Danny Miller, 9, left, and Alexis Schnitgen, 9, fourth graders at Mars Area Elementary School, examine the “Home Alone” cause and effect projects made during the STEAM classes in Adams Township on Monday, Dec. 19. The students started work on their projects around Thanksgiving. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle

ADAMS TWP — Fearsome furnaces, high-voltage trip wires and tar-slicked stairs all awaited any burglars who tried to rob the miniature rooms on display at Mars Area Elementary School’s gymnasium this Monday.

Different dioramas featured falling trees, TNT crates and electrified chairs as copy-pasted portraits of Harry, Marv or Kevin from the movie “Home Alone“ scramble and scheme. In most of the rooms, something is moving, driven by positional servo motors installed by fourth grade students into their little for fortresses.

The event celebrates the hard work, cleverness and imagination of Mars’ fourth-grade students, all of whom worked together to craft booby traps inspired by the holiday favorite “Home Alone.“ The project worked to teach children about the laws of cause and effect, as it applies to science, but it also fostered other major skills such as collaboration, art design and storytelling.

“Oh, it has been fun,” said fourth-grade teacher Michael Fugh. “The kids have had a blast doing it. They really have.”