After Linden middle school students learned to build BMX bikes during a summer STEM program, a few lucky ones got to ride away on their class projects.
Each of eight classes at the Summer STEM Academy at Soehl Middle School was given a kit for a Mongoose BMX bike.
The kit came with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math lessons for teachers to pass on to students, and participants also learned about the science of the sport of BMX.
Once the bikes were built, there was a raffle to choose one lucky winner per room to keep the bike they had constructed.
“This was a popular activity in our summer program, and we are looking forward to expanding it within the after-school program,” said Director of Grants Isabella Scocozza, who oversees the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Center program at Soehl.
The Summer STEM Academy was part of the 21st Century program and was open to students in Grades 5 through 8. In addition to the bike project, students in the summer program had an opportunity to work for five weeks on various other hands-on projects and activities.
Students collaborated with Liberty Science Center for two hours each day and participated in many STEM-related thematic activities and programming, such as coding and forensic science.