Elementary Students Pick Up STEAM at School
 | Author:
Nancy Marks
Nancy Marks: MT43 News Secretary and News Editor |
Elementary Students Pick Up STEAM at School Nancy Marks Everybody knows cows have four stomachs. No, says Mrs. Aliece Estrada, fourth-grade teacher at Townsend Elementary. Cows have one stomach with four compartments. This was one of the exciting discoveries students were able to experience at STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) Night, Tuesday.
The theme for the special program was Cattle, Crops and Country Family Night, an effort by the school to offer an opportunity for teachers and parents to interact with their students in a learning environment. To encourage families to attend, the school serves dinner, then each family moves to the various classrooms where teachers have prepared exhibits about making butter or a thermometer or learning about weaving wool. In the process, both parents and children exercise both the left and right sides of the brain simultaneously, as they would need to do in a 21st-century working environment.
In Mrs. Estrada’s room, children learned by mixing a packet of yeast with measured tablespoons of sugar and warm water, then as they shook the bottle, they formulated the same mixture as the contents of the cow’s stomach. They learned the cow then regurgitates the mixture, rechews it and swallows the mixture again. Each time the cow “chews her cud” she emits methane and carbon dioxide. Mrs. Estrade subtly included science and math in the fun experiment which concluded with a balloon attached to the bottle. The mixture blew up the balloon.
School District #1 Chairman Jason Noyes attended the school-wide event which was introduced in Townsend Schools in 2018. He commented the STEAM night event gives parents an opportunity to interact with teachers so parents can better understand the day-to-day work that goes on in the school. “The best benefit to the kids is they get to explore other fun aspects of learning besides just reading, writing and arithmetic,” he concluded.
Article Images
Click on Image Thumbnail(s) to view fullsize image
PhotoCredit: Nancy Marks
Image 1 Caption: Fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Aliece Estrada demonstrates how carbon dioxide and methane fill the balloon in this experiment about what happens when a cow "chews her cud.” Brother and sister Lyric and Ryker Krueger look on in anticipation.(Photo by Nancy Marks)
