Lincoln Elementary holds second-annual Science Day

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - With the school year closed to a close, students are doing their best to stay engaged. At Lincoln Elementary, they brought the Egderton Explorit to the school for the second consecutive year. Students enjoyed a number of fun science activities and a presentation about electricity.

They also got to simulate building a space suit with the goal of not letting their marshmallow explode. Officials said the activities try to mirror what they learn in class.

“We try to match it to some of the resources that we use in GIPS, our Amplified Science,” said Breanna McDonald, Principal at Lincoln Elementary School. “We try to match up things that they have learned before that they can now apply in these labs. They get to experiment with some different things and do kind of a maker space type thing and so kids are getting to be hands on with the learning they’ve gotten all year long.”

It may only be in its second year, but the event has quickly become an end of the year favorite at the school.

“I think it’s a day they look forward to,” said McDonald. “When we brought up that science day was coming back again, a lot of them were very excited. So it kind of just brings that excitement to the end of the year while we’re still making sure that they’re getting some learning, some background knowledge to build into the next year.”

McDonald said the staff looks forward to Science Day just as much as the students. Events like this also helps kids with summer learning lost.

“The kids are learning really well doing these hands on activities because it’s encouragement to do things like summer school programming that has a lot of hands on learning and just be interested more in science, which is always a plus,” said Anna Lisa Baade, Fifth grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary.

Baade said Science Day allows the students to use critical thinking skills, which will helped them learn what do on each activity. There was also a portion where students got to make their own choice about which activity they’ll participate in.

“The labs usually have more directions with them so they’re kind of having to follow those,” said McDonald. “But in the gym with all of our stations kids get to self-select what they want to do and so that’s where we see a lot of that creativity come in. There’s some coding stations. There’s just building with different things.”

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