Learning
Through Play
at Summer
STEAM Camp
W
hen school is out for summer,
it’s time for kids to play.
Summer STEAM Camp provided
youngsters in the South Fayette Elementary
and Intermediate Schools the opportunity
to do just that. This year marked the sixth
year of the week long camp for students
entering fourth, fifth, and sixth grades,
with 58 campers participating in activities
exploring STEAM (science, technology,
engineering, art, and math). Working with
Emily Martin and Victoria Lojek, the
students learned how to code Sphero Bolts,
robotic balls that can be programmed
to light up and move around. Once they
learned the basics of how to operate the
Spheros, the engineers built chariots to
attach to the robots and transport cargo
along a path. The 50th anniversary of the
Apollo 11 lunar landing provided an historic
connection for
students to learn
about rocketry.
With Ryan Schoenberger and Sarah
Cabonor, they designed, created, and
launched bottle rockets and straw rockets.
After testing their designs, the young rocket
scientists made modifications to make their
projectiles go higher and further. Mark
Kuglar facilitated the campers in painting
pictures related to various STEAM themes
such as the environment, robotics, and
space. These artists practiced using multiple
painting techniques such as sponging,
splattering, blending, and incorporating
recycled materials. Their paintings will
be displayed in the STEAM studios in the
intermediate school.
This was the third year that Summer
STEAM Camp was offered to elementary
students as well. This camp had 66
students designing, making, and sharing
projects that focused mainly around
engineering but also incorporated
science, technology, art, and math.
Cabonor partnered with Lojek to teach
these younger students how to program
the Spheros. The programmers quickly
grasped the concept of coding and began
writing stories for their “round buddies.”
Their robotic balls then traveled from
one location to another, lighting up, and
speaking text in the Sphero programming
app. Martin and Schoenberger teamed
up to teach students kinetics, the study
of how forces make things move and
created Googly Monster Kinetic Sculptures.
They combined engineering with a bit
of art to make a fun, movable puppet
show. In another session with Kuglar,
they answered the question, “Can you
make a game with recycled materials?”
Kids like playing games and they soon
discovered that they really love making
games. Through imagining stories, building
rockets, painting pictures, programming
robots, and building toys and games, South
Fayette students learned a lot about STEAM
through play.
SOUTH FAYETTE
❘
FALL 2019
37