MATTHEW BURNETTE, Staff Writer

Artwork and zoo animals lined the halls, and historical figures filled a classroom as College Street Elementary hosted their annual STEAM night on March 11.

The event has been held at the school for at least a decade according to Principal Tom Jacobs who says it was created as a result of an overall emphasis on STEM education.

“It’s become a higher priority, and so we decided to host a STEM night,” he said. “We have lots of teachers set up and providing lots of different activities set up for our students that really emphasize different types of STEM education.”

Jacobs explained that the event has grown over the years and activities have been added as the STEM acronym, which stands for science, technology, engineering and math, has expanded.

“STEM itself has gone from STEM to STEAM to STREAM. We’ve added the arts and we’ve added reading so it’s kind of a catch all term,” he said. “Traditionally when you think of STEM you think of more science and technology topics, but it is a catch all… We’ve added a few activities like we host a science fair in the gym now… We’ve got a host of things going on here.”

Though placing emphasis on STEM education was an important aspect of the event, Jacobs said that it also gives students the chance to display their work.

“It gives them a chance to showcase activities they’ve been working on and digging deeper into topics that they may not always have the opportunity to do in just your traditional education experience, and it brings the community together as well which is equally as important,” he said. “We’ve got art projects hung up down the hall that the kids have been working on. It gives parents a chance to see what the kids have been working on as well.”

Jacobs said he couldn’t single out an activity that he would call a favorite but said that he enjoys seeing the wax museum performances, the art projects, the science fair projects and the Volume Zoo, a fifth-grade project that has been featured at STEAM night for three years.

“We get a lot of positive feedback from the families and the kids,” explained Fifth Grade Teacher Tera Williams. “The kids really enjoy it. We actually have a 100% participation in this which is not always the case when you have projects, so I think the kids really enjoy it.”

An idea found on a fifth grade Facebook page, Williams said that the project goes along with one of the grade’s standards of finding the volume of compound figures.

Students create sculptures of animals by combining different rectangular solids into one figure. They then add up the total volume of their animal and display it along with their name on a card next to their animal.

Another activity featured at STEAM night was a living wax museum where students dressed as historical figures and gave presentations as their figure based on research they had gathered and displayed on tri-fold boards.

Luke Evans took home the Best in Show award for the fourth grade. He said that although he did not choose Alexander Hamilton as his figure, he was glad to get him.

“I’m happy I got him because my mom works at a bank so it’s a perfect fit since he started the Treasury,” said Evans.

His presentation featured a hand puppet who he named Fireball performing a rap about Alexander Hamilton in reference to the popular Broadway show about the founding father.

Evans said it was difficult to say what he liked most about the project.

“That’s hard. Probably making his costume,” he said in reference to his puppet. “He himself we didn’t make him, but the outfit we made.”