Education

Suncrest Elementary celebrates STREAM Night

MORGANTOWN — On Thursday May 17, Suncrest Elementary School held its fifth annual STREAM Night.
A more updated word for STEM, STREAM — which stands for Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts and Math — is more common among students who are learning about their desired career path, usually related toward science and technology. This is a chance for students of all grades to use critical thinking and problem solving skills with fellow classmates and teachers.
“Each grade level is represented. Pre-K through fifth grade have a room filled with presentations they’ve worked on,” said Doug Gaither, substitute principal of Suncrest Elementary School.
“Most kids have worked on their projects for around a couple months now.”
Projects such as dinosaur dig, art show and Kibo robots, or even composting and planting were just a few that were on display for the public.
A popular display was the augmented reality sand box.
“Our augmented reality sand box is a projection onto the sandbox. As the topography changes, the light changes and shows the different rings of topography in the sand box,” said Sarah Cain, assistant principal at Suncrest Elementary School.
“The teachers and students really came together to put this event together for us.”
The night was filled with more surprises than school projects.
Demonstrations included Seidokan karate lessons, animals from the Exotic Jungle brought in to teach students more about exotic creatures, and musical performances with steel drums in the cafeteria.
Mountaineer Area Robotics (MARS) also made an appearance, demonstrating projects members recently worked on, as well as recruiting students for Lego robotics for this fall.
“We are really thankful for the dedicated staff that goes above and beyond to make this happen,” Gaither said.