ARA’s STEM Community Fund helped support engaging, hands-on activities for students in the STEAM Club at Northside Elementary School in Panama City, Florida. Together, these STEAM resources inspire creativity and teamwork while building essential problem‑solving and engineering skills for the students through fun, hands-on activities.
“This grant has allowed us to have more of a vast array of choices for them to spark creativity through innovation,” said Cynthia Silate, a Northside Elementary teacher.
With the grant, the club was able to purchase these exciting new resources:
Gears, Gears, and more Gears: Students are using gear kits to design simple, idler, and complex gear trains. Through this interactive work, they deepen their understanding of motion and robotics while tapping into their imagination to build unique structures and mechanisms.
Keva Structure Plank Set: With the Keva sets, students construct bridges, buildings, and other structures to test strength and stability. These challenges encourage them to apply engineering concepts and collaborate effectively to complete team-based tasks.
Circuit City: Paper circuit cards allow students to explore series and parallel circuits by generating electricity through conductors on paper. Using the kits provided, they create their own circuit card to take home and proudly demonstrate their new skills.
Modeling Clay: Students mold clay into structures related to science topics such as plant anatomy, flowers, and human organs. By recreating these forms in 3D, they gain a hands-on understanding of how these systems function and connect.
ElecFreaks Microbit Kit: Working together, students use rods, wheels, and other components to build robots that introduce them to technology, power, and engineering principles while practicing creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking.
Watercolor Sets: Throughout the year, students use watercolor paints to illustrate science and technology concepts. They’ve created vibrant lionfish paintings as part of a unit where they study and dissect a specimen, and they’ve painted detailed flower anatomy to reinforce learning through art.
The ARA SERVICE program was developed in support of ARA’s core value of service. Through the program, ARA employee-owners strengthen their communities by supporting STEM education and outreach initiatives. The program includes grants from the ARA STEM Community Fund, which help inspire and equip the next generation of students to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
