Escontrias STEAM Academy students let off some steam with fun, hands-on activities at the school’s STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) night this spring.
The academy’s prekindergarten to fifth-grade students shared what they learned in class with family and friends through a variety of STEAM-related activities such as making plastic out of gelatin and launching bottle rockets using baking soda.
Escontrias STEAM coordinator Anne Thomas said the family event allowed the community to see how STEAM education has driven student learning since Escontrias Elementary transitioned into the academy in the fall of 2022.
“We’ve gone through a transition, and now it’s time to get the community involved, get the parents involved so they get to see what the students are doing and what the district is offering to engage the students in STEAM,” Thomas said.
Vanessa Guajardo teaches in the school’s program for three-year-old children. Guajardo assisted one of her students, Raul Garcia, in demonstrating how to make bubbles from dry ice.
“It’s really important,” said Guajardo of engaging her prekindergarten students in STEAM activities. “Their attention span is pretty short, but once we start bringing in things like this that are more hands-on, they start paying attention more and getting more involved.”
The evening offered fun and engaging activities, including virtual reality demonstrations, a drone challenge, a tour of the district’s mobile planetarium, and presentations from the University of Texas at El Paso, Fab Lab El Paso, STEMscopes, and students from Sun Ridge Middle School and Montwood and Eastlake high schools.
Thomas said the presentations from Sun Ridge Middle School and Montwood and Eastlake high school students offered Escontrias Bullpups a preview of the opportunities they will have to explore and learn about STEAM subjects in middle school and high school.
Eighth-grader Alyssa Paredez and her partner Aubrey Cameron used a 3D printer to make pancakes.
“It took us a lot of test runs,” said Paredez with a laugh. “Because you have the temperature that goes into it. So, if it’s too hot, it will burn the pancake. And if it’s not hot enough, and if you want different colors to appear, it will come out too light, and you won’t be able to see them.”
Paredez learned to use the 3D printer in her entrepreneurial class at Sun Ridge Middle School. She said STEAM night was a fun opportunity to teach younger students about 3D printing.
"I feel like it's a nice opportunity to be able to show the kids something new, especially since they're still young, and maybe this is something that will interest them when they get older, so might as well expose them to these kinds of things,” Paredez said.
Lui Espinoza and other members of the School of Advanced Technology Applications (SATA) at Eastlake High School, challenged students to crack an encrypted code using a cypher that converts shapes into letters. Their goal was to get kids interested in computer science.
“The kids are really good at analyzing each individual shape and identifying which letter it goes by,” Espinoza said. “And so far, it’s been a success. Everyone has been getting candy because they’ve been able to get the correct message.”
Thomas said she was happy to see how much the community was involved in STEAM night. “The community really came together to support us, and I’m really thankful for that,” Thomas said. “I just hope that they continue to do that.”