Broadmoor school has STEAM Fair

Had any scientists dropped by Broadmoor Elementary School on Wednesday, they would have seen that most of the world’s problems had been solved by the students there as evidenced by their science projects.

Wind energy? Check.

Health problems relating to sugar? Check.

Aerodynamic efficiency? Check. (The paper airplanes were amazing.)

A battery powered spinny thing? Got that, too. Although one piece of it flew off somewhere.

It was all part of the STEAM Fair put together by Harriet Warren, a fourth-grade math and science teacher who, as she put it, had a lot of help from her friends.

As Warren filtered around the gym checking in on the dozens of students who were eager to explain what they had created and learned along the way, Teresa Farber, institutional facilitator at Broadmoor, was snapping photos — but not just any photos.

“Give me a smile, because I love you,” she said to one student after another. “I need a bigger smile. I need to see your teeth, all 95 of them.”

Pursed-lip smiles became big grins as Farber coaxed the students to pose with a purpose next to their projects.

Harmony Cooper, an 8-year-old second-grader, allowed as how orange juice was full of sugar, while soft drinks had a lot and diet drinks not so much, and she had the used containers to prove it.

Justice Ryan Matthews, 12, who is in the sixth grade, teamed up with 11-year-old Jasyrus Daniels, a fifth-grader, on wind energy. Justice had the content all displayed on his tri-fold display board while Jasyrus told of the two weeks of trial-and-error work to get his wind turbine to stand up and the blades to turn. He succeeded.

What about the blades killing birds?

Not a problem, Justice said. With a little research, he’d found a company that made bladeless wind turbines.

Bingo.

Ever wonder what atoms look like? One junior scientist said the answer was as simple as looking at dried food.

A car that travels on old CDs as wheels and is powered by a straw and a filled balloon was also available, thereby ridding the world of any need for nasty petroleum products.

There was also a talking robot, an explanation of the water cycle and the need for conservation, and the sleekest of paper airplanes that have to be the answer to some scientific conundrum because they were so fun to throw.

Warren said this was the first year for the STEAM Fair in years and it was open to all students, from kindergarten to sixth grade.

“Everybody who wanted to play could play,” she said, adding she’s hoping for more participation next year. “We’ll leave these displays up and let the other students come in and maybe they’ll think, ‘Hey, I want to do that.'”

Warren had invited members of the Pine Bluff School District administration and professors from UAPB in to judge the projects, but then the building’s computer system experienced a glitch and students weren’t able to print out their work.

“That judging part seemed a bit unfair,” Warren said. “So instead of naming winners, everyone will get a participation award. We rolled with what we had.”

She said her goal was to get the students engaged in something they were interested in.

“I wanted them to find something they liked to do and learn something about it,” Warren said. “I would like to see us have a science lab on campus. Broadmoor used to be a STEAM school, and I’d like to see that distinction again.”

As she spoke, Zealous Clark, a 7-year-old first-grader, was putting the finishing touches on his static electricity project, meaning he was wiping down some Styrofoam plates with a wool cloth in hopes of having one of the plates levitate and send opposite-charged balls flying.

Have you ever taken a balloon and rubbed it on your hair and then stuck it to a wall? he was asked.

Zealous nodded thoughtfully as if the hair thing was as old as a rotary phone.

“I did that when I was a kid,” he said. “I think I was 4.”