Science Technology Engineering Math

These are part of our forward thinking at Piner High School such
that we have developed a STEM certificate program, have written
STEM in as a site goal and utilize resources to fund a STEM
coordinator to work with students, staff and the community.

STEM Education is an interdisciplinary and applied approach first...and using core ideas and principles
from Science and Math...second. To that end this is what our teachers put together this year with other
examples discussed in the CTE section of the newsletter--It just keeps getting better !

Survival!
Staff choice for 4th quarter topic of coordinated planning brought great diversity to our campus. 9th grade
computer students created Survival guides for incoming freshmen while English students had to take a
second - serious look at their semester literature to create a survival guide for scenarios from books such
as Life of Pi and Animal Farm. Health Science classes researched how blood products help us to survive
with a trip to the local blood bank and a community effort to register folks for the bone marrow donor
database.
Historically survival can relate to the atrocities of war and we had Veterans some speak to the
classes about their experience. For many of us the ultimate survival brings to mind the Holocaust and
some teachers had their students do projects such as to evaluate the role of survivor testimony in the
Nuremberg Trials. As a collective, with the help of Sonoma County Alliance and the Story Project of
Sonoma County we launched the unit with moving stories and advice from actual survivors of the
Holocaust or their family members. Many students hearing for the first time ,as well, the injustice of the
Armenian Genocide presented by a 3rd generation survivor.

Integrated & Collaborative Unit: The Immortal Lives of Henrietta Lacks.

English and Biology students in the 10th grade worked with the literature components
and scientific concepts of this book. Their culminating project was a presentation that
combined facts with the impact that this story had on their own lives. Students enjoyed
the depth of study they were able to gain with two teachers working on the same main
concepts and we collectively came together to learn more about HeLa cells and Cancer
during our Cancer Awareness campaign. We became more informed with cancer
survivors sharing their journey, agencies such as American Cancer society bringing
material to campus and our own 9th grade Honors Biology students sharing their
research and life suggestions about a multitude of specific cancers.

Fun with Fractals- Math & Science Collaboration

Nine teachers attended a professional development training at the Exploratorium
and were inspired to work together to show students the mathematical prowness
of Fractals and how and why they occur in nature. Fractals are acurveor
geometricfigure,eachpartofwhichhasthesamestatisticalcharacterasthe
whole.Scientificapplicationsweremadetoourwatersheds,galaxyformation,
crystalgrowthandsnowflakesasstudentsexplored-sometimesveryartistically-
howtocreateandanalyzefractals.
STEMsymposium- Over 100 science minded people attended the 3rd Annual STEM symposium on May 25th. The
capstone of the evening is the presentation of Level 3 research projects based on individual work done by our
students. Shania Hamid did a comparative analysis on swordfern fertility at
Pepperwood preserve and Armstrong Woods. She was eloquent in her delivery,
demonstrating wonderful public speaking skills as well as solid science that she had
learned. Conclusion- Armstrong woods has ferns with longer fronds and therefore
more of the fertile sections called sori. Reasons suggested included the slope of the
land of the sample plots, available rainfall (soil type) and resource supply of neighboring redwood trees. Shania
received her STEM prospect jacket as recognition of her achievement of obtaining all 7 of the STEM certificates over
the 4 years of high school. Besides completing two Level 1 projects each year, Shania Shania participated in the
Teen Nat program at Pepperwood and also conducted research with our UC Davis high school program called
CAMEOS. For Level 2 credit, she created and publically defended her work for each of those programs.
In order to explore the effects of wildlife barriers on snow pea plants, Lindsey Tah worked with the Sonoma
County Wildlife Rescue agency. There she set up plots with each one getting a different
treatment in hopes of finding an organic method for crop protection. She was clever in her
use of treatments such as reflective, noisy and human objects as compared to netting or
just nothing ( her control). Her results were given a chi square test and it was shown that
noise barriers such as a string of bells work the best !
These amazing young ladies presented to our STEM advisory panel that consists
of a retired NIH scientist, Dennis Mangan, Sonoma State professors- Dr. Steven Winters and Dr. Monica Lares and
PHS Principal- Tim Zalunardo. Upon completion they received a signed group letter of recommendation to be used
for college admission as well as financial aid. In addition they will have their high school transcripts embossed with a
seal depicting their STEM certificate participation and wear a cord at graduation.
Our open poster session was next as Level 2 students presented their projects that include a
community mentor and over 15 hours work outside of the classroom. Kurt Kruger worked diligently
with students creating rockets based on the S4 program, Small Satellites for Secondary Students.
Students worked with Tony Alcocer, a master rocketeer, and they all have a successful launch at
Dairy Aire field in Fresno. Our specialized CTE programs, HSB and GTP also send students into the
community for a job shadow experience, which they present on this night after reviewing their
experience with a STEM focus.
Our Health Science students presented about STEM in surgery and in depth research on Veterinary
mishaps with the inner ear. GIS students discussed their work with the City of Santa Rosa and Hogan
Land services. Other student projects were from Teen Nat at Pepperwood, Seeds of Resilience and
the SSU Summer Science program. Of great interest was our entry into the first annual STEAM
symposium- Michelle Ruiz displayed her project about mathematical composed cartoon characters.
We ended the evening with our awards ceremony where keynote speaker, Megan Mayo,
spoke of the challenges of scientific research and the necessity to educate ourselves about scien
tific research to make informed decisions for our planet. As a graduate student, Megan worked with our students as
part of the UC Davis CAMEOS program which guides student inquiry and her students are now the class of 2017- so
it was very fitting to have her return to launch them forward. As the awards were handed out each student came up
and briefly discussed their project and it made for an active and interesting ceremony.
Our numbers this year look like : Level 1: 82 Level 2: 20 Level 3 : 2. One of our focal points next year
will be to get students to follow through each year and create more accessible projects for our Level 3 students. In
addition, now that Piner will have an English language collaborative, we plan to have all of our students in this
program complete the level 1 work as a minimum level of engagement.