Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) are foundational to any formal education. The skills learned in a STEM classroom can be applied to every part of life, be it academic or otherwise.
At Admiral Farragut Academy, where engineering is a signature program, students from Kindergarten through 12th grade have the opportunity to learn valuable skills and find passions in areas that they may not have known existed — and that may not exist for years.
On Thursday and Friday, September 17th and 18th, the Engineering and Naval Science classes held a Cardboard Regatta. For over two weeks, the Engineering and Naval Science classes worked on designing vessels using concepts they learned in both classes. The tools they had to make the boats included cardboard, clear packing tape, duct tape, string, paint, and decorations. Students employed the engineering design process and their understanding of boat terminology and nomenclature to design a vessel that would carry them across Farragut’s pool.
Recently, Mrs. LoRusso’s 7th grade STEM class had their competition for their Survival Project Robots. They had high school Principles of Engineering students judge their robots. The winners are Karolina Kutova and Koen Thill.
Saturday, January 26th, the Farragut Astros and the Galactic Narwhals LEGO Robotics teams competed in a qualifying tournament.
During the first semester of the 2018-2019 school year, Mrs. LoRusso’s Lower School STEM classes have been learning through all sorts of fun activities.
On Tuesday January 17th, Mrs. Shannon LoRusso’s 7th grade VEX Robotics class had their competition for their Survival Project Robots. They had Officer Mike and Officer Erik from Critical Intervention Services judge their robots. The winners were Austin Gay and Brian Magenheimer.
Coding is becoming an important job skill on par with being bilingual. As many as 7 million job openings in 2016 were in positions that required coding skills. And here at Farragut, 4th graders, Isabella Reynolds and Allister Nasr, are the first students out of the 4th and 5th grade to complete Computer Science Fundamentals Coding Course 2 on code.org. Although students only started working on this course in August, Isabella and Alister have now moved on to Course 3.
The Lower School STEM program added a MakerBot 3D printer this school year. The printer is similar to the one in use by the Upper School STEM program. The printer has given the students greater opportunities to see their vision come to life. Read more
This past summer, George Dyche ‘16 — whose parents are engineers for ExxonMobil — spent a majority of his summer working alongside petroleum engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and geoscientists. That was not necessarily a normal activity for teenagers, but for George, it was a head start on his future. Read more
This past Wednesday, the seventh grade students competed in a robotic vex competition that highlighted their training in the Project Lead The Way (PLTW) course. With a bunch of excited and interested kindergarteners and prekinders watching as both keen observers and eventual judges, the contest, organized and run by the Lower School STEM teacher Shannon LoRusso, was won by the group of Krystina Hartley, Casey McKee and Timmy Xiong, whose theme was a galloping horse.
“It was great to see how intrigued they were,” said Casey, who initially came up with the idea. “We thought they would like to see a horse because little kids are really into animals. It was kind of nerve-racking, though, because once the competition was over, you hoped they would come over and vote for your toy. When a lot of them did (10 votes), it felt great to be chosen.”
There were 23 students from the seventh grade class involved in the presentation. The projects, which took a little over three weeks to complete, gave the students a chance to learn how engineering works in the real world.
“I know much more now than I ever did and it’s neat to see how things like a double gear works in everyday life, like how it’s used on a bicycle,” said Casey, who has been attending Farragut since sixth grade. “Doing projects like these helps us understand it even more.”
Mrs. LoRusso took the winners to lunch at Chipotle.
