CONNECT Youth Program: STEM in Action with Pillars of Tech
The CONNECT Youth Program recently hosted its third session, welcoming 35 middle school students—including 27 PYS students and 8 students from the READY program—for an engaging, hands-on STEM experience led by Pillars of Tech.
Pillars of Tech is a group of local high school students dedicated to making STEM education accessible, engaging, and fun for students of all backgrounds. During the session, the eight members of Pillars of Tech introduced themselves and shared an interactive presentation on STEM concepts, focusing on the science behind the Egg Drop Challenge.
After the presentation, students worked in small groups of 3–4 to design and build a structure to protect an egg from cracking when dropped from 10 feet or higher. Armed with everyday materials—and plenty of creativity—students collaborated, problem-solved, and put their engineering skills to the test.
The excitement continued as teams watched their designs take flight during the egg drop. A few standout projects were saved for an outdoor challenge, where a high school student even used a drone to lift and drop the egg protectors from approximately 30 feet high. To everyone’s surprise and delight, those eggs survived the drop onto the park’s grass!
A huge thank you to the Pillars of Tech high school students for sharing their passion for science and bringing such a memorable, hands-on STEM activity to the CONNECT Youth Program.
The CONNECT Youth Program is a collaborative effort between Junction Avenue School and the Pedrozzi Foundation, made possible with the volunteer support of the Rotary Club of Livermore.
