STEAM Week Sparks Curiosity & Discovery
Students across Pierce Terrace Elementary School spent the week exploring science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics during the school’s STEAM Week, where hands-on experiments and collaborative activities transformed everyday learning into exciting discovery.
Throughout the week, students participated in a variety of classroom and lunchtime demonstrations designed to encourage prediction, observation, problem-solving, and teamwork. The themed activities allowed students to experience real-world scientific thinking while applying skills from multiple subject areas.
Dr. Sandra Whitaker, principal at Pierce Terrace, emphasized the purpose behind the week’s events, stating, “The events during STEAM Week support students’ learning through data, exploration, and experimentation.”
The week began with students preparing for the highly anticipated Sink-or-Float experiment. In classrooms, students examined a variety of objects—from golf balls and pinecones to toy cars and seashells—and recorded their predictions about whether each item would sink or float in water. Teachers collected student ballots and tallied the predictions, preparing the data for later analysis.
On Tuesday, students observed a colorful science demonstration titled Color-Changing Flowers, in which white carnations placed in dyed water slowly absorbed color through their stems. The activity introduced students to plant science concepts while encouraging careful observation and scientific questioning.
“Throughout the week, students have particularly enjoyed watching their flowers turn from white to the color of food coloring that was added to the water,” Dr. Whitaker noted, highlighting one of the students’ favorite visual experiments.
Engineering and teamwork took center stage during the Cup Stacking Engineering Challenge, where students collaborated to build towers from plastic cups. The activity challenged students to think critically about balance, stability, and design while working together to achieve a common goal.
Wednesday’s lunchtime demonstration, Fireworks in a Glass, captivated students as food coloring burst through a layer of oil and water. The experiment illustrated how liquids of different densities behave when combined, helping students visualize complex scientific principles in a simple, engaging way.
Students also had the opportunity to explore engineering design by building catapults using popsicle sticks, rubber bands, plastic spoons, and pompoms to launch small objects. The activity encouraged experimentation as students adjusted their designs to improve distance and accuracy.
Mathematics took the spotlight on Thursday during the Birthday Season Pie Chart activity. Students sorted themselves into groups based on their birth season—winter, spring, summer, or fall—and worked together to create large pie charts representing their data. Classes then compared results to determine which season had the most and fewest birthdays, practicing counting, graphing, and data interpretation.
The week concluded with the much-anticipated Big Sink or Float Demonstration. Students gathered to observe the water tests of the predicted objects. As each item sank or floated, results were added to a large class graph, allowing students to compare their predictions with the actual outcomes.
Dr. Whitaker added, “Making predictions and testing those predictions was also a highlight—both with the flowers and with the sink-or-float demonstration,” reinforcing how the scientific method was embedded throughout the week’s learning experiences.
The week’s activities were deliberately planned to help students develop prior knowledge, make predictions, observe results, and analyze data across several disciplines, according to the STEAM Activities 2026 agenda.
By the end of the week, students had experienced science not simply as a subject, but as an exciting process of questioning, exploring, and discovering. From building cup towers to watching colorful “fireworks” in a glass, STEAM Week at Pierce Terrace Elementary demonstrated how curiosity and creativity can transform learning into an unforgettable experience.
