Middle Gate Elementary School third and fourth grade students, and their parents, were invited to the school during the evening of Wednesday, May 4, to participate in the school's annual STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Night.Star Wars movie franchise and the popular saying on May 4, "May the 4th be with you."

When Middle Gate math/science specialist Jill Bracksieck and Principal Christopher Geissler realized the date of this year's STEM Night would be on May 4, Ms Bracksieck said they instantly thought of having this year's theme be space in honor of the

A number of activities were set up around the school, with faculty, parents, and student volunteers overseeing the programs. Retired Middle Gate math/science specialist Pam Fagan also returned as a volunteer to oversee an "Alka-Seltzer Rocket" station in the school's cafeteria.

Before starting the activity, Ms Fagan spoke to participating students in one group about the properties of matter and what their expectations were for the experiment, which involved closing a tablet of Alka-Seltzer and warm water in a small container.

In the school's science lab students built spacecraft models of their own design out of recycled materials.

Two activities were offered in the school's art room. On one side of the room students constructed their own spacecraft - using such objects as a small plastic cup and straws - that could "land" astronauts, or marshmallows in this case, safely from a drop of one foot then from a drop of 18 inches.

On the other side of the art room students rolled and cut paper to make paper rockets.

Middle Gate parent and Sikorsky Aircraft engineer Henry Voegeli oversaw an activity in another section of the building. Mr Voegeli brought an infrared camera, on loan from Sikorsky, to the school to demonstrate temperature differences. Students and participants took turns sitting in front of the camera as their image was portrayed on a screen showing temperature. Mr Voegeli's son Jason took a moment to sit in front of the camera with Ms Bracksieck during the event.

"This is really neat," said Ms Bracksieck, as she and Jason made motions and tried different techniques to view a change in temperature on the screen.

Reed Intermediate School sixth graders Teddy Teraszkiewicz, Jeremy Voegeli, and Orion Bracksieck volunteered for the night to help show students and families NASA's Spacecraft 3D app on iPads. The app displays the scene before the device on the screen of the iPad, but it shows a NASA spacecraft as if it were there, according to the boys.

"I think it is really cool. You get to see the virtual space craft as if it were really there," said Teddy.