An exciting week lies ahead! 

Tomorrow we will kick off Science Fair preparations and the S (science) in STEM via two assemblies; one for lower grade and another for upper.  Frank Cascarano, from Foothill College, will wow Almond with vivid demonstrations of the laws of nature to prove that physics is all around us.  Students will observe experiments showcasing intertia, angular momentum and sound waves.  Be sure to chat with your children in the evening to ask them what they learned.  We will Tweet throughout the assembly so that you can peek into its wonder… and so that if you get the hum drum account of the day you can ask some detailed questions to elicit a thoughtful dialogue around science.

Next week every student at Almond will experience the T (technology) and M (math) through a visit to the STEM lab to celebrate Hour of Code week sponsored by Code.org.  This non-profit organization is dedicated to advancing the instruction of computer science in education.  Here is a powerful video titled, “What Most Schools Don’t Teach,” that depicts many prominent public figures speaking on behalf of the benefits of learning programming.  We are such a fortunate school and district to not fall into this category.  Instead, we are one where such innovative practices define and guide us. Kindergarten through 2nd grade students will apply coding principles through Bee Bots,  Grades 3 through 5 will either utilize Scratch or Tynker, while 6th grade students will participate through their weekly CSTEM class. 

On Friday, December 13th, we have the great privilege of having Miss California, Crystal Lee, visiting our school.  Crystal competed in the 2014 Miss America competition, is a native of the San Francisco area, graduated from Stanford University and championed a platform of “Women in STEM.”  She embodies the entrepreneurial spirit touted as critical for 21st Century Skills in that she has a career goal to start her own technology company.  Miss California will be present at our Friday Assembly, the Principal Coffee (during which we will engage parents in activities to demystify STEM), classroom visits in grades K-3 and for an assembly open to 4th-6th grade classrooms.  We hope to see you in the morning next Friday!  (Thank you Mr. Chan for making this a reality.)

I’d like to celebrate the accomplishments of some of our very own students in honor of STEM.  The Lego Legits team has advanced to the Northern California District Championship Tournament.  The girls did very well as a team in the 11/23 tournament. Teams were judged by robot performance (points earned by completing a list of missions the robot completes successfully), as well as the presentations in three areas: robot design, core values and project. In addition to earning the advancement, the Lego Legits team also won the best Robot Design award. The award recognizes a team that demonstrates solid engineering practices, outstanding programming principles and a well-developed strategy to design and build an innovative, high performing robot.  Mrs. Nguyen and her family came out to cheer for the team and stayed till the very end!

Finally, Sabrina Yen-Co, an Almond 2nd grader, was featured in this video for GoldieBlox.  This company’s goal is to build “games for girls to inspire future engineers.”  Debbie Sterling, the CEO, graduated from Stanford University in 2005 with a B.S. in Engineering (the E in STEM).  Sterling launched GolieBlox on Kickstarter with a 30 day timeline to raise the necessary funds.  She accomplished her goal in 5 days.  In addition to promoting interest amongst girls and women in STEM, the bigger picture for Sterling is to instill “the confidence they’ll need to lean in when their time comes.”

Here’s to a remarkable district and school who provide children in Los Altos/Almond with ample opportunities to develop life long skills to develop intellectual and emotional strength!