Hendersonville Elementary School
presents a
CUBCAT SPACE-tacular NASA STEM night
Parent quote: "STEM night was awesome! Issac and Simon have been talking space all week. I have learned more than when I was in school! Thanks to all the staff and volunteers for the hard work." -Tracy Parsons
At Hendersonville Elementary we understand the importance of collaboration and engaging our students, staff, families, business partners, and community in STEM education. Every year we hold two school wide STEM events that involve everyone in a collaborative engaging themed STEM environment. At our most recent SPACE-tacular STEM night we had over 200 families attend and they engaged in over 20 activities and challenges that were led by staff, students, and business partners. With retaining students in our STEM pipeline being a major goal at our school, this night illuminates for families the benefits and unique characteristics of STEM education. Getting the entire family engaged and working together to complete engineering challenges, solve math problems, and experiment with science, showcases to attendees the fun and possibilities of STEM education.
We had students from the middle and high school and members from the community volunteer and assist with activities. Also, the high school Lego robotic team gave a demonstration.
Our business partners were showcased where they shared information about their companies to the families of Hendersonville Elementary. Companies such as Engineering for Kids, Team ECCO, .participated in the event.
Leading up to the event, we challenged our students over the Christmas break. Students had a choice to create or represent a constellation or build a spaceship.
When the students arrived back to school from break they were astonished! The school was transformed into a galaxy of stars. There were rockets outside and inside there were stars, planets, space facts with QR codes, and space themed art work created by students. Throughout the week students worked on NASA aeronautical STEM challenges. On Thursday we had a planetarium in the gym for all classes and offered parents an opportunity to attend a class. This all led up to the big SPACE-tacular STEM Night. Below are the activities and challenges for the night. We continue to grow in our school wide STEM units and look to reach more community and businesses.
SPACE-tacular STEM Night Brochure
A news article featuring our Space-tacular STEM school-wide unit.
Third grade students were making a solution to create a chemical reaction for fizzy rockets.
Parent comments posted to our school Facebook page about our SPACE-tacular STEM night.
First grade students built gliders, threw them, and measured them using non-standard measurement. They plotted their distance thrown on a pictograph and discussed their observations.
Pictures From Our SPACE-tacular STEM Night
Students shared space jokes using a green screen at our SPACE-tacular STEM night.
To the left is the newspaper article written about our school-wide SPACE-tacular STEM unit.
Students learned from NASA DEVELOP National Program Center Leader, Alex Courtwright to learn about how NASA collects and uses environmental data from our region.
During our SPACE-tacular STEM unit, a Planetarium was brought to our school for students to learn and observe more about the night sky.
Other School-Wide STEM Units
Super Hero STEM Unit
Colorful Cubcats STEM Unit
Fascinating Fairy Tales STEM Unit
Duke Energy Science Night
Collaborative Cubcats STEM Video
As a school, we ask our students to apply critical thinking skills as they work to solve problems, create solutions, re-test their findings, and share it with others. We love watching our students independently and collaboratively solve problems, utilize technology, connect all of their learning, and become critical thinkers.
We know that outside of school, people learn by integrating all content areas. At Hendersonville Elementary, we strive to keep our learning and teaching as real-world as possible by providing our students the opportunity to ask questions, find answers to their questions, and become independent problem solvers.