Science (STEM) Fair

 Good day everyone,

It's STEM time!! As you know, students in grades 5-12 participate each year in the STEM Fair, this year the fair will be the week of March 2-6. All 6th grade students should have chosen a project idea and formulated a question, and are working on a hypothesis based on the topic and information gathered through research (they are required to have 10-15 facts). Here is a break down of information relating to the STEM project:

Student topic choices: 

See below for your child's topic (some were still deciding/changing ideas)

Question and Hypothesis:

Each student should have a refined Question, what are they looking to find out through experimentation, as well as a Hypothesis, an educated prediction (I think __________________ when ________________ because _____________.).

Experiment: (this is completed at home unless otherwise coordinated with the teacher)

1. Write a procedure (detailed step-by-step guide to conducting the experiment)

2. Gather materials

3. Identify variables: controlled variable is all of the aspects remaining the same in each trial, independent is what you are testing (ex: amount or type of water being given to plants), and the dependent variable is what happens as a result.

 4. Conduct testing (should have multiple trials per variable in order to have more data to compare) and record the data! Also, don't forget to take pictures to include in the final presentation!

5. Analyze data - We will work on this together in class

6. Write Abstract and complete written portion of project - We will work on this in class but they may also want to complete some at home  

** ALL EXPERIMENT TESTING SHOULD BE COMPLETE BY Feb 6th in order to allow ample time for the written portion to be completed.

Final Presentation:

Each student will need to bring in a trifold science board (white preferred) and will assemble the final project in class. ASSEMBLY will occur Feb 23rd - 27th

STEM Fair:

We will be given a time slot when the students will stand next to their projects and be interviewed by guest judges and teachers. This is a great way for them to receive feedback and work on explaining their project to others. 

CHOSEN TOPICS:

Caitlin: How does the thickness of the wire effect the speed of electricity?

Hannah: Which stain remover will remove stains the best?

Patrick: Which brand of chocolate will melt the fastest?

Carmelo: Which type of water will grow plants the most?

Makonnen: Testing a plant fertilizer

Ayla: Does a homemade window cleaner work as well as store brands?

Lily: Does the shape of ice effect how it melts?

Lamees: Does color effect memory?

Dsean: Which type of basketball bounces the best?

Tyler: How does the type of salt effect the speed of ice melting?

Ronin: What is the effect of temperature on a golf ball's bounce?

Tyson: What is the effect of temperature on magnetic strength?

Sekhem: Which veg/fruit conducts electricity?

Zaina: Does chewing gum effect concentration?

Rey: 

Colton: How does vinegar effect egg shells and chicken bones when they are soaked? (maybe)

Aiden:

Luke:

Maddox: How does the amount of sugar effect the taste of the cookie?

Sage: Hydroponics

Joshua: How does air pressure effect the bounce of a basketball?

Winter Break

     Announcements - 

• 12/21-1/6 - Winter Break
• 1/7 - School resumes
• 1/19 - No School
• 2/3 -6 - 6th Grade Denis Sullivan field trip (afternoons)
• 2/14 -16 - Agriculture Fair
• 2/16 - No School
• 3/2 - STEM Fair week begins! (All projects complete and displayed)
• 3/9-13 - Spring Break week, no school

Congratulations to Sage and Sekhem for winning 1st Place (Staff pick and Student pick respectively) in the sweater design contest!

Thank you to everyone for the brunch item donations. The students enjoyed it all day!

- Ask Your Child About - 

• Morning Meeting, wellness/personal growth
• SEL lesson - Screen time self-assessment and awareness discussion, groups worked to identify pros and cons of electronics use.

• Math
• Hot chocolate stand decimal math (adding $)
• Lego long division
• Hot chocolate Mashup Math and more decimal work

• English
• Publishing Celebration of short stories, writers sat in small groups and enjoyed each other's stories, discussing the surprise twists and identifying story themes
• Gingerbread man reading/play
• Flash fiction stories/skits: each group was given a photo prompt then created a story or skit. These were fun, and quite funny :)

• Science
• Science Fair discussion, research
• "Snow" making lab 

• Social Studies/Global Perspectives
• Students learned about the winter holidays, discussing why/how different cultures celebrate

PHOTOS:

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12/12/25

    Announcements - 

• 12/16 - Lower School Raffle assembly/prize draw
• 12/18 - Lower School Winter Concert 8:45 am
• 12/21-1/6 - Winter Break
• 1/7 - School resumes
• 1/19 - No School
• 2/3-6 - 6th Grade Denis Sullivan field trip (afternoons)

 ** In total the Lower School has raised $778 for the St. Croix animal shelter!

Congratulations to Lamees and Hannah for proudly representing the 6th grade, and themselves, at the school Bee!!

- Ask Your Child About - 

• Morning Meeting, wellness/personal growth
• SEL lesson reviewing concepts covered so far
• We held several study halls this week and both the students and I really got a lot out of the time. I was able to do a lot of conferencing with students about their work, do one-on-one skill building lessons, and guide students who were doing more difficult projects (like making video newscasts about Mesopotamia!). Because they had short stories and SS projects due, we were able to have discussions about creating a timeline for work completion as well as taking the time to develop stronger work.
• Holiday sweater design contest! Drawings will be judged this week :)

• Math
• Holiday tessellations
• Division practice/reviewed standard algorithm
• Decimal practice, rules for adding and subtracting decimals

• English
• Final edits on short stories
• "Sentence Stalking" - using mentor sentences to discuss sentence structure, grammar, etc.
• Figurative language work
• Latin root -dict, dec-

• Science
• Science review
• Types of energy
• Science Fair discussion, research

• Social Studies/Global Perspectives
• SS projects identifying the G.R.A.P.E.S. of Mesopotamia

PHOTOS:

12/5/25

    Announcements - 

• 12/8 - Classroom spelling bee
• 12/11 - School spelling bee at 11:30
• 12/8-12/12 - Lower School raffle, tickets can be purchased by students each morning
• 12/18 - Lower School Winter Concert 8:45 am
• 12/21-1/6 - Winter Break
• 1/7 - School resumes
• 1/19 - No School
• 2/3-6 - 6th Grade Denis Sullivan field trip (afternoons)

 - Ask Your Child About - 

• Morning Meeting, wellness/personal growth
• SEL lesson about forming pathways in the brain (the more you do something the stronger the pathway). It's helpful for students to understand they may need to practice something over and over before it feels easier. They played a fun game like "telephone" but with a physical message! The more they did the signs, the easier it was to remember.
• Team building games

• Math
• Progress check for rounding and decimal place identification, exponents
• continued practice, tessellations

• English
• 6th grade authors continued to draft short stories with a twist 
• Formal email writing practice - especially important when writing to teachers :)
• Reading chapter 3 from the Epic of Gilgamesh
• Latin root -flect, flex-

• Science
• Formation of the planets and gravitational relationships of the planets/sun
• recording data and graphing results

• Social Studies/Global Perspectives
• SS projects identifying the G.R.A.P.E.S. of Mesopotamia

PHOTOS:

No photos this time.  We were busy, and they were in to making funny faces if I tried!