STEM in action across Warwick Valley classrooms

From chemical reactions and microscopic discoveries to hands-on engineering design, students across the Warwick Valley Central School District are diving into immersive STEM lessons that bring learning to life in memorable and engaging ways. 

At Warwick Valley High School, students in Makenna DiGuilio’s class explored the building blocks of chemical change by observing different types of reactions in real time. Through guided experiments, students examined how substances transform, learning that the starting materials, called reactants, interact to form new substances known as products.

As reactions unfolded, students looked for visible evidence of change, including shifts in color, the formation of precipitates, the release of gases and even the appearance of flames. These observations helped reinforce core scientific principles while building analytical lab skills.

At Sanfordville Elementary School, first graders in Casey Besimer’s STEM class rotated through a set of hands-on engineering stations designed to spark creativity and collaboration. 

Working in teams, students brainstormed design ideas before bringing their structures to life using a variety of building materials, including Lincoln Logs, Beam Building and Keva planks, magnetic tiles and cubes, and architecture modeling sets. The stations encouraged problem-solving, spatial reasoning and teamwork while introducing foundational engineering concepts.

Meanwhile, at Warwick Valley Middle School, students in Katy Decker’s Life Science class explored a different scale of scientific discovery – one too small to see with the naked eye. 

After reviewing a brief history of microscopes, students used compound light microscopes, which included an eyepiece lens, objective lenses, and a light source. The class also explored modern microscopy, learning the differences between a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM).

As their studies continue, students apply these skills by observing and comparing living specimens, such as cells, with non-living materials, like yarn, deepening their understanding of structure, function and the microscopic world.

Across every grade level, these experiences continue to highlight how scientific exploration is woven into the Warwick Valley learning journey by encouraging curiosity, critical thinking and discovery at every stage.