The Creekside Elementary School students built a mini zip line to get Little Red Riding Hood safely through the woods without running into a big, bad wolf.
Members of the Fairy Tale STEM club at the school built a raft to get the goats from the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" across the stream without running into a hungry troll. And the girls worked on making a pulley for Rapunzel so people would not have to use her hair to enter her tower.
Creekside Elementary School has a Fairy Tale STEM club for students to join after school. Students in the club work on using science, engineering, technology and math principles to solve problems that arise in popular fairy tales.
The second-grade students work through curriculum once a week meant to get them interested in STEM. The initiative is part of weekly after school club time that has students doing other projects such as learning how to bake, art and clubs that teach students wellness.
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The idea began several years ago when a Creekside teacher started the club in an effort to get more girls interested in STEM, which was usually dominated by robots and other items that might not spark all girls’ interests, current club leader Ashley Cross said.
All of the club’s 15 students have heard of fairy tales and were familiar enough with the stories to get them interested, Cross said.
"This is to let them think it out," she said. "We need more girls in STEM; we do not want to limit them."
Each club meeting starts with a worksheet that starts teaching the girls what some simple building or STEM concepts are, such as screws and pulleys.
The lesson then moves on to a hands-on portion where students are thinking the problems through. The creator of the club laid out curriculum with a step-by-step guide on how the girls could build the problem-solving contraption. The girls also spend time in the club building a robot, Cross said.
Time in the after school club also helps supplement what the students learn during school. Each class at the school also attends STEM lessons during special periods time that is in rotation with physical education, music and time in the library.
Club time spent on STEM allows the students a little more time to explore a bit less structured elements in STEM, Cross said.
Students were drawn to joining the club because of the fairy tale element and as a way to allow them to work on STEM elements after the school day has ended, said Arden Anderson, a club member in second grade.
"I thought it would be cool to do so much science stuff," she said.
