Massachusetts STEM Week, which ran from October 18th-22nd, was a week-long celebration that promoted STEM in the classroom and beyond.
KIPP MA, long-time supporters of STEM Week, carved out activities that not celebrated STEM during the official week, but continued building on the already laid foundation of STEM curriculum in the classroom.
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) are promoted through KIPP classrooms region wide, and especially celebrated at the high school level at KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate, with engineering focused classes.
The theme for Massachusetts STEM Week this year was “See Yourself in STEM” and aimed to promote STEM careers for BIPOC and women, encouraging those in these usually underrepresented identities to imagine and pursue a STEM related career or passion.
This mission goes hand in hand with KIPP MA’s overall mission of inspiring students to explore their potential in an accepting yet challenging environment, not only in the classroom but in life beyond KIPP.
Take a look at some of the STEM activities that happened in Mr. Allen Wang’s high school classroom!
To kick off STEM week, students had the opportunity to take their world completely virtual. Virtual Reality (VR) headsets put the user in their virtual environment. Users can not only play games and explore apps, but also experience a STEM advancement sci-fi books have dreamed about.
On Tuesday, October 19th, students participated in the Amazon challenge provided by the Massachusetts STEM website.
What they did:
The Amazon Cyber Robotics challenge incorporated coding to see how Amazon utilizes robotics around the warehouse. This presentation was part of CoderZ’s virtual STEM program.
To close out the week, students participated in the Gale Force Education STEM challenge.
What they did:
Students worked with Engineering for Resilience (EfR), which focused on the design and operation of New England’s power grid. In a series of challenges aligned to MA STEM standards, students designed, tested, and improved power grid system components and a model power grid system.
For more information on Massachusetts STEM Week, visit https://www.massstemweek.org.
