GRAHAM, N.C. -- Students in the STEAM Club at Alexander Wilson Elementary School in Graham are getting hands-on learning.

  • Pumpkin Chunkin is an annual event the STEAM Club puts on for their students.
  • For months, students in the fourth and fifth grade have been researching and designing catapults to launch their pumpkins.
  • Parents say it's a great program for children to learn the basics of science.

Pumpkin Chunkin is an annual event the STEAM Club puts on for their students. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

STEAM Club advisor Daniel Flack told us it is a great learning experience for them.

"It has really made a huge impact on how they not just learn the science, engineering type skills, but how they go about approaching their daily lives in terms of failure being an option and it being okay to fail and how they can work through that," Flack said.

For months, students in the fourth and fifth grades have been researching and designing catapults to launch their pumpkins. With the help of advisors and parental assistance, students brought those designs to life.

Parents like Jerry Jacobs have two students that are alumni from the school and the STEAM Club. He explains this is a great program for children to learn the basics of science.

"The physics behind the trebuchet are very interesting, you can make small changes in length of rope or distance of the arm and see big differences and it's just a good example of physics at work," Jacobs said.

While science is important to the project, Flack said it is a lot more than that.

"How are you going to leverage your resources? How are you going to manage your group? It is all about life really, and how they can make a bigger impact later on in their life with the skills they are learning today," Flack explained.

Lots of learning, fun and trial and error, this project became something students like Kaden Long are seeing the value in trying. Kaden is the president of the STEAM Club. 

"This is a very good group with very good people and I've learned so much during this journey," Long said.