STEM Minute | Giving students a creative way to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday

Champaign, Ill. (WAND)-- A tradition giving students the chance to celebrate Thanksgiving with their friends while learning the importance of working together and expressing their creativity. Barkstall Elementary School, in Champaign gave students the chance to make their own balloons like you would see in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The students took pride in their work, but for educators it was all about getting their students engaged in the classroom.

Barkstall Elementary School Principal, Esther Ferguson, says, "We have teachers who are just really creative in finding ways that they can include project-based learning."

Ferguson believes that STEM is one of the most exciting programs that they can share with their students. Working on the STEM project allows them to combine what they are learning across all of the subjects and get hands on experiences.

"I think STEM is super important for students because it's just engaging them in the learning process, and we need to find as many ways as possible that we can to help students engage in learning."

This Thanksgiving to get students engaged, the second-grade class built their own balloons inspired by the ones that they could see in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and have their own parade.

"They take a book that they've been reading. They were first learning about the Macy's Day Parade, the science behind it. They watched YouTube videos, and they read books about it and then they were able to choose a character from a book that they enjoyed the most."

The students were able to put their own spin on their character design while learning about teamwork and problem solving. A couple of the most popular characters this year included Pikachu and Spiderman.

"I think specifically from STEM projects, it's really important that students learn to work together and solve problems and so I've definitely seen that in the second-grade classrooms since I've been in there where they're given a problem and then solving it and working together to find a good solution."

This annual tradition is creating memories for the students and leaving a lasting impression on students as they celebrate the holiday in their own way.