Students share work at event
CHERRY TWP — Students in Kid's Innovation Playground, a nonprofit after-school program that leads STEAM activities, presented Santa's North Pole Village at North Trails Public Library on Friday night.
Among the models on display were spinning giant cookies, a cabin with a rotating water wheel and a “Santa Bucks” coffee shop with a waving snowman.
Each display boasted lights and motion-sensored movements, all designed and programmed by students in third through eighth grades during a six-week course.
“The kids are really into it,” said Seth McCaol, who's son, Noah, made a display of a giant penguin attacking a house. “It gets kids away from the screen and doing something physical and concrete.”
Noah, who is in fifth grade, has been participating in the Playground for two years. McCaol said it's fun for him to see his son's progress throughout the courses.
“He did everything on this one by himself,” McCaol said. “It's cool seeing how he learns.”
Joktan Hartle, a seventh-grader in the Moniteau School District, said it took him a few weeks to make his waving gingerbread man and gingerbread house.“I wanted to do something different,” Joktan said. “My favorite was programming it all. I covered the robotics with snow and inside the (gingerbread) house.”Children chattered and walked around showing off their work to their parents, while taking pictures near a decorated Christmas tree. Even Santa and the Grinch stopped by to see the students' hard work.
Blueprints of original model designs were displayed to show how far the students' ideas had come. According to Lorraine Shaffer, executive director and founder of the Playground, during the first two weeks students brain-stormed ideas and learned block coding. From there they were building and designing the moving components of the village.Jessica Kamerer, mother of students Shane and Alex at the Playground, said her children have participated in different Playground projects throughout the years and she loves seeing their skill sets adapt with each one.
“It's helping develop their skills of adaptability and creativity. To see that they can make a prototype and keep working on it,” Kamerer said. Shaffer said the event was a great success as many community members came out to support it and sign their children up for future classes.“People are coming from the community who want to get their kids involved in this,” Shaffer said. “These are the kinds of kids we do this for — they like to do these kinds of things and help each other with their projects.”
