Giving back within our community Sustain & Thrive 22 23 Lower school students at the March 2015 STEAM Fair Reem ’22 pedals to create electricity. Mark ’22 uses technology to create art with parent volunteer Michelle Gleeson P’22. Doctors. Artists. Tech entrepreneurs. Engineers. Scientific researchers. Professors. Parents in the MCDS community pursue many fascinating careers, careers students want to know more about. “These parents have incredible jobs. They’re on the cutting edge. Why aren’t we learning from them?” wondered Leslie Kim, parent guild president. In the spring of 2014, Leslie and parent guild volunteers wanted to create a new learning event for students, and growing buzz around the importance of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) topics in education drew their attention. Leslie took charge as STEAM Week Chair, and over the course of a year, she and other guild members crafted the special event that welcomed parents to share their diverse STEAM expertise. The STEAM team’s hard work resulted in March’s week of STEAM-themed assemblies, field trips, and classroom projects, culminating in the STEAM Fair. Class trips to TREK and the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research allowed students to see first-hand how careers related to science and technology call on creative thinking skills, business acumen, and perseverance. With the fair itself, the STEAM Week committee hoped to engage, inform, and entertain students and their families. MCDS science teachers worked with parent volunteers to present interactive booths where the youngest students could experience STEAM concepts first-hand: kids folded and flew paper airplanes, learned the science behind straw rockets, made their own spy codes, and more. To add to the excitement, the science faculty coordinated the middle school science fair with STEAM events, so students got to share their experiments and results with the STEAM Fair’s large audience. But parent presenters were the highlight of the fair. Through parent-led booths, visitors tested virtual reality and learned the physics of judo. Kids used liquid nitrogen to freeze ice cream and matched wits with monkey minds. Students even got to see data from one of the world’s most powerful microscopes and touch a human brain! Most importantly, visitors experienced the real-life synergy of STEAM careers: parent presenters showed how creativity and entrepreneurship work hand-in-hand with science, math, and engineering. The fair planted seeds for future connections between students and STEAM professionals in the MCDS community. MCDS parent and first grade teacher Amy Maier sums up the enthusiastic reaction to the event: “The STEAM fair was absolutely amazing! WOW! I learned so much!”

Sustain & Thrive - Madison Country Day School...Sustain & Thrive 22 23 Lower school students at the March 2015 STEAM Fair Reem ’22 pedals to create electricity. Mark ’22 uses technology

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Giving back within our communitySustain & Thrive

22 23

Lower school students at the March 2015 STEAM Fair

Reem ’22 pedals to create electricity.

Mark ’22 uses technology to create art with parent volunteer Michelle Gleeson P’22.

Doctors. Artists. Tech entrepreneurs. Engineers. Scientific researchers. Professors. Parents in the MCDS community pursue many fascinating careers, careers students want to know more about. “These parents have incredible jobs. They’re on the cutting edge. Why aren’t we learning from them?” wondered Leslie Kim, parent guild president.

In the spring of 2014, Leslie and parent guild volunteers wanted to create a new learning event for students, and growing buzz around the importance of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) topics in education drew their attention. Leslie took charge as STEAM Week Chair, and over the course of a year, she and other guild members crafted the special event that

welcomed parents to share their diverse STEAM expertise. The STEAM team’s hard work resulted in March’s week of STEAM-themed assemblies, field trips, and classroom projects, culminating in the STEAM Fair.

Class trips to TREK and the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research allowed students to see first-hand

how careers related to science and technology call on creative thinking skills, business acumen, and perseverance. With the fair itself, the STEAM Week committee hoped to engage, inform, and entertain students and their families. MCDS science teachers worked with parent volunteers to present interactive booths where the youngest students could experience STEAM concepts first-hand: kids folded and flew paper airplanes, learned the science behind straw rockets, made their own spy codes, and more. To add to the excitement, the science faculty coordinated the middle school science fair with STEAM events, so students got to share their experiments and results with the STEAM Fair’s large audience.

But parent presenters were the highlight of the fair. Through parent-led booths, visitors tested virtual reality and learned the physics of judo. Kids used liquid nitrogen to freeze ice cream and matched wits with monkey minds. Students even got to see data from one of the world’s most powerful microscopes and touch a human brain! Most importantly, visitors experienced the real-life synergy of STEAM careers: parent presenters showed how creativity and entrepreneurship work hand-in-hand with science, math, and engineering. The fair planted seeds for future connections between students and STEAM professionals in the MCDS community.

MCDS parent and first grade teacher Amy Maier sums up the enthusiastic reaction to the event: “The STEAM fair was absolutely amazing! WOW! I learned so much!”