Mary Ann Simmons explains a STEM station to fifth-grader Theo Verdugo. (Katelyn Hall / Staff photo )
Staff writer Katelyn Hall reports:
Former Dallas Cowboys player Tony Dorsett encouraged students at Hamilton Park Pacesetter Magnet School to pursue their education.
“Sports will come and go, but your education lasts for a lifetime,” Dorsett told 100 fifth grade students at the Richardson Independent School District elementary school.
The event was sponsored by Texas Instruments in honor of the 90th anniversary of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas. It featured experiment stations in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
At one station students could bake potatoes in an aluminum foil oven. At another they powered calculators with potatoes.
Theo Verdugo said he best liked the pulley and lever Lego station. The fifth grader said he wants to be an inventor or engineer when he grows up.
“I love Legos, and I love that I’m getting to do them at school instead of sitting down for seven hours and doing math and reading,” Verdugo said.
More than 100 volunteers worked at the event.
“I think it’s very important to capture the minds of our children at an early age,” said Mary Ann Simmons, who works at Texas Instruments.