Senior Edition 2019
End of Year Stories & Honoring Our Seniors
Time Sensitive News:
Check out our Summer Reading List & Supply List Order your supplies from EPI Code: NOR814 Incoming 9th graders: Join us at Camp! July 23, 2019 - Registration at: https://tinyurl.com/CampSTEM |
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Congratulations to the Class of 2019!
Our First EDD: Presents!
On Friday, May 3, 2019, the STEM Academy hosted the inaugural EDD:Presents! at Northwest High School. EDD, Engineering Design and Development, is the senior capstone PLTW (Project Lead the Way) engineering course in the STEM Academy. The course curriculum is based around an engineering research project that helps student teams work through a self-selected problem in order to find a solution through building a prototype. Our students spent most of the school year working through the elements of the engineering design process to develop a solution to a problem that they were passionate about. One of the main elements of the project was designing and building a working prototype that could be tested, improved and tested again. The EDD project had multiple steps that required students to defend their research, design sketches and a prototype, culminating in a gallery walk of their presentation boards. After the teams received feedback from teachers and students, they began to prepare for the final step: presenting to judges. EDD: Presents! was a full-day event for the entire STEM Academy. Our underclassmen were audience members learning more about the engineering design process. We had several juniors in place as Ambassadors to ensure that our day ran smoothly, that the judges had everything that they needed, and the Seniors could get set up to present correctly. And of course our seniors were scheduled to present to a panel of 7-8 judges from a variety of professional fields. We had judges join us from architecture firms, surveying companies, telecommunications, aerospace, engineering companies and many more -- including four STEM Academy alumni! “Getting a whole day just to present our hard work to not just the judges, but our family, friends, and others was a very exhilarating feeling. This gives them a look at what we've been working on for the past months and lets us see our goal come into fruition.” - Senior, Marla G. “The whole program of EDD presents is such a great idea for all seniors and other STEM students to actually experience, and see first hand what it takes to survive in the STEM field and the outside world. It helps us all see what is needed to actually pitch and show our ideas if we did want to ever sell an innovation or idea. It is difficult to put ourselves out there and present to so many people, so I want to congratulate all the seniors for doing this. It wasn't easy, however, they made it look easy and fun.” - Junior Ambassador, Sakina Z. During the lunch break, the scores for each team were tabulated and the top three scoring teams moved on to the finals, held in the Performing Arts Center (PAC) in front of about 250 students and guests, including 20 judges! Our top three teams were:
“I personally think the most interesting project of all was the "Polarized Closed Captioning" since it's not something you would expect to be an issue, and yet it is. Their result/prototype is quite innovative.” - Senior, Marla G. Judges in the finals used the same criteria and score systems that were used in the morning sessions to score each team presentation. After all three teams had presented and had a question period, the scores were tabulated. Though all three teams did an amazing job, the judges awarded first place to the closed captioning team. Congratulations to Carson, Caulter and Jayden! Results: 1st Place: Invisible Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired 2nd Place: Electromagnetic Harness 3rd Place: The Aquarilung Thanks to our sponsor, BNSF, each team member was awarded a prize such as Bose speakers, SurfaceGo and SurfacePro tablets. This event was an exciting way to end the EDD project and provided our students a way to showcase their skills on a grand scale. We look forward to the next EDD: Presents! in 2020. “I can't wait to see what next year will bring!” - EDD teacher, Jacque DeLong Special Thanks: We are appreciative of all of the support that our community gave our students! The STEM teachers were all integral in ensuring this event was well organized and that we stayed on schedule. Special thanks to our friends in the Creative Media Productions Academy for taking professional headshots of our senior students and having photographers at our event. We want to thank our STEM Booster Club for organizing, setting up and serving all of the meals and snacks. In addition to being the prize patrol and supporting all of our seniors, they were instrumental in helping our event run smoothly. Thanks to our Bronze Level Sponsors, Showtime Farms, Aramark, Jason’s Deli and Thomas Engineering! These sponsors helped us provide catering to our judges/guests and our Senior students. Thanks to our Gold Level Sponsor, BNSF, the STEM Booster Club was able to provide really great prizes for our top three teams. Our third place team members were each awarded with Bose wireless speakers, second place members each won Microsoft SurfaceGo with keyboard, and our first place team members were all awarded with Microsoft SurfacePro with keyboard and Surface pen. Thank you BNSF for supporting our engineering students! Finally, without the hard work (and long days) of Mrs. DeLong, EDD teacher, this event would not be possible! We want to thank all of our sponsors and judges for helping us make EDD: Presents! 2019 a success! 9th Annual Showcase Sees Changes
