Outreach · BridgeSTEM Foundation
STEM Nights Program
Free, hands-on health and science nights for elementary and middle schoolers around Montgomery. I built the curriculum and run the events with a team of trained high school volunteers.
Overview
STEM Nights started in 10th grade as a project run by LAMP students. In 11th grade it became the first program of BridgeSTEM Foundation, the nonprofit I co-founded.
Each event is a set of hands-on stations where kids learn how the body works and how to stay healthy. The focus is healthcare literacy and disease prevention, taught through activities instead of lectures.
Curriculum
I wrote the curriculum and rebuilt the older activities: 33 grade-specific activities in a 53-page guide that any volunteer team can pick up and run. I revise it about every six months and release each version as a new edition. The current one is the 2026 Edition.
STEM Night Program, 2026 Edition
Every activity page follows the same layout: supplies, step-by-step setup, what to ask kids, what they’ll learn, a cost rating, and a “Meet the Doctor” line that ties it to a real specialty.
- 53 pages
- 33 activities
- Grades K–8
- Cost key + safety rules
- Supply checklist
Elementary (K–5): Body systems
Six systems: nervous, circulatory, respiratory, skeletal & muscular, digestive, and skin & immune. Each has a K–2 activity, a 3–5 activity, and a math activity, plus the Teddy Bear Clinic as the opening station.
Middle school (6–8): Medical rotations
Students rotate through specialties the way medical students do: neurology, cardiology, surgery, radiology, emergency medicine, psychiatry, and pathology & genetics.
Teddy Bear Clinic
Kids give a “sick” stuffed animal a checkup with a stethoscope and thermometer, then treat it based on its symptom card.
Meet the Doctor: PediatricianEgg Brain Helmet Challenge
Teams build a helmet around a raw-egg “brain” and drop-test it to learn what a concussion is and how helmets help.
Meet the Doctor: NeurosurgeonGerm Spread Simulation
Glitter “germs” spread through three rounds of handshakes, then kids compare a water-only rinse with 20 seconds of soap.
Meet the Doctor: PediatricianScab Shield Simulation
Kids time how fast “blood” drains through a cut cup, then plug it with platelets and a fibrin net to see how a scab forms.
Meet the Doctor: DermatologistPulse Power Graph
Kids count their pulse resting, after jumping jacks, and in recovery, then turn the counts into beats per minute and a bar graph.
Meet the Doctor: CardiologistJell-O Brain Concussion Lab
Students shake gelatin brains with and without “CSF,” score the damage, and look for coup-contrecoup injuries.
Meet the Doctor: NeurosurgeonSuture Simulation
Students plan stitch spacing, then close a 6 cm cut on a banana with simple interrupted stitches and square knots.
Meet the Doctor: General SurgeonLaparoscopic Box Trainer
Students move pom-poms inside a shoebox using only a camera view, then calculate their percent improvement across trials.
Meet the Doctor: General SurgeonTriage Tag Challenge
After a mock bus crash, teams tag patient cards green, yellow, red, or black using START triage in four minutes.
Meet the Doctor: ER PhysicianDNA Extraction from Strawberries
Students pull visible DNA strands out of strawberry cells using soap, salt, and cold rubbing alcohol.
Meet the Doctor: Pathologist / Geneticist10 of the 33 activities. The full set is in the PDF.
Running the events
A typical elementary night runs about 90 minutes for around 60 kids: the Teddy Bear Clinic as kids arrive, three 20-minute rotations, then certificates and a “Which doctor would you be?” question to close.
- Trained and supervised 85+ high school volunteers, with 1–2 volunteers at each station
- Handle room assignments, supply bins, and logistics for each event
- Partner with teachers and administrators to bring events to their schools
- Every night includes at least one math activity, so it counts as both a Science Night and a Math Night
- About 430 hours so far, including prep
What’s next
The next edition is planned for Spring 2027, and I’m working on bringing STEM Nights to more schools.