Where Curiosity Meets Collaboration: A Cross-Grade STEM Story

By Teresa Pan ’29

Since November of last year, four grade 9 student leaders have been working to create a fun yet educational lunchtime STEM program every Thursday for grade 3 students. Through hands-on experiments and collaborative activities, the club aims to spark curiosity and make science and math engaging, accessible, and exciting for younger learners.

This lunchtime club is one of several projects run by the DOT Initiative, a fully student-led nonprofit dedicated to advancing equitable access to STEM education. With student leaders from schools across Vancouver, DOT focuses on broadening both STEM knowledge and the pathways that shape future opportunities in science and technology. Our team wanted to create more meaningful connections across grade levels, and we realized that a cross-grade club would allow older students to share their love of STEM while learning alongside younger ones.

Over the past few months, students have built marble roller coasters using pool noodles, engineered tall structures from marshmallows and toothpicks, and tested physics concepts through a cookie-based egg drop challenge. One of the most rewarding parts of running the club has been witnessing the enthusiasm and creativity our grade 3s bring each week. Their ideas are often inventive, thoughtful, and sometimes entirely unexpected, so much so that we frequently find ourselves learning from them as much as they learn from us.

While we began the club expecting to take on a traditional teaching role, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the experience felt far more collaborative. Rather than simply instructing, we often act as discussion facilitators, asking questions, exploring ideas together, and encouraging students to test their own hypotheses. This shift has been one of the most meaningful and enjoyable aspects of the experience.I would like to thank my fellow student leaders, Reyna, Kian, and Isaac, as well as our enthusiastic grade 3 participants for their curiosity and creativity each week. I would also like to extend a huge thank you to our teacher sponsor, Mrs. Anthony, for her constant support, organization, and willingness to give up a lunch recess every week to help make this club possible. We are excited to continue the program in future terms and can’t wait to see what our young scientists and engineers create next.