STEM Field Trips
The grant provides funds for WYWLA maker club members to take field trips to local science museums, regional maker faires, and national expositions.
Local Science Museums
Students in the maker club and all 6th grade students entering WYWLA, are invited to participate in a fall field trip to local science museums such as the NC Museum of Natural Sciences or the Marbles Children's Museum. The purpose of these field trips is to interest students in STEM college and career tracks that apply making technologies they can learn about in the club. |
USA Science and Engineering Festival
Students who actively participate in the maker club and document their work with FlipGrid reflections will earn the opportunity to participate in a spring field trip to a regional or national STEM expo. In 2018, the club traveled to the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC. In 2017, selected club members attended the Society of Women Engineer's Invent It Build It Expo in Philadelphia. |
Regional Mini-Maker Faires or STEM Events
Maker club members will take one annual field trip to a regional mini-maker faire or similar STEM event with hands-on exhibits and interactions. As noted on the Maker Faire site, "Maker Faire is part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new! As a celebration of the Maker Movement, it’s a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness. Faire gathers together tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, food artisans, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors. Makers come to show their creations and share their learnings. Attendees flock to Maker Faire to glimpse the future and find the inspiration to become Makers themselves." |