STEM 5th graders begin Revolutionary War Re-enactment practices
History comes alive!
STEM 5th graders put their marching skills to the test while taking part in the annual Revolutionary War Re-enactment. This is something the students and staff look forward to each year. More practices are on the calendar, including the ones where the students will be all dressed up!
STEM teams earn top placement in Science Olympiad
The results are in!
STEM had two teams competing at UCCS in the Science Olympiad. Both teams competed in all of their events and were great ambassadors for STEM.
The Gold Team placed 6th in State out of 30 teams and received a trophy. Last year, this team placed 13th so it was a great improvement for them.
The Blue Team came 20th out of 30 teams. This was the first time the majority of the new second team competed at State level.
The following team members received individual medals for their event:
Gold Team:
First in Can’t Judge a Powder: Morgan Hamm & Addley Szczekocki
First in Solar System: Vicente Pavon & Kasey Garcia
Third in Bridge Building: Nikita Pillai &Tamanna Chollampat
Third in Dynamic Planet: Sajid Shakul Hameedu & Kacey Garcia
Blue Team:
Second in Forestry: Analeyna Houghton & Neil Shandilya
Here is a link to the results:
Congratulations to all of our hard working staff and competitors!
STEM Spartan Boys' Basketball players receive top honors
STEM teachers honored at 2023 Apple Awards
We’re so proud of STEM’s Max Schwartz, Annette Nason and Rebecca Phelps! All were honored at the 2023 Apple Awards banquet.
The Apple Awards recognize and celebrate excellent teachers and the outstanding contribution of Douglas County School District staff. The event is organized by the Foundation for Douglas County Schools and proceeds from the ceremony benefit DCSD classrooms.
Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners of this year’s Apple Awards!
Dumb Friends League helps STEM 2nd graders with PBL unit about economics
All about animals!
Dumb Friends League stopped by STEM to visit with 2nd graders to give a presentation about the economics of their business. This is part of a PBL unit where eventually, as part of STEMShares, the students will be contributing to the Dumb Friends League organization.
As you may imagine, the students had a lot of questions about the animals and just how many are rescued. Dumb Friends League takes in more than 20,000 animals every year. That’s nearly 60 each day! Thank you DFL for all that you do and for helping our students with their PBL unit.
STEM AP Chemistry students learn how to electroplate
STEM AP chemistry students learned how to electroplate. In this particular lab, they took a non-spontaneous redox reaction and drove it forward using three different electric currents. They plated zinc to copper and copper to nickel. What a fun experiment!
Mother who lost daughter in car crash spreads message of driver safety to STEM students
Spreading sunshine.
In July 2020, 15-year-old Samantha Raye tragically lost her life in a terrible car accident in Parker. The vehicle she was in was hit from behind and she was ejected from the car because she was not wearing her seat belt. Raye was attending Ponderosa High School, had a passion for helping others, was on the cheer squad and had an interest in becoming a counselor or working as a SVU detective one day.
In the aftermath, her family launched Sammie’s Sunshine, an organization dedicated to helping advocate for teen driver safety and to financially assist families who lose loved ones in fatal crashes.
Samantha’s mother stopped by STEM to share her daughter’s story and to get our students to sign a banner, pledging to wear seat belts and to not take part in distracted driving habits.
For more information, visit: sammiessunshine.org
STEM students team up to make waves
Making waves!
STEM 4th graders and 8th graders teamed up to design a wave machine. They built and tested their wave machine to make observations of what happens to the wavelength, amplitude and frequency in different experiments.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory visits with STEM 4th graders
Igniting the spark!
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory visited fourth grade classrooms. The three speakers from Uzbekistan, Egypt, and Bulgaria shared that people travel from all over the world to work at NREL in Golden, Colorado and that renewable energy is their passion. They told the students that even if they didn’t want to become an engineer or researcher, that there are plenty of other jobs in the industry, including communications and human resources.
Students experimented with Light Emitting Diode (LED), incandescent, and compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs to calculate how much coal would be burned if each lightbulb was left on all day for an entire year. Students discovered it takes significantly more energy to use incandescent or CFL light bulbs.
Students additionally discussed the harmful gases released from coal burning and the problems this can cause for the environment.