This past summer a group of parents in Melrose formed the Melrose Education Coalition, which aims to encourage improved STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education in the Melrose schools. Our neighbor Jen is active in the MEC; she let us know about the Melrose STEM Expo to be held on November 19 and asked if I would like to volunteer to present an activity. Of course I agreed immediately.
I originally hoped to present something that is related to biology, but after much searching I couldn't find an activity I could do that would be hands on and fast enough for people just stopping by a table at an expo. Most of the biology experiments I could find consist of growing plants or other similarly long-timescale things.
My fallback was an activity the girls liked at Maker Faire in September: Squishy Circuits. The web site provides easy recipes for homemade play-doh of two types: conductive and insulating. Then kids can just take wire leads attached to batteries, LEDs, buzzers and motors and stick them in the play-doh to build circuits.
I used the project as an opportunity to check out a local electronics store I recently discovered: You Do It Electronics in Needham. You Do It is like Radio Shack used to be before they shifted to consumer gadgets, but four times as big. It was perfect for getting materials for squishy circuits.
The weekend before we made a test batch of the conductive play-doh and it worked great. I played around to find the right type of wire leads to attach to the various components to make them easy for kids to use and also as durable as possible. In the end I also packed tools and materials to make on-the-spot repairs which turned out to be a good idea.
The girls practiced with me a little and seemed to have it down. They were very excited that they would get to be behind the table with me. Carol was excited to help, too, so it turned into a family affair.
The expo was held at the Middle School. The high school robotics team I mentor was scheduled to be there as well as the middle school robotics team and the LEGO robotics program that I'll volunteer at this week at Audrey's and Charlotte's school. But I had no idea how many attendees to expect.
Well, I was blown away. There were probably at least 200 attendees and a pretty large collection of fellow exhibitors with lots of great activities for kids. Squishy Circuits was a huge hit! We had six "stations" at our table and they were all full almost all of the three hours that the event ran. We had kids from pre-school to 5th or 6th grade. Parents seemed equally excited about it and many of them worked hard to keep their kids focused on what we were teaching them.
Carol and the girls were really into it. Audrey was a wonderful teacher. We also had two parent volunteers with us: Amy and Chris. Chris happens to be the girls' art teacher in after-school art classes they are taking. They were fantastic.
Walking around the event almost brought tears to my eyes. I was inspired by both the volunteer energy that was apparent and by the interest of so many parents. It bodes very well for what MEC is trying to do.
I also had a conversation with James Horne who is the overall head of the robotics programs about starting a Junior LEGO League team at Roosevelt School. I'm very excited to do that.
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