Smackover-Norphlet School District celebrates success of ‘STEM Night’
Lee: STEM Night ‘exceeded the district’s expectation’
SMACKOVER — The SmackoverNorphlet School District’s third annual Family STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Night for K-12 students, which was held Nov. 7 at Norphlet Middle School, exceeded the district’s expectation.
In 2016 over 500 students, parents, and community members attended. This year over 650 people participated in all of the STEM activities planned by our community and industry partners.
The purpose of the annual Family STEM Night is to give all of the district’s kindergarten through 12th grade students the opportunity to experience a wide variety of STEMrelated activities and to meet a variety of STEM professionals from the local area which will help to spark an interest in STEM classes and STEM careers available in the local economy.
Through the efforts of industry and community partners, kindergarten through 12th grade students were exposed to a tremendous amount of science, technology, engineering and math that evening which not only gave students a positive attitude towards these school subjects but also encouraged students to pursue careers in these areas locally.
New this year to Family STEM Night was the addition of a laser light show presented by Lockheed Martin, which was the first of its kind for the Norphlet campus.
The show featured an exo-skeleton, laser lights, smoke machines and video.
The following organizations provided STEM activities:
Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources
Creative Means
Martin Operating Partnership
(Cross Oil)
El Dorado Refinery LanXESS
Lockheed Martin
Murphy USA
Southern Arkansas University
STEM Center
SHS Engineering Students
SHS Sports Medicine Students South Arkansas Community College Mechatronics
SouthArk Process Technology Union County SWAT Team Sysco Food provided the food which was prepared by the Crotty Casing Crew.
Coca-Cola supplied the drinks which were served by the Norphlet Middle School Student Council.
Additionally, industry partners provided STEM-related door prizes:
LanXESS – Dell Imperion 11 3000 Laptop
Cross Oil (Martin Operating Partnership) – Propel Maximum Air Drone
Lockheed Martin – iPad mini 4 and 5 HP Chromebooks
Plans are already in the works for next year’s fourth annual Family STEM Night which will be held Nov. 13, 2018.
Additional industries and community partners who are interested in participating in next year’s Family STEM Night may contact Curriculum Director Jennifer Lee at 870-725-1234.