STEM Newsletter
November/December Issue
Fall Festival
By: Brad Dam, Elias Rosario, & David Bricker
On November 22nd, the STEM Academy took a trip to the NISD Outdoor Learning Center. To most of those present, the Fire Pit was the best part of the trip at the OLC hands down. With thirty degree weather and strong winds, the STEM students and faculty tried to find heat any way they could. Whether it was by the heaters, the grill, or just huddled together like penguins, The Fire Pit was the place to be. While the point of going to the OLC was to practice and add to our team building skills with the assignments and challenges given to us, you would be surprised how much just being in a giant mob of your shivering peers would hone those skills. We did complete many fun activities, and thanks to the OLC and STEM, there were stations like the fire pit where we could warm up and even enjoy hot chocolate and smores.
While the STEM Academy was at the Outdoor Learning Center, the Freshmen had a chance to launch their trebuchets. The Freshmen started to build the trebuchets on October 8, and finished their build a week before the trip to the OLC. The trebuchets ranged from A-Frames to squared frames, from tall and long armed, to short and stubbed arms. Each trebuchet was unique in its own way and it caught the personality of each team. The longest chunk of a whopping 63 feet goes to Team Punkin Chunkin. The team members are Cole White, Trevor Watkins, Bruce Sierra, and Dylan Knox. The overall winning team was team Pumpkin Chunkers. Congrats to all of the teams that made it to the final round.
One team building activity that was included the OLC was an activity called Balloon Tower, in this activity the objective was to blow up balloons and stack them as tall as you can without any support other than the balloons themselves. This proved to be a very difficult and rage inducing task, and for those few, they found ways to release said rage by curb stomping every last balloon in sight.
The STEM student body would like to thank the STEM facilitators and Administration for the opportunity to visit the Outdoor Learning Center for the second time this year. A big thank you as well to the OLC Coordinator, CyLynn Braswell and her assistant, Kelli Ragsdale and to all who were involved in letting us learn in an amazingly fun way!
The Pumpkin Chunkin
Building the Tallest Balloon Tower
Team Building
#FlipThisStem
By: Beau Rasberry, Hunter Marks, & Koby Boun
The STEM academy was recently a part of a contest hosted by BKM Total Office of Texas called "Flip This Classroom." The objective of the contest was to create a video and twitter hype showcasing how our class used creativity and 21st century skills to enhance learning and why our classroom deserved to be “flipped.” The entire academy participated in the contest, posting reasons why the academy deserved to win under the hashtag “FlipThisStem."
A smaller team was put in charge of the making the video presentation and the entire entry. This team was made of seven students from all grade levels, Paul Cockrum, Ashleigh Allison, Calista Lothidm, Carson Lane, Leila Aghili, Austin Navarrette, and Matthew Walling. Although the STEM Academy did not win the grand prize, they received honorable mentioned. Not only was the STEM academy showcased as they accepted the award, but they were give a glass collaboration table and a set of stools that are now in the STEM commons. The furniture will make collaboration a little easier thanks to BKM and our STEM Team.
Fort Worth Museum and Planetarium
By: Vanessa Marlo, Tucker Chaka, & Collin Deffner
On October 3rd, the STEM juniors took a trip to the Fort Worth Science Museum. The students wandered around the museum and participated in many of its hands on displays and stations. The main reason for the trip was to learn about space and black holes. The students watched a video displayed on the museum’s planetarium. The video was named, Black Holes; The Other Side of Infinity. Thanks to the museum’s endless fun, not one student was bored throughout the entire day. “The students had a great time.” says Ms. Sink. “My favorite part was making paper airplanes. There was a small machine that launched the planes at high velocities.” claims Charles Martin. The juniors won’t forget this field trip anytime soon.
Junior Rockets
By: Chase Wilson, Austin Megallon, and Chance Hutson
STEM junior rockets and designs have been advancing throughout the year. During the rocketry portion of the year, the students were given a parts and pieces kit which they assembled and had the job of launching a rocket with an egg inside. The rocket had to land correctly and safely. The instructor of the engineering class, Ms. Sink, said that she was “very impressed with the junior’s work with the rockets and how they launched for the first time.” Learning the basic parts and construction of rockets this project figuratively launched their rocketry adventures for this year.
After learning the basics of rocket design the students began to create a second rocket from scratch using only the parts in the engineering lab. “The rockets needed to be stable during flight and the students were not allowed to use anything outside of the engineering lab. The purpose of this is to help the students learn the actual construction of a rocket on a smaller scale,” Ms. Sink said. The launch date isn’t set in stone, but, Ms. Sink did say it would be sometime after finals when the weather was nice.
