The Los Altos School District kicked off its annual STEM Expo at Santa Rita School last week, with students in grades TK-6 sharing their science projects across disciplines with the school community. The rest of the district’s seven elementary schools will hold their own events in the next month.
The expo, in its eighth year, is different from traditional science fairs in that it is noncompetitive and invites collaboration between students and parents. Participants are also encouraged to share projects that are still in development or didn’t work out the way they intended, helping students of all ages celebrate the scientific process rather than just the results.
The fields of study explored in the expo are much broader than at standard science fairs – attendees might be hard-pressed to find a baking soda and vinegar volcano, but they will discover high-level work in robotics, engineering, computer programming and more.
Grace Choi, instructional support STEM teacher at LASD, has orchestrated the expo since its inception nearly a decade ago. She said that after visiting a neighboring school district’s expo, LASD was inspired to transform its fair into something more innovative.
“It’s a great platform for students to go beyond sciences and explore their passions in other areas,” Choi said. “There’s no competitive piece of it – we just want to honor the learning journey.”
Students can choose among seven project categories – reverse engineering, computer programming, robotics, Rube Goldberg, scientific inquiry, wearable design and invention. Choi said she especially enjoys the Rube Goldberg projects because they demonstrate the way kids as young as 5 years old start understanding natural laws of motion. Constructing a Rube Goldberg machine also takes a lot of trial and error, which pushes students to persevere and closely observe what does and doesn’t work in their process.
No prizes are awarded, but students receive written feedback from adult reviewers on their work. Participation is optional for most students, though some sixth-grade classes are required to participate.
Despite the expo being mostly elective, Choi said the turnout is generally very strong and has grown by the year. She estimates that a third of the school population works on a project.
The district’s STEM initiatives are largely funded by the Los Altos Educational Foundation, which dedicated approximately $900,000 of its 2021-2022 $2.5 million grant to supporting STEM programs and staff positions.
“Our district is unique in creating this kind of platform for our students and community to be able to access opportunities like this,” Choi said.
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