STEM Night Out: Bringing the Wonder of Science to Kids

By Lauren Rodgers ’27

The Center for Civic Engagement has been running STEM Nights Out for 14 years, shortly after CCE was founded in 2011. For the last eight years, Sarah deVeer ‘17 has been working with Bard students to bring the joy of science to schools and communities throughout the area. I had the pleasure of talking with Sarah deVeer ‘17, Special Events Administrator and Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Civic Engagement, about the history of STEM Nights Out, what STEM Nights Out are, and how Bard students can get involved. Read on to learn more about this unique community outreach and engagement opportunity.

AA: Tell me a little bit about STEM Night Out.

SD: STEM Night Out is a model within our STEM Outreach Program. We work with a community partner, like a community center, library, or school and run different stations that are under the umbrella of STEM. Sometimes, it can be one specific theme. Last year, we did a STEM Night Out at Chancellor Elementary in Rhinebeck, where the theme was sound, and each station had something to do with the physics of sound. Each station had a Bard student and a volunteer from the school district, who ran the stations for kids and their families. It's a great way to expose young minds to a lot of different STEM concepts at one time, and also facilitate conversations with families about STEM so if they want to recreate the stations at home, they can. We try to have most of our supplies inexpensive and accessible at local stores or vendors, such as Walmart, Amazon, etc. It also helps Bard students build great relationships with teachers, parents, and schools since many are interested in going into teaching careers or other kinds of careers in education…Or they just like kids and are tired of being on a college campus with lots of people their own age. It's great for many different reasons.

AA: What is your role within STEM Night Out?

SD: I’m responsible for recruiting the students for STEM Night Out. On an annual basis, I hire STEM Fellows, who are paid to facilitate these activities–not only STEM Night Out but other parts of our STEM programming as well. We do a series for kids at Tivoli Library, which is one of our STEM program offerings this semester. I recruit and hire the student leaders who lead these events, and then I also recruit the student volunteers. I communicate with the student volunteers about where they're going, what time they are going, and all of the logistics in terms of behind-the-scenes stuff. 

AA: What is the history of STEM Night Out?

SD: STEM Night Out has been happening as long as the Center for Civic Engagement has existed; it was one of the original programs offered by CCE. I've been overseeing the STEM outreach program for the last eight years. I inherited a lot of relationships with local community partners and from my predecessors, such as Erin Canaan, who is one of the founders of the CCE.

AA: How do you feel STEM Night Out benefits Bard students?

SD: It’s a great pre-professional opportunity for students who want to get into education, but it’s also a great way for students to get off of campus and network with local community partners. One of our STEM Night Out community partners is Ramapo for Children. They run summer camps and often recruit Bard students from STEM Night Out to work their summer camps. It can be a great pipeline into employment. For example, if you really connect with parents at a STEM Night Out and form a connection to then babysit their kids, or maybe form a great connection with teachers who are at the STEM Night Out. At its core, STEM Night Out is great because you are able to drill down into the core of what you're teaching and unpack bigger concepts for kids and their families. There are some things families have never thought about before. For example, a lot of our activities are chemistry reactions. Families might know what the reaction will be, but don't really know the science behind it or haven’t been curious enough to look up the science behind it. The same goes for Bard students. It's a great way to continue to encourage curiosity for Bard students.  Maybe Bard students don't really think of themselves as scientists or as someone who is interested in STEM but at the end of the day, we are all interested in STEM in one way or another. Everything that we do in this world is STEM. Cooking is STEM, driving our cars is STEM. It's great for students because oftentimes, when you're a Bard student, you get so focused on your major or your class curriculum that maybe you forget what it's like to be a learner outside of a traditional classroom.

AA: Do you need to be a STEM major to help out with STEM NIghts?

SD: No, we are open to all majors! We are very grateful when we have nonmajors, because it brings the point home for families that we are not a bunch of Bard STEM majors who are going to teach STEM concepts. When I was a Bard student, I was a film production major, but I was very involved in STEM outreach. I'll never forget when I was working at a STEM station and this one dad asked, “What's your major?” I said film production, and he laughed like it was a joke. And I said, “No, really, I'm majoring in film,” and he said, “Well, what are you doing here?” Then I had to go through my whole speech about why STEM is open to all majors and what a liberal arts degree is at its core. I think it brings the point home, especially for families who are no longer in a traditional classroom feeling like they still have more to learn; maybe they closed off themselves from being in a growth mindset, and this is a reminder that we are all growing constantly, and with your kids growing and discovering new things, you too can grow and discover new things with them as well.
 
AA: How can Bard students get involved with STEM Night Out?

SD: I usually advertise through the Annandale Advocate, sometimes through mass emails to all undergrads, and also through our Instagram. If you want to get involved and stay involved, apply to become a STEM Fellow. We usually start applications in the late summer so we can start the fall with these kinds of programs, but it really just depends on our current STEM Fellows and if there’s an opening. STEM Fellows are free to study abroad or take a semester off, so sometimes we have midyear openings, but if you're passionate about this and working with kids, I encourage you to apply. I would love to see more people applying for the STEM Fellow job because then you can do everything- the weekly programming we do at Tivoli Library or in-school field trips. You can do STEM Nights Out; there are so many programs that we do all the time, We just don’t always open it up to everyone. Sometimes, they are much smaller events, or sometimes, we go to school during the school day, and we need to go through security or get fingerprinted or other various layers of security that we can't necessarily open the program up to anyone But for bigger events, we want to bring as many people as possible because we need as many people as possible.
 
AA: Do you have a favorite STEM station?

SD: I have a deep love for owl pellets, because I myself did an owl pellets lesson plan when I was in elementary school. It's such a universal lesson plan because many of the kids you’re doing it with have already done it in their classrooms, but still love to unpack what's in an owl pellet and search for specific bones. It's such a great universal experience, and it's also a low-intensity station. We have higher intensity stations, like with chemical reactions, but those are a lot of different ingredients, and due to the chemistry, you have to be very present with the kids. There are a lot of steps, and it can be quite overwhelming. I love owl pellets not only for my personal connection to them, but also because I like supporting independent vendors who procure owl pellets from the forest themselves. It's nice to cut out the middle person in that way; I'm not buying mass owl pellets but getting them straight from the forest.

AA: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

SD: We love it when groups of people come and volunteer. I love working with a whole group of people who can really staff bigger events. Whether it's a club, class, or team, if you’re part of one of those communities and you can rally your community, I encourage you to reach out. For tonight's STEM Night Out, we’re running a plant ink station where we teamed up with one of the Engaged Liberal Arts & Science classes. We love partnering with groups of people rather than individuals, because then there is already a community built between the students, and we can rely on that community to show up.

The Annandale Advocate would like to thank Sarah deVeer for her time and thoughtful responses. If you are interested in getting involved with STEM Nights Out, email Sarah deVeer or follow Bard CCE on Instagram to stay updated on events.

Post Date: 02-07-2025