On July 26th, the last of the 2013 St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s River Concert Series was held. The non-profit growingSTEMS™ was present throughout the 6 events. This was their third year running to help inspire the children and young adults with S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). The kids really seemed to enjoy our old favorites of GAK and Ooblek, while embracing two of new activities: Racin’ Rovers, and Paper Rockets.
Racin’ Rovers lets kids try their hand at racing Lego Mindstorm rovers over varying terrain and compete against one another to get the fastest time or farthest along! Kids were also pitted against each other in a speed competition to see who could get a plastic ball (similar to a golf ball) into a hole in the center of the course.
While Paper rockets does not have anything to do with robotics, it has everything to do with STEM. Teaching the kids the science behind air pressure, aerodynamics, and material strength was easy with this single task. The children were tasked with creating a 8″ rocket out of construction paper, duct tape, and a little science. Each rocket was launched from our launch pad with varying PSI (Pounds per square inch) to show them how the variation in PSI directly corresponded to the distance the rocket traveled.
One unlucky kid found out exactly what happens when materials fail under pressure. When her rocket did not leave the launch pad she was confused what happened. After a little investigation she determined that her rocket was torn apart by the pressure, not enough enough duct tape to hold the seems under 20PSI. Realizing what happened showed her how to fix her problems and get right back onto that launch pad, soaring into the sky.
Overall it was a great series of River Concert events and we hope to see you all there next year!
You can see pictures from this series of events in our Media section.