Decibel
How One Teacher Is Using Alka-Seltzer Rockets To Launch Dreams
Clip | 5m 19sVideo has Closed Captions
A Rundberg school club brings students into the world of STEM.
These aren’t scientists building the next generation of Artemis rockets–at least not yet. This is the STEM Club at Hart Elementary, and while today’s project is to create a small Alka-Seltzer powered rocket, the real goal is getting these students up close and personal with the world of science–and potentially out of poverty cycles.
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Decibel is a local public television program presented by Austin PBS
Funding for Decibel is provided in part by Texas Mutual and Roxanne Elder & Scott Borders
Decibel
How One Teacher Is Using Alka-Seltzer Rockets To Launch Dreams
Clip | 5m 19sVideo has Closed Captions
These aren’t scientists building the next generation of Artemis rockets–at least not yet. This is the STEM Club at Hart Elementary, and while today’s project is to create a small Alka-Seltzer powered rocket, the real goal is getting these students up close and personal with the world of science–and potentially out of poverty cycles.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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- And how many yards?
- Five.
- [Interviewer] What did you wanna do when you were little?
- Teaching.
Teaching, that has always been in my, in my everything: teaching.
Well, I wanted to be an astronaut.
(item thuds) (several cry out) (soft bright music plays) Without science, how can you make sense of the world you live in?
My name is Monica Sanchez, and I've been working at Hart Elementary for the past eight years.
(students chatter softly) I run STEM Club.
- [Student] If it's so strong, it should stay on.
- [Monica] They come in here and do their little project, - Hi, right over here for Hart Science; I can check you in.
- [Monica] And we will go to Hot Science Cool Talks, and they're, like, ready to go and ask questions.
(several respond) - Guess what?
- Our intention is to introduce our students to a different world that they usually won't have the opportunity to see.
(plane whooshes overhead) (plane whooshing diminishes) - Yeah, exactly.
So today's activity, we're doing Alka-Seltzer rockets, so you were on-- - [Monica] We do a lot of hands-on activities so that the knowledge stays with them longer instead of just blah, blah, blah, the teacher talk.
Oh, my God.
- Can you make the shape with paper?
Try it.
So I'm here as a volunteer for the NSF MRSEC, and we come to, like, local schools around Austin.
(foil crinkles) So this is to help with the drag.
And I love doing little demos, so I think it's nice if kids want to get involved in science early, then they should have that opportunity.
(rocket thuds) (everyone cries out) (some students laugh) - Oh, my God.
(students chatter) (soft bright music plays) - [Monica] You know, those cartoons where they have a light bulb?
It almost looks like that.
(rocket thuds) - Ooh.
(students laugh) That one was good.
- [Monica] You have to let 'em have that moment where they feel like, - Are you ready, my friend?
- This is impossible.
But then, here's what I love the best.
Once they get it, they don't have to say any words because their whole face lights up.
(rocket thuds) - Ooh.
(student speaks indistinctly) (teacher laughs) (soft bright music plays) It makes me giggle every time.
Catch (laughs).
- It's a way to, to give 'em the opportunity to see beyond Rundberg.
(flag fasteners clank on flagpole) (bus engine whooshes) (students speak indistinctly) (soft dramatic music plays) (people speak faintly) If we look at Rundberg from outside, what do we see, you know?
We see parents working really hard, but again, parents who, most of them did not finish high school or middle school.
The most pressing issue with them is money to support their kids, to put a roof over their head.
Ultimately, why we educate our kids to break those poverty cycles.
So I've been trying to break that barrier with the students under my care.
None of that happens unless you make it happen.
(people talk randomly) So everybody else, you can go to the tables.
(people talk randomly) I mean, I would say, how can you wish for something if you don't even know this something exists?
So by exposing them to that, you can plant us that little seed.
(gentle music plays) This is so cool.
(people talk randomly) (someone laughs) - So we have some wonderful guests with us today.
We have Bernice Hart Elementary School by (in indistinct).
They're gonna perform two pieces for you today, demonstrating their locomotion as well, so it's related to the talk.
(audience applauds) - To me, science is the opportunity to understand the world.
(soft ambient music plays) Without science, I mean, how can I understand life?
So, it's a way to understand that everything is interconnected, and everything's important.
I don't know, maybe just because I like science and math.
But without science, how can you make sense of the world you live in (laughs lightly)?
(gentle ambient music intensifies) (gentle ambient music plays)
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Decibel is a local public television program presented by Austin PBS
Funding for Decibel is provided in part by Texas Mutual and Roxanne Elder & Scott Borders