STEM Senior collaborates with local artist to raise awareness for mental health
In the lobby of Northridge Rec Center in Highlands Ranch, a colorful, four-panel art display prominently hangs on the wall for visitors to see. It is an art piece that has special meaning to STEM School Highlands Ranch senior Grace Bielefeldt and James Holmes, the local artist who painted it. The inspiration behind the piece has to do with raising awareness for mental health, prompted by the shooting incident at STEM on May 7, 2019. Bielefeldt, a Girl Scout, is pursuing the Gold Award, the highest award you can earn as a Girl Scout, and the art project is the impetus for that award.
“For Gold Award, it’s 100 hours of community service, and you are trying to solve a problem in a sustainable way that either has a nationwide reach or a global reach,” she said. “And the problem I chose was mental health and my kind of solution was community art.”
STEM Senior uses 3D printer to invent time-saving device at manufacturing internship
STEM School Highlands Ranch senior Kyle Paris is not your average intern. The 17-year-old is completing an internship at Panther Industries, a company that specializes in automated labeling. Panther’s manufacturing warehouse, where Paris is an intern, is just up the street from STEM.
When Paris arrived at Panther Industries, he quickly took note of a particular process on the production line which he perceived as a slower than necessary workflow. The employees were using their hands to manually secure tape onto a particular rack, and Paris knew that the process could be improved with a simple invention. Using his 3D-printing knowledge from STEM, Paris designed a 3D-printed device that automatically applies the tape that the employees were manually securing.
STEM Student selected for Summer Internation Program with NASA, Texas Space Grant Consortium and the University of Texas at Austin Center for Space Research
Eric Fiechtner, an 11th grade student from Parker, Colorado has been selected for the prestigious STEM Enhancement in Earth and Space Science (SEES) summer internship to be
held at The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Space Research. This nationally competitive program selects exceptional high school students from across the nation to work
on real-life NASA programs. Students will work with scientists and engineers to conduct authentic research from data received from NASA’s Earth-observing satellites as well as
designing Mars habitats, Lunar Exploration, and robotics. Eric will be an intern on the Mars Exploration Team Project.
NASA is committed to the human exploration of Mars. But prior to sending humans to Mars, there needs to be the infrastructure on the planet’s surface that is necessary to sustain the first crews to visit. This includes power, habitation, water, food, health maintenance, mobility (space suits and rovers), emergency care, and scientific support functions. Using basic
engineering design principles, interns will design a Mars village that will allow people to live and work productively and safely for up to 1000 days on the Mars surface. Small scale
prototypes will be built by 3D printing.
The internship will provide students the rare – and for most, unique – opportunity to work beside professional scientists and engineers at the cutting edge of space exploration.
Students conduct 60-90 hours of NASA Earth and Space Science research and Python coding to prepare them for the program. During the program interns conduct hands-on activities and field investigations and attend presentations by NASA subject matter experts. The internships are organized around an aerospace or a space science theme drawn from NASA’s diverse engineering and scientific research programs.
STEM Staff Recognized by the NROTC with the Impact Influencer Award
Kandace Lytle
Dr Gabby Leddy
STEM Students Drop-off Blankets to Children's Hospital
Ian Boraks honored as Rensselaer Medalist
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute congratulates Ian Boraks on being awarded the Rensselaer Medal! Founded in 1824, Rensselaer is the oldest technological institution in North America, and it is located in the Capital Region of New York State. This prestigious award has been awarded since 1916 to one student in any given high school and is designed to recognize that student’s strength and success in the fields of mathematics and science. Medalists who apply, are admitted to, and enroll at Rensselaer are awarded a scholarship worth $30,000 per year.
Gitanjali Rao Named 2021 Prudential Spirit of Community National Honoree
Each year Prudential selects a group of young Americans to the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program for national recognition based on their outstanding achievements in community service. STEM sophomore Gitanjali Rao was named a 2021 Honoree.
Do the Cube!
Teamwork makes the dream work! Fourth-grade students worked together with their class to create mosaics out of 100 Rubik’s Cubes! This task was definitely not for the faint of heart: perseverance and dedication were the skills it took to succeed. The mosaics depicted: an elephant, Rosa Parks, a bear and Sitting Bull. It was a challenging yet rewarding classroom experience!
SCRUM Cyber Security Leadership- Workshop
Last week STEM Students, Students from Northern Kentucky University and Meghyn Winslow, President of WiCyS Northern Kentucky University student chapter and WiCys members had an opportunity to join the SCRUM Cybersecurity & Leadership workshop with our very own SCRUM certified teacher and coach Simi Basu and Leadership expert Dr. Carletta Stewart. They developed and delivered an engaging and valuable workshop for the group. Their experiential approach reinforced learning and provided our participants with much to think about, skills to apply when back in their own workplace and strategies to use when leading and working with their teams.
