Think you can’t host a family fun night while remote learning? Think again! Arlington Science Focus School, an elementary school in Arlington, Va., hosted its first-ever Virtual Family STEM Night Wednesday, Feb. 17.
The event went off without a hitch thanks to ASFS Investigation Station Lead, Stephanie Lin, the 2020 NOVA District PTA Educator of the Year, and a team of volunteers made up of ASFS teachers, parents, local high school students, and community partners.
Kindergarten through fifth-grade families were able to connect with one another and enjoy an evening of virtual STEM activities and live presentations, all from home. Students joined Microsoft Teams calls to listen to live presenters, watch demonstrations, and participate in a variety of science and engineering stations.
Virtual STEM Activities
Thanks to the support of the ASFS PTA, families were able to pick up STEM Night supply kits with bags of simple materials needed for each of the experiments, and many of the activities could be completed with supplies found at home.
Some of the night’s highlights included hands-on activities, such as:
- Building Index Card Towers
- Creating Ocean Sculptures from recycled materials
- Building a LED Copper Tape Flashlight
- Making a Balloon-Powered Boat with a sponge, straw and balloon
- Creating Underwater Fireworks with oil and food coloring
- Experimenting with Paper Cup Constellations using a flashlight
- Making music in the Chrome Music Lab
The event also featured presentations and demonstrations, including:
- Astronomy presentations by a speaker from NASA
- ASFS First Lego League Robotics Team demonstration
- Reptile and amphibian presentation by a nature center representative
- Space shuttle simulation with the ASFS student Tech Crew
- STEM career talks by a Bioinformaticist, Computer Scientist, Environmental Engineer, Forester and Sustainability Analyst
Although the virtual experience was not the same as the annual science fair typically held at school, it was great to see so many families engaging and participating in this school-wide event and enjoying STEM in this virtual world.
Two of the most popular STEM activities from the night were National PTA STEM @ Home activities: STEM @ Home Experiment 2: Ballon Boat and STEM @ Home Experiment 5: Copper Tape Flashlights. For the Balloon Boat, many students filled up their sinks or bathtubs with water and enjoyed watching their boats travel. Siblings loved racing their boats against each other. With the Copper Tape Flashlight, students were amazed that the LED light could light up with simple household materials, and they loved how bright it was!
Interested in hosting your own virtual STEM night? Check out National PTA’s STEM @ Home page for more information.
