Magicians are famous for tricking us with their amazing sleight of hands, but some phenomena in nature appear to be uncanny. Still magic? Or is it science?
The recent STEAM festival organized on Children’s Day by Oakridge International School, Gachibowli was truly magical in every sense. Based on the theme of Hogwarts school, the School of Wizardry, students explored and learnt the Science behind Magic.
At this STEAM Fest, the students were turned into Wizards. These students got an opportunity to learn various tricks through different experiments such as making a rocket out of a bottle using an effervescent tablet, writing a secret message with Invisible ink which is nothing but a simple chemical reaction, capturing the Spirit with a fizzy reaction of Citric acid and baking soda and off course making a Wizard trap from stimulator and borax. They also learned to make their very first Magical Lantern by combing a simple circuit with LED, switch and battery which was great fun for them
Through STEAM, children are encouraged to become curious seekers, explore collaboratively and be natural problem solvers. The Wizard of Science was a great learning opportunity for students, where integration of various subjects, like math, art, science and design created new understanding and experiences for them. The setup, ambience and tool kits not only provoked their curiosity but gave them a hands-on experience about the interdisciplinary learning emphasized in the MYP curriculum.
“Everything was displayed whimsically with a scientific twist. We did various magical activities that all had a scientific explanation behind them as was later shown to us. I enjoyed STEAM fest and hope there will be similar events in the future”, said Maanya, grade 8 student at Oakridge Gachibowli.
“Being a part of Global Campus, a platform for student learning, our students get an opportunity to participate in MIT Steam challenges tailor-made for them. These challenges allow them to experiment with materials available at home and learn their behaviours through simple experiments and share the outcomes with their peers on this global platform. The STEAM Fest was also aimed to connect their learning from the MIT Steam challenges and provide a bigger and wider range of experiments and varied outcomes”, said Ms Sweta Verma Head of MYP.
It was a fitting event to mark Children’s Day celebrations in school, where learning and fun came together and created perfect magic.
