Holiday STEM Party!

​On December 13th, we hosted our Holiday STEM Party at the Mission Valley Library! 

This was a workshop exploring the sciences of Christmas spectacles. Over 50 students rotated around 5 different activities! 

The first activity was making snowglobes. Participants started with a jar and added a quarter of water and baby oil. The separation between the two liquids showed how different densities had different buoyancies. Then, they added food coloring and glitter to decorate and put in a tablet of aspirin. The baby oil dissolved the aspirin and the water reacted with it in a process called hydrolysis. The participants were very enthusiastic about this activity and one participant who made four jars said “I like how the glitter bubbles all the way to the ceiling of the jar and there are 3 layers of color” 

The second activity featured a snowball launcher. Participants attached a cut balloon to the bottom of a cup. Then they filled their cup with pom poms. When they stretched and released the balloon, the pom poms would fly out like snowballs. This activity helped teach them about projectile motion and elastic potential. 

The third activity was making bracelets with binary code. Based on the numbers created by the code on their chart, participants put different color beads on their pipe cleaners. This taught them how to count in binary, a very useful skill. One participant said “I had never seen binary code before, but I learned very quickly, because making the bracelet was fun and interesting” 

The fourth activity was creating paper chromatography. Participants colored pieces of paper and used wood clips to dip them in a cup of water. Over time, the different colors traveled through the paper at different speeds. This was a great demonstration of how different compounds affect the solubility, attraction, and distance traveled. Participants made art ranging from christmas trees to candy canes and santa hats! 

Last but not least was an activity featuring math puzzles and games. Some of these were Santa’s Sudoku, Who Owns the Reindeer (where a set of parameters were given to find the right house with the reindeer) and Subtracting Stockings (using systems of equations to find gifts in each stocking). This activity challenged participants to think critically and to retain patience through hard math problems. In fact, one group was cracking Who Owns the Reindeer during the snack break!  

Overall, participants had a lot of fun exploring a variety of science topics while celebrating the Christmas spirit! Our next workshop is on January 31st at College Rolando Library. We hope to see you there!