Middletown High students show off STEAM skills Friday
MIDDLETOWN – Blood spatter analysis, fingerprinting, gel electrophoresis — these are just some of the crime-fighting skills Middletown High School senior Sunny Shi said she learned in her forensics class.
On Friday, Shi — who will study human development and regenerative biology at Harvard University in the fall — said she is looking forward to teaching parents and community members these skills and more on Friday night before watching them attempt to solve a hypothetical crime.
"For (forensics class), we're planning on doing a kind of virtual escape room," the 17-year-old said. "It's basically a bunch of puzzles that you have to solve, and eventually you get all the clues. Then you establish a lineup and that's how you find the perpetrator. But it's all real stuff that we've learned about and we, the students, were the ones that made the puzzles. I think that's really cool."
The virtual crime activity will be one of many events and exhibits at Middletown's May 13 STEAM night, open to the public. The annual event showcases many of the numerous student projects related to art, music, the humanities, science and math - often called STEAM.
Newburgh: Sexual harassment lawsuit filed against former superintendent, board and district
Ellenville: Ukrainian camp damaged in fire can't reopen
More than 1,000 community members are expected to attend the annual event, says Lynnette Williams, Middletown High's executive principal. STEAM night will include hands-on activities for community members to watch and participate in. Some of the presentations and interactive activities will include a fetal pig dissection, dance performances, face painting, a robotics demonstration, a planetarium, a submarine demonstration in the pool and more.
"This is the first year that we're doing this event on this magnitude where we are pulling in all of the various arenas to really give an experience that will be like none other," Williams said.
"The vision of our superintendent (Amy Creeden) was to really showcase to the entire community that we are awesome in STEAM and our scholars are also amazing in humanities and art."
Norval Connell, Middletown High’s STEAM instructional leader, said almost everything parents, family members, friends and community members see at the event will be completely planned and executed by students.
“It's also a commercial for the community to see all the things that we're doing and all of the 21st-century skills that we're developing here,” he said.
Arlyn Vasquez, a 17-year-old Middletown High senior, said she feels proud to be one of the many young women presenting at the event.
"I feel like for me personally, it will mean a lot once I do go off to college," Vasquez said about how normalized it is for female students in Middletown to pursue STEAM subjects. In the fall, Vasquez will study computer science at the University of Connecticut.
At STEAM night Vasquez will be presenting projects for her critical reading and computer science classes and performing with the district's Blue Royalty dance team. Sunny Shi will be presenting projects related to finance, marching band, critical reading and forensics.
“I think events like this are so important because we have to express that it's OK, it's normal for girls to enter STEM - (science, technology, engineering and mathematics),” Shi said.
“It's events like these that make younger people feel like ‘Wow, they look like me and they're doing this and they're successful.’ And I think it’s really important to expose people throughout the community to that idea too.”
The evening's goal, Connell said, is not only to show community members how talented Middletown's student population is, but also to prove to students that their work is impressive and important.
"We dream with them and we're hoping that they know they can accomplish anything after leaving here," Connell said.
If you go
When: May 13, Two sessions: 4:30-6 p.m. and 6:30-8 p.m.
Where: Middletown High School, 30 Gardner Ave. Ext., Middletown
Admission: Free
Activities will be held throughout the entire building over the course of two sessions.
Erin Nolan is an investigative reporter for the Times Herald-Record and USA Today Network. Reach her at enolan@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Middletown students to showcase science, math and art projects
