NMS students treated to a day of STEAM/STEM activities

By Casper Wehrhahn Neepawa Banner & Press

The Neepawa Middle School (NMS) was full of excitement and animated discussion on Thursday, Feb. 9. That day, the Grade 8 girls were invited to the 2023 edition of the Girls in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) conference, hosted virtually by the Saskatchewan Science Centre. The Grade 8 boys got in on the fun too, with several STEM activities planned for them throughout the day.

The Banner & Press was on the scene for a portion of the day, getting an inside look as the activities went on.

“We were really excited for this invitation and the students seem very grateful for this opportunity,” said teacher Michelle Kolbe, noting that NMS was the only school in Manitoba to attend. “I think they have enjoyed learning things from a new scientific frontier. The classes are coming together and testing new boundaries, gaining a lot of knowledge.”

Kolbe added, “Although the nature of the STEAM conference is directed to young girls, we really wanted to ensure that all of our students had the opportunity to enjoy their day with these STEM activities.”

And indeed the fun was apparent. On the part of the STEAM group, the multi-purpose room became full of ‘pops’ and exclamations of surprise as seltzer rockets took flight. Students used old film canisters– decorated with dutifully cut out paper tailfins and cones; water and alka-seltzer tablets to conduct the experiment.

The fully prepared rockets would be placed on the ground with the canister’s cap facing down. Then, observed from a safe distance, the CO2 levels in the canister would increase, building pressure until it caused the tube portion to launch into the air.

“It’s pretty good– there’s a lot of interesting projects happening,” said student Lheyanne Dever as she carefully prepared her rocket. “We feel very special and grateful to have the opportunity to attend this conference. There’s a Grade 8 camping trip coming up in the future that I’m really looking forward to, too.”

Tyson Terin, a student with the STEM group, echoed that sentiment and highlighted the project the

STEM teams were working on.

“Right now, we’re designing a tower to hold a ball. My team and I are creating two separate boxes, which we’ll join together in the end, to hopefully have the strength to hold it,” said Terin. “We’re layering the sides to make them more durable, using thicker paper to help.”

He added, “We have a gym class coming up with all of them, too. And I’m excited to find out what the fourth challenge for the day will be.”

In addition to being strong enough to hold a ball, the towers had to meet other conditions as well. For example, being at least 60 centimeters tall. Amidst the discussion and laughter, each team carefully planned out their towers before building. Each team took different approaches to achieve their goal, even incorporating different shapes to hopefully create a stronger tower. Several additional activities were prepared for the day, including a STEAM presentation from keynote speaker Kristen Facciol of the Canadian Space Agency and additional mystery challenges for the STEM groups.

Upon the day’s conclusion, Kolbe provided an additional comment on behalf of all teachers involved, stating, “We felt the day went really well and students had opportunities to explore new science ideas!”