Washington Accelerated School is seeking donations for its STEM program. This program is in its second year and about 700 students have had hands-on science and engineering experiences each school week.For more information about Washington's STEM program go to   www.washingtonelementary.weebly.com

In order to make a donation go to link below. Don't forget to specify you want to donate to Washington's STEM program

http://www.pasedfoundation.org/donors/

   

Ms. Winckler's class took soil samples at the Washington garden site as a beginning lesson for their unit on erosion and deposition.  Students added water and then waited a few days to observe how the different soil particles settled in the specimen jar.  The culminating project is an engineering design challenge in which students are tasked with building a dam to save a city whose river is prone to flash floods.  Check out Washington Elementary's S.T.E.M. website for more on this challenge!

4th Grade STEM Classes at the Science Center
On September 20, 2012 WAES 4th grade STEM classes went on a field trip to the Science Center located in Los Angeles. Students in Dr. Green's and Mr. Tremper's classes spent three hours touring the Science Center to learn about different life cycles. "I had a lot of fun at the field trip!", said Ruby Martinez a student in Dr. Green's class. She added, "I learned how hard it is for animals to get food from the ocean rocks. I also learned about flash floods and how they take place in the dessert." David Hernandez commented on the importance of field trips. He said, "It is important to go on field trips because we learn new things that we don't normally see in the classroom." "It's a good thing to leave the classroom now and then..."
They both hope to get another chance to experience science outside the classroom again.

The Western Growers Foundation announced the list of schools that were awarded a grant for the 2012-2013 school year. We are happy to announce that Washington Accelerated School was awarded one of these grants.
Paula Olson, Vice-President of Marketing for the Western Growers Foundation made the announcement last August. "We had many qualified schools this year," said Ms. Olson. "And with a generous donation from Monsanto of $20,000 we were able to award more schools this year that we have inthe past."

This grant will help create a "Fruit and Vegetable Garden" at WAES. This garden will be run and supervised by students in K-3rd grades. Ann Chandler, a retired biologist, will help supervise the project. Ann currently volunteers at WAES and helps run the Life-Science portion of the STEM lab here at Washington.
The $1500 grant awarded to our school is the first from the Western Growers Foundation. This grant will help build raised bed/above ground gardens. This project will follow curriculum in the area of Life and Science. 

Click on the link below to learn more about the announcement made by the Western Growers Foundation.
http://www.wga.com/blog/2012/09/13/wg-foundation-announces-2012-school-garden-grants

California's State Superintendent of Public Education Tom Torlakson Gives Washington Accelerated a THUMBS UP!  The honorable State Superintendent Tom Torlakson visited our school last week. He visited our school in order to release the results of the last California State Test (CST) given last April/May. Mr. Torlakson chose Washington Accelerated due to the increase in test scores that our school showed. Mr. Torlakson praised the efforts of students and teachers and congratulated our principal Ms.Clark for leading our school towards District and State academic goals. Mr. Torlakson spent time during his visit to Washington to observe classrooms and get a feeling for the culture of our school. We were honored and glad to see our State Superintendent at our campus.
Good job Washington!!!

Mrs. Jodie West excels at teaching science and engineering at Washington Accelerated School. She is currently in charge of the STEM program as well as running the Science and Technology Lab at Washington. Her work and accomplishments at Washington were showcased in a video presented at State Superintendent Tom Torlakson's CST results press release last week. You can watch her in action at:
http://vimeo.com/47565558
If you want to donate to Washington's Science and Technology Lab, click on Support WAES at the top of your page.