We’ve said before that it’s a great idea to kick off the new year with some STEAM learning, and we’re so happy to say that the RAFT Education Team helped the students of Luther Burbank Elementary School in San Jose do just that. In the first week of January, the team held a week-long STEAM lab and guided the students through all kinds of STEAM activities. Many of the activities revolved around concepts related to space, planets, the stars, and so the amazing students got to become “astronauts in training.” We’d call that an astronomical success!

What young mind doesn’t dream of traveling across the stars? When hearing about space and its vastness, our imaginations run wild, and it’s this excitement that we want to cultivate with our STEAM activities. Fortunately, the activities in the STEAM Lab brought the understanding our astronauts needed to fuel their imaginations. By learning about topics like gravity, the properties of starlight, the scale of planets and the distance between them, and even getting the chance to build their own space helmets, the astronauts got a great picture of how much there is to learn about our universe.

By the end of the week, many of the student astronauts were curious about careers in NASA and the U.S. Space Force; clearly they were looking for ways to continue their STEAM learning. This is exactly the kind of curiosity that we love to see in our students. They learn best when they are excited, when they are free to use their imagination, and that learning paves the way for great things. A huge thanks to the RAFT Education Team for inspiring these students. Let’s hope they take this inspiration even further.

Want to bring RAFT to your community for a similar event? Learn more here or contact our Education Team at education@raft.net.