LIMA, Ohio (WLIO) - GROB Systems, Inc. is continuing their program with area schools to bring science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to the classroom.
With this group of fourth graders from Allen East, representatives from GROB helped them assemble foam cars that were propelled by pulling a rubber band. The students had to problem solve to make their car go farther with each try, introducing the concepts of force of motion and energy transformation. GROB has brought this activity to other schools this year, and the idea behind these visits is to bring some fun to concepts that students are already learning in class.
"For the older kids, maybe they've already learned about force in motion, so it's more of like an end of the lesson reward for them, whereas the first and second graders haven't been introduced to that yet," said Kalista Thain, administrative assistant for GROB. "It's kind of more of a prior knowledge thing that they're gaining before they learn about that concept."
And the different grade levels have their own reactions to how they take on the task.
"Putting it together or actually putting it into motion, the younger kids don't quite understand the concept of a slingshot, they don't know how to do the rubber band, so we have to help them more with that," said Thain. "With the older kids, they kind of get the concept more, and I think they have more fun racing each other, they're more competitive with it. It's really fun to see them get really into it. I know a lot of elementary schools or grades don't really get a STEM program at their schools, so it's fun to see them apply what they learn in the classroom hands on, and have so much fun with it."
This is the second school year that GROB has introduced stem learning into the classroom.