By: Chase Stuhldreher The STEM showcase is a yearly event that the Academy hosts to display the many great projects that have been created throughout the school year. This year we showcased a variety of projects that reflected the hard work and dedication of each individual class in STEM. The senior class each had their EDD presentations in which the top three projects included the Aquarilung, Electromagnetic Harness for Low Atmosphere Rocket Launches, and Invisible Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired. Seniors displayed their Aerospace Rocket they created this year. The junior class had a variety of displayed projects including trebuchets, whimsical projects, and a few passion projects, CEA architecture, and the Dream Bigger projects. Gavin Lane said, "I really enjoyed talking with parents and other students about the Rocket my class created in Aerospace 1 this year. How often can I say I taught the public some Rocket Science today." Gavin completed Aerospace 1 this year; he is looking forward to taking Aerospace 2 next year and building a rocket that will attempt to break the sound barrier. The sophomore class also participated in the STEM event and presented their Passion Projects, Dream Bigger projects, Pop Rockets, Julius Caesar projects, along with the Algebra´s Water Works project. The freshman went to the Fort Worth Zoo and created a modified habitat for their chosen animals. This Zoo project integrates English, Biology, Math, and their Engineering class all into one project. Freshmen then work in their teams to build and present this project over a 3 week span. Samuel Harper, a Junior in the STEM program said, “It was a lot of fun. I was able to pal around with all of my friends and it allowed me to show off some of my accomplishments and hard work from this year.” Sam Harper was an ambassador for this event and was able to show visitors around the entire showcase.All in all, this year’s STEM showcase was a raging success with over 400 parents and students in attendance. Every student, teacher, parents, and guest can say that their night was filled with fun activities, amazing projects/ presentations, and a perfect representation of all the hard work everyone in STEM has put into this school year. STEM Council - Share your voice!
Did you know that the STEM Academy has it's own student council? Did you know that ALL STEM students can join council and work together to make STEM even better? We would love to have you be a part of the planning for 2019-20. The new officer team will announce the first meeting in August - don't miss out! We want to hear your voice! Congratulations to our new Council Officers: President - Morgan Smith VP of Planning & Procedures - Sakina Zaki VP of Marketing & Communications - Niki Hamerai VP of Student Involvement- James Grice Secretary - Anna Miley Historian - Rachel Westmoreland Treasurer- Chayton Schluter Public Relations/Recruitment - Reece Joyce & Alexis Jaramillo Senior Representative - Cade Duke, Coco Huang, Joe Trapnell Junior Representative - Aiden McGreger, Audrey Roof, Lilia Ryerson, Clark Strong Sophomore Representative - Leilani Alvarado, Anna Bernes, Joseph Ryals Freshmen Representative - *coming soon* |
New Launch Site Closer to Home
After much preparation and fanfare, from the inception of the project, to their design proposals, to the building, the Aerospace students finally got to put their rockets to the test on April 27, 2019. After getting up bright and early at around 4 am, Aerospace students excitedly hurried over to the launch site in Jacksboro, Tx. Once they arrived, they started working on their final rocket checks. Each of our STEM teams got their checks started quickly, and quickly got to work showing the inspector every facet of their rocket, making sure it was safe to launch. The seniors finished their checks first, being veterans of the Aerospace program, and their transonic was ready to go first. First to launch was the senior rocket, soaring into the sky, but unfortunately we did not hear the beautiful sound of that infamous sonic boom.However, the senior rocket went incredibly far and recovery was rough, but it was successful. Secondly, from STEM, the second period rocket launched, and flew well, with a decent recovery. Last, the third period rocket was slated to launch, but, having some difficulties as their altimeter had failed completely, they had to wait for one of the other two rockets to recover to “transplant” the altimeter into the third period rocket. After the second period rocket was finally recovered, the USB port fell off the rocket! So they were unable to recover their data, however, the altimeter was in enough of a working condition to be transplanted, so it was loaded into the third period rocket, and launched, although neither team got their data, both rockets flew better than had been expected. After some last-ditch soldering attempts, it was determined that the USB port was unlikely to be re-attached, at least on site, and the report was turned in- sans the numerical data. Overall, the mood was slightly bittersweet, the juniors were ecstatic that their rockets had performed so well, but they were slightly disappointed in the data failure. The seniors were proud of their hard work over the past year, and they will never forget the lessons learned during Aerospace class. Fire & Ice : Banquet 2019 The STEM academy banquet is a yearly event in which STEM students gather in celebration of the year ́s accomplishments. This year, the STEM banquet was hosted at Robson Ranch by the STEM Booster Club and Council. The theme for this years banquet was Fire and Ice. The event started with the Senior Walk, where seniors are presented with their certificate and STEM graduation stole. Following the presentation of our seniors, attendees had a spaghetti and meatball dinner. During the awards ceremony, the "Excellence in STEM" award winners for each grade level were announced as follows: Isabella Jones- Freshman, Austin Shilling - Sophomore, Sakina Zaki - Junior, and Austin Schaff - Senior. Distinguished Student Awards were