Students create a model wetland and observe the impact wetlands have on water quality in local lakes. Photo provided by the Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams.

News Release

WINONA LAKE — Elementary students are invited to the Warsaw Community Public Library on Wednesdays, May 29, June 5 and June 12, for “Stories & STEM,” a free program that combines reading with hands-on scientific activities.

The program is provided by the Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams, and no registration is necessary to attend.

Now in its third year, “Stories & STEM” connects a read-aloud storybook with an activity that deepens kindergarten through fourth-grade grade students’ understanding of lakes and water quality. Kids can look forward to building a thunderstorm, engineering an ecosystem and creating a frog to race. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In addition, families who attend are eligible to enter a raffle to receive a copy of the storybook for their home libraries.

New this year, “Swamp Stomp” on Wednesday, June 26, is for fifth- through eighth-grade students. Rather than meeting at the library, students will take an interpretive hike around the wetland at Grace College. Kids will get their hands dirty collecting wetland soil profiles and creating a working wetland model.

“Stories & STEM” and “Swamp Stomp” begin at 10:30 a.m. and last about an hour. No registration is necessary. More information is available at lakes.grace.edu or warsawlibrary.org.

Support from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation helps to make these programs possible.