Tag: activities

This week at Girlstart, the girls took another shot at designing a vehicle. These “coffee cup drag race cars” were meant to go farther and faster than last week’s vehicles. The girls soon realized that while quicker and more durable vehicles are better, they’re also more difficult to produce.

Across the classroom at Pecan Springs Elementary, students carried a mix of frustration and determination as they tried to create a rubber band powered coffee cup car. De’Erica struggled to pull the rubber band through her cups.

“Experimentation is just a lot of failed attempts” Eugena, a Girlstart STEM crew member, told De’Erica.

Then it clicked. First, tape the cups, then deal with the rubber bands. De’Erica quickly assembled the car then placed it on the ground. It steadily trekked across the tile floor as the rubber band inside unwound itself.

“You’re like an engineer,” Eugena said with a smile. “Scientists have to go through a lot of trials in order to get their experiments to work.”

On this day, De’Erica learned failed attempts make successes that much more magical. Excited, she ran to show the other students her car’s power.

Every week, Jeremiah Thomas, a fifth grade science teacher at Elm Grove Elementary, gets to watch his daughter hypothesize, invent or test something new alongside 25 curious students.

Thomas brought Girlstart to Elm Grove in 2016 after championing the program at a different school for three years. He spends a little extra time at school once a week to make sure girls get to experience the joy of science.

“STEM teaches kids to be creative and solve problems,” Thomas said. “But a lot of times school is like putting a square peg and square hole. It robs kids of the creativity STEM requires.”

But Thomas said Girlstart helps kids reclaim this inventiveness. And he’s right. This week in Girlstart, students learned what it takes to be a mechanical engineer. They used experimental investigation to make a balloon car that could travel far and long.

Thomas said it’s projects like this that make his daughters more interested in science. Come science fair time, Thomas said they go “all in” with hypothesizing and inventing.

On this day, Thomas’ daughter squealed with excitement as her balloon car shot across the floor. It surpassed the length of the measuring tape and bumped into a table. The total distance? 172 inches: the farthest in the class.