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Siebert's Science Students Bring Speed To Physics

Upper School Science Teacher, Marcia Siebert, is cultivating in her students a deeper understanding and appreciation of physics principles through a hands-on project that the students will build on and advance throughout the year as their knowledge grows.

“Students built four identical distance mousetrap cars and one speed car,” said Siebert. “They tested them and will use the cars throughout the year to apply different formulas they are learning in regards to friction, work, force and torque force. For this first test, the focus was to learn basic mechanics and calculate the average acceleration of the cars.”

Eleventh grader CJ Taculod was excited for this project as well as the process of testing their cars. “The best part was being able to see the car move. You built the car with your own hands and you’re proud of your work!”

Noah Moser, Joshua Howard, and Harper Geiger also shared their excitement as they set their cars up to race down the hallway cheering as the vehicles passed each other towards the finish line. 

Mrs. Siebert certainly knows how to create lessons with impact!

It's Apple Time In Kindergarten!

Our kindergarten students spent all of last week learning about apples, and closed out the week with an Apple Celebration! The amazing kindergarten team made up of Mary Jane Watson, Melissa Shockley, Kari Silvester, Braden Cruz, and Alex Alford does a fantastic job of creating fun activities that engage students while achieving curriculum objectives.

“We started the week with each class creating an anchor chart of prior knowledge of apples,” explained Shockley, “and we added to it throughout the week as new information was learned! We did apple sight words, labeled the parts of an apple, and tasted different treats made from apples. We also integrated and incorporated apples in reading, science, centers, and math stations. This included an apple investigation as a simple experiment to measure and weigh apples with cubes.”

Other exciting experiments were also taking place during apple week. Students made Apple Volcanoes by mixing baking soda, food coloring and vinegar together, and placing it into a cored apple.  

“The vinegar made it explode!!!” exclaimed Dakota Mackenzie. “It went everywhere!!” added her classmate Finn Turner with excitement. 

Other classes hypothesized which liquid would stop the apples from turning brown - water, milk, or lemon juice. They soaked apple slices in each substance and then checked on them every 15 minutes until they discovered an answer (lemon juice won)!

The kindergarten classes sure know how to celebrate Fall in an academic, creative, and tasty way!