STEM(in) with Steph

2020 has been quite the year! From politics to pandemic, it seems there has never been a day when there wasn't something new to capture our attention and get us worrying about what the future would bring. However 2020 brought many good memories and changes as well, and I think it is always important to reflect on the positives of life! February: This month I participated in a couple fun events including: 4 unique swab dishes with Bacterial Cultures (1 week after swabbing!) 1. Teaching Kindergartners about Germs 4 classes of Johnson Elementary kindergartners were able to swab their classrooms and grow bacteria cultures. This lesson helped students identify dirty areas and find solutions to making these areas more "germ free". 2. Mesa County Safety Fair The CSU STEM Energy Trailer With help from our Mesa County 4-H Agent, we spent two days at the Mesa Mall meeting with over 1500 3rd-5th graders. We showed them alternative energy forms and had a ton of hands on activities...

Whether your family chooses to celebrate the holidays or not, one thing I think everyone can agree on is December is the month of the Christmas Tree! Due to the excitement of the season, my family decorated our tree a few weeks early (like Nov 1st-ish...). However many families wait until after Thanksgiving before pulling out the garland and ornaments. If you are getting a live tree for Christmas (which I think everyone should experience at least once in a lifetime!) then the longer you wait, the longer your tree will last past Dec 25th. Upon decorating early this year, my child asked me how Christmas tree decorating even began as a tradition, and how a perfect tree is grown? Great questions, and I'll admit at the time I didn't have the answers, so I did a little digging! History behind the Tree The evergreen tree has been used to celebrate both pagan and Christian festivals for a couple thousand years. Pagan's would use the trimmed off branches of evergreens to make wr...

  The month's of October and November have been pretty exciting! I have had the pleasure of partnering with a class of Pomona Elementary 3rd graders to explore the world of chicken hatching! For the last 21 days, these kids have been learning all about chicken development from start to finish. Even more exciting; the teacher was able to use our embryology program materials and incubator to raise about 20 eggs in the classroom! Day by day record of chick development Youth have been learning about development each day. After about 4 days, they candled eggs to check for signs of both fertilization and growth. Eggs that were unfertilized were taken out of the incubator as unfertilized eggs will start to rot and fumes from bad eggs can lead to the death of live eggs. Views of egg candling over different days As growth occurs, eggs will get darker and darker with the increasing mass of the chick. After day 18, candling becomes almost impossible for healthy eggs. But durin...

I love the fall! The colors start changing and the leaves begin to cover the yard. Kids go back to school, family gather for holidays, and a light, crisp chill hits the air reminding me to enjoy the season before winter comes to erase the year away. But the biggest reason I love fall is for all the bountiful fruits and veggies that abound! Fresh produce is one of things I enjoy about living in rural Colorado.  You don't have to go very far to find a veggie stand with zucchini, squash, vine ripened tomatoes, and lettuce. Or just take a short drive east and you'll find a sign for "You Pick..." apples, peaches, pears, apricots, berries, etc.... But the thing about fresh is - fresh isn't fresh forever! Sad Day... Thankfully my folks were both avid food preservationists and instilled in me the knowledge to preserve fresh food for my own family. Thus was born my passion for canning! A passion I happily can pass on to the youth I work with! Life Skills Girls Learn to...

That's a question a lot of kids are asking themselves today. Me? I'm realizing that I haven't updated this blog in over 2 months (or more....)!?!? Oops... This week, many of the schools are releasing their "Back to School" plans for fall 2020. For many parents, the decision of how to safely return our kids to schooling is a bit, overwhelming? Do we send our children back into the classroom, with the additions of social distancing, increased health checks, mask attire, etc... OR do we accept responsibility for them to be educated at home, in a safe and controlled environment? Many families may not feel like they have an option. It's a little un-nerving, and stressful. But be encouraged parents! I have spoken to many of our teachers and school staff out there. They are very concerned about the health and safety of every student and I believe they have worked hard to bring together the educational opportunities available to students this next year. Their exciteme...

