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Catholic Schools
April 8, 2014
CATHOLIC EDUCATION INSPIRES
knowledge .
St. Simon School encourages STEM learning through science fair
St. Simon Assistant Principal Michelle Nealon with Distinguished Award Winner Mitchell Lai.
pant Lindsay Royse.
Distinguished Awards went to
Madeleine Aguirre, Scott Anderson,
Brady Barnett, Thomas Clark, Madeleine Coli, Ellie Higgins, Mitchell
Lai, Rafael Pierry, Lindsay Royse,
Anna Vardapetyan, Kellyn Wilde and
Claire Woo.
Honorable Mention went to Erin
Bostrom, Ethan Carroll, Alfred Chang,
Sunkyo Chung, Triona Delumpa,
Nikhil D’Souza, Adam Egyed, Ryan
Maier, Hanna Ready, Dipashreya Sur,
Mark Ware and Kory Yang.
Past participants from this program, which began eight years ago,
have gone on to participate in national
and international scientific competitions in addition to the White House
Science Fair.
SU B
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Engaging young people in STEM
fields – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics--starts early.
The Science Department at St. Simon
School, Los Altos, promotes STEM
fields through the school’s annual
science fair.
History has demonstrated that participation in science projects through
elementary and middle school promotes a deepened interest in STEM
fields in high school.
Preparations at St. Simon began in
October of 2013 with students selecting a topic from a number of STEM
categories, including Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Botany/Psychology, Engineering and Technology, Consumer
Science, and Specialized Sciences.
In late February 60 students in
eighth grade displayed results of their
work to an audience of parents, faculty, judges and fellow students who
visited the science fair.
“Participating in the science fair
was a great experience,” said student
Rafael Pierry. “My favorite part is having the opportunity to get younger
students excited about science.”
“An important part of science is
sharing ideas, and this gave students
the opportunity to share their projects
and explore new ideas,” said partici-
T
he Valley Catholic
Science takes flight at
St. Justin School
St. Justin School (Santa Clara)
middle school science teacher
Nancy Floerke taught a physics
unit on forces, and her eighth grade
students constructed bottle rockets
made from liter pop bottles, file
folders, garbage bags and duct tape.
Students built their rockets, shot
them, and then redesigned them
for the second shoot. Winning
rockets had the longest air time,
with parachute deployment being
the deciding factor. The activity
addressed the engineering design
component of the Next Generation
Science Standards.
Kindergarten “buddies” cheered
the initial launches and launched
their own stomp and balloon
rockets.
School submissions
Deadline for the May 13th edition of
The Valley Catholic is Friday, April 25th
Please submit articles (250 words or less)
and photos (jpg) with captions to
[email protected]
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do not embed them in Word documents)
THE JUNIOR MONARCH
RECREATIONAL SPORTS CAMP
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
First thru Fourth Grade
8:30a.m.-12:30p.m.
WEEK 1: JUNE 16-20
WEEK 2: JUNE 23-27
SUMMER PROGRAMS
Registration begins on March 1st at mitty.com/summer-programs
www.valleycatholiconline.com