Giving insight for future reference Ms. Sink said, “The Juniors will be launching rockets on a larger scale than before, as well as with larger payloads by the end of the year. The students will be using all of the design elements that they learned through the school year to build another upcoming rocketry project.”
Monumental Project
By: Julio Santos & Michael Hammel
One of the biggest changes in STEM for the 2013 – 2014 school year has been the new additions to STEM. One of the new staff members is the new US History, World History, and AP World History teacher Mr. Klingseisen. Switching over from regular teaching practices to PBL is a huge challenge for both the students and teachers. However, as is the case with most teachers, they handle the transition both swiftly and with tact. Recently, we interviewed Mr. Klingseisen to see how his first project in STEM went over all as well as what the project consisted of.
When asked what the objective for the project was, Mr. Klingseisen explained that, “The Objective was for the students to write a speech defining what determines nationalism in any given Country or State as well as creating a monument to represent their reasoning.” he was then asked how his first STEM project went as a STEM facilitator, to which he replied that, “The presentations were nerve wrecking because it was my first formal presentations, but overall I feel like my student’s performance was great, and the presentations as a whole went well.”
In his words, Mr. K’s inspiration for the project was, “In our unit, our TEKS wanted us to go over Nationalism in a Country, and I felt incorporating Nationalism in a project would be a fun way to cover the TEKS.” In conclusion, Mr. K said “The project was a positive experience for me, I feel like the student’s final products showed their understanding of Nationalism and made me feel proud of my student’s work.”
Afterward, we decided to interview a STEM student on how exactly this project went…
Elias Rosario (STEM Junior) reflected that the “Monumental Project” was very difficult as the driving question was very open ended and required much research and critical thinking to accomplish the task at hand. Elias also said that, “It was scary to have to write and present a speech to our administrators and our very own principal. However, it was a good experience and will only serve to better our overall presentation and professional skills.
Overall, this project was a success. Both the facilitators and the students enjoyed the project, as well as the project surpassing expectation. Hopefully, this project will survive the test of time for other “STEM students to come” to enjoy.
Chemistry Video Project
By: Casey Martin, Mac Barrow, & Danny Helfer
This semester, in Mrs. Ludlow’s class, the STEM Juniors were asked to create a video demonstrating two physical reactions, two chemical reactions, and two extra of either. Each team consisted of 3-4 people, and the students were given no boundary on how to present these videos. Some teams recreated a movie scene, whereas some made their own movie. This movie is an example of a team that created their own movie, Entry #66, by Julio Santos, Caleb Baker, Briana Maskell, and Hunter Marks. When Speaking with Julio Santos, we asked what he enjoyed most about the project. He responded promptly, saying, “The freedom to create whatever video we wanted to as long as we met the project requirements including our chemical and physical changes.”
When questioned on what he learned from this project, he stated, “How to use FinalCut Pro X, a video editing program. Mainly I learned how to edit videos, as well as learning about the physical and chemical changes and how they are used in special effects and filming.” Clearly, this project taught the students how to edit video and taught them about physical and chemical changes by allowing them to get their hands on some actual changes in real life. Here is the most awarded video of the project, Julio’s Entry #66.
Disease Project
By: Brandon Fryer and Jacob Suchors
The Sophomore STEM Students recently completed the Disease Project in Mr. Hughes Biology Class. The students were faced with the challenge of creating a Public Service Announcement that informed viewers about a specific disease. According to Mr. Hughes “The students learned the difference between viruses and cells.” The students learned different ways to effectively inform the public through a PSA while also learning about viruses and cells.
Video By: J.D. Eggert and Cauner McDonald
Freshman World Geography Project
By: Richard Warren
Mrs. Proudman has introduced another project, “Trip Around the World Project” that requires students to have a better understanding of a foreign culture. To understand another person’s culture, the team has to plan a worldwide trip that stops at seven different locations. The locations have to be located on each of the seven continents. The trip must be 10 days long, and the students were to design a brochure that would encourage other students to travel with them and learn about other cultures.
CINASTEM "Maze Runner in Reality" Projects - English II
After reading James Dashner's "The Maze Runner" STEM sophomores were given an entry video from CINASTEM. Their task and driving question stated, "How can we turn a fictional novel into a nonfictional box office hit?"
Teams were to convert symbols from "The Maze Runner" into a real setting of their choice. They chose a specific scene from the book and wrote a full 3-5 page script, produced a movie cover, and filmed their scripted scene for the entire class and CINASTEM judges to view. Below are two highlighted movie covers and films.
