WE VALUE Science-Technology-Engineering-Math

SCIENCE PROGRAM

We can get to know our Lord better by learning about God’s creative nature through Science. We invite you to come and explore the world in which God has blessed us.

St. John’s Science classes are taught by Principal Brad Massey. Students learn through a variety of experiences to help solidify the science concepts, including hands-on activities and experiments, demonstrations, and classroom work. To enhance their learning experience, students are encouraged to use the scientific process of predicting, observing, recording, thinking, and lastly taking action. Based on the individual students’ learning level, students will explore in depth the different branches of science. Examples of some topics that students learn include:

Life Science: Animals, Plants. Human Body
Physical Science: Light, Sound, Energy
Earth and Space Science: Geology, Astronomy, Meteorology

TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM

All students in grades 5-8 are issued a Windows-based laptop for use at St. John’s during the school year. Students in grades 1 through 4 have an ipad kept at their desks to use for additional math and reading learning opportunities, as well as to complete AR tests. Additionally, there is a computer lab of 14 desktop PCs located in the library and all students in Kindergarten through Grade 8 have computer classes taught by our Media Specialist, Mrs. Jan Sleight. Students are taught the applications in the Microsoft Office Suite beginning in grade 3. Students will apply this knowledge across the curriculum to type papers and book reports in Word, create data tables and graphs in Excel, and create slide shows for verbal presentations using PowerPoint. Unique to St. John’s is VIDEO RECORDING & EDITING, reserved for 8th grade students. They are taught to record videos on-site as well as in front of the green screen, plus complete editing using the Adobe Premier software.

CODING & ENGINEERING PROGRAM

St. John’s recently added a “STEM Space” room to teach computer science coding to students in Grades 1-8; these are also taught by Mrs. Jan Sleight using the curriculum provided by CODE.ORG. The block-based coding provides the fundamentals of computer science, as well as the important skills of sequencing, problem-solving, and critical thinking. As noted in the statistics from the National Center for Educational Statistics, 71% of all US jobs require digital skills. And high-skilled computing occupations are the fastest-growing, best-paying, and now the largest sector of all new wages in the US. Computer science opens more doors than any other discipline and learning the basics will help students in any career—from architecture to zoology.

St. John’s has also purchased robots which students will code to follow specific paths – requiring knowledge of mathematical distances and angles. Additionally they will use engineering principles to construct bridges, towers, etc. for use with the robots. Younger students program the DASH robot using the BLOCKLY app and have several add-on accessories. Older students have access to LEGO robots as well as the Sphero SPARK.

While the state of Michigan does not currently require public schools to teach Computer Science, there is a movement towards developing a set of state standards to bring it into the mainstream with Reading, English, Math, and Science.

MATH PROGRAM

Students at St. John’s are taught Math through the Eureka Math curriculum that carefully sequences mathematical progressions in expertly crafted modules, making math a joy to teach and learn. Students are given the NWEA national math test three times per academic year. These scores are used to place students in advanced math classes as deemed appropriate and provide assistance where needed utilizing our LSEM interventionist.

“CSO” & “STEMMIES”

The “Chief Science Officer” program is a tri-county effort of middle schools and high schools in Bay-Midland-Saginaw counties, with approximately 80 student representatives from about 50 schools. The students meets a few times each school year at a local area business to tour their facility and explore how to help bring science into the classrooms at their respective schools. For the 2022-2023 school year, St. John’s CSO representatives are 8th graders Hayden Rozewski and Gloria Stark; Mr. Michael Hiddings serves as the CSO Advisor.

At the May 2023 CSO Awards dinner, five out of 84 students were recognized for having an “Outstanding CSO Action Plan”. BOTH of the St. John’s students were awarded this honor for their work with STEM activities at St. John’s during the school year!

“Stemmies” is an optional after-school program designed to help students learn more principles of Science-Technology-Engineering-Math through FUN hands-on experiments! It is organized by the CSO Representatives and Mr. Michael Hiddings. In Feb-March 2023, students in grades K-4 were given the opportunity to perform experiments over five weeks and learned about several foundational science principles, including weight, distance, time and speed, simple machines, electricity, and structural integrity. The students were able to perform experiments which were completely hands-on. In April-May, students in grades 5-8 had an optional afterschool program where they learned about 3D printing by designing and printing personalized items.

STEM Program