Winfield - Using raw spaghetti noodles and marshmallows, students at Winfield Elementary learned Tuesday that sometimes, how you find an answer is more important than getting it right.
The Tri-County YMCA kicked off its science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning initiative at its after school program in Winfield, made possible through a $25,000 grant from the Toyota USA Foundation.
The STEM initiative is offered at existing after school programs for Kindergarten through fifth-grade students at Winfield, Scott Teays, Mountain View and Rock Branch elementary schools. More than 160 students at the four schools are receiving STEM training, according to a press release from Tri-County YMCA.
It's not every day that someone calls and offers the Tri-County YMCA that kind of money, but that's exactly what happened, Tri-County Executive Director Cathy Stark said.
The national YMCA, or Y-USA, "had gotten money through the Toyota Foundation to do the STEM [initiative] nationwide," Stark said. "They wanted to focus on Mississippi and West Virginia...knowing we have a Toyota plant in the county, they reached out to Tri-County."
The grant paid for existing YMCA after school staff members to receive training in Cincinnati on how to implement the STEM program. It also allowed Tri-County to increase its staffing numbers at the four schools for the program, Stark said.
As the rest of Winfield Elementary emptied after school Tuesday, about 25 students split into four groups and set out to overcome the challenge before them: building towers using raw spaghetti and marshmallows. With just five minutes to build the tallest tower possible, the youngsters got to work, realizing that a solid base was imperative.
Third-grader Tristan Cote was inspired by an existing architectural icon.
"The bottom is a square - it's like the Eiffel Tower," he mused.
Cote and his group members decided on a square base to support their tower's pyramid structure and reinforced it with additional spaghetti pieces. That's when things got serious.
"Whenever you get toward the top, you can make the [pieces] smaller, so it can be more aerodynamic and stable," fourth-grader Nick McWhorter said.
Riley Smith, a second-grade student, thought to place a marshmallow at the tower's center to connect the spaghetti and create a support beam for the structure, while fourth-grader Carter Takarsh made sure the tower would withstand the "earthquake test."
"It does not fall - I just kicked [the table] with all my might," he announced.
The Tri-County YMCA, based in Scott Depot, offers after school programs for 12 elementary schools in Putnam County and plans to expand the STEM initiative to the eight remaining schools over the next few years.
"We're looking for people to partner with so we're able to continue doing what the grant allows us to do," Stark said.
Winfield Elementary Principal Candi Hatfield explained that such programs are essential for elementary school students.
"Without these kinds of experiences that are hands-on, [with] critical thinking and collaborative learning, [students] just don't learn like we used to," she said. STEM-based learning offers "things they can apply to their daily life - it's not just isolated to something they learn in the classroom and then it's over."
By the end of the exercise, it was clear that the towers were more successful when the students worked as a group.
"Ours is so funky," Cote said.
"Hey," McWhorter replied, "sometimes, funky is good."
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.