High-quality afterschool programs do more than just enrich the lives of the children in the programs they also bring the community together.
For the children, it was another great day of programming at Palm Beach Maritime Academy, but for their families it was a chance to see the continued learning that takes place every day during their child’s afterschool hours. In total, 97 attendees from 30 different families came together. All were greeted by Prime Time’s very own STEAM queen, Patricia Sasson, for a night of family fun and exciting learning activities provided by its providers Resource Depot and Youth Environmental Alliance. Sustainability was the focus of the night as both programs brought eco-friendly programs to an excited crowd.
Resource Depot put the engineering in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) with its recycled materials catapults. Children and their families worked together to construct the bodies of their catapults using donated rubberband and paper straws. When one configuration didn’t prove to be the best base for their catapult youth redesigned their models and improving the support of their builds, showing off not only their engineering skills but also their ability to work through complex problems to find the right solution, no matter how many tries it may have taken. After building their catapult bases, they attached recycled spoons and began to launch soft pom-poms through hoops with their newly completed catapults.
Youth Environmental Alliance offered marine biology knowledge sharing the importance of oysters as nature’s own water filtration system. Youth and their families learned that giving oysters places to grow in turn gives us clean water to enjoy off our very own Florida coast. YEA has developed a community program where it collects oyster shells from local restaurants to build sustainable vertical oyster gardens (VOGs), made up of marine grade rope threaded through the oyster shells. Local dock owners take these gardens and hang them off their docks and in the water, so young oysters, called spat, can find them giving oysters a home to grow and help clean our waterways. Youth worked with their parents/guardians to build these VOGs that will soon hang off local docks and improve the ocean right in their own backyard.
As the evening began to wind down, families were invited to reflect on the activity and man expressed how grateful they were for this chance to spend time with their children and participate in the afterschool programs that they love. Each family left with a free shopping pass for Resource Depot's Materials Marketplace and a Prime Time take-home STEAM kit to continue the learning.
You do not have to wait for a STEAM Family Night at your program to bring these valuable science lessons to the youth in your program. Registration is open for the fall STEAM cohort where afterschool practitioners will learn how to incorporate STEAM and engaging science experiments into their afterschool programs every day. Interested?
Learn More and Register Today. Next STEAM cohort starts October 2, 2026.
Staff at Hope-Centennial Elementary Afterschool Program participate in the STEAM cohort.
