Tag Archives: STEM

Westside HS to Compete in Shell Eco-marathon Americas

A group of Westside HS students work on a piece of their vehicle for the Shell Eco-marathon Challenge

A group of Westside HS students work on a piece of their vehicle for the Shell Eco-marathon Challenge

For students at Westside High School, it’s not slow and steady, but slow and energy-efficient that wins the race. Three Westside Engineering and Geosciences Academy (WEGA) teams will compete in the seventh annual Shell Eco-marathon Americas (SEMA) April 5-7, 2013 in downtown Houston.

The Shell competition recognizes students who design the highest miles-per-gallon performing vehicles. Student teams from around the world were tasked with designing, building, and testing ultra energy-efficient vehicles. The goals for the 2013 competition: surpass last year’s record of 2,188 MPG (awarded to a team from Indiana) and to take home the coveted win for “Best Electric Car”.
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Rice Empower Helping More Minority Students Envision Careers in STEM Fields

Students conduct experiments at the Rice STEM Expo. (Photo courtesy of Rice University)

About 150 students from four HISD campuses, including North Houston Early College, Sharpstown, and Wheatley high schools, got a glimpse into both college life and the careers that may await them after completing it when they took part in Rice University’s Empower STEM Expo earlier this month.

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HISD Seeking Grant for 8 New STEM Magnet Schools

The HISD Board of Education voted Thursday to move forward with a plan to compete for $12 million in federal grant funding to open eight new magnet schools emphasizing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction.

The measure passed with a 7-1 vote with Board President Anna Eastman opposed.

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New HISD Magnet Schools Proposal to be Considered

School board to weigh applying for $12 million grant to open eight magnets focused on science, technology, engineering and math

The HISD Board of Education is set to decide this week whether to compete for $12 million in federal funding to open eight new magnet schools emphasizing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) instruction.

All eight new STEM magnets would be whole-school programs, meaning every student in those schools would benefit from an instructional approach that emphasizes a rich STEM curriculum. Current magnet programs at existing schools included in the grant proposal have struggled to draw students and would be replaced with the STEM magnet.  The Board of Education is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to authorize the grant application. The meeting begins at 5 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2013 in the board auditorium of the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center (4400 West 18th Street).

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Attucks Middle School Wins T-STEM Designation

Teachers and students at HISD’s Attucks Middle School will soon be reaping the benefit of a new STEM-based partnership, thanks to the campus’ newly acquired status as a Texas Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (T-STEM) Academy.

The school was designated a T-STEM Academy for the 2012–2013 school year by the Texas Education Agency, which means educators there can now access professional development opportunities, receive technical assistance, and network with other STEM academies to share best practices.

The school has already forged such a partnership with nearby Jones High School, which became a magnet school for STEM studies in the 2011–2012 school year (see related story here). Called the Jones-Attucks Collaborative (JAC-STEM), this arrangement will enable teachers and leaders from Jones to work directly with their peers at Attucks.

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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.