Standing before a room of elementary school-aged children in early August, Shanshan Liu and Candice Santos — students at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School — posed a simple question to the kids sitting cross-legged on a colorful classroom carpet. “What’s really cool about birds?” they asked. In an instant, eight hands shot up in the air. “Some birds are red, like cardinals,” one girl said. “Birds can sing,” shouted another. As student officers for Richmond’s only STEMsters chapter, this sort of fervent response is exactly what Liu and Santos hope for whenever they teach a short science lesson to younger children. STEMsters, an entirely student-led initiative with chapters spanning across more than 25 states and six countries, aims to spark curiosity in science, technology, engineering and math among elementary schoolers through the work of high school aged mentors. Liu, now the club’s chapter president at Maggie Walker, first learned about STEMsters last year when a post from another chapter grabbed her attention while she scrolled through Instagram. “I wanted to get involved immediately because knowing that Virginia struggles with math and reading scores, I wanted to find away to bring STEM and make it accessible for all children,” she said. Each STEMsters lesson is about one hour long and includes a brief slideshow presentation with new concepts and vocabulary before the class transitions into a hands-on activity. Earlier this month, Liu and Santos taught kids at a Friends Association for Children summer camp in Church Hill about basic aerodynamic concepts, such as mass and balance. After hearing about birds and how they fly, the students created their own “bird kites” out of construction paper as a way to actively participate in the lesson. “Through this process, we have to be really patient and learn how to adapt when, for example, some kids are being impatient or think they are lagging behind,” Liu said. Not far away at the Friends Association’s other location in Jackson Ward, Maggie Walker’s other STEMsters officers taught a different group of children about viscosity — the state of being sticky — as they made slime. Angel Zhu, a rising senior who serves as the STEMsters chapter’s treasurer, said she first joined the club because she is interested in pursuing a STEM career and thought it could be another productive thing to do in her spare time. As she began meeting the children at the centers STEMsters collaborates with, she said she found profound purpose in her involvement. “What started as another thing to add to my college application became something that goes so much deeper and is so much more meaningful,” she said. Other students admitted that they first joined STEMsters to chip away at the 140 community service hours they must complete to earn their high school diploma at Maggie Walker, but said they became similarly invested in the project’s mission. “As high schoolers, there are the benefits of getting our volunteer hours in, but also it’s being able to reach out to kids, especially in underprivileged areas of Richmond,” said Irene Jose, who serves as the chapter’s vice president. As they prepare to transition into the upcoming school year, the girls said their goal is to increase their social media presence to inspire more students, both within their own school and across the Richmond area, to get involved with STEMsters. According to the project’s national website, Maggie Walker is one of three STEMsters chapters in Virginia, and the only one beyond the Washington suburbs. “This is a wonderful opportunity for other people, so we don’t want to gatekeep this,” Liu said.