STEM Programs

Lake Havasu high School Teachers: Chessa Frei and Stefani Chase

The LHHS STEM Club is happy to announce that we are now a tax credit recognized club! We have been working hard this year preparing for both the Arizona State High School Science Olympiad as well as our local elementary Science Olympiad that we co-host each year. After an exciting presentation during a pep assembly mid-year, we had enough participants to take two teams to compete in Tempe this April for the HS Olympiad. We had nine top-ten finishes in 23 events including a 4th place finish in Mousetrap Vehicle and a 4th place finish in Herpetology. We have over two dozen high school students ready to assist in the Elementary Science Olympiad next week. They will be teaching in breakout sessions, scoring and judging events, and helping the participants and coaches throughout the day. Our team continues to be active in the citizen science research project, RECON, the Research and Education Collaborative Occultation Network, funded by the National Science Foundation.  We are one of 54 sites on the west coast who are tracking and recording objects in the Kuiper Belt as they occult, or eclipse, a distant star. Our scientist leads are measuring & mapping the size, shape, and speed of these asteroids while also looking for interesting features like moons or ring structures. We have two more observation campaigns scheduled before the end of the school year.

Oro Grande Elementary School Teacher: Stephanie Holmes

We have had many adventures in STEM so far this year! My goal is to expose students to the wide array of STEM fields out there, such as mechanical, structural, and material engineering, architecture, ecology, and biology to name a few. I incorporate the steps of the Engineering Design Process in what we do. Some examples of projects we have done:  we designed and built wind turbine blades, parachutes and skis, participated in a mock oil spill cleanup, worked on architecture to withstand earthquakes, designed bird beaks based on adaptations in nature, and explored hoop gliders/paper airplanes. I first give the students all the background information they need. Then I step back and let them learn by doing. I ask questions but do not give them solutions-those they must come up with themselves or give each other advice. Students learn that failure is a part of the process and that you learn from it. The students can tell you that the only time you fail is if you do not try!

Havasupai Elementary School Teacher: Julie Johnson

Havasupai offers unique opportunities for all 5th and 6th grade students to participate in Science and STEM based learning on a daily basis through our rotation schedule.  In addition to daily exposure to science education for all of our 5th and 6th grade students,  Havasupai runs an after school STEM Club that targets 5th an 6th grade students that have expressed a strong interest in STEM education.  With over 100 hours of professional development in STEM Education, I am able to effectively implement and engage all my students in science and engineering practices that provide them with learning opportunities that support essential skills like critical thinking, problem solving and inquiry. Listed below are just a few examples of the STEM experiences provided for our students throughout this school year.

1. Our Annual Science and Engineering Fair includes grades K-6.  All grade levels participate in some complicity. 5th and 6th grade events included STEM based projects like designing a pair of shoes, building a bungee jump thrill ride, creating super spinners, and designing a Rube Goldberg Energy Machine.  All of the events push students to develop, design, create, test, and improve their prototypes based on specific constraints and maintain a building budget.

2.  Each year all of our 6th grade students participate in a Mountain Rescue Litter Basket STEM challenge where they are tasked with creating a prototype rescue basket designed to rescue an injured victim (potato) from an off trail location.  Teams compete on an outdoor obstacle course as they try to rescue the victim in a safe and timely matter.  This challenge includes: research, budgeting, planning, designing, creating, testing, improving, evaluating, data collection, data analysis, graphing, drawing conclusions, and communicating results.

3.  The implementation of teaching with a phenomenon has been a great opportunity for all my science students.  Phenomenon teaching allows student to make observations about an event that occurs naturally in the world and try to determine how and why.  It also gives students an opportunity to develop their own questions about the phenomenon and plan an experiment or build a model to help prove their theory about the event. Teaching with phenomenon also involves investigative writing as students draw a lot of conclusions based on evidence. This year for example students looked at bio-dome models ( closed mason jar) with water, plants, and snails sealed tight inside.  The big questions is how can living things survive in a closed system.  

4.  Our after school STEM Club has participated in the following activities:  reverse engineering, technical drawings, catapult design, coding and cipher discs, robotics,  chemical reactions, and basic engineering practices.

K-12 Foundation presented a check in support of the Science Olympiad in 2019. This is the Foundation’s 4th year sponsoring the event. The Science Olympiad gives elementary school students the opportunity to engage in STEM activities and competition. L-R: K-12 Board members, Dr. Michael Rosen, Amy Sugamele,——, ASU Professor, Ryan Nangreave, K-12 Board members Jana Stump, Monica Hall and Chriten Mann.

K-12 Foundation presented a check in support of the Science Olympiad in 2018. The Science Olympiad gives elementary school students the opportunity to engage in STEM activities and competition. L-R: K-12 Board members, Stephanie Martin, Nawal Atassi, Amy Sugamele, Chris Dimambro and ASU Professor, Ryan Nangreave.

K-12 Foundation presented a check in support of the Science Olympiad in 2017. The Science Olympiad gives elementary school students the opportunity to engage in STEM activities and competition. L-R: K-12 Board members, Marquita McKnight, Gail Malay, ASU Professor, Ryan Nangreave, K-12 Board member Monica Hall.