Harrison Park Elementary School conducts monthly STEAM projects called “Junk Box Wars.”
STEAM activities incorporate science, technology, engineering, art, and math into one lesson. The Junk Box Wars projects encourage students to use their scientific knowledge to create and design a device. Students in kindergarten through fifth-grade work with a partner and are given a design challenge and a bag of “junk” to create a device that solves a specified task.
January’s Junkbox War was called ‘Don’t Drop the Ball’ and was spearheaded by building substitute teacher, Michael Barnes. The students were tasked with building the tallest free-standing tower that would hold a beach ball for at least ten seconds. Each group of students received two rubber bands, four tongue depressors, four cotton swabs, fifteen notecards, three pipe cleaners, three paper clips, a straw, a piece of aluminum foil, and a roll of tape.
Winners were named from each grade level, and the students enjoyed the educational and interactive project.
3rd-graders Abby Strasser and Liliya Jarzynka partnered up for the challenge
3rd-graders Olivia Evangelista and Gracie Ressler with their finished contraption
Kindergarteners Ophelia DeFlavio and Ella Heibel
1st-graders Delvin Frey and Avery Overfield
3rd-graders Quinn McIntosh and Mazzie Muller
5th-graders Morgan McIntosh and Brynn Grominski