High School Blog

Most of us have heard the term STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), but how many of us know how STEM is being taught here at Cascade Christian? I am sorry to say that it may be a mystery to some of you, but it shouldn’t be! Your students are doing some AMAZING things under the guidance of CCS teachers, and I am honored to share just a few of them with you. (For the other stuff, I hope you will ask your students!) 

As a science teacher at the high school (going on six years now!), I am honored to share my love of STEM with students, inspire them to do new things, and introduce them to a whole new world of technology that they have never experienced before. I am thrilled to take them beyond AirPods, smartwatches, and cell phones, and into robotics, bacterial transformation, and forensics, just to name a few! 

The junior high and high school are launching a new robotics club, complete with BattleBots and everything! This new club, headed up by JH science teacher Michael Hawkins and HS science teacher Lana Duckworth, is set to launch next year and will provide students with new opportunities to apply all aspects of STEM skills and knowledge that they have been learning about in class. A goal of the new robotics club is to promote curiosity and passion for science for all 7-12 students.  

Robotics isn’t the only thing students are doing though. Some 9th and 10th graders are slipping into their lab coats, putting on their gloves and goggles, and trying their hands at bacterial transformation. These students will be using the common pGLO plasmid and inserting it into a non-parthenogenic strain of E. coli bacteria. If students are successful, they will have some glow-in-the-dark bacteria on their hands!  

AP Biology students are testing out their forensics skills with DNA analysis as they try to figure out “who killed poor old Mr. Colgan.” Chemistry students are working on their stoichiometry skills, and our math classes are gearing up for some end-of-the-year projects. On top of that, students participated in the national Women’s History Month by completing a periodic table of women in STEM, researching some of the most amazing women in the history of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  

While we are constantly trying to grow and better our Math and Science Departments here at CCS, we are also so proud of what our students are doing and accomplishing in the here and now!