Tuesday, May 13, 2025
In October 2024, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction invited Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLCs) from around the state to participate in a STEM challenge hosted by NASA. Four Milwaukee Recreation program locations with age-eligible students in grades 6-8 – Clarke Street School, Hayes School, Holmes School, and Longfellow School – applied and were selected by the DPI to participate in this project.
CLC staff members from the selected sites attended a two-day training session in Menasha, Wis. to kick off the challenge. Throughout the spring, CLC students then learned about the engineering design process, made virtual connections with NASA scientists and experts, and created projects based on real-life NASA missions.
The challenge included two different projects:
- Lunar Water Engineering Design: develop a filter to purify water for a future lunar habitat.
- Build, Launch, Recover: build a multi-axle, rubber-band-powered “crawler” that can travel at least one meter while carrying a payload.
Each STEM challenge is based upon real mission data and experiences that occur during human and robotic exploration of the solar system.
The middle school students at Longfellow School 21st CCLC dove into the “Build, Launch, Recover” project, led by site director Ahlex Lopez. Lopez, now wrapping up her second year as the site director at Longfellow, had little experience in this kind of project, but instantly knew it would be an asset for her after-school program. “I took the training and I loved it, so I brought it over to Longfellow,” Lopez said.
Lopez and her staff put together a small group of 6th-8th grade students – enough to make two 4-5 person teams – who showed interest in learning more about the program. On Monday afternoons throughout the spring, the teams came together to work with Lopez, learn more about the engineering process, and follow the detailed step-by-step process to create their crawlers.
Over time, the Longfellow crawlers came together with a shoe box “body,” cardboard wheels on dowel-rod axels with bottle caps, and a rubber-band “engine.” By the final session of the challenge, both teams were putting the finishing touches on their project, and testing the crawler’s ability to move in a straight line while carrying the payload.
Lopez prides herself on her staff’s ability to bring fun, engaging activities to Longfellow to help her students learn, play, and grow. This summer, Milwaukee Recreation will continue to provide safe, supervised youth programs at Child Care Camps, Community Learning Centers, and Safe Places across the city of Milwaukee, including Longfellow. Full-day summer programs will allow young people (grades K3-12) to make new friends and stay active with sports, music, art, games, and weekly field trips.
Summer registration is now open. Give your kids a summer to remember with Milwaukee Recreation!