Children recently designed their own bridges during a Book Lab held at Schuylkill Valley Community Library in Leesport. Book Labs are held at 1 p.m. on Tuesdays.
Youth Librarian Kelly Jacoby started Book Labs in February during the school year for homeschool families, providing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) or STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) based programs. Recent programs were Bridges & Farm Physics on June 13 and Survive the Quake on June 20. Next is Catch the Wind on June 27.
“We started off where we picked a book theme for the month and all of our activities centered around that, such as ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ so everything we did that month had candy involved. We had candy science and candy art,” said Jacoby.
For during the summer, programs center around the Summer Reading Program theme Build a Better World.
“So we’re building bridges. We’ll engineer coasters one week,” she said. “Those types of things for the summer.”
Book Lab programs are geared for preschoolers to elementary age children. For the bridges program presented by Jen Koller from 4-H, they learned about engineering jobs and learned the physics behind designing and building bridges.
Participants built their own bridges using paper that they then tested using the weight of pennies. Then they built another small-scale bridge using wooden materials to help them learn bridge design.
“I think the idea of STEM and STEAM is a great concept for the kids to incorporate science and technology and relate it to everyday activities,” said Jacoby.
She hopes children have fun during the programs but also learn without realizing it.
“Most importantly, I want them to have fun at the library. That’s how you are going to get kids to read.”
Jacoby said the library carries books related to the program themes.
For more information about other Summer Reading Programs, visit http://www.berks.lib.pa.us/ssv/.
