News
Afterschool Program creates STEM rockets
Scott Wagar
04/16/2013
It was a fun and educational afternoon for the students of Central School who participate in the afters chool program this past Friday afternoon when Dakota College at Bottineau’s STEM Investigation team came to the elementary school and taught the students how to build rockets through different educational courses.
“These students have developed lessons that reflect STEM education models. STEM education is an acronym for the fields of study in the categories of science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” said Angie Bartholomay, faculty advisor of DCB STEM students and an instructor of chemistry at DCB. “One of the goals of the lessons is to integrate the subjects. The DCB students travel to area schools to teach the lessons they have created. The students have six different lessons they share with area students.”
On Friday, the STEM students taught the elementary students how to build rockets through everyday material through the STEM category courses.
Once the rockets were built, the kids tested their rockets by launching them to see how high and far they could fly, while being taught the science and aerodynamics behind their rockets.
“In the lesson presented at the Bottineau after school program the students worked as teams building and testing rockets that they created,” Bartholomay said. “In the process, the after school students learned about design, kinetic and potential energy, along with the mathematics of data collection.”
DCB students and faculty involved in the STEM program include Stephanie Liang, Derek Jacobs, Cecile Hoornaert, Catherine Hahn, Jennifer Cote and Sadie Riendeau.
Cynthia Jelleberg, Tiffany Ziegler and Shelley Hoerer of the North Central Education Cooperative also assist the STEM Team in their education program.
The DCB STEM Investigation Team is a cooperative effort between Dakota College, North Central Education Cooperative and the Pearson Foundation.