Building Our STEM Station

In our quest to make our media center a student-friendly learning wonderland, we're installing some STEM projects in one area of the library. So far, we have installed an aquaponics system so that kids can see how various forms of life live in interdependency in an enclosed ecosystem. We know that there is a huge push for kids to invest more in the science, tech, engineering and math fields and we hope to get the ball rolling on that early in life. Elementary school seems the perfect time to introduce some of these things to the kiddos.

In the media center at Lely Elementary, we want to build things that make the kids think, wonder, ponder, and question. We want them to walk in, see something, and say, "Whoa!" We want them to be so interested in what they are seeing that they will ask question after question and maybe, down the road, explore more. After all, we are a library, where learning is paramount. 

We wrote a Donors Choose grant to get the materials: and aquaponics pipe system, a fish tank, and a grow light. After setting up the fish tank, we introduced fish to the ecosystem first. We needed them to cycle the water and dirty it up a bit. The pipes for planting sat empty until we brought in some lettuce starts. Those did not fare well. It seems as if the grow light was too strong on the top level and it burned up the plants. Now we are in the troubleshooting phase of the journey. We replaced the lettuce starts on the top rack with heartier strawberry plants and kept the lettuce starts on the bottom level. They seem to be doing fairly well. We also put some lettuce seeds in the bottom rack of cups to supplement. So far, so good.

The idea is that kids will see that ecosystems are interdependent places where animals and plants live in harmony, both benefitting from the other and needing the other to stay alive. We show how the system works, how it takes the water from the fish tank, runs it through the pipes that hold the plants (which filters the water), and returns that water to the tank. Kids see the fish water soak the plant roots and come back clean to the tank. They think it is cool and they are full of questions, which we answer to the best of our ability.

Many kids come in just to see the fish. We love that. If we use the fish as a hook (no pun intended, lol) to get kids interested in the system, so much the better. That's a start. As they take in more of the system, or get to see the times when the water cycles, they will have more and more questions. 

The aquaponics system has been a huge hit with the kids. It is the first of several STEM projects that we will have in our STEM Station. We hope that the others are as well-received as our aquaponics system!