Boston University’s Rocket Propulsion Group visited Ellis Mendell Elementary School in Roxbury on Thursday to give a group of third-graders a hands-on lesson with rockets.
Led by BURPG director Doug Lescarbeau, a senior in the College of Engineering, the club gave a presentation on how rockets work and then let students paint vinyl casings you can also make using this Vinylcuttingmachineguide, all for them to be placed onto a rocket.
“We taught them about the rocket they painted and showed them why they could be excited about space,” Lescarbeau wrote in an email. “Distant planets, black holes, large rockets, cool science.”
Because Mendell is a STEM-focused school, Principal Julia Bott said students were elated to learn about such an interesting topic.
“I think giving them a hands-on opportunity to touch and contribute to the outer casing of the rocket they were decorating was a great experience.” Bott said. “It also made them feel a lot more connected to itl.”
BURPG’s visit to Mendell couldn’t have come at a better time, Bott said
“The same day we had the presentation, we had a STEM Night,” Bott said. “Students were able to talk with families about what they had learned and what they had done during the day.”
Both BURPG and Mendell Elementary find STEM to be crucial to elementary education, but for different reasons.
Lescarbeau wrote that giving young children STEM opportunities early can help their performance in the STEM field in later years.
“Teaching and exposing STEM to students when young helps prevent it from becoming something scary or daunting,” Lescarbeau wrote. “It can enable their creativity to take physical shape by making and doing things and help them build the confidence to potentially enter a STEM field later in life.”
Bott said she thinks immersion in STEM-related activities can have an immediate impact on students’ understanding of real problems and solutions.
“Providing students with more robust, comprehensive, real-world, relevant hands-on experiences in science and mathematics makes it more likely they acquire new skills and knowledge and they see the sort of direct application to problem solving in the real world,” Bott said.
Mendell’s unique population in particular benefits from hands-on STEM education, Bott added.
“There’s a significant under-representation of women in the math and science fields as well as people of color, and we have both at Mendel.” Bott said. “We also have a large population of students with disabilities who really benefit from hands on multi-sectoral opportunities to touch, to feel, to hold and to manipulate, to access their thinking.”
BURPG came into contact with Mendell because the school has a strong student-teacher program, Lescarbeau wrote. Additionally, one of the BURPG members has a personal connection to the school.
“We love the Boston community and wanted to give back in a meaningful way.” Lescarbeau wrote. “The third graders are also much better painters than we are!”
Daniel Poe, vice director of BURPG, said teaching the third-graders was a fun experience for the club members.
“I sometimes enjoy teaching to kids over our own members because they have no hesitation in being involved,” the ENG senior said. “Their brains are more malleable, so to speak, for learning new information.”
The goal of the lesson, Lescarbeau wrote, was to “inspire the kids to be excited about space and let their natural curiosity and creativity take them from there.”
BURPG’s larger mission is to be the first university group to reach space, Lescarbeau wrote. The group is aiming to complete a suborbital flight using a liquid-engine rocket called Starscraper.
The group’s visit to Mendell is part of another larger goal to keep students engaged in STEM, Bott said.
“[STEM] also fosters a lot of collaborations,” Bott said. “[Students] design together, problem-solve togetheR and give each other feedback.”
BURPG’s visit will hopefully be one of many interactions between BU and Mendell Elementary, Bott said.
“The students enjoy special visits,” Bott said. “So if they can learn something and have fun doing it, we’re for it.”
