Lamar senior Sam Vaughn shows Northeast elementary second graders Jake Whittington and Colt Shelton how gravity works in one of the science projects on the Trailblazer II.

    A traveling science museum that stopped at Lamar School Friday gave students from three area schools an opportunity to get some hands-on experience.

    Lockheed Martin, in collaboration with Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering (TAME), brought The Trailblazer II STEM bus to Lamar to expose students to engineering and prepare them for the future, said Lockheed Martin Quality Engineer Thomas Frank said.

    Students from Russell Christian Academy and Northeast Elementary School also visited Lamar to partake in the events.

    “We almost feel like it is an obligation for Lockheed Martin because we believe in working with the community,” Frank said. “It was our privilege to bring this and introduce STEM to Meridian.”

    The bus energizes students with interactive Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) displays, experiments and information on related careers in STEM fields.

    “We try to encourage young folks to be interested in careers in STEM,” TAME facilitator V.J. Willis said. “We want them to see how fun and exciting a career in these subjects can be.”

    Lee Ann Ballou, head of school at Lamar, said they recently implemented STEM into their curriculum.

    “By bringing outside people, such as engineers from Lockheed Martin, we have been able to show the students what they are learning and how important it is for the future,” Ballou said. “Our high school seniors and Beta Club members participated, and were able to teach the younger kids about the experiments they were seeing and doing.”

    Northeast Elementary brought its gifted class, and Angie Nelson, the school’s  assistant principal, said her students will take what they learned and put it to use in the classroom. The students were able to go through the bus and learn more about jobs in different fields such as medicine, weather, wind velocity, aerodynamics, space and gravity.

    Northeast second graders Colt Shelton and Jake Whittington said they love science and hope one day to have a career doing something in that field.

    “I would like to be a scientist and build bridges,” Shelton said.

    “I like to do experiments and find out what is going to happen when you do stuff,” Whittington said. “I like to do a lot of science projects, and see how things are made and what they do.”

    Lamar senior Sam Vaughn said it is rewarding to pass down what he knows to the younger students.

    “I like to see the kids happy and having fun, and being a part of that and sharing with them what I know makes me happy,” Vaughn said.