Lower and Middle school students immersed in X-STREAM Day, a program to bring hands-on STEAM-themed events (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math), on Friday, October 27, 2023. Teachers and students rotated through seasonal and Halloween-themed stations throughout the day including Creepy Cool Science, Cave Crawling by Cave Dave, and Haunted Carriage House Art to name a few.
The day also included The Great Pumpkin Drop in which students learned what it takes to engineer a system to keep a pumpkin intact despite sustaining a 75-foot free fall. The Colorado Springs Fire Department partnered with CSS to help students through this hands-on engineering project. Students learned and put into practice the Engineering Design Process – ask, imagine, plan, create, improve. Each class team designed a pod prototype to protect the pumpkin that will be hoisted up a fire truck ladder to 75 feet in the air and then dropped to the ground.
Students were provided with the same pod construction materials including one cardboard box, a spool of nylon string, one roll each of box and duct tape, and an optional choice of either a tarp or a vintage decommissioned 1970s US Air Force parachute. This year, students were given the option to use any additional recycled materials of their choice to construct their vessels, and they were tasked with making a "window" through which 64 square centimeters of the pumpkin can be seen – integrating math into the engineering design process is intentional. Congratulations to kindergarten students for designing a pod that kept their pumpkin safe!
Also on Friday, Lower School students participated in a Halloween parade and Middle School students carved pumpkins, followed by a pumpkin-carving contest and a costume contest. What a day!
