Triton kindergarten has with fun S.T.E.M activities

Triton kindergarten students were spending time with S.T.E.M. (Science, technology, engineering and math) concepts last week and doing so in a fun manner.
For two hours Friday afternoon the students rotated through four different project areas, each one led by one of the kindergarten teachers.
Katie Macrafic helped the students make green slime out of water, borax, glue and food coloring to learn about cause and effect and also to see how an earth magnet reacted to magnetic slime which was slime with a bit of black iron oxide powder added.
Over in Jessica Meeker’s classroom the youngsters were working on a team building project as they tried to save Sam, gummy worm, from drowning when his boat, a plastic cup, overturned. The problem was his life preserver, a lifesaver candy, was trapped inside the overturned boat.
To complicate matters, students could not touch Sam, the boat or the life preserver with their fingers but only with a paper clip.
The same exercise, Meeker said, had been used for older students and the kindergarten students actually often do it better and succeed faster. The younger students, she said, are more likely to think outside the box and be more creative.
As the students moved through Tara Bradford’s class they investigated insulation and how long it would take a popsicle to melt when wrapped in different materials. First they discussed what they thought would be the best insulation and then the popsicles were wrapped in newspaper, bubble wrap, tin foil and foam and placed into a warmer borrowed from the kitchen.
The popsicles were originally going to be placed in the sun outside to see how the various materials insulated them but the weather caused the project to be done inside. Among the things the students learned