By Angel-Marie Cook, District Science Supervisor
Pennsauken Intermediate School hosted its third annual summer STEM Camp from July 11-22. With an aeronautical focus, students investigated flight through the lens of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Each day, students participated in inquiry driven classes based upon NASA’s Summer of Innovation curriculum. Using concepts of physics and mathematics, students explored the forces of flight, Newton’s laws, the dynamics of aviation, and the power of engineering design. Led by four of Pennsauken’s finest science teachers: Trever Miller, Pennsauken High School; Amy Fisher, Phifer Middle School; and Kathleen Blair and Jennifer Miller, Pennsauken Intermediate School, students cycled daily through four, 40-minute, inquiry driven, hands-on classes. Students anchored learning to Next Generation Science concepts and practices, while building understandings and bridging applications. Students demonstrated their knowledge on the last day of camp to a packed house of parents, siblings, and friends in a “STEM Showcase.”
Technology-based presentations, as well as field testing of student designed kites, rockets, and flying shoeboxes, exemplified learning outcomes and the knowledge mastery of the young budding scientists.
The 2016 Aeronautics STEM Camp proved that the “sky is the limit” when it comes to scientific learning.
