STANFORDVILLE - A new science club has formed at Cold Spring Elementary School this year for first- through fifth-graders, and girls from the EXITE (Exploring Interests in Technology and Engineering) program at Stissing Mountain Middle School paid the young scientists a visit on April 25 to educate and entertain them with fun experiments.

The EXITE program, which is sponsored by IBM, encourages women to go into the science curriculum. The new elementary club, which is called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), focuses on a similar mission of getting students interested in the curriculum at a young age.

STEM adviser Steven Seipp, an engineer at IBM who spearheaded to the program through the Pine Plains PTA, said that the club meets once a week on Fridays before school starts. Approximately 18-20 children participate in the club, which makes Seipp think that this pilot program will be a success.

"The teachers in Pine Plains are very enthusiastic," said Seipp, who hopes to expand next year to include an afternoon STEM program, as well.

To focus on the engineering portion of STEM, computer application teacher Lynn Miceli brought her EXITE students to Cold Spring to teach the youngsters various lessons through fun activities. For example, they knocked plastic eggs into cups to learn about inertia and spun a cup of pennies in a circle to experience centripetal force.

The elementary students also dyed cloth using Kool-Aid and other ingredients and built wind cars out of paper and straws. Then even built structures out of spaghetti and marshmallows to learn about the strength of various shapes.

The STEM club culminates with the science fair at Cold Spring, which will be held on May 8 at 6 p.m.