It may look more like playing, but 24 students at Towamensing Elementary School were actually having a ball learning about science, technology, engineering and math.

The fifth-grade and sixth-grade students participated in the SHINE after-school program, which was made possible through Lehigh Carbon Community College and state and federal funding."The kids love it," said Jodi Kocher, the school counselor.This is the first year that Palmerton Area School District has offered the program, she said. It is also being offered to first-grade students at Parkside Education Center, but with STEM activities designed for that age group."I think it's an excellent program," Kocher said.Towamensing Elementary ran the SHINE program two days a week in December, January and February. In early March, a second group started and is meeting four days a week throughout the month."I wanted to do this, because it happened earlier in the year and I forgot to sign up," said Savannah Klotz. "My friends said it was a lot of fun."The students broke into three groups: some made robots out of plastic, computer-programmed cubes, while others did 3-D printing or video animation.Klotz was part of the 3-D printing group. They designed objects with a computer program similar to AutoCAD, and then sent their designs to a 3-D printer.As a little alien, designed by Damien Miller, was printing, the students swarmed around to see it take shape from the liquid plastic.Their teacher, William Zeky, warned them to stay back. The printer was hot - actually 215 degrees Celsius (419 degrees Fahrenheit) to be exact."I really like technology," Clayton Everitt said.Autumn Ladd said she enjoyed using the computer program to draw."I want to do something with technology," she said.Over in the Cubelets group, Emily Yunckes said, "Engineering, that's what I'm thinking I want to do or a technology teacher."She and her classmates were assigned a task - build a robot that could move on its own and stop at the edge of the table. To do this, they connected Cubelet cubes together to make a robot and used an iPad to program it."It's fun that you get to play with the cubes," Yunckes said. "You get inspired by the different types of robots."The plastic cubes were programmed to do certain things and color-coded based on its function. The white ones can rotate the robot, turn on a flashlight or operate a speaker. The red ones will make the robot go backward, light blue is the Bluetooth connection to the iPad, black ones see the surroundings with little cameras, and the dark green ones keep the robot from dropping off the end of the table.Sophia Gentile said her favorite part of the cubes was "finding out how many ways you can make a robot."Most of the time, the SHINE afterschool programs serve a mixed age-group of children who need extra help in science and math, Kocher said. Next year, Towamensing plans to look into turning it into needs-based program. This year, they opted to allow children to volunteer for it."I hope we have the funding next year," Kocher said.SHINE programs receive federal funding through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. The president's recently released federal budget cuts funding to the program.