Harrison Park Elementary School conducts monthly STEAM projects called “Junk Box Wars.”
STEAM activities incorporate science, technology, engineering, art, and math into one project. The Junk Box Wars projects encourage students to use their scientific knowledge to create and design a device. Students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade work with a partner and are given a design challenge and a bag of “junk” to create a device that solves a specified task.
September’s challenge took place on Friday, September 3, and was called ‘Wrecking Ball.’ Teammates had to create a tower holding a swinging ball. The device that could knock down the most markers was declared the winner. To create their wrecking ball, students were given 2 pieces of paper, 6 popsicle sticks, 4 straws, 2 rubber bands, 4 pipe cleaners, 2 paper clips, 2 cotton swabs, clay, a roll of masking tape, a ping pong ball, and string.