During the first nine weeks of school, Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) Lab students at Crockett County Middle School completed a Recycling Stem project.
The students were required to research their project, gather recycled materials from their home or other sources and then build it. The project must have served a meaningful purpose, as the students had to show how the project was needed and how it was used. Students were also required to bring their projects to school and present them in front of the class.
Some of the project titles included bird feeders or houses, home or school organizers, furniture items, wind vanes, water purifiers, water dispensers, children’s toys, minnow traps and a grabber tool.
Jack Fancy chose to build a trash grabber. “I thought it would be interesting to see how I could build it and to discover other ways people could use it besides just picking up trash,” said Fancy. “What I learned from my project is that there are many different ways that you can use a grabber, picking up leaves, grabbing things from high or far places, or just picking up trash. I enjoyed building my grabber because it was a challenge for my engineering skills that I didn’t know I had. It was fun to experiment with different ways on how to build my trash grabber. So if you have popsicle sticks, a drill, cardboard, and hot glue you can build your own TrashGrabber.”
Ayden Anderson chose his recycling project to be a bird house. “There are so many instances where birds are abused and neglected every day and most people don’t even know they do it,” said Anderson. “I learned by doing this project that by taking some time out of your day with things you have laying around your house you can potentially save a bird and their family. I enjoyed doing it because not only did I use recycled materials, I got to learn and spend some quality time with my dad. I hope this little paragraph will inspire others to do the same.”
Piper Smith chose to do this project because essentially a bird is his favorite animal. “I learned that it is really not easy to build a bird
house! And that really when you help out an animal or help out another person it makes you feel really good inside,” said Smith. When I was little the only reason I liked birds was because they could fly! And I’ll admit I really wanted to fly! As I’ve grown up I never really appreciated how majestic and kind they can be! My dad did all the cutting so that I wouldn’t get hurt but the measurements and having to just put it lined perfectly was a little tricky.”
While this was a student project, through STEM, students were able to work together with their family using recycled good while learning together.
