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PROVO — More than 125 students from Canyon Crest Elementary School attended special workshops at Ancestry.com’s headquarters Tuesday to see how a STEM education could lead to exciting careers.
Ancestry.com invited fifth- and sixth-grade students to attend workshops on science, technology, engineering and math, led by Ancestry.com employees.
Students were told to spit in a small tube for the sake of science. They learned their saliva contained DNA.
For technology, students also learned how to create a mobile game app.
“You have to type in special codes that turn on special effects,” Jonathan McKinney said. “For example, we needed to go get the basketball for it to rain down to get two points, and so we went to it and it had a special code. So we typed that in and then it put a basketball in the game.”
Students were also able to use code to create a Magic 8 Ball.
At one station, the students built houses to learn about cost-benefit analysis. They built a home, and had to consider the costs versus what a bank might give them.
The teams had to buy things like paper, craft sticks, ribbon and crayons to build the house. When they were done, they brought them up to the desk at the front of the class, where the bank determined how much the homes would sell for.
“We learned how to budget money well,” Ashley Kinzer said.
“And make a good house by using less money and making more money,” added Mia Callister.
The company sponsored the school because it doesn’t have a STEM program.
“They’ve understood how math can actually apply to building a house and the finances that go behind it,” said Heather Erickson, vice president of communications at Ancestry.com, "really engaging in interesting ways to get them excited about the STEM possibilities they have in the future.”
Contributing: Nadine Wimmer