presented: English 1- Joseph Ryals, English 2- Leilani Alvarado, English 3 - Matthew Kleibrink, English 3 AP- Aiden Devlin, Algebra 1- Raffarin Makinga, Geometry - Cameron Watson, Algebra 2- Anna Miley, Biology- Elizabeth Flores, Chemisry- Jacoby Prince, AP Physics- Gavin Lane, Intro to Engineering Design- Carter Rasmussen, Principles of Engineering - Teryn Husband, AP Computer Science- Ethan Gendreau, Cyber Security- Bailey Rapert, Aerospace 1- Michael Grice, Aerospace 2 - Connor McGreger, Digital Electronics- Trent Ecker, Environmental Sustainability- Jonathan Villanueva, Civil Engineering - Shane Schnaidt, EDD - Ashley Evans & Kayla Rasmussen. The STEM student council officers for 2019-20 were also announced. Congratulations to our new officers - see article about council for list. When asked about the banquet Morgan replied, “The STEM booster moms put a lot of hard work into helping make sure that the night went by smoothly and I'm really glad that we were able to recognize all the work that they do behind the scenes.'' When asked Mrs. DeLong stated “ The banquet was a blast, the decorations for the banquet were really nice and I was really happy with the turnout this year. I would really like for it to be even more popular and hopefully, next year will top this year’s.” The banquet was a success and will be remembered for years to come. Check out the videos played at banquet here: https://tinyurl.com/STEMBanquet19 Women in STEM: Chevron Challenge
By: Morgan Smith, Sakina Zaki A select group of sophomore and junior STEM girls participated in the Chevron Design Challenge at A&M on May seventeenth and eighteenth. We were given two days to research problem statements given to us by real businesses. We went through the entire engineering design process a few times, and at the end of the second day presented our solution. Le Huang says that “the two days [she] spent were really worth a whole month.” Le Huang learned about “having a liberal mindset” and that the “key to win is teamwork.” Audrey Roof, a sophomore given the opportunity to attend the usually junior event, states that “The Chevron Design Challenge gave me the opportunity to meet new people from different places, and expand my knowledge in team work, technology and critical thinking.” Sakina Zaki applied what she learned to a STEM class she will take as a senior next year. Sakina states that she saw the trip as an opportunity “to do a mini version of the EDD class” because it gave her “an upper hand to do even better for [her] actual EDD project.” Niki Hamerai was another sophomore who participated in the A&M design challenge. Niki expresses that the “a&m trip was a great opportunity for me to bond with STEMers and my teachers, but it was an even greater opportunity for me to bond and grow connections with other PLTW learners.” Ms. Mitias and Ms. DeLong were the teachers who chaperoned us at the event. Ms. Mitias states that the challenges “[were] awesome to see how students from different PLTW schools just met up and worked so well together, it definitely reinforces our confidence in our program. We also got to participate in some great instructor meetings and tour the new engineering design center at Texas A&M, where many of our former students are now getting to take classes and work in labs.” Ms. DeLong claims that “ By participating in the Chevron competition the students involved have gained a better understanding of the expectations, outcome, work ethic, accountability, knowledge research required, communication, open mindedness, and overall organization of EDD process through this experience. As this was a very mini version of what the overall EDD class will be like and has prepared these students over the other incoming seniors.” Honoring Our Industry Partners
On May 1, the NISD CTE team hosted the first annual "Key Influencer Luncheon" at the Outdoor Learning Center. The luncheon was held to honor the industry partnerships that formed this year through our Practicum or Internship program. NISD is in the second year of this amazing program that connects seniors students with a mentor in a field they have been studying. The STEM Academy was honored to have six students working weekly with their mentors in a variety of fields like construction, electrician, engineering, architecture and more. We are so proud of the skills and knowledge that our students gained through this valuable program. Summer Reading: What's Your Path?
The STEM Academy teachers are shaking things up in the summer reading department! We have changed 3 of the 4 summer reading books. Our 9th grade students will continue reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey. This book is a great read and helps students learn how to manage their time and actions for success. Our 10th grade students will be reading Dream Differently by Vince Bertram, the CEO of PLTW. We are excited to use this text to help engage our students (and parents!) in great discussions about how to think forward to the future. The 11th grade students will be reading Grit by Angela Duckworth. This book is an in depth look at how having passion and persevering helps students achieve success. Last but not least, our seniors are taking on the first summer reading for STEM Seniors, Cradle to Cradle. Our students will be embarking on an exciting journey next year as our first group to take PLTW EDD (Engineering Design & Development) and the summer reading book will support that course through design and innovation. All of the summer reading books will have discussion elements and assignments in multiple STEM courses starting in the Fall. Students should check their email to find our more about the summer assignments. We are excited about the conversations that these new reads will start with our students and parents! Join us as we read these new books, discuss their importance on our lives and share our pathway to success! |