By Katherine Ozawa
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While some students spent their fall breaks studying, sleeping or traveling, Senior Adrianna Saymo spent her break teaching elementary students the perks of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) in a workshop from Oct. 7 to Oct. 11.
“It was basically a robotics camp. It was a five-day thing where I had kids from Mililani Mauka and Mililani Ike. They would come here and learn (about)different STEM activities,” said Saymo.
Saymo’s Senior Project involved the elementary students participating in various STEM activities. “I taught them how to build robots and how to program them with push-programmable buttons. I taught them how to use circuits using conductive Play-Doh. That activity was called ‘squishy circuits’,” Saymo said, “I also taught them (about) conservation of energy using roller coasters made out of cardstock. I also taught them how to build hovercrafts out of CDs and balloons.”
The students’ favorite activities were the roller coasters and putting together the small “kit robots” Saymo taught them to build. “A lot of (the students) had fun, they wanted to come back. And some of them didn’t know that Friday was our last day, so some of them were kind of bummed that they didn’t get to come back,” said Saymo.
Even supervisors of the workshop recognized the students’ interests in Saymo’s lessons. “It went pretty well. The kids enjoyed it. They wanted to continue with activities when they finished,” said Science teacher Tyson Kikugawa.
However the students weren’t the only ones that learned something during the duration of the workshop. “I learned that elementary school teachers deserve a lot more credit than they have,” said Saymo, “And that kids, even though as they get older, they don’t seem as willing to solve problems or do science when they’re older, they’re actually really eager to learn and if we give them a problem, they will do their best to solve it and they will solve it in some way.”
Saymo has enjoyed her four years of experience in STEM programs such as robotics. Although Saymo has enjoyed conducting the workshop, she plans to pursue a career in electrical engineering.