STEM in Athletics
By: Corey Mallon, Michael Morgan, Mia Zaro, & Josh Selman
"Dedication and commitment are what transfer dreams into realities."
Cross country is an endurance sport that makes athletes competes against their mind. Jacob Suchors, a junior in STEM, balances his athletic career with his academic work by, “turning in his work on time, therefore leaving room to focus on his athletic performance.” Jacob also choses to get his work done in class so when he gets home he doesn’t have to stress about homework. The STEM academy allows students to work on their assignments in class as long as they use their class time wisely which is exactly what Jacob does. Not to downplay the amount of work stem has, there is an immense amount of homework and projects every night. Even though there is a heavy work load in STEM Jacob Suchors manages to complete all homework and projects and is still able to compete in cross country.
A Glimpse into What STEM is Thankful For:
Taxgedo Image By: Austin Cratty & Dakota Kernodle
“ My family and having all the opportunities that I have in school and drill team.” -Vanessa Marlo
"My friends and family.” -Tucker Chaka
"Playing sports and being healthy, gifts to be given.” -Lily Fields
"I am especially thankful for teachers and friends who help me.” -Paul Cockrum
"I am thankful to have a loving supporting family and friends and to have a job I actually love waking up and going to.” -Mrs. Delong
STEM Prepares for the Holidays
By: Armani Frye & Christian Thomas
With Winter Break coming around, STEM students and teachers get ready for the holidays. Many of our students and teachers have a lot of fun and exciting activities planned. We have chosen a couple people from STEM to share their fun and exciting plans.
Yasin Khan
Grade: 9
What are you doing for the break? Going to New York to shop.
Do you have any Family traditions every year around this time of the year? My family eats black eyed peas during new years.
What is one gift that you would want to have for Christmas? Money
What are your favorite foods to eat for the holidays? Corn bread
Tanner Reinhardt
Grade: 10
What are you doing for the break? Snow skiing in Colorado
Do you have any family traditions every year around this time? My mom, sister, and I usually eat together.
What is one gift you would want to have? PS4
What are your favorite foods to eat during the holidays? Pasta
Abilgail Read
Grade: 11
Does your Family have traditions this time of the year?
We do Chinese Christmas, which I think most people call "White Elephant." Afterward, we take family pictures.
What is one gift that you would want to have for Christmas?
There really isn’t anything I really need or anything, but I would like a laptop.
What is your favorite holiday food?
We never have a Christmas dinner or anything like Thanksgiving dinner, but I like peppermint bark, which is the only thing really "Christmas-y" we do. My mom also makes peanut butter balls covered in chocolate that she calls buck-eyes. We have those every year.
Richard Quiroz
Grade: 12
What are you doing for the break? Starting college applications
Do you have any Family traditions every year around this time of the year? Christmas, enough said.
What is one gift that you would want to have for Christmas? Ps4
Are you going out for town for the holidays or staying local? I am staying local, but I may visit grandparents in Dallas as well.
What is your favorite holiday food? My favorite holiday food is ham.
Mrs. Delong
What are you doing for the break?
Snow skiing in Colorado.
Does your Family have traditions this time of the year?
Go snow skiing every Christmas and Santa gifts the night before Christmas morning and leaves a big box.
What is one gift that you would want to have? The upstairs of my house to be completed.
Are you going out of time for the holidays or staying local?
Going out of town to Colorado.
What are your favorite foods to eat for the holidays?
Each family member draws a country and brings food from that country. Everyone gives a fact about that country.
STEM Jobs
By: Briana Maskell & Clay McClendon
STEM job careers are common throughout the business world than what many people think, it can be found in many cities as close as Fort Worth/ Arlington, Texas to anywhere around the world. All STEM Academy students usually look toward to their future goals for their careers. Engineering fields are the most common interests’ career recommendations towards STEM students. The STEM Academy helps prepare them for their interests in engineering careers and gives the students insight for the other areas in the career fields. Several engineers and other workers that relate to STEM are linked with the Academy; they help teachers and students for the future.
Engineering is the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to design, build, and maintain structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes. It may encompass using insights to conceive, model and scale an appropriate solution to a problem or objective. The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop is often used in the line of work of an engineer. Many students within the academy seem to have and show these types characteristics.
The academy is not just about engineering though; it is about developing teenagers into young adults that can put their mind set into any problem and can find a solution no matter how big or small. Jobs in society need this and with the project based learning it allows students an insight to each and every field; ranging from but not limited to jobs in English, math, history, science. The overall output from the students and their work has a tremendous impact for things to come. It’s not just about project based learning, but a way to find a better future for all.