Students participate in STEAM Day at GCC

By TOM STANKARD

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Ironwood - To make education fun, area sixth and seventh grade students learned hands-on about various science, technology, engineering, art and math activities during STEAM Day on Thursday, hosted by Gogebic Community College's math and science division.

Inside the Lindquist Student Center gymnasium, more than 200 students enjoyed experiments, activities and demonstrations.

Wearing a lab coat, Serena Mershon Lohkamp, event organizer, said GCC students spent months developing the project for the children.

At one table, Nycole Leopold and Alessandra Tibaldo, both Luther L. Wright seventh graders, mixed chemicals using beakers and test tubes to make slime. When they finished making the concoction, the two placed it on a stand. Leopold said the goal of the experiment was to have the slime stay on the stand while it stretched to touch the table. Their slime passed, she said.

Across the gym, Lexi Plemons, a Wakefield-Marenisco sixth grader, pulled a rope to launch a basketball toward a hoop using a catapult. Plemons came close, but didn't make it into the hoop.

Meanwhile, Kiah Munn and her friend, Anna Buerger, both Luther L. Wright sixth graders, dissected a sheep's eyeball. Munn said she learned about the different parts inside of it, such as the retina. She said it was "cool and fun."

Lohkamp said, "Everything people touch comes from science" and the arts help scientists communicate what they are trying to express.