STEM Newsletter
September 2013
STEM at the OLC (Outdoor Learning Center)
By: Austin Cratty, Jacob Suchors, Elias Rosario, and David Bricker
The day at the OLC revolved around one important item, the team’s flag. The whole day was basically a big game of capture the flag, and the team’s job was to protect its team flag. Teams were awarded points for capturing flags, and winning events.
During the OLC field trip, the students completed many activities relating back to one topic, teamwork. The students were first divided onto teams. Each team would have to complete a station together and all students had to be on task as well as focused. Shortly, the students discovered that if there was a member lacking their responsibility within the team, then the team would suffer in that challenge. When a member lacked their responsibility, leaders arose. The leaders helped get the team back on track and do their best in that activity.
One of the activities done at the OLC was the dizzy bat challenge. In this challenge the players had to put a toy bat to their head and spin around ten times, try and hit a toy baseball and run to a cone and back, while picking up the ball to give to the next player.
At the activity snack toss, the objective was to get as many pieces of popcorn on to volunteers whom had shaving cream on their head. According to Tucker Chaka, “This was a great team building activity because it taught us how to compensate for the variables in a project that could not be helped,” this was shown by the wind, the shaving cream slipping down some ones face or when the popcorn stuck to our fingers.
All of these activities appeared to bring STEM students together as more of a team and helped the students get to know each other a little bit better, all while having lots of fun!
OLC Pictures by: Vanessa Marlo and Lindsey Mercer
2013/2014 STEM T-Shirt
By: Tyler McMahon, Chance Hutson, and Richard Warren
STEM offers students many opportunities to creatively approach the projects given to them. One of these creative projects is a tradition for every STEM student. The students gather in teams and come up with a design for the shirt that the STEM students proudly wear at STEM activities. The Shirt designs are submitted for a small competition where students vote for the shirt they wish to wear for the duration of the year.
This year, team 5 consisting of Juniors Ryan Rodgers, Harriet Simon, Josh Swoyer, and Kameron Le created the winning T-Shirt and attracted over 40 voters.
New Year New Technology
By: Tucker Chaka, Clay McClendon, and Briana Maskell
Netbooks have been a big part in NISD High Schools for a few years. This year, however, NISD has given students the opportunity to make Dell Latitude 10 Tablets a part of their learning instead. The tablets, unlike the old netbooks, have touch screens and use windows 8 for the main interface.
The students seem to think it’s a great idea to use tablets instead of netbooks. Junior Brandon Fryer states, “Although the touch screen makes maneuvering word documents bit difficult, the new interactive interface and applications have a lot to offer.” The tablets allow students to download applications and programs to aid in the overall learning experience.
Several of these programs include OneNote, which is a Microsoft program available that allows the students to communicate with everyone in the class at the same time. All tablets were given to students with the Microsoft suite included. Another program is Join.Me. This program is web based and allows students to project their screen onto the screen in the front of the class for everyone else to see it. Students can also access their Twitter and Facebook accounts through the tablets to make communication among teams and with teachers much easier.
The Future of STEM (Class of 2017)
By: Julio Santos and Michael Hammel
Coming into STEM as a freshman is a huge adjustment as students experience a new form of learning. They also learn to priority work and time effectively as they delve into their first projects. In a recent interview, Mrs. Garret expressed that this year’s STEM freshmen class is very positive about STEM and are adjusting very well.
Mrs. Garrett is excited about the many projects that the freshman will be launching this semester. While referencing one of their first launches, Mrs. Garrett claims, “This six weeks the freshmen will build a game, and make it bigger, and better than previous years."
According to STEM Freshman Julian Santos, "STEM is amazing, it challenges your mind and gives you an advantage." Julian admits, "We struggle to achieve the grades we want, but when we leave high school we will be more prepared for the real world."
The future of the STEM Academy has begun the year on a positive note and has much in store for the remainder of their time in STEM.
What's Happening in Robotics?
By: Damon Lanum, Armani Frye, Christian Thomas, Caleb Baker, and Danny Helfer
On August 31st the STEM Robotics team was happy to kick off the year at TCU where they got their challenge. The robotics team will have two major competitions this year. The first task is to construct a CPU (Computer Program Unit).
According to robotics junior and team leader Josh Swoyer, “In the process of building a CPU, the team is required to create a robot that is capable of picking up wooden cylinders, clothes hangers, and foam blocks with an arm of the design.” This challenge will give the team the opportunity to not only problem solve and think critically, but use various soldering tools and servos as well. As Josh states, "This is not an easy task, but the robotics team is up for the challenge."
