APPLE CHALLANGE — Students at McKinley STEM Academy marked the sixth-annual Great Apple Crunch celebration Oct. 10. The event centered on locally-grown apples and healthy eating habits, applying STEM-based skills to fun learning activities for students. Second graders A’Milliah Brandon, Briella Herring and A’Marri Freeman made apple Play Dough at one of the six stations offered. -- Contributed

STEUBENVILLE — McKinley STEM Academy students celebrated the Great Apple Crunch event Oct. 10 to learn about apples and healthy eating.

The festivities have been held at the school since 2019 and align with National Farm-to-School Month during October. First-grade teacher Melissa Freshwater organized the activities, noting 171 pupils in grades Preschool through fourth took part.

“Students, teachers and sometimes, entire communities, all ‘crunch’ into a local apple at the same time to celebrate healthy, locally-grown food,” Freshwater said. She explained the students enjoyed activities which implemented aspects of STEM, applying them to real-world experiences.

The goal of the event was to promote healthy eating habits, support Ohio’s local apple growers, celebrate farm-to-school connections and to create a fun and educational moment for all ages. Activities occurred throughout the day, including preschool and kindergarten classes participating in the morning and grades 1-4 involved during the afternoon. Freshwater said students rotated through six STEM stations designed to ebgage and inspire innovation, collaboration and problem-solving.

“Each activity integrated the engineering design process — ask, imagine, plan, create, test, and improve — as students explored hands-on challenges centered around apples,” Freshwater stated. “The students worked together to investigate, design and build through a variety of experiences.”

Among them were the apple dough lab, where they used measurement, observation and chemical change exploration, while mixing and creating apple-scented dough; the STEM engineering tower challenge, where apples and other materials were used to engineer and test the tallest and most stable apple tower, applying concepts of balance, stability and structural design; apple races, where students experimented with force and motion as they designed and tested strategies to make apples move the fastest down a racetrack; the 10 Apples on Top challenge, where pupils collaborated to solve problems and test balance in a team-building activity inspired by a classic story shared by a representative of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County; the apple creation station, where students used creativity, spatial reasoning and fine motor skills to design and build a unique structure or object using apple pieces and toothpicks; and apple slice doughnut tasting, where children explored healthy food science by creating and sampling apple-sliced doughnuts to observe textures, taste and patterns.

“Through these interactive experiences, students applied the principles of STEM, while developing essential 21st-century skills, such as critical thinking, collaboration and creativity,” Freshwater concluded. “The Great Apple Crunch encourages curiosity and celebrates the joy of learning through exploration.”

Freshwater thanked the school community for all of the teamwork to give students a day to remember.

“From now on, every apple they see or taste, might just bring them back to the excitement and wonder of the Great Apple Crunch at McKinley STEM Academy,” she said.