LASD STEM UPDATES

LASD 7th and 8th-grade students participated in the annual STEM Career Day this past February. This one-day event provided students with an insight into a possible STEM career in the future. Students heard 3 to 4 different presenter bios and decided who they wanted to see during their science class. The presenters shared their educational and career paths that lead them to the position they hold today. Some even took students through an engaging activity connected to their field. Blach students used their skills to respond to case studies in medicine, design efficient models from a software developer, stretch their aeronautical understanding of flying beyond speed of sound, the viability of astronauts flying out to Mars, and many more. Egan students used their skills to respond to case studies dealing with veterinary medicine, design thinking with a software developer, and guessing how an AI program was going to answer a question, just to name a few.

It was incredible to have our parent community share their STEM careers with our students. Thank you to our amazing group of STEM Career presenters for inspiring and sparking interest in STEM careers: Robert Rose, Gautam Agrawal, Julie Kim, Holly Beeman, Juliet Jamtgaard, Todd Kjos, Tra-My Justine Richardson, Jie Weng, Jones Muller, Rich Tsoi, Tracy Stone, Kiran Bondalapati, Todd Vokert, Michael Orton, Rich Stegina, Prabhat Ram, Joel Neal, Melissa Neal, Lauren McAndrew, Laureen Hidalgo, and Deidre Caldbeck.

"Thank you for coming to teach us! Da Vinci surgery is really cool! I didn't think something like that was possible!" - jr. high student

"The class was super interesting! I had a really fun time seeing how marketing works." - jr. high student

STEM comes alive when we connect it to "real" world events. After reading the classic story of the Gingerbread Man, our 1st grade students built empathy to help the Gingerbread man safely cross the river. From bridges to boats, students explored different models to successfully meet the design constraints.

From our TK students to 8th graders, students had the opportunity to take on the challenge of participating in the district wide STEM challenge. Using only a white copy paper and optionally some tape, students designed paper airplanes that can carry the most amount (in money value).

Congratulations to Aaron Bai with a total of $2.80!

“Coding is today’s language of creativity. All our children deserve a chance to become creators instead of consumers of computer science” – Maria Klawe

This quote encapsulates the coding experience students had each week during our 2nd trimester of computer science. Primary students programmed robots, told stories using Scratch Jr., and most importantly, learned how to embrace challenges and persist to solve problems.

Sixth graders wrapped up their exploration of Java Script. Animations, conditional statements, and using other advanced functions were the main focuses. Throughout this unit of study, students had to see mistakes as opportunities for debugging and not barriers to success. Stay tuned for what computer science holds in trimester 3.

Students across the district participated in the "Hour of Code," in December along with millions of other students across the world! Students were coding in their computer science class, during lunch, and after school.

Living Classroom is busy nurturing the next generation of environmental stewards by connecting students with nature and the sources of their food through fun hands-on lessons! This winter, students have been busy making vegetable soup, identifying plant parts in the garden, building bird nests, exploring the contents of soil, observing symmetry in nature, planting heirloom tomato seeds, and more! Below are the Living Classroom lessons offered by grade level this winter:

TK – Garden Snacks

Kindergarten - Incredible Edibles

1st Grade – Growing Vegetable Soup & The Best Nest

2nd Grade – Dirt Detectives

3rd Grade –Life Cycle of a Tomato #2

4th Grade - Symmetry in Nature

5th Grade –Colonial Uses of Plants

6th Grade –Planting in Circles

We are fortunate to have parents and volunteers from the community who give of their time and talent to make this wonderful environmental education program possible. Interested in volunteering or learning more? Contact program coordinator Caroline Chan at livingclassroom@lasdschools.org or (650) 947-1103.

When you put a ball of clay in a child’s hand, they just want to start making something. It’s so natural, it’s uncanny. Using just your hands and a few tools can produce awesome results. Incising a clay facade in Clay Buildings Tiles or using add-on techniques as seen in Clay Heads teaches new skills at each grade level. Curriculum areas of study are tied into the lessons, for example with the Ohlone in Clay Wickiups or CA symbols in Clay Bears and Quail. Every school has a kiln where clay pieces are fired by a parent volunteer and pieces of art are created that will last a lifetime. The following are the clay lessons the Art Docents offer by grade level:

• TK - Clay Texture Tiles

• K - Clay Pinch Pots

• 1st Grade - Clay Fish

• 2nd Grade - Clay Building Tiles and Penguins

• 3rd Grade - Clay Wickiups

• 4th Grade - Clay Bears and Quail

• 5th Grade - Clay Masks

• 6th Grade - Clay Heads

Thanks to funding from LAEF, every LASD student experiences STEM education and has the opportunity to learn to code through the computer science program. A huge thanks to our community for its contributions to LAEF. If you have not had the chance to donate this year, please consider a contribution of any amount: https://laefonline.org/District/1110-Untitled.html