Reported by Xinyi Christine Zhang
The South Brunswick Tech Storm, that occured on April 6th, 2019, was an event led by South Brunswick students. It was open to people from grades 4-12 within the district. Over 300 students registered to attend this event, and there were both morning and afternoon sessions available to choose.
Starting with a motivational opening by a group of highschoolers, attendants were then divided into their chosen activities. There were many interactive workshops for students including animation, public speaking, problem solving, and STEM challenges. Prior to the occasion, student leaders were assigned a workshop to monitor the many children were going to attend. Many other competitions like debates and challenges were held throughout the day.
As a member of School Science Olympiad Team as well as a member of Greater Princeton AYLUS (GPA), Xinyi Christine Zhang, along with other team members, were in charge of helping students in the community find interest in STEM and the scientific method. To end it off, there were chances to win raffle prizes and others. Through all of this, students could discover hidden interests and talents. It was a great opportunity for everyone to learn new skills and meet new people.
Throughout this day, Xinyi Christine spent 3 total hours helping out kids from elementary to high school, from 8:30 AM-11:30 AM. As a member of GPA, she was able to lead and monitor the STEM workshop along with a couple of other kids. The STEM task was to get an aluminum boat filled with pennies to cross a body of water through many obstacles. Through many trials and improvement, most of the teams were able to finish with high scores. It was a great experience getting to tell other students what we knew, and how to help them achieve their end goal. All of the kids left Tech Storm with new, enriched knowledge.
