STEM Night

At my 6 year old daughter E’s school, they were holding STEM night. I wanted to take her and my 4 year old son C to give them some exposure. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it, but regardless I knew they were going to have fun.

When we got there, they immediately went to the robots section and stared at the moving robot rolling around a small enclosed pen. They were letting kids use a remote to drive the robot around, but for some reason, C was really not wanting to take a turn. I don’t know if he was scared of the robot or nervous because he was too new for him. E wanted to run around some more and went off looking at a bunch of different stations. Eventually, she went to a station that made snow out of something white that absorbed a ton of water.

I sat with C as we built random things using what was laid out at different tables. There were blocks to make shapers, magnet tiles to make structures, and plastic pieces to snap together to make inventions. He was more interested in building things and we went around doing that while E was going everyone exploring things. She is such a curious little girl and didn’t mind getting in there to wait her turn at certain stations.

I ended up going to a different table with C to play a dice rolling game to see who could roll the highest numbers and color their squares first. It was an easy game to play with him and although he was winning at first, I ended up catching him and winning at the end. It was just fun to color and see him have some fun. Eventually, we ended up at the origami station and made a dog and a pig. Then it was time to go home.

On the walk back, I knew my wife would not be happy with the snow, so I told E we had to get rid of it when we got back so it didn’t make a mess in the house. I set expectations early to be sure there wasn’t a meltdown later after a fun night. She agreed and when we got back, she opened the snow and was dusting the plants outside the house to try and keep some of the snow. This girl! I didn’t even know what it was made out of, but probably wasn’t great for the plants. I ended up taking the bag and tossing the rest in the trash.

All in all, it was great to head there for STEM night. The kids got to see something different and although I thought there were going to be science experiments and kids explaining them, it was very interactive and fun with the various stations. I think the school does a lot to keep kids and families engaged with these events and I’m glad we got to go to so many of them through the school year.