Kadena Elementary 1st Grade Hosts NAVFAC Partners for STEAM Day

Kadena Elementary School’s first grade neighborhood recently hosted five engineers and architects from Navy Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) during its quarterly STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) day.

Through a STEM Outreach partnership with NAVFAC, first grade teacher Ms. Kimberly Galang coordinated the “Building Bridges with Engineers” project, which included a Magna-Tiles donation and support from NAVFAC volunteers.

After an introduction to bridge building by the engineers and architects, students went through the engineering design process to create their own bridges, refine their design, and finally test the weight capacity. Students engaged in authentic learning while NAVFAC engineers provided support to encourage hands-on experience in engineering practices.

“That was the best STEAM Day we ever had,” said first grader lliev Rosa Torres following the NAVFAC visit.

The NAVFAC DoDEA STEM Outreach Program is no longer accepting applications; however, NAVFAC regularly partners with DoDEA teachers to provide engineers and architects at DoDEA STEM events.

“STEM opportunities are incredibly important for our young military-connected students because it promotes critical thinking and skill application to real-world concepts and provides an opportunity to cultivate our future talent by demonstrating the wide variety of STEM careers available in the Department of Defense,” Ens. Kensey Dahlquist said.