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Amara Henderson, left, and Aaliyah Lewis check the temperature of a chemical reaction during an endothermic and exothermic processes experiment on Friday during the STEM Day event at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education.
Students set up a radiant energy transformations experiment to measure the temperature under a desk lamp Friday during the STEM Day event at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education.
Students take part in an experiment on Friday during the STEM Day event at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education.
Amyia Jones, right, and KaLisse Creighton-Evans discuss the reaction when mixing baking soda and vinegar Friday during the STEM Day event at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education.
WATERLOO — The three middle school girls methodically went through the experiment.
They measured 10 milliliters of water, poured it into a small plastic bag and recorded the temperature. Then they poured in four milliliters of the white powder calcium chloride and mixed it.
“Shake it, stir it up,” Sierra Meeks, a high school student overseeing the experiment, instructed the girls. The water turned milky and the calcium chloride didn’t completely dissolve. But that’s not the only thing the students observed.
“Oh, that’s hot!” one of the girls exclaimed as she touched the bag. The temperature inside the bag shot up from 35 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit with the addition of the substance in the water.
“When the water got really hot, that was really surprising,” Amara Henderson, one of the girls, said later.
They were learning about endothermic and exothermic processes as part of a STEM Day event Friday at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education. STEM career fields include science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Around 40 Waterloo middle school students who are part of UNI-CUE’s Educational Talent Search program participated. Another 15 high school students in the Talent Search and Upward Bound programs guided lessons, mentoring the middle schoolers. Waterloo Community Schools’ students had the day off Friday for staff professional development.
The event was held after the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council awarded a scale-up grant to UNI-CUE. Sarah Cohen, an Educational Talent Search academic counselor, applied for the grant and organized the program along with Amanda Strayer, academic coordinator for Upward Bound.
“We try to provide opportunities for them to see all types of careers,” said Cohen, of the reason to hold the STEM event. She wanted students to learn “that STEM is fun, that STEM is exciting. So it just gives them another opportunity to engage with it hands-on.”
Groups of students rotated through six different stations Friday morning and afternoon. They completed two or three experiments in each session, using a worksheet to write down their observations.
“All of the sessions build off energy transformation, how that process works,” said Cohen. For example, the exothermic reaction involving the calcium chloride released heat into its surroundings, making the plastic bag hot.
At other stations, students did experiments related to potential and kinetic energy, radiant energy transformations, thermal and motion energy, chemical energy, and renewable and nonrenewabl energy sources. They used balls, small solar panels, rubber bands, glow sticks and apples to conduct various kinds of experiments.
“I’m a big advocate of inquiry-based learning,” said Cohen. That’s how the high school mentors prepared to teach the lessons, and she hoped the middle school students would learn a lot by going through the experiments.
“I think that programming like this is important for young female students,” she added, noting that two-thirds of participants were girls. “This is something that girls can like, too.”
UNI-CUE Director Robert Smith called Cohen “a strong advocate” for empowering females, particularly when it comes to STEM. “She’s really done a great job in leading in these areas,” he said.
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I cover local schools and higher education for The Courier, where I’ve been a reporter for the past two decades. I’m a Minnesota native and have previously worked for newspapers there and in Illinois.
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Amara Henderson, left, and Aaliyah Lewis check the temperature of a chemical reaction during an endothermic and exothermic processes experiment on Friday during the STEM Day event at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education.
Students set up a radiant energy transformations experiment to measure the temperature under a desk lamp Friday during the STEM Day event at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education.
Students take part in an experiment on Friday during the STEM Day event at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education.
Amyia Jones, right, and KaLisse Creighton-Evans discuss the reaction when mixing baking soda and vinegar Friday during the STEM Day event at the University of Northern Iowa Center for Urban Education.
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