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Henry B. Burkland Elementary School’s first annual STEM week was a huge success! Held the week of December 17-21^st, students and staff participated in various activities throughout the week. The week was filled with special guest presenters, virtual connections, distance learning and hands-on learning activities relating to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Along with the special planned activities, there was a daily design challenge for classrooms, i.e. Tennis ball towers, Build a bridge, Paper airplane, etc.

A Traveling Makerspace and Engineer, Jay Mankita of Playful Earth Productions, visited the school for three days, holding hands-on workshops for all 28 classrooms. In the STEM focused workshops, the students designed, constructed, tested and played using a variety of materials i.e. Dominos, blocks, swivels, pulleys, and other mechanical doodads that Jay provided.

All 5^th grade classrooms participated a fun hands-on science workshop relating to electricity. Val Rufo, Middleboro High School teacher, along with some high school students and staff worked with the elementary students, teaching them about electricity. As the elementary students rotated through various activity centers, they were able to light a bulb using lemons, made a home-made flashlight, as well as used an amp meter to test amps.

Many classrooms had the opportunity to participate in distance learning and virtual connections arranged by Louise Bertelli, Educational Technology Support Facilitator: Skype with a Yellowstone Ranger in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming; 4^th grade classrooms connected with Scientist Jean Penneycook in Antarctica learning about the penguins she is studying; Amazing Animal Adaptations with the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming; A Plant’s Life with Longwood Gardens; Skype with the expert safari guides for the live safari drive in South Africa; John Keyes, Meteorologist at the National Weather Center; and Dina Kachintseva, a software engineer at Google in New York.

Special guest presenters that visited the school: Mike Bastoni, engineering teacher at Plymouth North High School along with some high students provided a robot demonstration to all grade level classrooms; Bryan Engstrom, a member of MassDOT dive team, spoke with 3^rd grade students about his scuba equipment and his work inspecting bridges; Richard Oakley, School Committee Member and a co-founder of the BoroBot met with the 1^st grade classrooms to demonstrate 3-D printing. Ellen Driscoll, Middleborough Public Schools CTO, worked with all 1^st grade classrooms having students create a paper rocket and measure the distance of their launch.

It certainly was a busy and fun week for students at the Henry B. Burkland School. The excitement and learning of the week carried over at home as Derek Thompson, principal, received numerous comments from kids and parents about how much fun their kids were having this week and how much they were talking about school. With the success of STEM week, the staff are looking forward to next year’s event.