ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Volunteers from Sandia National Laboratories helped wrap up summer break with fun, hands-on science, technology, engineering and math activities at the fourth annual STEM in the Sun program. With the outdoor temperatures hovering near 100 degrees, this year’s event was moved indoors, creating a unique environment for some sun-based STEM learning.
Elementary and middle school-age students got to learn about the effects of ultraviolet light using UV beads and make lava lamps, catapults and marshmallow and dried pasta structures. They also learned about surface tension and got to program Ozobots, tiny robots designed to be an introduction to coding.
“My favorite was building with the noodles and marshmallows because my mom’s an engineer,” said Maevyn Haynes, a second grader who goes to Griegos Elementary School. “It’s fun to learn about science.”
The award for the biggest marshmallow and dried pasta structure went to Matthias White, a fourth grader from Farmington.
“I’ve never made something this tall,” said White. “I made something like this before, but they didn’t have a lot of stuff, so I couldn’t make it this tall. I want to be a scientist, so yeah, I like learning about science.”
This summer, STEM in the Sun consisted of seven sessions throughout June and July in partnership with the City of Albuquerque’s summer recreation program. More than 40 volunteers from various organizations within Sandia took part.
“At the end of the day, kids don’t realize they’re learning STEM because they’re having so much fun,” said Roberta Rivera, a member of Sandia’s Community Involvement team.
The latest event at Griegos Elementary School on July 26 was the final event for the summer and was led by members of Sandia’s Hispanic Outreach for Leadership & Awareness Group.
“I have two little boys and I’ve always been interested in outreach, and this was a good opportunity,” said volunteer Carlos Perez, who works in materials science at Sandia. “Curiosity is always fun to see, especially when started from an early stage; maybe it will get them on the right track. We certainly need the next generation to get interested in that subject.”
STEM in the Sun was started in the summer of 2020 by Sandia’s Community Involvement team to engage kids in fun, hands-on STEM activities at various City of Albuquerque community centers during COVID-19. The program has been a continued success, even when it has to be held inside because the sun is just a little too hot.