The sound of hair dryers and excited third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students and their parents echoed down the halls of California Avenue Elementary School last weekend as competitors took part in a Sailboat Challenge at the second session of Super Science Saturday.
Students and parents gathered in the school’s cafeteria on Jan. 31 for a districtwide initiative, to learn about design, force and motion through hands-on learning and experimentation. At the first Saturday session, on Oct. 11, the focus was on engineering and coding with Lego robots.
“One of the reasons we started Super Science Saturday was to make sure that our young people get really excited about science, engineering, STEM and all the different types of careers,” district Superintendent Monique Darrisaw-Akil explained.
Students put their homemade sailboats to the test on lunch tables, where they were blown toward a finish line by adults wielding hair dryers, mimicking the wind, as other participants timed them. The goal was to tweak second versions of the boats to make them sleeker, and faster.
Rick Wolfsdorf Jr., a science specialist at California Avenue Elementary School, who enjoyed watched the students mull the aerodynamic challenges, said, “They figured out what was wrong, and they went back and kept going with their parents to modify, make changes and improvements, to find the engineering design solutions.”
“There’s a few different bases, a few different designs that they can do,” added Michael Guardino, a science teacher at Uniondale High School. “Our only job here is to facilitate their discovery.”
As part of Uniondale’s effort to engage students in science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — activities beyond the classroom, the Sailboat Challenge is one of many participatory events the district offers throughout the year.
“When they experience it hands-on, as opposed to reading textbooks and hearing lectures,” Wolfsdorf said, “when they actually do the science and experience it, they’re much more into it, and it really engages them.”
When they checked in, each participant was given a bag containing worksheets and coloring pages related to the activity, along with snacks, markers, water and “Forces Make Things Move” by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. The book helped students connect scientific vocabulary and concepts to the Sailboat Challenge.
They brought their school-provided iPads to participate in learning games, including a trivia game, Kahoot, that reinforced the scientific concepts of force, motion and design.
“We believe that reading as is a foundation of everything that we do,” Darrisaw-Akil said. “Vocabulary, and academic vocabulary, are really important to building students’ content knowledge and experiences.”
Students were given a cardboard french fry basket, 12 inches of tape, two straws, half a sheet of paper and scissors to create their boats and some stickers to decorate them with. Teachers encouraged them to try out their designs, observe the results and, based on the outcome, make changes to improve in their second “sail” down the lunch table.
Eight-year-old Camylla Kukowski’s favorite part of the activity, she said was, “Recreating the boat and trying new things and taking advice from others.”
The parents were also encouraged to take part in the fun by helping their child read “Forces Make Things Move.”
Trisha Townsend, who was spending some quality time with her son, said she appreciated “spending time with my son on a Saturday, getting to do activities that he probably wouldn’t get to do with me if we didn’t have an activity like today.”
Though it was the district’s idea to create Super Science Saturdays, teachers and staff willingly volunteered to help educate and guide students through scientific challenges, fostering and encouraging creativity and curiosity.
The district has two more Saturdays scheduled later in the school year, on March 14, at Smith Street School, and on May 16, at Grand Avenue School.
