In the Fall 2024 – Spring 2025 academic year (Sep-Mar), the Center for STEM Education hosted a total of 15 field trips, with a total of ~725 students in grades 3-8. Over 75 NEU students and six student groups assisted us with field trips this year.
Of these 15 field trips, 11 schools were Boston Public Schools, as described below. Each of these field trips featured an introduction to Engineering, 1-2 hands-on activities, and College 101 session and/or Campus Tour.
October 4th, 2024: 35 students (grades 5+6) from the Chittick Elementary School
For our first field trip of the year we went to the Earthquake lab (thanks Professor Nancy Varney for running this activity), built hurricane-proof paper towers, and then learned about pollution and environmental engineering through our Who Polluted the Charles and water filters activities. Also see this blog post. Thanks to the 7 volunteers who came today!
October 18th, 2024: 50 students in grade 6 from the Haley Pilot School
On this day, Northeastern’s student chapter of BESS, the Black Engineering Student Society (6 volunteers), helped us run our field trip, wherein we learned about Natural Disasters. Also see this blog post.
October 25th, 2024: 100 students in grades 7-8, at UP Academy Dorchester
On this day, rather than a school coming to Northeastern, we (4 volunteers) went to UP Academy in Dorchester for their “SPARK Day of STEM Exploration”, wherein we Who Polluted + Water Filters to middle schoolers for the day. See this blog post.
November 1st, 2024: 50 students (grades 406) from Mary Lyon K-8 School
Another day focused on Natural Disasters and Civil and Environmental engineering, with 8 volunteers. See this blog post.
November 8th, 2024: 25 students in grade 5 from the BTU School
Another field trip led by BESS (9 volunteers total), wherein we did two Engineering Design activities: Egg Drop and Catapults. See this blog post.
November 15th, 2024: 40 students in grade 4 from Phineas Bates Elementary School
Northeastern’s chapter of SWE, the Society of Women Engineers, led this field trip focused on engineering design activities: Egg Drop and Catapults. A lot of volunteers today – 18 total! See this blog post.
November 22nd, 2024: 50 students in grade 4 from Mildred Ave K-8
Northeastern’s chapter of ASCE, the American Society of Civil Engineering, led this field trip focused on Civil Engineering – we visited the Earthquake Lab and built levees. 13 total volunteers. See this blog post.
January 17th, 2025: 35 students in grade 4 from Tynan Elementary School
For our first field trip of the new year, we did two engineering design activities with 8 NEU volunteers: Egg Drop and Paper Rockets. This was our first time using the paper rockets activity in almost a year – as our prior rocket launcher broke last year. An MIE capstone team re-designed and re-built our paper rockets launcher – and we got to try it out! It’s now automatically inflating (i.e. with an automatic pump rather than a bike pump) and has a remote release.
February 7th, 2025: 44 students in grade 5 from Everett Elementary School
Northeastern’s chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, AerospaceNU, led this field trip, wherein we focused on mechanical engineering activities: Hexbugs and Paper Rockets. 13 total volunteers.
March 14th, 2025: 50 students in grades 3-4 from Perkins Elementary School
Another AerospaceNU led field trip, with mechanical engineering activities: Catapults and Paper Rockets. Rather than using Centennial Common for our rocket testing, we used the Willis Hall field to test – and this worked quite well – and was unpopulated. We had a lot of volunteers again – 14 total. With these large number of volunteers, perhaps next year it’s time to bring back our reverse field trip series and go visit schools and do STEM activities there.
March 28th, 2025: 60 students in grades 7-8 from Frederick Pilot Middle School
For our last field trip, we had the most volunteers of our entire year – 19 Northeastern student volunteers. Definitely want to consider expanding our field trips next year! We had our usual volunteers, volunteers from SWE, and volunteers from a Biology community service capstone group. For today we learned about energy – and did Wind Turbines and a visit to the Earthquake lab.
