Foothill Family Engineering Night

Recently our local elementary school has become a "STEAM" school, with the idea being that they invest more heavily in science, technology, engineering, arts and math activities. The sign on the front of the school "Every child deserves to be prepared for the 21st century" was really rubbing me the wrong way earlier in the school year when my child was really struggling in math and not getting the help at school that she needed.

However, things have improved in that area with more help being provided. And recently we went to a Family Engineering Night that was pretty fun. I wish more members of our family could have gone--but things were just too busy.

At Family Engineering Night, we picked a few stations and did the activity. The idea was to create a solution to an imaginary situation given a very few materials.

The first station was to build some kind of drawing bot using a small motor with a battery and a cup and eraser and markers.

The second station we visited had the problem of creating a vehicle to get across the desert using the materials from an old World War II era plane. In reality, we got a piece of paper, a few straws, some lifesavers and tape to create something that we could blow from the starting line to the finish line. I copied the design from a dad who looked like he knew what he was doing. Camille had a hard time blowing it herself so the teacher in charge helped her.

At the third station, we were running out of time so we didn't really have time to make it work. The goal was to make a hovercraft using an old CD, the top of a water bottle glued to the CD, and then a balloon mounted on top. The lid of the water bottle had a few holes in it. I'm still fuzzy on the concept and it only worked marginally.

My overall impression was that it was an enjoyable activity and definitely worthwhile. I wished it had been at a different time and lasted longer since there were several more stations we could have done. And we were rushed with the three we did so I felt like I had to do all the engineering. But I hope they do it again next year.

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