I’m one of those people who gets super geeked out watching videos of people blowing bubbles outside in below freezing temperatures. That’s why I was thrilled to volunteer with the District 91 South PTO’s annual STEAM Night.
The evening is a celebration of all things science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. Field-Stevenson Elementary School was a wonderful host to students, caregivers, teachers and community members to learn and explore and socialize and geek out. Squeals of joy rang from various rooms as kids discovered a thermal imaging camera with the Forest Park Firefighters; latent fingerprints with the Forest Park Police Department; X-Rays with veterinarian Dr. Kuehn; and robots and coding with the Forest Park Library. Mixed in between high tech demonstrations, many kids had a chance to try their hand at watercolors, marshmallow structures, and stomp rockets. So much was going on! And a huge thank you to the custodians at Field-Stevenson for cleaning up all the broken Orbeez beads that were a delight for the kids. They deserve a beer!
The team effort was strong as South PTO volunteers, teachers, and our great principals, Dr. Brunson and Mr. Milnamow organized room setup, pizza, publicity and recruiting the phenomenal STEAM participants. Thank you to the Forest Park Boy Scout Troop who helped with crowd control and food sales. The STEAM energy exploded and I’m happy and proud to be part of the positive sparks.
Kristin Pekoll
District 91 South PTO volunteer
