Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Fifth grade students showed off their math and science abilities at the annual STEM (science, technology, math and engineering) Student Showcase at Hewlett Elementary School.
For the third consecutive year, students were asked to combine their knowledge of volume equivalent fractions and computer aided design, to create a building for the community.
Each student was split into groups of four, for the Feb. 7 showcase with each student being assigned a specific role. There was a project manager, a lead mathematician, a computer aided design dafter and a landscape architect.
The project also combined STEM and math classes and required students to create a figure made up of two rectangular prisms, with one prism being double the volume of the other.
Carole Kreisberg, a Hewlett Elementary math teacher, explained the project and noted the students’ enthusiasm to create something because of connections to the community.
“This is an interdisciplinary project with math and stem the students have been studying concepts of volume and fractions, and they’ve applied that to this project in their STEM class.” Kreisberg said. “The reason that kids are so motivated is because real life applications. So they made a lot of connections through their own lives and through their math and STEM classes.”
Each group tried to create a building in the community, such as a hospital, movie theater and restaurants. There were 27 buildings made by the students using the four school 3D printers.
Kristina Gallagher, a Hewlett Elementary STEM teacher, said seeing how eager the students were to work on this project and now finally present was very exciting to see.
“It’s pretty awesome because they are fully invested,” Gallagher said. “Every student is eager and willing to share and present what they have learned and the design process. So just the enthusiasm and the excitement, and they get to see the buildings, printed straight in the classroom. That’s very exciting.”
This year was the first year that the students were judged on their work. Members from the Board of Education were invited to come and judge the students based on their application of math and science.
Dina Anzalone, the assistant superintendent for Teaching, Learning & Technology, was one of the judges for this year’s event, and said she was pleased to see such a mixed bag of students be able to succeed in this year’s showcase.
“I asked the two teachers if the discovery kids, or the gifted and talented students were in every group, I wanted to know the composition of the groups,” said Anzalone, the former principal of Ogden Elementary School. “I was thrilled because yes, there was discovery kids in the groups but there was also students with disabilities and there were ENL students as well, it was so impressive that every group contains such a mixed bag of kids.”
The winners of the STEM showcase were announced at the Feb. 12 board meeting.
