STREAM Experiences
Building the Foundation for Excellence
Embedded Files
STREAM Speaker Series
STREAM Speaker Series
Every year, Blessed Sacrament School hosts a STREAM Speaker Series for our middle school students. They hear from a variety of local and national individuals in STREAM careers about their educational and personal journeys, as well as the opportunities that are on the horizon in their fields.
During our STREAM speaker series, our middle school students heard from Mayor Ian Baltutis who discussed the STREAM aspects of his product design and manufacturing company, Vibration Solution LLC which began while he was attending our local Elon University.
Field Trips & School Visits
Field Trips & School Visits
Field trips at Blessed Sacrament not only enhance students' learning opportunities, but also integrate elements of STREAM. When we are unable to visit a location, we find a way to bring them to us! During these field trips and school visits, students get hands-on experience with science experiments, engineering challenges, math activities, and other simulations. These experiences allow students to immerse themselves in the material they are learning inside the classroom and see their real-world application.
First and Second graders visit the Museum of Life and Sciences.
Fifth grade visits the JD Mackintosh Water Treatment Plant to learn how contaminants are removed from water to prevent water pollution.
Third grade visits the Morehead Planetarium & Science Center to learn about space, mass, force, and matter. They are simulating how to land a rocket on Mars.
Middle school students visit Alamance Battleground to understand aspects of farming, woodworking, blacksmithing, and medicine.
4th grade Learns about Historical Farming
4th grade Learns about Historical Farming
In October of 2019, our 4th graders visited Cedarock Historical Farm where they learned about farm animals, antique farm equipment, local crops, and life on a farm in North Carolina during the late 19th Century. This annual field trip has since gone virtual for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years, and we have continued participating from our classroom via the Alamance Farm-to-Table Field Trip Website!
Camp Chestnut Ridge
Camp Chestnut Ridge
Third and Fourth graders learned all about force and motion when Camp Chestnut Ridge came to our school. They made their own catapults and were able to see how force affects motion by trying to get a ball into a bottle using force. They also enjoyed an awesome presentation and activities all about matter and were able to make and take home their very own bags of slime!
Mobile Dairy Classroom visit
Mobile Dairy Classroom visit
On Thursday, November 11th, 2021, Hilly the Jersey Dairy Cow came to visit! We all learned so many interesting facts about dairy cows and nutrition. Courtney from Southwest Dairy Farms also incorporated math and science into her presentation with Hilly--Did you know that Jersey dairy cows are smaller than most dairy cow breeds and that their milk is much creamier than others? Or that cows have 4 stomachs? Students learned that and even got to see almost 4 gallons of milk that Hilly produced!
This was a free opportunity for our school provided by Southwest Dairy Farms! Their Mobile Dairy Classroom allows for them to visit schools and other events. CLICK HERE for a video of the presentation.
Pi Day
Pi Day
The Knights worked hard completing some pi day activities like finding the circumference of a bubble, making pi bead bracelets, measuring the circles all around us and so much more. The students were even challenged to study the first 300 digits of Pi and on Friday, March 12, students in grades 3 through 8, were able to demonstrate how all their hard work paid off by participating in Blessed Sacrament School’s first Pi Bee! Teachers visited each upstairs classroom and called on individual students to recite Pi. Each student was able to restart once. The student in each classroom who had memorized the most digits of Pi had the opportunity to participate in the school-wide bee on Monday, March 15! Congratulations to our Pi Bee winners!
Our winners are:
1st- Will in 6th grade with 137 digits
2nd- Carter in 4th grade with 72 digits
3rd- Avery in 7th grade with 49 digits
Classroom winners:
3rd: Bella and Sophia tied
4th: Carter
5th: Nicholas
6th: Will
7th: Avery
8th: Mackenzie
20210315_121726.mp4Middle School Electives
Middle School Electives
Students in middle school, grades 5-8, have an opportunity to participate in an elective of their choice on Friday afternoons. In addition to empowering practical skills, electives allow students to explore a topic that interests them that normally isn’t offered in the traditional school setting. Electives also offer an opportunity for grade levels to be mixed and allow students to build relationships with others from different grade levels. Due to COVID, we have been unable to mix grade levels but still offer this wonderful opportunity.
