BVU S-STEM Group Hosts Festival Three Years in the Making
Idea hatched as freshmen benefits visitors to campus who see BVU S-STEM students working with robots, making liquid nitrogen ice cream, and more.
An exercise three years in the making came to fruition at the Buena Vista University Homecoming celebration as nine students, freshmen who came to campus in the fall of 2018, hosted a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) Festival for the public to enjoy.
Activities ranged from the making of liquid nitrogen ice cream to a robotics demonstration to a water balloon toss and more.
Students are involved in BVU’s S-STEM Program (Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), a group that reported to campus as freshmen in the fall of 2018 following BVU’s receipt of a nearly $650,000 S-STEM grant provided by the National Science Foundation. The grant gave rise to a Career and Research Exploration to Enhance Retention in STEM effort that offered low- and middle-income students with scholarships, support services, and experiential learning opportunities across the Midwest to enhance retention in STEM fields.
“That August of 2018, these students met one another and participated as a team in BVU’s Better Together Competition at orientation,” says Dr. Lisa Mellmann, BVU Associate Professor of Chemistry and S-STEM Advisor. “As part of the program, they were tasked to develop an idea to bring BVU and the Storm Lake community together. They came up with this festival idea at that time three years ago and won the BVU competition.”
Seniors involved include Jacob Hull, Greg Haaf, Jacob Sellers, Christina Jackson, Tabitha Guyett, Catherine Waltz, Nikki Schuppan, Sidney Carroll, and Garrett Bates. Several of the students reported to campus before the academic year began in August to plan the festival, which played out adjacent to the Beaver Boardwalk (on the Siebens Forum South Lawn) and in the Estelle Siebens Science Center.
“We thought of this as an S-STEM capstone project,” says Hull, a computer science major from Alta. “It was great having children come to campus and play with robots and spend time in our Virtual Reality lab. Kids liked how we combined ingredients and used liquid nitrogen for a flash-freeze in making ice cream.”
Hull said an added bonus came in the fact that nearly 50 prospective students from high schools around Iowa and the US were on campus that day.
“Having the STEAM Festival taking place as high school students were touring campus was just an added treat for them,” Hull says. “We enjoyed being able to share our activities with the broader community.”
And while one BVU alum on campus to celebrate Homecoming talked to students about career and internship opportunities in software engineering, other visitors asked if the STEAM Festival it might become a regular activity.
“Maybe the BVU Science Club can take this over and use the talents from students in BVU’s Art Club, or something like that,” Hull says. “Some parents asked us if we could maybe make this an afterschool program for Storm Lake Elementary and Storm Lake Middle School students.”
“It was rewarding to see our students come up with an idea as new freshmen and then work to see it become a reality for many others to enjoy during their senior year,” Mellmann says.
“It was a cool experience,” Hull concludes. “We were all busy on the morning of Homecoming and the STEAM Festival went by so fast. I’m so happy we got to do this and that BVU provided the means and the funding to help us execute it.”