 A few weeks ago, I was saddened to hear that the summer (in-person) programming we partnered with the Montrose Public Library District (MPLD) on would be canceled due to the current COVID status. Not wanting to leave any stone un-turned, we asked the library if there was any way we could still partner with them in programming, albeit from a distance. We were excited to hear they are doing activity bags for the youth of Montrose County all summer long! We immediately started brainstorming how we could participate in this venture and offered to produce a series of STEM at Home self contained kits in a bag for individual kids. Kits would serve kids ages 5-13. The library was on board with the kit idea, so all last week we assembled STEM kits! We made over 200 kits to be distributed out to local kids for summer fun! The kits we assembled included a Plant in a Bag science project and a Spoon Catapult engineering project. We made approximately 100 of each kit, which contained all suppli...

It's been a month, and yes I'm still working from home...but while at home I've taken to gardening! Let me show you a little bit of what's happening around the yard! Top Photo: This spring, I was privileged to have a family member help build a raised garden bed. Now usually, they aren't this wide, but I am a big garden fan and wanted a lot of room; plus I'm not afraid to get a little dirty when it comes to harvest time. Strawberry Patch! Because who doesn't want fresh strawberries in the middle of June? Hydro-buckets! This fun science experiment uses the wicking ability of water  (Wick means to travel against the flow of gravity) to keep the bucket planted plants hydrated for longer periods of time. It's cheap to do and saves on water and time! The process is pretty simple. Materials I used for each plant included: (1) 5 gal bucket 1 recycled lidded coffee container (30oz) 2 ft of water line (but you can use old hose or PVC as well!) Duct tape A drill S...

How's everyone doing? Personally, I'm on week 3 of self quarantine and I've run out of things to work on, clean, and cook...! However, my spirits are up and hopes are high that this too will pass. Well since this month is traditionally filled with eggs, that's where I've been spending a lot of time focusing. I have been working on updating my embryology lesson plans for at home chick hatching and I have been experimenting with shell-less eggs. Wait Whaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?!?! Yes, you read that right - Shell-Less Eggs! A Shell-Less Egg! This month, my teammates and I are working on recording online videos with short experiments you can do at home (while in or out of quarantine!). While the video's are still being edited, I figured it wouldn't hurt to show some photo's from my latest experiment! Sorry no spoilers...you will have to wait for the movie for full instructions! Eggs in Solution - Bubbles are a Chemical Reaction Occurring! To mak...

Ok, that's not totally true, but I'm sure that's how many families are starting to feel right now. Good News!? There's a lot of fun stuff out there to help parents keep their kids learning and their sanity turning. Now is the perfect time of year to be at home during the day. Gardening season is beginning and kids love to get dirty. Have them start their own little sprouts indoors and then transfer them outside when it warms up a little more. They will love watching their little sprouts take shape. Want to add a little education to the planting? Have kids do a nature walk out and around the house. Flowers are blooming, pick some of the flowers and take them inside for a dissection discussion. Break the flower down one section at a time and define the parts. Older children can be encouraged to make a Flower Inventory poster. Materials are simply: paper, tape, and writing utensil. Then have them pair up parts and label. They can even do show and tell when the rest of t...

This past week I teamed up with Mesa County 4-H Agent Melissa Wonnenberg to bring the CSU STEM Mobile Energy Trailer to the Mesa County Safety Fair. Grand Valley Power electrical coop sponsored our attendance at this awesome event where over 2,000 mesa county elementary school children were able to come and learn about safety and energy! The kids were introduced to may types of energy production including crank, click circuits, fruit powered, and wind energy.  Thanks to our Partners Grand Valley Power for sponsoring our trailer at the fair! Melissa Models! The kids really enjoyed tinkering with the clip circuits and following new pathways and connections to try to make things move or light up! Sometimes their paths didn't work, but with a few helpful hints, they were able to make things happen. The trailer itself is equipped to be totally run on power generated from solar cells OR wind power, but since we were inside the mall, those sources were not available to demonstrate. Ho...