Some of the many science electives include science in the kitchen where students learn how to execute a recipe, science competitions where students create their own lab report, conduct experiments, and compile the results and currently, our fifth graders are building their own version of a solar oven to be tested to see which will make the perfect s’more.
Other electives we have offered in the past include Raspberry Pi and FLL. We now offer origami and math board games where students research the strategies used in board games to create their own math board game to share with our elementary school. Students are also using our Makerspace that houses four sewing machines to learn how to sew and create. One elective that has stood the test of time is also our STREAM buddies that we have expanded upon so that it is no longer an elective but a school-wide class. Still, others include photography, yearbook, reading club and so many more.
We will continue to grow and adapt these STREAM-focused electives in years to come to meet the needs and interests of our students as well as the gifts and talents of our staff and community.
Coding
Coding
Click on the picture below to explore Mrs. Solari's curriculum!
Art Walk
Art Walk
On Wednesday, April 28, we held our first annual Art Walk. Students were able to showcase all of their hard work in art class this year for parents and community partners. The art department takes part in several art competitions throughout the year. On this night all student winners were recognized.
Thank you to all of our 2020-2021 Art Walk sponsors and community partners!
STREAM Night
STREAM Night
STREAM night is an annual event that provides parents and all members of families a chance to experience their child's daily education. Teachers are able to highlight elements of lessons and students are able to showcase their talents and STREAM expertise to their families. Families are able to rotate through different classrooms of stations for each experience. Each year we also have a keynote presentation from a STEM centered career.
STREAM Expo
STREAM Expo
When Bennett Harris was invited to the World Maker Faire in California in 2011, he had no idea where it would lead. By attending the Faire, Bennett and his nephew Brian, met over 100,000 people hoping to promote STEM education. On his plane ride back to North Carolina, his mind was racing with how he could bring this back to Burlington. Unknown to Bennett, there was a Maker Movement happening which was bringing together communities, creating new 21st century jobs, and enhancing hands-on STEM Education. From this the Alamance Makers Guild was born.
The first ever Mini Maker Faire was held in 2012 and had 25 exhibits and brought in about 1,200 people. The latest Maker Faire brought in over 300 exhibitors and a crowd of over 4,700!
Blessed Sacrament became involved in the Maker Faire in 2015 with our Mission to Mars. Bennett and the Alamance Makers Guild worked closely with the school to construct Near Space Balloons. The balloons were launched at the 2015 Maker Faire and travelled to 89,274 feet and were collected 135 miles away with scientific data intact.
Click on the image to read all about the Maker Faire!
Watch our school launch Near Space Balloons!
Made in North Carolina
Preschool: Foods from NC
Kindergarten: Build Your Own Businesses
1st grade: Sphero and Maze
2nd grade: Dino Day projects
3rd grade: Spud Buddies: the power of potatoes
4th grade: Pirates
5th grade:
6th grade: Weather in NC
7th grade: Textiles
8th grade: Build Your Own Cardboard Furniture (not using glue or tape but using furniture type attachments)
First LEGO League (FLL)
First LEGO League (FLL)
November 2018
Tech Knights Win!
Our FLL team won the research award in the regional qualifier of the North Carolina First Lego League. Congratulations to Tristan Gallovich, Jackson Benes, Alex Solari, Roger Pais, Oliver Adams, and Leah Kefauver. Good luck in the next round!
February 2019
February 2019
Congratulations Tech Knights!
A great job by our Tech Knights in the State Finals! Well Done!
November 2019
November 2019
Tech Knights are Impressive!
Our BSS First Lego League team will be advancing to the state championship! Congratulations to Leah, Marlaina, Karsten, Ethan, Ben and Katie!
January 2020
Tech Knights are Impressive!
The Tech Knights competed in the state FLL competition at NC A&T in Greensboro. The team got callbacks for their project and robot designs because they impressed the judges. The judges wanted to learn more about their project and robot design.
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