- December 23, 2024
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Students and their parents crammed into the Buddy Taylor Middle School/Wadsworth Elementary School cafeteria ares on Wednesday, April 26, for Flagler Schools' second annual Fifth Grade Science Night.
The fifth graders’ science projects were on display, and there were 16 hands-on activities for students that related to the Florida Statewide Science Assessments.
Heidi Alves, Flagler Schools’ science curriculum specialist, said 138 fifth graders were involved with science projects this year, which was four times as many as last year.
“They are all full science experiments with controlled variables and data collection,” she said.
Every fifth grader at Old Kings Elementary School created a science project, Alves said. The school held a science fair and sent its top 16 projects to Science Night.
Alves said the district has encouraged fifth graders to create science projects to get them used to the regional and state science and engineering competitions for sixth through 12th graders.
Some of the activities at Science Night included the Museum of Arts and Science Star Dome; Embry-Riddle Aeronautic University’s land drone obstacle course; marine conservation art from the Guy Harvey Foundation; Diamond Del’s mineral mining; making simple closed electrical circuits; renewable and non-renewable resources from the Florida Green School Program; and Whitney Lab and Marineland’s Animal Adaptation.
Matt Araujo’s fifth-grade class at Old Kings Elementary ran the game show, “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grade Scientist?” All of the questions were from previous Statewide Science Assessments, which fifth through eighth grade students will take May 8-19.
Blake Neal, Embry-Riddle’s STEM Outreach coordinator, brought a variety of drones to show children, and volunteers from Flagler Palm Coast High School’s National Honor Society ran Embry-Riddle’s land drone obstacle course with young students handling the controllers.
“Drones are the future of aviation and STEM technology,” Neal said. “Hopefully, we’re getting kids inspired to lead the way in the new industry.”