XENIA — Fifth grade students at McKinley Elementary School participated in a hand-on science event March 9.
Dubbed STEAM Day/Science Olympiad, the students gained experience in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics and had some fun at the same time.
Hands-on sessions included extracting DNA from strawberries and candy, gel electrophoresis, making cheese in a test tube and micro pipette art. STEM challenges included barge building, egg drop, mystery architecture, straw tower, and mystery boxes.
The event was coordinated by district gifted teacher Donna Shaw with help from high school biotech instructor Molly Wavra and some of her students.
It started last year as a pilot at Cox Elementary School, where Shaw is based. This year Shaw took the program to all five elementary schools.
