Starbase Indiana - Indianapolis

THEY DID IT! Mrs. Sousa's 5th graders from Central Christian Academy successfully finished our 5-day STEM program!🚀

Students spent their time at STARBASE performing science experiments, problem solving as a team, engaging in engineering challenges, and much more.

Thank you for putting in your best effort and bringing such high energy to the classroom! ✨

Our Central Christian Academy class is full of science rockstars! Props to Mrs. Sousa for being a champ with our Van De Graaff demonstration today, even after being shocked by all 21 kids!

We had a STEM-tastic day studying fluid mechanics using our mystery density bottles, learning about electricity by creating 8 unique circuits, and designing our own adventure vehicle using the CAD software Onshape by PTC.

A full day of fun and engaging science education. What's better than that?

Tap play to watch the videos and hear the kids’ reactions—lots of "oohs" and "ahhs"—as they experience our awesome hands-on experiments!

Today, Mrs. Sousa's students from Central Christian Academy brought the energy to our classroom! We kicked off the day with exploring the properties of fluids. We dived into viscosity, surface tension, compressibility, and density.

One of the highlights of our lesson was a cool demonstration where we blew out a candle by pouring CO2 gas onto the flame.

The experiment: first, we mix a small amount of baking soda and vinegar together to create a bubbly mixture. We clamp our hand over the beaker as to not let the CO2 escape. Lastly, we gently tilt the beaker with the mixture over the candle, careful not to let any liquid fall into the candle, and watch as the flame goes out purely from the CO2 gas!

How it works: since CO2 is denser than O2, it pushes the O2 away from the flame, depriving it of the oxygen it needs to keep burning, and this results in the candle going out. It always leaves the students gasping and wondering how this happened! Plus, it’s a great way to show how gases, which are technically a type of fluid, fit into the study of fluid dynamics.

And another exciting STEM adventure has come to an end for Mr. Sims's and Mr. Porter's 5th grade classes as they wrapped up their last day at STARBASE! 🌟

🚀We built and launched straw rockets that traveled as far as 7 meters!

⚡️We experienced the shockingly fun Van de Graaff generator.

💻We mastered the CAD software On Shape, and we built our own Mars bases and explored a 3D spaceship.
..And so much more!😀

Thank you Stephen Decatur Elementary School for joining us for another fun and educational 5-day STEM discovery program. STARBASE Indianapolis can't wait to see you next year!