Orange, CA – November 14, 2018 – Over 1,000 students and community members attended McPherson Magnet School’s annual STEAM Night held this past Thursday. McPherson Teachers Elizabeth Conrad and Shannon Duncan were largely responsible for planning the free event, which was sponsored by the McPherson Education Foundation.

McPherson’s teacher teams collaborated on events and workshops to engage attendees in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics experiences. Primary grades hosted activities such as the use of chemical reactions to create bouncy balls, engineering marble mazes, coding Sphero Bots and VEX robots, crafting origami and utilizing tangrams. Middle school teachers led enrichment opportunities such as constructing a paper circuit to light a small LED bulb, using 3D printers to create name art, building student names using binary language, and melting crayons to create art.

In addition to the events planned by teacher teams at each grade level, Boy and Girl Scout groups had students build marshmallow-launching catapults and the OC Astronomers brought their high-powered telescopes to show students Mars and star clusters. The McPherson Education Foundation also sponsored two special events: The Reptile Guy and Bubblemania.

“McPherson’s STEAM Night event gets bigger each year and we look forward to another great event in 2019,” said Principal Joe Erven. “We are thankful for the support of our community and the McPherson Education Foundation, without which the STEAM Night would not be possible.”

Students in attendance each received a passport to stamp at the various stations and one completed passport was chosen as the recipient of a telescope donated by McPherson’s Education Foundation.

For more information about McPherson Magnet School’s current events, follow them on Twitter  @mcphersonmagnet. Additional information about Orange Unified’s district-wide focus on STEAM is available on the OUSD at www.orangeusd.org.