Standard 1.10

ST1.10 - Community, post secondary, business/industry partners and/or families actively support and are engaged with teachers and students in their STEM program.

St. Louis School aims to foster and maintain collaborative relationships with parents, community members, academic institutions and business partners to strive for continuous improvement and student growth. We use an inquiry based/problem solving approach to reach the students and expand the classroom experience through field trips and our yearly STEM Speaker Series. We are fortunate to have a very supportive parent community and School Board and to have maintained relationships with various experts in the STEM fields. We reach out to these parents and partners (see list below) for various STEM based activities, in all grade levels, multiple times a year for things such as:

• Assemblies
• Clubs
• Robotics Competition Teams
• STEM/Engineering Family Fun Night
• Field trips
• Funding
• Guest speakers
• Opportunities to share what we do at community events
• STEM Summer Camp

This past summer a team of three parent volunteers in the medical field offered a one week BioMedical STEM Camp for students in Grades 5 - 8.

2018-2019 STEM Speaker Series

Holt-Oram syndrome is characterized by skeletal abnormalities of the hands and arms (upper limbs) and heart problems. The zebrafish, found in many aquariums around the world, may hold the key to curing this syndrome. The second presenter in our STEM Speaker Series, Ph.D. candidate Erin Boyle Anderson from the University of Chicago, discussed her ongoing zebrafish research with St. Louis School Seventh Graders today. Her exploration of the zebrafish fin growth mechanism is providing valuable insight into cellular growth. Ms. Anderson explained her research process, discussed challenges and opportunities and gave us a guided tour of her lab. Her ultimate advice to our Seventh Graders was to be curious and to learn about things that interest them. We are grateful to Erin Boyle Anderson for spending an hour with our students, answering many relevant questions and encouraging them to continue pursuing careers in STEM. We would also like to thank Microsoft and their sponsorship of Skype in the Classroom for the opportunity to learn from a variety of working STEM professionals.

USA Science and Engineering Festival: Nifty Fifty Speaker Series

Over the past five years, students in Grades 5 through 8 have had the opportunity to hear in person presentations from various professionals in the STEM fields through the USA Science and Engineering Festival: Nifty Fifty Series. STEM Ambassadors have also had the privilege to have an extended session with our speakers over lunch.

See article below for explanation of the Nifty Fifty Program. Kitt Vanderwater, Google Software Engineer and Mrs. Whiteford, SLS STEM Coordinator, are quoted in Paragraphs 4 and 5 about the experience.

Guest Speakers

Dr. Damon Bradley, a scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) speaks to our students (spring of 2019). Dr. Bradley discussed his work on planetary probes, computer software for signal processing and explained the four mission areas of NASA (heliophysics, astrophysics, planetary and lunar science and earth science). He encouraged the students to pay attention in class, take their studies seriously and to always ask questions about how things work. His hope is that more students will take the plunge into STEM and ultimately become engineers, to help fill the rapidly growing need for technologically-capable individuals in government agencies and private industry. We would like to thank Dr. Bradley for taking the time out of his day to speak with us and to the USA Science and Engineering Festival for connecting us through the Nifty Fifty program.@USAScienceFest

In spring of 2016 SLS had the distinct pleasure to welcome Google software engineer Kitt Vanderwater to speak to our middle-school students through the USA Science & Engineering Festival: Nifty Fifty Program. This impressive young woman spoke about the wonderful opportunities she has had as a software engineer and her road to success. She inspired our students to believe that they can do it too! Ms. Vanderwater credits her success to her supportive family and a childhood teacher who made math fun for her - igniting a passion for math and technology. Some surprises she shared with us: Coding is NOT boring. She has traveled to Paris to study art in connection with her work on Google's "Backdrop" project, she met Emma Stone, one of her favorite actresses, while working on a video project, and one of her favorite things about working at Google is the free fro-yo! Ms. Vanderwater is a very impressive young woman, and we are grateful to the USA Science & Engineering Festival for this fantastic learning opportunity for our students. The ‘Nifty Fifty’, is a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out across the Washington, DC area during thr school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle and high schools. Featuring some of the most inspiring role models in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, this signature program of the USA Science and Engineering Festival presents students with the latest in green technology, engineering, human health and medicine, astronomy and space exploration, nanotechnology, computer science, and more.

Dr. Dana Perkins (Winter 2014) 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 pursued 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 boldly 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!

USA Science and Engineering Festival X-STEM Symposium

“Stay curious and pursue your passions” was the recurring message for SLS students attending the USA Science and Engineering Festival X-STEM Symposium today at the Washington Convention Center. Inspirational talks by scientists, physicians and inventors gave our students insight into how pursuing your passion can help lead to the future you desire. We heard about Brain-Machine Integration from Dr. Kafui Dzirasa, who described his research into understanding the underlying mechanisms that drive mental illness. Amy Sterling, Executive Director of Eyewire, told us how they are using crowdsourcing and video games to help map brain neurons. Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young, Administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, shared the importance of food science in our global economy. Additional speakers provided details about ongoing research in primatology, cell biology and cancer research. Our students had the opportunity to ask questions and solicit advice from each speaker and learn about their background and childhood passions. This trip marks our sixth year of attendance to the USA Science and Engineering Festival X-STEM Symposium and is part of our ongoing St. Louis School STEM Speaker series.

Community Affiliations and Partnerships

Biomedical STEM Summer Camp

This year, Camp SLS offered a special program for middle schoolers: a Biomedical STEM Camp.

Camp attendees learned about HeLa cells and how their legacy has improved the lives of medical patients from Dr. James Potter, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. The campers then had a hands-on opportunity to learn how to stain cells and look at them under a microscope.

Aside from some great interactive experiments and challenges, the Biomedical Campers were visited by two guest speakers who gave them unique perspectives on the roles of physicians in maintaining the health of patients and populations. CDR Matt Bradley, a trauma/critical care surgeon in the US Navy and a St. Louis School parent, kicked off with an informative description of his work in the operating room of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, as well as on some very special humanitarian missions of the US military to South America and Puerto Rico. Two lucky students got a feel for what it's like for a surgeon to get dressed for work every day!

Students were also visited by CAPT Paul Reed, a former US Navy physician and current US Public Health Service Officer, who shared his experiences and perspectives on a deployment to West Africa in 2014-2015 to help contain the Ebola outbreak.

We are deeply grateful for our guests who provided the campers with many insights to the opportunities for careers in science and medicine. We would also like to thank Dr. Millar, Dr. Zachos and Mrs. Lewis, SLS parents and professionals in the field, for their continued gift of time, talent and inspiration to benefit the students.

Field Trips

Chesapeake Bay Field Trip

Baltimore Zoo

The Rock Guy

Military Museum of Health and Medicine

National Cryptology Museum

National Electronics Museum

Our Cyber STEM group participated in a field trip to the National Cryptologic Museum, where we learned about the history of code making and code breaking. A particular highlight was learning about how the Allies broke the Enigma code in World War Two. The students participated in a scavenger hunt that led them through the evolution of cryptology, including chalk symbols during the Depression, the use of Navajo soldiers in the military, simple ciphers, breaking Japanese codes, the role of encryption in WWII and an introduction to modern cryptology. Visit the National Security Agency’s Crypto Kids web site at:https://www.nsa.gov/kids/