Massachusetts STEM Week took place this week, October 16-20, and we spent the week highlighting the great work being done in our classrooms throughout the Stoughton Public Schools focusing on areas of science, technology, engineering and math. STEM Week encourages students to “See Yourself in STEM”. This is an annual statewide effort to boost the interest, awareness and ability for all learners to envision themselves in STEM education and employment opportunities.
SPS offers a wide variety of STEM opportunities from PreK-12. Every student in SPS takes technology and engineering each year from K-5, STEM class in grades 6-8, and then students can choose engineering or computer science pathways in addition to the many math, business, and science courses offered at SHS. All of these courses are designed to expose students to real life applications and opportunities as well as prepare them for higher education or career skills.
Check out the photos below to see examples of STEM education right here in the Stoughton Public Schools!
- Dawe School first graders are working on coding using an app called Box Island. The students need to figure out how to direct their box to collect 3 stars to advance to the next level. Each level gets progressively more difficult and the students have to be able to visualize the pattern needed to complete the level and sometimes have to start over and make changes to the coordinates they plotted. It was impressive to watch this group of first graders use their problem solving skills! Click here to watch a video of the Dawe School first grade students coding!
- At the Gibbons School, 5th graders created mold terrariums. Each group had two plastic bags with food items in it like bread and various fruits/vegetables. The first bag was the control bag which only contained the food items. The second was a variable bag where the food would be covered with vinegar, salt, or cinnamon, or placed in a refrigerator, for instance. The students made a hypothesis of which bag would have more mold growth and observed each bag daily over the course of 2 school weeks. Click here to see more pictures.
- For STEM Week at the South School, the PTO sponsored traveling science workshops for each class, grades K-5, with the Discovery Museum in Acton. On Monday, fourth and fifth graders took part in a workshop on lights and lasers. Students compared white light and laser light and identified key properties, including how light must be reflected in order to be seen. Students worked with flashlights, prisms, lenses, and a variety of materials that block, reflect, refract, or allow light to pass through. Click here to see more photos.
- 6th grade students at the O'Donnell Middle School were working on making their own Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO) out of cardboard and other classroom materials in STEM class. Students learned about cerebral palsy, which affects a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture, and how an AFO, a brace that provides support and stability, could help those with cerebral palsy improve their mobility. Students worked in groups to design and construct their AFOs and are seen here modeling them. Click here to see more examples.
- O’Donnell Middle School 6th graders in math lab are pictured here going over the order of operations and exponents with a beach ball review. Click here for more pictures.
- In STEM class, 8th graders at the O'Donnell Middle School were in the process of designing and building roller coasters using cardboard, paper, straws, and tape. To add a degree of difficulty, the roller coaster had to have 2 loops and students had to figure out a way for a marble to be able to successfully "ride" the roller coaster, going through both loops. Click here to see more photos.
- Stoughton High School students in AP Chemistry were working on a two part Acid Base Titration Lab. Titration is a technique where a solution of known concentration is used to determine the unknown concentration of another solution. The purpose of part 1 of the lab was for students to standardize their NaOH (sodium hydroxide) base solution by titration with KHP (potassium hydrogen phthalate), a pure acid. In part 2 of the lab, which is pictured here, the purpose was to determine the molarity of their assigned unknown acid A or B by titrating it with their NaOH base solution from Part 1. An indicator called Phenolphthalein was used to see when to stop the titration. The titration process is stopped at equivalence when the solution in the flask turns pink, which you can see in the accompanying picture. From there, students collect appropriate data and make calculations to answer the question. Click here to see more pictures.
- Stoughton High juniors and seniors enrolled in calculus classes took the Massachusetts Mathematics Olympiad Exam on Thursday. This competition is conducted by the Massachusetts Association of Mathematics Leagues (MAML). This rigorous exam features 25 questions with a high degree of difficulty. The students are pictured here before the exam began.
- Stoughton High School students in engineering class are in various stages of designing and building shelving units, drawers, or boxes that can be used to store or organize items. Take a look at more photos here.
- STEM week isn't just for students to engage in science, technology, engineering, and math related learning - our teachers can too! Alicia Tilley, a 6th grade STEM teacher at the O'Donnell Middle School, and Meg Oliveira, a 7th grade STEM teacher at OMS, both attended the STEM-oriented Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Fall Conference at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) on Monday. Organized by the One8 Applied Learning Hub, Mass Learning Project, and WPI, this conference was a chance for PLTW educators to learn, share, and grow together as a community. The theme of the conference centered on building authentic skills students need to solve meaningful problems. In addition to going to workshops, attendees were also given a challenge to complete at the conference, having to design a mascot prototype for PLTW using only the materials that were given to them. Attendees had some fun too, taking photos with LEGO cutouts and placing LEGOS on a map to represent where in Massachusetts they teach.
Another friendly reminder that with the school year underway, we want to make sure we have accurate and updated emergency contact information and health information for your child. Please log into your PowerSchool Parent Portal account, click on the forms link in the left navigation menu and update any information that is not accurate in the two forms - Current Student Information/Emergency Form and Current Student Health Information. When you have updated the information, please click on submit at the bottom of each of the forms. If your child's information is accurate, please click on submit at the bottom of each form to indicate that you have reviewed the data and it is accurate.
