Balloons, Dry Ice, and Curious Kids: STEM Starters’ Recipe for Success

“I saw that spark of ‘mad scientist’ gleam in a kid's eyes.” Aubs Decker smiled, reminiscing about leading a past physics workshop for STEM Starters, an outreach program at Columbia University that the Biological Sciences PhD candidate co-founded in 2019. The volunteer-run program organizes STEM experiments on weekends for late-elementary and middle school-aged children and their families from neighboring communities. These popular monthly workshops focus on hands-on learning through themed events across STEM fields, with experiments designed and led by Columbia University graduate students.

Decker described one such experiment, which was designed to demonstrate the ideal gas law, PV=nRT. The formula states that in a closed system containing an ideal gas, pressure (P) multiplied by volume (V) is equal to moles (n) times the universal gas constant (R) times temperature (T). This can be a bit to wrap your head around. But if you blow air into a balloon at room temperature, seal it, and then drastically lower the temperature by surrounding it with something super-cold like dry ice, you can see this formula play out in real time. When the temperature is lowered, the gas molecules bounce off of one another more slowly, and they exert less pressure on the inside of the balloon, causing the balloon to deflate. Warm the balloon back up, and it expands again.

“The kids were very excited about that and were like, ‘What if we put more gas inside?’ And started stuffing the balloons with dry ice,” Decker said. In this condition, they were changing the variable, n, or how many moles of gas molecules were in the system. At the time, Decker was managing an adjacent station. “I didn't realize what was happening until we heard balloons exploding. I turned around to see a couple of kids laughing gleefully.” Then a kid suggested adding water to the balloons, as well. The concept clicked and the young scientists were eager to advance the experiment to a new level. Luckily, graduate student volunteers were there to channel scientific passion while keeping an eye on lab safety standards.     

STEM Starters takes place on weekend afternoons in the Education Lab at the Zuckerman Institute. Even without the spectacle of exploding dry-ice balloons, it’s hard to resist stopping to peer through the glass walls when you walk past the space on the street. You can see microscopes on dollies, with eye-pieces adjusted for curious scientists of all ages, cabinets overflowing with colorful materials, and a fish tank bubbling in the corner, adorned with artwork memorializing a former octopus tenant. There are several graduate students from Columbia University STEM programs at each station, ready to lead the experiment and adjust it to fit the number of people who come to participate.

The program has grown from early events having around five attendees to hosting up to fifty participants at once. “I wanted it to be small and kind of intimate, and particularly invite families from Harlem, like across the street, onto campus,” explains Decker. “My main goal was for middle school students in the local community to come on campus and talk with scientists and not be afraid of scientists.” And while the program has grown, the mission has remained the same. “Where STEM starters stands right now is increasing access and trying to be a connector between the institution and the environment around it.”

Abhishek Iyer, a fifth-year PhD student in the Biological Sciences program, has been a volunteer with STEM Starters for four years. He and other volunteers have worked to spread the word about the program. “We’ve had the opportunity to take our organization to the public schools,” he said. “Then the kids over there already know STEM Starters and then they might want to come to the next event.”

At the weekend events, STEM-curious children are accompanied by parents and guardians, and graduate students present the material in a way that is accessible and engaging to all participants. To provide a better teaching experience, a few years back STEM Starters organized a seminar with an instructor at Teacher’s College to provide training in classroom management to graduate students.

“Growing up, I had very little exposure to interactive science,” Iyer said, “so I never got to do these experiments as a kid.” His enthusiasm for both science and the kids he teaches is clear. “When I am engaging with kids, they have usually the same level of enthusiasm that I do. To see the same look on a kid's face, it's like someone understands me.”

As the program has grown, so have the associated responsibilities. In addition to the graduate students designing and leading experiments, there are now groups of volunteer graduate students who take care of funding, publicity, and administration. In the weeks leading up to each session, graduate student volunteers brainstorm ideas for experiments and order and build materials for the event.

While many experiment leaders are graduate students from the Biological Sciences PhD program, the themes are not limited to biology. Topics have ranged across aviation, neuroscience, physics, biology, electronics, and forensic science. Decker wants STEM Starters to empower people to explore lots of different aspects of science and appreciate how fields are interconnected. “Just because you become a biologist doesn't mean you can't spend a week studying projectiles and fuel and environmental science. We should all be practicing how to communicate about all aspects of how our world works.”

I’m left wondering what happened with the balloons overfilled with dry ice.

Decker explains that despite the momentary balloon-popping concern, the experiment was a memorable success because the kids “understood the basic concept that the lab was trying to get across and then they took agency to manipulate the system that they now understood to ask further questions.” They reassured me that there were no more dry-ice explosions in the Education Lab. “I did have to take them outside to play soccer with the balloons until they popped.”

Decker made sure to ask that this piece thank their co-founder Dr. Prachi Patel, a graduate of Columbia’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, as well as all the volunteers, collaborators, and friends who have been involved in STEM Starters. This includes support, demo materials, and funding from the Zuckerman Institute’s Public Programs team (Dr. Diana Li, Alissa Mayers, and Kent Katner), The Artificial and Natural Intelligence Institute, Women in Science at Columbia, The American Society for Cell Biology, the Department of Physics, the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, the Department of Biological Sciences, and leaders at CUNO and BioBus. STEM Starters is supported by the Avantor Foundation.

For information on upcoming STEM Starters events, follow along on Instagram or visit this page.

Interested volunteers should email [email protected] to receive information about meetings and events. Past recorded STEMinars on YouTube are available to everyone to watch here.

As the program has grown, so have the associated responsibilities. In addition to the graduate students designing and leading experiments, there are now groups of volunteer graduate students who take care of funding, publicity, and administration. In the weeks leading up to each session, graduate student volunteers brainstorm ideas for experiments and order and build materials for the event.

While many experiment leaders are graduate students from the Biological Sciences PhD program, the themes are not limited to biology. Topics have ranged across aviation, neuroscience, physics, biology, electronics, and forensic science. Decker wants STEM Starters to empower people to explore lots of different aspects of science and appreciate how fields are interconnected. “Just because you become a biologist doesn't mean you can't spend a week studying projectiles and fuel and environmental science. We should all be practicing how to communicate about all aspects of how our world works.”

I’m left wondering what happened with the balloons overfilled with dry ice.

Decker explains that despite the momentary balloon-popping concern, that was such a memorable success because the kids “understood the basic concept that the lab was trying to get across and then they took agency to manipulate the system that they now understood to ask further questions.” They reassured me that there were no more dry-ice explosions in the Education Lab. “I did have to take them outside to play soccer with the balloons until they popped.”

Decker wanted to credit and thank their co-founder Dr. Prachi Patel, graduate of Columbia’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. Decker and Iyer would like to thank all volunteers, collaborators, and friends, past and present, who have been involved. This includes support, demo materials, funding, and friendships from the Zuckerman Institute’s Public Programs team (Diana Li, Alyssa Mayers, and Kent Katner), The Artificial and Natural Intelligence Institute, Women in Science at Columbia, The American Society for Cell Biology, the Department of Physics, the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, the Department of Biological Sciences, and leaders at CUNO and BioBus. STEM Starters is supported by the Avantor Foundation.

For information on upcoming STEM Starters events, follow along on Instagram or visit this page.

Interested volunteers should email [email protected] to receive information about meetings and events. Past recorded STEMinars on YouTube are available to everyone to watch here.