STEM Blog

Science Livestream
Posted March 29, 2014

This week Discovery Education visited our 6th grade science class to do a live broadcast! The educators used the Discovery Tech book to explore the planets and other objects in our solar system, live-streaming the event over the internet to hundreds of classrooms around the globe. The archived broadcast will be available soon and we will be sure to share the link. It was a wonderful experience for our students, not only from the science perspective, but also to see all of the behind-the-scenes preparations for a live broadcast. We are grateful to Discovery for choosing us for this exciting opportunity. Take a look at our article in the Catholic Review! http://www.catholicreview.org/article/life/catholic-education/clarksville-school-host-to-national-live-streaming-lesson
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iPads in the Classroom!
Posted March 1, 2014
Technology is an increasingly common part of daily life. St. Louis School is working to integrate technology into classroom instruction in a planned, thoughtful, purposeful manner. Several months ago St. Louis School received a grant from the Knott Foundation, allowing the purchase of 110 Apple iPads. These iPads were loaded with a number of highly rated, educator reviewed applications geared to develop specific student skills. During this period, St. Louis School teachers began weekly training, learning how to use the iPads effectively and developing instructional strategies tailored to each classroom. Teachers are now busy creating digital lessons and incorporating material from such sources as Discovery Education and Khan Academy. So far students have welcomed the iPads with enthusiasm and are looking forward to further digital instruction.
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Building our boards with Board Builder
Posted February 16, 2014
As part of Science instruction at St. Louis School, students make oral presentations to their classmates on a regular basis. This year students have been taking their presentations to a higher level by using a computer tool called Board Builder from Discovery Education. It allows students to create a comprehensive visual aide with text, photographs, audio, video and animated content to assist in conveying concepts. The board can be shared electronically with teachers and are accessible to students anytime, anywhere through their school’s Discovery Education subscription. It is designed for flexibility, differentiation and provides an opportunity to work at the student’s pace. So far, students are enjoying this new tool and finding it engaging, easy to use and fun!

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Student iPads have arrived!
Posted February 16, 2014
Today we were thrilled to roll out our iPad initiative and celebrate Digital Learning Day! Through a grant from the Marion I. & Henry J. Knott Foundation, St. Louis has been able to purchase 110 iPads for use by our students as an additional educational resource to make learning more engaging and dynamic. Our first grade students used the devices in their Language Arts class and were introduced to long vowel sounds and letter combinations, even creating their own silly sentences as they thought “outside of the box”! Our 7th grade students utilized the devices in Science class with their personal Discovery Education accounts to access their techbooks and interactive labs. The students helped each other navigate through their genetics assignment and gave us feedback on their first classroom use of the devices. St. Louis is thrilled to be able to offer our students this innovative tool and we are grateful to the Knott Foundation for supporting this important initiative!
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Digital Learning Day!
Posted February 5, 2014
Today is Digital Learning Day. a nationwide celebration of digital learning in America’s schools that supports teachers, improves learning, and provides options for students to achieve at their highest potential. We are excited to celebrate this day and are committed to providing our students with the tools necessary to seamlessly integrate technology into classroom learning.



Creating with Scratch
Posted February 5, 2014
St. Louis students are taking their STEM education to a new level by learning to program using the LOGO-based Scratch platform. Scratch was created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with funding from the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, Intel Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Google, Iomega, and the MIT Media Lab Research Consortia. To learn more about Scratch, please visit http://scratch.mit.edu/. Please feel free to browse through some of our students' showcased work and visit back often for new projects. http://stem.stlouisparish.org/scratch



STEM Family Fun Night
Posted February 5, 2014
Our STEM Family Fun Night was a great success! More than 135 students and their parents braved the cold Tuesday night to join us for this fun evening including fun science experiments by Eric Energy, Lego Robotics presentations by US Open Robotics, aerodynamic activities for the younger students, catapult construction, and a spaghetti tower building contest. Thank you to Mrs. Whiteford for coordinating this exceptional event. We would also like to thank Discovery Education and USA Science & Engineering Festival for sponsoring our event. Last but not least, thank you also to our parent volunteers, student volunteers, and faculty/staff members who helped to make the evening successful. It was a blast!
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Cyber STEM Spring session begins!
Posted January 31, 2014
Today we started several of our extra-curricular clubs for the new year, including CyberSTEM. Club members began building robots and started the planning process for programming and animating their actions. We look forward to seeing what our creative and capable engineers produce!
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STEM Family Night
Posted January 27, 2014
This Tuesday night we are hosting our second STEM Family Night from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM in the school gymnasium. Come out and see new presentations by Eric Energy, and US Open Robotics, and enjoy some hands-on activities for all ages. This night is open to ALL of our school families and is free of charge! A big thank you to our event sponsors: Eric Energy, USOpen Robotics, Discovery Education, Science Channel and the USA Science and Engineering Festival.



Hour of Code
Posted January 21, 2014
Today’s interconnected technological world is built on computer software. Next week, during Computer Science Education Week, Code.org is sponsoring an Hour of Code where students will gain a basic understanding of the underlying software that drives our modern world. As part of the St. Louis School technology curriculum, students are preparing to participate in this global event by viewing the introductory videos and exploring the building blocks of software construction. These preparations are in addition to the existing classroom instruction and our after school CyberSTEM program. To learn more visit: http://csedweek.org/
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Run, Run, Run as fast as you can!
Posted January 19, 2014
This week our Pre-K students read the Gingerbread Man, using this fun children's book to learn math, language arts, and STEM lessons along the way. The kids are having so much fun! They rolled-out, “baked” and decorated gingerbread cookies on the iPad, acted out the story with masks in dramatic play, and even learned the song “Head, shoulders, knees, and toes” in Spanish, introducing them to the color "café". The students decided what part of a Gingerbread cookie they would eat first and then graphed the results in Math, laced their own Gingerbread Man to exercise their fine motor skills, and made a Gingerbread Jail -- because apparently the Gingerbread men are trying to escape! Today the students made Gingerbread traps in their STEM lesson, brainstorming and collaborating in groups to keep the Gingerbread men in the classroom overnight and suggesting that the teacher sleep at school to stand guard! Stay tuned...
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USA Science and Engineering Festival Nifty Fifty Speaker
Posted January 19, 2014
What a fantastic afternoon we had as Dr. Dana Perkins visited and spoke to our students about her career as a microbiologist and advisor to the UN Security Council. From an early age, Dr. Perkins was fascinated with infectious diseases and persued her interest with a passion! Her message to the children was to keep learning and to love what you do. The students asked what inspired her and she gave them something to think about: Star Trek! ... "Go bodly to where no one has gone before". In her work with the UN, Dr. Perkins advises on the containment of chemical and biological agents, with the first priority of saving lives. She is proud of her work and rightly so! We were thrilled to have her speak to our students and thank her for sharing her time with us!
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