South Fayette
Summer STEAM Camp
W
hat do you do with old tires, iPads,
rocks, LEGOs, and rubber gloves?
You hold a four-day STEAM camp
and let students imagine, design, and create!
This year marked the fourth year of Summer
STEAM Camp for intermediate students. The
70 participants in grades 3, 4, and 5 worked
with Tori Bishop and Brittney Lunn to build
and program LEGO WeDo robot prototypes
designed to solve environmental issues.
Mark Kuglar and Rocky Violi facilitated
students in building outdoor seats using
recycled tires, PVC board, rope, and hot glue.
These seats will be placed around outdoor
spaces at the Intermediate School. Utilizing
the school’s state-of-the-art animation
studio and green screen, students produced
short animations about various science
topics. You can check out their work on the
Google site they created with Rachel Geis
and Samantha Bozzer: https://sites.google.
com/southfayette.org/sfissteamcamp/home.
For the first time, the school district
expanded their summer STEAM program by
offering a camp for elementary-age
students. Sixty first and second graders used
recycled materials to create musical
instruments with Kuglar and Violi. They
brought their school-issued iPads to camp to
code video games and animated dances.
50 South Fayette
Bishop and Emily Rupprecht taught coding
using Scratch Jr., a visual, block-based
programming app for emerging readers.
Bozzer and Geis tied the school’s Dignity
and Respect campaign into a fun art project
they called “South Fayette Rocks!” Students
painted rocks, attached a dignity and respect
tip and a QR code, and then placed the rocks
around the South Fayette campus. Students
of all ages are encouraged to look for these
rocks, scan the QR code and follow the
directions to share their own stories of
dignity and respect.
The camp director, Shad Wachter, calls
the Summer STEAM Camp a complete
success. “During the summer, students in the
Intermediate School, and now the
Elementary School, have an opportunity to
learn more about science, technology,
engineering, art and math through
engaging, hands-on activities and projects.
They are given the opportunity to practice
ingenuity and flexibility while connecting
with others and building a community.” You
can see the Summer STEAM projects and
more by following @SFIS_steamlab on
Twitter.
Submitted by Shad Wachter,
SFIS STEAM Coordinator
and Innovation Integrator