Young students show off their STEAM skills at packed fair

From volcanoes to catapults to a chocolate experiment, more than 200 students showed off impressive projects at the second annual Brown School STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Fair on March 28.

Brown’s gymnasium was packed with kids in preschool through third grade explaining their work, as well as parents and families oohing and ahhing.

Kindergartener Sage Flaherty proudly displayed his experiment entitled, “Does My Dog Have a Favorite Color?”

“We wanted to know what my dog’s favorite color is,” Flaherty, 5, explained. “So we put out color construction paper and put treats under each color,” to see which one the pup preferred.

It turns out Flaherty’s dog, Aughty, prefers orange.

First grader Carlie Morales built a volcano that erupted when she mixed baking soda with vinegar.

Friends Avery Crowe and Quinn Chiroco, both in first grade, partnered to create oobleck, a combination of cornstarch, water and food coloring.

Asked about her favorite part of the assignment, Chirico answered, “Working with my friend. Also, I like messy projects.”

Third grader Kaya Foster set out to determine the healthiest kind of chocolate — milk, dark or white. She cooked the milk and dark varieties herself (but ran out of time before being able to whip up some white chocolate) and compared the sugar and fat levels in the recipes.

Foster lifted a flap on her poster board to reveal that dark chocolate is the healthiest.

Her display included samples of all three kinds of chocolates and, not surprisingly, her project was one of the most popular with her classmates.

Second grader Matthew explained his project on changing habitats and ecosystems. On one side, toy dinosaurs roamed the land. On the other side were modern-day wolves and foxes.

Third graders Dylan Calabrese and Hunter Tentindo built a catapult they named, “Stop Using Your Arm.” They demonstrated how their contraption could easily toss items to dogs for a game of fetch.

Maeve Lyons and Nellie Schubmehl created a snowy “Mount Magnificent,” which featured a miniature ski lift and rope tow.

“We used engineering and art to create this,” Lyons explained. “It took us a couple of weeks.”

Friends Elyse Machado and Will Marshall bought a used skateboard, took it apart and taught themselves how to rebuild it. Then they decorated it.

“We didn’t know how many steps there were in putting it back together,” Machado said. “But it makes it more fun to skateboard now.”