Category Archives: Science

Rusk School wins $25,000 in State Farm contest

Coming on the heels of a $25,000 grant from Devon Energy, The Rusk School received another hefty check for its science efforts last week.

State Farm presented the school with $25,000 from its “Cause An Effect” program, an online contest that generates votes for local causes through social media. The school was chosen for its geodesic dome solar-powered greenhouse.

State Farm presented a $25,000 check to The Rusk School for its geodesic dome solar-powered greenhouse.

It’s a project that middle school math teacher Brenda Boyer said is rooted in community service. Boyer said the students will use the dome to grow organic food to donate to the Star of Hope homeless shelter and a local food bank.

“This project will allow our students to help others in the community in a positive way. The dome will also be utilized as a science lab for all our Pre-K through eighth-grade students,” Boyer said.

A State Farm student panel chose 100 finalists from a field of 3,000 entries, then voters on State Farm’s Facebook page chose the top 40.

HISD Students Make History on the Space X Dragon

The Space X Dragon which is now headed to rendezvous with the International Space Station is carrying two experiments made by four Houston Independent School District students as well as two student-designed mission patches.  The Dragon launched Tuesday morning at 2:44 a.m. CST from Cape Canaveral, FL.

The National Center for Earth and Space Science (NCESSE) and NanoRacks, LLC, have developed the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), aimed at helping today’s students become the scientists and engineers of tomorrow.  The program gives the students the opportunity to be involved in a national space project with a focus on STEM education via the Nano-Racks payload.

Johnston Middle and Parker Elementary were two of the schools selected from 12 communities in the United States.   Hundreds of students in grades 5- 8 were given the opportunity to design and submit experiments to be performed in microgravity aboard the space station.  From 267 formal experiment proposals received, two were chosen to go to space.

Emily Soice from Johnston Middle School and Michael Prince, Maxx Denning and Aaron Stuart from Parker Elementary school had the winning proposals.  Both schools also held an art contest for the mission patch design. Fifth grade Parker Elementary student Christian Astorga and eighth grade Johnston Middle School student Sebastian Beil designed the winning mission patches.

The students conferred with STEM experts from Rice University, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), NASA, Pfizer, Texas A and M University, the University of Houston, Baylor College of Medicine, and Texas Southern University.    The students also had the opportunity to visit research facilities to prepare for their experiments for flight. 

The Student Space Flight Experiments Program (http://ssep.ncesse.org) is undertaken by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE; http://ncesse.org) in partnership with Nanoracks, LLC and is enabled through NanoRacks working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.  

During the Dragon’s 21-day mission it will dock with the space station where it will deliver about a half ton of supplies along with cargo from NanoRacks containing 15 student-designed SSEP experiments from around the United States.  Dragon will be the first privately-owned spaceship to dock at the space station.

Clifton MS Student Engineers a Win at Statewide TAME Competition

Victoria Rodriguez

Victoria Rodriguez and four of her peers from across the state engineered a victory at the Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering (TAME) Statewide Math & Science Competition recently, using nothing more than four toothpicks, two rubber bands, a clothespin, and a few dozen other small items.

Dubbed “The Tower of Power,” the crane the Clifton Middle School eighth-grader and her teammates constructed with these materials could successfully pivot 90 degrees and lift 83 marbles up to six-and-a-half inches.

“We came up with our design by trying to imagine an actual crane and used the tools we had to make a smaller version,” said Victoria, who acted as her team’s project manager. “Our crane was successful because it did everything it was built to do.”

The team’s accomplishment is even more impressive when you consider that it got a late start. “We only had 10 minutes or so to build it,” she said.

Nevertheless, Victoria’s team took home the prize, and she was one of a dozen HISD students to place at the 27th annual competition, which was held at Texas A&M University on April 14.

Other students who received awards at the event were: Moises Tacam (Challenge ECHS), Desmond Titus (Jordan HS), Samantha Gomez-Mora, and Emmanuel Onochie (both from DeVry Advantage Academy), who closed out the second through fifth-place prizes in the Integrated Physics and Chemistry category; Jessica Salazar (Challenge ECHS), who won fourth place in Physics; Nicolas Xiong (East ECHS) and Jayvian Green (Jordan HS), who won fourth and fifth place, respectively, in Advanced Placement Physics; and four others who also placed with their teams in the design challenge.

