Almost every week the Benadom Family has Friday Pizza & Movie Night.  Sometimes we make everything from scratch and use all sorts of different fresh toppings, at times we let Trader Joe’s give us a head start with the dough, or we might order take out, stop in at Willow’s downtown, and we have even been known to bake a frozen version.  For many, many years the movies consisted of animated characters.  For a while we were tortured with every Barbie feature that has ever been released.  Then came the TinkerBell series, which I secretly loved! (Shhh, don’t let anyone know that I wish there really were fairies and pixie dust.)  Over the last year though we’ve tipped the scale into movies that have human characters and at times sophisticated plot lines. 

A couple of weeks ago the girls wanted to watch Big Hero 6.  While initially I wasn’t excited to step back into the animated world, I thoroughly enjoyed it .  As usual, LASD and Almond invaded my thoughts throughout the film.  There’s a scene where Hero learns about how his brother built Baymax.  It took him 80 plus prototypes to finally create a robot that was a “personal healthcare companion.” And…at a pivotal moment when Hero and his team are fighting against the villain and his millions of microbots, there is a line in the movie that I’ve had running in my head for the last several weeks, “Use those big brains of yours to think your way around the problem!”

As I walked through the filled multi last night at the STEM Expo, all the dots connected.  Each and every student who submitted an entry was a HERO!  They sought an answer to a problem, experimented with solutions, overcame adversity, persevered throughout the process, and communicated their findings and learning.

There were projects to catch mail thieves, ones that harnessed pedal power to generate electricity, LED bookmarks, an automatic fish feeder, the dismantling of a computer by a 5 year old, robots galore, and projects that referenced electrostatic precipitators and more.  The artifacts themselves though weren’t the most amazing part.  I listened to a conversation between one of our 6^th graders and an LASD board member that was of the caliber you would hear in a Stanford research lab.  I heard a 2^nd grader share how circuits function to power a light switch.  Some 5^th graders explained that while lemonade becomes sweeter with sugar, the acidity levels do not change.  And, another 5^th grader has the starting design for goggles that will automatically count swimming laps for exercise (can’t wait for that one to hit the market). 

The most priceless quote of the evening however was from a young lady who explained, “I was wrong, and I know why.”  It’s hard enough for an adult say those words, let alone an 11 year old.  She explained to me that her hypothesis had a misconception that was revealed through the experiment.

Last night embodied the magic that comes from innovation, and I’m not simply referring to the creations from our children.  For a very many years we ran a traditional science fair that was focused on upper grade students.  This year, that critical scientific process still remained an element, but was now one of 6 categories.  In addition, the participant pool expanded to include any child, regardless of grade.    And finally, with the transformation of the judging process into one that focused on interviewing scientists and engineers about their work, children took incredible risks and shined brightly.

I saw students beaming with pride as they explained their work to passersby.  I watched smiles stretch from ear to ear as the positive comments were read about their work.  The genuine and truly authentic interest that our parent community exuded while marveling at the brilliance of our children made a very long day worth every single minute.

Thank you LAEF for making our STEM program and this night possible!  Thank you Mrs. Leach, Mr. Stuart, Ms. Ohlund, and every staff member who dedicated hours of service and encouragement to our children.  Thank you to our parent coordinators, Shezadi Merchant and Namrita Chettiar, and to every parent who volunteered to interview students, set up tables, boards, and break down everything for the event.

Here’s to nurturing a generation that uses their brains to find ways around problems!