ICS and the K2M STEM Summit

On Saturday April 11th, 8 ICS students traveled to Foxcroft School in Middleburg to participate in the K2M Stem Summit for girls.  Sponsored by K2M, a bioengineering company, this event was held to encourage young women to pursue STEM fields with creative and fun problem solving! ICS was one of 22 middle and high schools who participated.  Our students made up two teams who competed in 6 different challenges centered around a theme of solving a “Mystery on the K2 mountain.” Teams had to solve different math, logic, engineering and science challenges.

Team “Fine Cosine” (Emma S., Victoria R., Amy H. and Constance T.) won 1st place in the physics challenge called “Base Camp Ballast” where students had to regulate the flight time of a balloon to reach the top of the “mountain” a.k.a. the gym ceiling! Team “Static Discharge” (Erin L., Anna C., Madison M., Julia W.) also had a great time putting their minds together and they especially enjoyed the logic puzzle where they tried to solve a crime based on the evidence at a crime scene.
STEM K2M Competition 2015
Individual prizes were raffled off to competitors who answered science and math questions correctly. ICS student Constance won a beautiful Vera Bradley tote! The girls were excited to see how many science facts and math problems they could solve! A pizza lunch was enjoyed by all to round out the event.

As a middle school science teacher, I cherish opportunities like this to encourage students, especially girls, to collaborate and solve problems. Together, students learn to tackle a challenge, not be afraid to try out their idea and even fail a few times.  But most of all, they learn to encourage each other to persevere until they find a solution. At ICS, young women benefit from our school’s emphasis not just on a finished project, but on the process of achieving solutions and the encouragement to move beyond just head knowledge to the application of wisdom.  The STEM subjects are rapidly growing and there is a need for motivated individuals that have both creative and thoughtful solutions to shape our future.  It’s my honor and my goal to help inspire students in that endeavor.

This blog post was written Kate Alvarado, ICS Middle School Science Teacher.Alvarado_01