STEM Week Helps Inspire Students to Embrace Science – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Getting girls excited about science is top of mind in many classrooms these days as educators work to help diversify that field of study.

When Librarian Amy Beaman at Lake Pointe Elementary School in Fort Worth saw a video of a rollercoaster for marbles, made out of paper plates, she gave it a second look.

“This year has made it different since we can’t share materials and it’s hard to disinfect materials between classes, this activity was something that used disposable material,” said Beaman.

Disposable materials and a wow factor that’s there purely thanks to science.

“Whenever it goes up a hill, kinetic energy starts to turn into potential energy and when it starts going down, potential energy starts going into kinetic,” said student Aubrey Hollerich.

Their words came confidently. Elementary students here have become masters of force, energy, and engineering even if they struggled a bit with paper materials.

“Whenever we tested it, it wouldn’t work, we had to make more things for it to go down,” said student Savannah Heyland.

The teachers say the weeklong focus on stem happens every year in Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD and each year they’re seeing the difference it’s making.

“Kindergarteners are walking up to me saying, ‘Where are the books on Saturn? I already read the books on Jupiter,'” said Beaman.  

It’s not just age but gender too with the educators seeing more girls take interest in science than ever before.