The event brought together more than 300 winners in grades 6–12 from 11 regional competitions across Texas. In addition to testing student knowledge of math and science concepts, the competition promotes teamwork, leadership, and academic achievement.

HISD is First District to be Awarded Climate Corps Fellow from Environmental Defense Fund

The Houston Independent School District is the first district to be awarded an Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Climate Corps Fellow this summer to develop a customized energy plan for implementation district wide.  Joseph Konkel, instructional assistant at the University of Houston’s College of Business, will provide consulting and expertise on the district’s energy needs during this summer. 

“We are thrilled to be awarded this Climate Corps Fellow as it will provide HISD added support as we continue with our energy efficiency efforts across the district,” said HISD Energy Manager Gavin Dillingham.  “Having a Climate Corps fellow will allow the district to prioritize facilities for large scale capital retrofits.”

The district will provide Konkel with senior-level support, a day-to-day supervisor, and access to energy use data.  HISD has committed to reducing its energy use, acting on the fellow’s recommendations where feasible, and providing updates on implementation of energy efficient measures at six and eighteen-month intervals, following the fellowship’s completion.

At the program’s culmination, EDF aggregates the total projected investment dollars, energy savings in kilowatt hours and cost savings resulting from recommendations made by the fellows.          

“I am excited that HISD has the opportunity to participate in such an innovative program.  Houston is already considered the energy capital of the world,” said Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis.  “This provides a great opportunity for HISD to be an example for other school districts around the country, as they are the first district to participate in the program.”

EDF’s Climate Corps is an innovative summer fellowship program that places MBA and MPA students from top graduate schools at companies, cities and universities to help with investing in energy efficiency.  Companies like Boeing, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Citigroup have achieved more energy efficient operations as a result of having a Climate Corps Fellow.  HISD is the first K-12 organization to participate in the program.

For more information about the District’s energy-efficiency initiatives, and the Green School Challenge, please visit www.hisd.org/greenschoolchallenge.  To access Climate Corps Fellow case studies, and learn more about the program, visit www.edfclimatecorps.org.

Young Men’s College Preparatory Academy to Beautify Campus in Honor of Earth Day

HISD’s Young Men’s College Preparatory Academy (1701 Bringhurst)  will celebrate Earth Day by hosting a campus beautification project on Friday, April 27 at 10 a.m.

“We are excited about this event, and our school community has embraced being an eco-friendly campus, not just on Earth Day, but all year round,” said Principal Dameion Crook.

On Friday, nearly 200 students, parents, volunteers and school staff will plant 80 trees near the school’s soccer field and throughout the campus. 

“I am excited to join Principal Crook and the students at the Young Men’s College Preparatory Academy in their efforts to revitalize our community in the Fifth Ward,” said Houston City Councilman Jerry Davis.  In an effort to help spruce up the academy’s grounds, Davis’ office donated supplies to support the school’s Earth Day event.  “I think it is imperative to work with our youth to instill a sense of pride in our community. Through their actions today, they are truly making a lasting impact that generations can appreciate for years to come.” 

The school currently has a campus-wide recycling program and is taking part in HISD’s Green School Challenge, a competition designed to reduce schools’ energy and water consumption, and to increase the amount of single-stream waste recycling. 

For more information about the Green School Challenge, and other green and energy-efficient initiatives, please visit www.hisd.org/greenschoolchallenge.

See photos from the official dedication of James Berry Elementary School

Eco-friendly features were on display recently as former principals, teachers, parents, elected officials and community leaders joined HISD Board of Education Trustee Rhonda Skillern-Jones, Chief Elementary School Officer Sam Sarabia and Principal Deborah Silber at the official dedication of James Berry Elementary School.

Cick below to see photos from the ceremony and the interior and exterior of Berry ES.

[slideshow]

Sharpstown High School Band Performs with the Houston Symphony

The Sharpstown High School Band will receive the rare honor today of performing with members of the Houston Symphony.
The performance takes place at 2p.m. at Sharpstown High School (7504 Bissonnet). The Sharpstown students will perform one of the musical arrangements from the Symphony’s rendition of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets – An HD Odyssey”.

