Last week, more than 60 fourth-sixth graders from throughout the Lehigh Valley were exposed to the various STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields through interactive, hands-on activities led by Lafayette students and faculty. Funded in part by a grant from the Mellon Foundation to infuse arts throughout the curriculum, this year’s annual camp added an element of art to make STEAM.
The four-day workshop, hosted by the College’s Society of Environmental Engineers and Scientists, was themed “Our Beautiful World.” Under the leadership of civil engineering major Emily McGonigle ’15 (Evanston, Ill.), students developed learning modules illustrating STEAM concepts through activities such as creating giant foam explosions, building bridges from toothpicks, and playing in an African drum circle to explore the mathematics of percussion.
“The focus is to show them how all the disciplines interact and how much fun learning can be,” says Nikki Bauer ’16, a psychology and English double major. “Our students get an opportunity to teach others what they’ve learned.”