Last Tuesday, the MVHS quad was filled with different Science Technology Engineering and Math related booths in celebration of STEM week. After STEM professionals presented Monday, students were allowed to participate in activities held by student clubs and outside departments on Tuesday.
One of these booths was put on by the Science Olympiad Club in which Community Service Coordinator Brian Delaney, a junior, explained their booth.
[nggallery id=118]
What are the three different things you are doing here?
“All of these [activities on the table] are based off of polymers. A polymer is basically a long chain style of molecules that is kind of complicated but different polymers can be used for many different applications. For example this station is a bouncy ball themed station made from commercially available polymers that can be used to create bouncy balls. This is a demonstration of a polymer that can absorb oil, so that’s a demonstration of real world application.”
What do you hope to achieve with this booth?
“What we hope to achieve mainly is get kids interested in science so that they pick up these things and think ‘science is pretty cool’. That’s kinda the whole idea of STEM week.”
Do you think it’s important for people to see what’s happening in STEM?
“Yes, I think it is very important for next generation, my generation, to see what’s going on with science [and] technology and these things are good starting points…to get into those roles in technology, but once you get in it, you can start seeing it how the world works in much greater detail and also is a nice effective to look at real world problems.”
What does your club hope to do?
“Science Olympiad is a competition club, we go to Science Olympiad competitions and compete there against Science Olympiad clubs from other schools, but this is part of our community service and we’re trying to communicate the idea that science is something that anybody be interested in.”
There were many other activities that happened during lunch that can be seen in the photos above.