“The Planets” is one of the Symphony’s most celebrated pieces. It tells the story of NASA’s exploration of the solar-system while high-definition images of the planets are shown on a screen behind the orchestra.

Today’s performance is part of an ongoing partnership between the Houston Symphony and HISD. The Symphony is donating a DVD copy of its performance to each of the district’s 279 schools. Teachers will also receive the educational companion disc, which will provide interactive-cross curriculum lesson plans for all grade levels.
“We’re very excited that our band has been chosen to perform with the Houston Symphony. This is a tremendous honor for Sharpstown High which speaks volumes about the hard work of our teachers and students,” said Principal, Rob Gasparello.

HISD Board of Education Trustee Greg Meyers and Houston Symphony General Manager Steven Brosvik are scheduled to speak at today’s event.
“The Houston Symphony and the Houston Independent School District have had a rich and deep partnership and we are pleased to continue to grow these opportunities,” Brosvik said. “As music is needed to provide a complete education for our children, we hope this resource will provide a synergy for learning across the curriculum.”

The Symphony’s generous donation is being made possible because of a gift from Marathon Oil.

Walnut Bend ES Advances to State Odyssey of the Mind Competition

Students from almost two dozen HISD schools will be competing at the state level of the Odyssey of the Mind contest on April 14—but for two groups of students from Walnut Bend Elementary School, the thrill of advancing past the regional level is particularly sweet, as 2012 marks only the first year that the Apollo 20 campus has ever participated. 

A team of fifth-graders won first place in its division for designing a vehicle with two propulsion systems that could move forward and backward and display four different emotions. 

A team of fourth-graders won first place in its division for building a balsa wood structure weighing less than the combined weight of three nickels (approximately 15 grams) that could support 345 pounds of steel. 

“This is a mathematical engineering problem that uses one of the lightest woods on the planet,” explained Walnut Bend Principal Susan Shenker, “so a structure’s strength comes from its design. The fourth-graders’ structure held more weight at the regional tournament than any other team’s present — including those from middle and high schools.” 

Both of the teams from Walnut Bend were coached by reading teacher Michele Dahlquist. 

Other schools that will advance to the state competition next month are: Burnet, Condit, Herod, Oak Forest, Parker, Poe, River Oaks, Roberts, Twain, and West University elementary schools; Grady, Lanier, Pershing, Pin Oak, and Revere middle schools; Bellaire and Carnegie Vanguard high schools; and T.H. Rogers, the Horn Academy, and Sharpstown International. 

For complete regional results, visit the Odyssey of the Mind website.

Two HISD Schools Win Chance to Test Projects in Space

Two HISD student science projects are cleared for lift off. Johnston Middle School and Parker Elementary School students will have their microgravity experiments included in Mission One to the International Space Station through the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.

More than 1,000 students submitted proposals and 12 U.S. school communities were given the chance to compete. Johnston and Parker students recently learned that they were among a handful of winning schools whose projects will fly aboard a Soyuz rocket in the spring of 2013.

“The students are just ecstatic,” said Parker science teacher Rebecca Mitchell. “It’s a dream come true. They feel like they can do anything, that any dream can be realized.”

Johnston eighth-grader Emily H. Soice led her school’s winning project. Soice’s experiment explores whether a bioscaffold infused with the TGFB3 protein grows and forms cells faster in microgravity than in normal gravity. Bioscaffold is an artificial structure that can be implanted in the body to serve as a base where tissue can grow.

Soice’s research could lay the groundwork for the growth of replacement tissue, joints, and even organs.

At Parker Elementary School, fifth-grade students Maxx Denning, Michael Prince, and Aaron Stuart will test to see if liquid Vitamin C can preserve bone density in microgravity, which could be helpful to astronauts who stay in space over a long period of time.

Mitchell said the students worked after school, during their lunch break, and even on weekends to create their winning proposal. The students will conduct their Vitamin C experiment using a chicken bone.

“We are splitting a wishbone,” Max said. “Part of it will fly in space and part of it will stay here. It will float in a solution that includes Vitamin C for six weeks.”

Researchers, biologists, physicists and many others from institutions including Baylor College of Medicine, NASA, Rice University, University of Houston and Texas Southern University provided support for the project.

For more information, please visit www.ssep.ncesse.org.