P.S. Science S-Team Rangers Explore, Design, Innovate

“We are the S-Team. We couldn’t be prouder. If you can’t hear us, we’ll yell a little louder. S-Team, yeah!”

 

If you were on Crossroads’ 21st Street Campus last week, chances are you heard that emphatic cheer coming from the Science Education & Research Facility. From June 27-July 8, 28 students from William Green, McKinley and Crossroads elementary schools spent the day immersed in hands-on science learning as part of the inaugural P.S. Science S-Team Rangers summer camp.

 

“[S-Team] is a play on words for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) and esteem,” said P.S. Science executive director Julie Olds. “We talked to the kids about what ‘esteem’ means and believing in yourself.

 

“Having the time to, over multiple days, try to make this thing that you envisioned come to some kind of end result was pretty empowering to kids, even if it didn’t necessarily work,” Julie added. “They talked a lot about, ‘I got to do it myself.’”

 

The incoming fourth-, fifth and sixth-graders gained confidence to explore and troubleshoot with an array of experiments, including building a pipe-cleaner bubble-blower, engineering solar-powered toy cars and fashioning a balloon carrier and parachute to protect a hard-boiled egg dropped from all three levels of the science building, among other experiments.

 

“When we went to level two, our egg kind of cracked so we got another one,” said Andres, an 8-year-old William Green Elementary student. “We did more balloons and when we tried level two again, the egg didn’t break.”

 

Crossroads student Maximo said his favorite experiment was building a three-foot-tall tower capable of holding three pounds.

 

“It was really hard, but the camp has been fun,” the 9-year-old said. “I really like thinking about new experiments to do.”

 

The last week of camp, students took a field trip to the science center at USC and created coded pathways for Ozobots, tiny robots that respond to colors and lines.

 

Students also heard from math and science professionals. Zhala Tawfiq, a scientist from the local corporate office of the Astellas Foundation, Agensys, spoke about how she became a cancer scientist. She shared that her interest in the field stemmed from seeing close family members afflicted with various forms of the disease.

 

“I knew I wanted to be in field where I could give back to humanity. What better way to do that than with science?” Zhala said. “Every day I walk into work, it’s very rewarding because I know that what I work on could save someone’s life. It could cure cancer.”

 

Architectural engineer Joe Coriaty, a partner-in-charge from Frederick Fisher and Partners, the firm that designed the Science Education & Research Facility, gave a talk on the environmental components of the building. Students later created their own hyperbolic paraboloid sculptures, influenced by the Ned Kahn structure atop the Project Pavilion.

 

Eleven Crossroads Upper-Schoolers earned community service credit for assisting with the camp. Julie said the goal is to make the P.S. Science S-Team Rangers camp an annual offering from the Crossroads Community Outreach Foundation.

 

Students like Marilyn, 11, would look forward to such an opportunity.

 

“The best part about the camp is getting to know people from all around schools that are as interested in science as I am,” the William Green Elementary student said.