STEM Club Activities - Volcano Day

Today was the first day of our STEM Club at Acton Academy Columbus.

We have a small but strong group of STEMers who were interested in learning about Volcanoes. Today, we started with a quick video about volcanoes that detailed what they are and how they erupt. We then watched a video on chemical reactions when Vinegar and Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) are combined.

And then we capped it off with information about how to create a paper mache volcano.

The moment we wrapped up the informational, the STEMers jumped out of their seats and headed to our cardboard central area. For the next 1.5 hours they work diligently to create their paper mache volcanoes. They decided to do this project individually but helped each other out along the way.

As I do with almost all of the projects at the school, I stepped back.

The beauty of these projects is not the end result (though it was pretty cool today!). The real joy lies in the process. While they did this as an individual project, most of the projects we’ll do are team-based. As our learners at the school do, the STEMers will need to learn to work together and collaborate to complete challenges.

Once the STEMers had put together the paper mache volcano, they went to the arts and crafts room and grabbed the paint supplies. They prepped and painted their volcanoes. After that they started the chemistry work. They grabbed hot water, food coloring, sodium bicarbonate, and vinegar and started experimenting with the chemical reactions while they waited for the volcanoes to dry.

The rest of the day was filled with explosions and eruptions!

The STEMers had a blast and I can’t wait to have them back for our future STEM challenges.