While building on previous Robotics teams, Josh mentions, “We are already much more prepared than in the past thanks to the help of other teams along with research to perfect the management of the team.” The STEM Robotics team is excited for this challenge and has already been working hard.
STEM Athletes (STEM in Football)
By: Corey Mallon, Michael Morgan, Beau Rasberry, and Josh Selman
According to Olympic Gold Medalist Carl Lewis, "You have to train your mind like you train your body." While STEM is a commitment in itself, there are a majority of students in the STEM academy who not only train their mind through the rigorous projects and aspects of the STEM Academy, but also their mind and body as they represent their school on athletic teams.
One of these athletes is Austin Navarrette, sophomore quarterback for the junior varsity football team. Austin is entering his second year in the STEM Academy and enjoys his time in STEM. Austin is in the category of students that must balance academics and
extra-curricular activities during the school year.
When asked how to balance STEM and football Austin answered, “It’s good to use time management and spend enough time on both to the best of my ability.” STEM students have a lot on their plates, and if they do not know how to manage their time, it will be a struggle.
Austin mentioned that those outside of STEM have the misconception that STEM is all about those who just want to focus on science or math. The trend to think STEM students do not have a life outside the classroom. "The expectation of STEM as many see it is to be super smart and do nothing but schoolwork, but now that is not entirely the case. Athletics is a big part of STEM today.
What is STEM? Voices from Outside the Academy
By: Mia Zaro, Mac Barrow, Brandon Fryer, and Collin Deffner
To NHS students outside of the academy, STEM can feel like an entirely different universe, so we decided to ask students in and out of STEM, how they felt about it. Junior Blaine Harris noted, “STEM is basically split from the school. They are their own clique." This is a common response because students in STEM take classes and complete projects with students and friends they have worked with throughout their time in STEM.
Austin Navarrette, a sophomore STEM student noted that if he could describe STEM in one word it would be “Family." According to Austin, "Over the years in STEM I become well acquainted with everyone within my class. It is truly a bonding experience, because we take care of each other.” Austin emphasizes just how close we are as a family and how STEM is a big circle of friends. Austin acknowledged that others outside of STEM tend to feel that STEM is something only "nerds" do, and while it is not only for engineers, Austin commented, "STEM makes me use 21st century skills and sparks my interests in all sorts of jobs within the engineering field it opened my eyes for a profession.
Although many teachers are not familiar with the ins and outs of the STEM Academy, they do notice several differences in the STEM students that they have in class. According to NHS Teacher Mrs. Fanning, “Dressing up professionally is a good thing to do because it can prepare students for the real world.” Mrs. Fanning noted that the students in STEM tended to be more confident speaking in front of others.
While dressing up for presentations is sometimes tough, the idea of gaining credibility and "dressing for the part" grows on STEM students the longer they are in the academy. In fact, students start taking pride in the way they are perceived on the day of presentations. For the most part, people outside of STEM respect and admire what the STEM Academy does. There are still many misconceptions of the Academy, but the students hope to continue to share with others what the Academy is all about.
After STEM...
By: Casey Martin, Dakota Kernoodle, and Koby Bounheuangvilay
Being the first class that went through the full four years of the STEM program, where is the class of 2013 now? We interviewed Jonna Martin and Andrew Mirabile from the senior class of 2013 to find out.
Jonna Martin
Jonna is currently attending A&M at College Station, planning a career in Marine Biology. When asked how she thought STEM had prepared her for college, she replied, “STEM had a lot of long term projects, so I didn’t have many daily grades. College doesn’t have daily grades, so it prepared me in that way quite a bit.” Jonna wants to be a Marine biologist, and she thinks that STEM helped introduce her to that because of her Biology class. She also states, “Working in teams helped prepare me for that career path because of all of the required teamwork.”
Andrew Mirabile
Andrew, also attending A&M, but with plans to go into an Aerospace Design career acknowledged, “STEM has really helped prepare me for college because it introduced me to group work." Andrew noted that because he wants to go into an Aerospace Design career, STEM heavily prepared him by introducing and delving into physics and allowing him the opportunity to complete the rocking building project. “The STEM path had some hardships, but it was well worth it in the end because it both prepared me for college, and my future career in Aerospace Design.” Clearly, STEM is a great path that helps prepare students for their lives in college and future careers.
Sophomore Fort Worth Zoo Trip
On September 17th, STEM sophomores took a trip to the Fort Worth zoo to study animal habitats related to their current Biology project. The sophomores has the task of creating their own habitat for a specific animal in teams. Taking detailed notes and pictures of their assigned animal's current zoo habitat was very beneficial.