Students use everyday household materials, such as water bottles and rulers, to create trebuchets.
This year the committee teamed up with the Washington Alliance for Better Schools (WABS) providing volunteers for one of their STEM programs, the After-School STEM Academy. The program teams a group of engineering professionals with a teacher and approximately (25) students tackling an actual everyday engineering problem. YMF members, Laura Lindeman and Katie Blaesser lead separate engineering teams for two different schools. For one hour a week over a 6 week period, the 4th and 5th graders and volunteers worked in groups discussing and finding solutions to building catapults and trebuchets (arguably most kid’s dream activity).
The program was a big success and SEAW is looking forward to building their relationship with WABS and growing the after school stem program.