every Wednesday in Mrs. Owen's room (204) from 3:00 to 4:00. Please tell your parents to be sure you are picked up at the front of the school by 4:00 each day the club meets. Any students not picked up by 4:10 will go to EDEP. The drop-in fee is $10 per day.

Mrs. Rodriguez and Mrs. Owen are looking forward to working with you all this year!