This September, Maryville University’s Center for Access and Achievement (CA2) is opening an Interactive STEM Studio pop-up for students between the ages of 4–16 inside the Chesterfield Mall. The center has offered summer programs at Maryville for students in a similar age range for several years, but space on campus is more limited when the school year starts again.
“We had such a successful summer [of programming] that we realized we wanted to carry out this mission during the school year,” says Angelina Moehlmann, the program director for CA2’s elementary school science and robotics program and the new Interactive STEM Studio. “We’re calling it a pop-up because [Chesterfield Mall] will not be our permanent home, but it’s a space for us to investigate and pilot different programs for kids now.”
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Registration for the first session is live on Maryville’s CA2 website. The first week of classes begins on September 23. Each course lasts for six weeks and costs between $80 and $140 for the entire session. Classes are on weeknights between 4:30–7:30 p.m., or Saturdays between 9 a.m.–noon. There are also a few morning and afternoon weekday co-op classes for homeschooled students.
The fall 2023 course catalog features unique learning opportunities for students. Taught by current and retired educators, the courses vary by age group and feature a range of focuses, including virtual reality, video game design, drone usage, stop motion animation, electricity, and robotics.
“The idea of it [is to] enrich and enhance their learning experiences,” Moehlmann says. “A lot of our work is based around play and how that integrates into the creative aspects and soft skills that aren’t always taught in the classroom.”
The studio is offering several Lego-based classes focused on creative building that demonstrate this idea of play. Four- and 5-year-olds can use Legos to learn about shapes, colors, and spatial reasoning, while 9–12 year olds use them to explore the scientific concepts of energy, forces, and motion through a lens of sports science.
“I think the power of this is that it is developing as we go and we’re open to new ideas and to experiment,” Moehlmann says. “Just like we encourage children to engineer prototypes, we’re doing the same thing as we’re developing this space and keeping our eyes open to different possibilities.”
On September 17, the center is hosting a free grand opening celebration with STEM activities, live demonstrations, challenges, and workshops designed for kids between the ages of 3–12. The open house runs from noon–3 p.m.
