STEM Saturdays
Mass Academy Community Service (MACS) Club put on its third successful STEM Saturday on October 29th. Featuring exploding film canister rockets, snap circuit demos, a skittles-diffusion experiment, and a make-your-own catapult station, the activities had park goers of all ages excited to participate. Each Mass Academy volunteer was stationed at an activity and tasked with demonstrating a scientific concept and having the student hypothesize the expected outcome.
Volunteer Svabhu Govindaraj taught children about circuitry basics while displaying a light-detecting siren and a switch-controlled fan. Junior MACS members Naga Vikram and Travis Tran teamed up to lead the make-your-own catapult station and worked with kids to create working catapults to take home. Volunteer Raheel Sarwar demonstrated the color spiral that results when the dyes from skittles diffuse in water toward the center of a petri-dish. For the rocket activity, MACS club lead Poorvi Mohanakrishnan taught visiting students about reactants, products, and chemical changes for an exploding baking soda vinegar reaction. Our club advisor, Ms. Small even brought her son to participate, and he had a blast! With attendees’ ages ranging from 3 all the way to 15, the volunteers did an awesome job of tailoring the explanations appropriately.
What started as an idea hatched by the club at the close of the last school year, has blossomed into a greatly impactful and popular event. STEM Saturday aims to reach students in the Worcester area to inspire and introduce a love for learning and STEM. After advertising for the first few Saturdays at many tabling events in Worcester this past summer, the new initiative has reached over 100 students and hopes to reach more in the coming months through the Worcester Public Library. If you are looking for a fun family activity for the weekend, join us at our next STEM Saturday in December for a day full of fun and learning!
Editor: Poorvi Mohanakrishnan
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