Basswood Elementary School hosts Math and Science Night

Basswood Elementary School hosted a Math and Science Night on March 11, where students and their families could participate in various STEM activities. The goal of the night was to create a passion for learning and foster a potential future in math and science for many of these students.

In the gym, students participated in a variety of games and activities sponsored by Mathnasium, including Connect Four, chess, Mancala, forehead math, logic sticks, flash math and other brain teasers and math games. Students could also participate in STEM activities in the cafeteria, including learning about circuits and loads, creating a catapult for a pop fly challenge, creating paper airplanes and making music with sound sandwiches, using rubber bands and popsicle sticks.  

Both the Crimson Robotics team and the Coding the Cosmics robotics team were at the event to show off their robots and let students try their hand at driving them around. The high school students hope that by showing elementary students what they do, it will get them interested in robotics in the future.

Basswood invited outside partners into the event to lead STEM related activities. The University of Minnesota Science and Engineering Student Board was at the Math and Science Night to lead demonstrations using a red cabbage indicator and oobleck, or non-Newtonian fluid made from cornstarch and water. The college students also helped participants create algae yarn. The Minnesota Department of Transportation organized a watershed activity looking at how outside sources can impact water.