St. James Lutheran School highlights science in its first STEM fair

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — St. James Lutheran School students celebrated their first STEM fair Thursday in the school cafeteria. All families from the Lafayette community were invited to participate in various stations, win prizes and explore the world of science, technology, engineering and math in an interactive environment.

During the fair, sixth- and eighth-grade students displayed their science fair projects for attendees to view and ask questions.

Science fair is mandatory for sixth- and eighth-grade curriculum, but students from any grade level wishing to participate were encouraged to test an experiment, St. James science teacher Leah Sinka said. Sinka teaches fifth- through eighth-grade science at St. James Lutheran School.

Three students were given the “Champion Award” during Thursday’s event to highlight efforts that went “above and beyond” on their projects, Sinka said.

The awards went to second-grader Sofia Quiroz, who was the only student in the school who voluntarily participated in science fair, sixth-grader Cruze Guyer and eighth-grader Nicholas Forsythe. Both Guyer and Forsythe’s projects earned a first place blue ribbon this year.

Judging took place Wednesday morning.

“Each student had a judging rubric and their ribbon was based on their score off that,” Sinka said. “Then the judges selected the top for each age division for the champions. The stars on their ribbon showed who was considered for champion.”

Awards for sixth-grade included: Braxton Dodds, first place; Cruze Guyer, first place; Alora Hood, first place; Kaida Huddleston, first place; Bowen Kurtz, first place; Madison Robinson, first place; Laleh Zeinalpour, first place; Deklann Brzenzinski, second place; Madeline Walters, second place.

Awards for eighth-grade included: Baylee Caylor, first place; Nicholas Forsythe, first place; Laura Hamilton, first place; Raeleigh Harrell, first place; Skye Smith, first place; Lazaro Valdez Rizo, first place; Evan Fulk, second place.

Three additional students placed in the second-place category, and one placed first, but their parents have asked to not to release their child's name for publication.

This was the first year where Sinka required students to test their experiments in class, she said.

“Traditionally, the project was done at home, but this year, each student was given an entire class period to test their project in front of their classmates. They got to learn from each other through trial and error,” she said. “I am very proud of them, and it was inspiring to see them take control of the classroom.”

One student, sixth-grader, Kaida Huddleston, earned a first-place blue ribbon in second-grade, fourth-grade and, now, sixth-grade for her projects. This year was her favorite, she said, because she got to include her pets in her experiment.

Huddleston tested the cleanliness of a human’s mouth versus the cleanliness of an animal's mouth. The project involved swabbing the inside of both human and animal mouths, then letting the swab incubate to later determine cleanliness.

She swabbed seven different animals’ mouths including her cats, Figaro and Squirrel, her guinea pig, Brownie and even her bearded dragon, Spike, she said.

Interactive stations at the STEM fair

During Thursday’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics fair, attendees had the chance to visit various stations run by teachers and students.

Stations included “Math Fishing” run by kindergarten teacher Nikki Pollard and first-grade teacher Lydia Roland. Children were given a fishing pole to toss into the “water” (a decorated cardboard structure that Pollard hid behind) and when the students reeled back in, they pulled out a math problem to solve.

Children in second-grade and younger were an addition or subtraction problem to solve and children third-grade and up solved multiplication or division problems, Roland said.

Another station focused on engineering and required participants to craft their own “spaceship” using a styrofoam cup, popsicle sticks, masking tape and other items. Marshmallows used to represent “astronauts” were then placed inside the cup.

“The goal is to craft a spaceship that successfully keeps the astronauts in the cup after they drop it to the ground,” third-grade teacher Cara Hamilton said. “The kids get to use different materials to come up with new ideas to craft their ship, the same way the engineering process works in the real world.”

Music teacher Amanda Goodspeed ran the conduction station — fitting because music teachers are known for “conducting,” she said, laughing. Only, this station lacked music and, instead, had an “energy ball” she purchased on Amazon that is used to determine if something is a conductor or an insulator.

A conductor allows energy to flow easily through it, while insulators lack electric charges. The energy ball lights up red if something is a conductor, and shines no light if something is an insulator.

At one point, Goodspeed had 14 people holding hands in a circle (with one person holding the energy ball) — proving humans are conductors.

Lastly, a forensic science station run by second-grade teacher Caren Bunch and her student teacher Chelsea Peters had participants take their fingerprints, bite marks and use them to solve a mystery.

Families in attendance at the STEM fair who are considering St. James for their children's education were able to meet with the schools’ enrollment director to ask questions and tour the school.

“We have a waitlist for a lot of our early childhood classrooms — ages six-weeks to pre-K — but have openings in K through eighth-grade,” Director of Marketing and Admissions Morgan Kurtz said.

“Our middle school is rigorous and a true gem that the community just isn’t aware of,” she said. “We truly do focus on relationships and building their confidence and the foundation for that next step in their education,” Kurtz said.

St. James Lutheran School currently offers one class for each grade and has openings in every classroom, she said.

“We boast intimate class sizes and a low student-to-teacher ratio,” she said. “If anyone wants to schedule a visit, I would love to show the community our faith-centered and family focused school.”

Those interested in learning more about St. James Lutheran School can visit www.mysjls.org or email Kurtz personally at admissions@stjameslaf.org, to schedule a tour.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette's St. James Lutheran School spotlights its STEM fair