ASAP Teacher Highlight - Laura Mitchell

Laura's main project this year was to introduce a Family STEM Night at her school, Hopi Elementary, which had been a long term goal of hers despite not having the funding to do so in previous years. This February the first annual 5th grade Family STEM Night was hosted, with over 200 students, parents, and faculty in attendance, along with volunteers from the local middle and high school! 

It was such a success that the event was even prominently featured in an Arcadia News article!
Hopi Hosts Inaugural STEM Night Event

Teacher Name: Laura Mitchell
School: Hopi Elementary
District: Scottsdale Unified District
Grade Level: 5th Grade
Subject Area: Science
Number of Students Involved: 150
Name of Project: Family STEM Night

The STEM Night consisted of several components! There was a STEM Fair where students had the chance to design a project (science, technology, engineering, and/or math) to share with the community. There also were many hands-on stations for STEM creations, with everything from gumdrop gears to marshmallow catapults, along with an entire classroom dedicated to various math games.

A local volunteer group called Sisters in STEM arrived and brought a lot of interactive stations to the event as well. There was a group presentation by Mad Science, along with several displays, including a to scale model of the solar system, an interactive birthday graph, and a STEM photo booth.

The high school robotics team brought their ball-throwing robot (which was a big hit!), and even the school mascot (hawk) was in attendance. To top it all off, there was a contest room where students could enter various contests (solving math problems and estimating) and win fun prizes. In the words of Laura, it was "an amazingly successful evening and we hope to continue it in the future and expand it to include the younger grade levels at our school!"

In addition to the Family STEM Night, Laura also spent time and remaining funds enhancing the curriculum of one of her fifth grade science units on forces and motion. She was able to purchase magnets, dowels, Newton's cradles, and other hands-on materials to make the unit much more engaging and memorable to all her students. She was also able to host a Pi Day math celebration, with a fun Pi memorization contest.

All in all Laura's contributions to building a STEM Ecosystem at Hopi Elementary have been profound, and we can't wait to see what next year's Family STEM Night has in store!