State Championship Conners Emerson Olympiads Bring in STEAM Week With Over 30 Wins
STEAM WEEK FEATURES COMMUNITY, INFLATABLE PLANETARIUM, AND A WHOLE LOT OF FUN
BAR HARBOR—The love of science is strong in Bar Harbor. It isn’t just the adults working and interning at the Jackson Laboratory, MDI Biological Laboratory, Acadia National Park, and MDI Hospital who are focused on science.
It’s the kids, too.
And the teachers and staff at Conners Emerson.
And the parents and guardians.
All that love and effort and learning came together last week as the school celebrated STEAM every day.
“It's really important for students to have STEAM in their lives because that's what runs our whole world these days,” said Conners Emerson STEAM teacher Chrissy Parkinson. “We all rely on science, technology engineering, and math for nearly every facet of our lives, whether we realize it or not, and the art element that incorporates creativity and makes it beautiful. Showing kids (and their families) that their passions now can turn into careers, makes me excited and hopeful for the future.”
Focus and hard work brought multiple state first places at the Science Olympiads, April 6. And it brought families and students to the Conners Emerson School’s STEAM night last Thursday where area agencies interacted with students. STEAM stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics.” The theory is that these are places where students can be guided toward inquiry, critical thinking, and dialogue. They are access points.
According to the Center for Innovation and Education, “STEAM education is a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to learning that combines science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. It harnesses the natural symbiosis between these disciplines to foster creative problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking.”
As she worked with one student, Thursday night, Conners Emerson Principal Dr. Heather Webster demonstrated those principles, guiding, questioning, praising, and while smiling said of the Olympiads, “I’m very proud of them.”
Just as she said it, a mom helped her preschooler through a tunnel set up by a ranger from Acadia National Park. The toddler squealed delight and the mom asked, “Best day ever?”
“Best day! Best day!”
Nearby, a boy touched a mannequin and said, “So cool. This is just so cool.” Stuffed animals representing the wildlife at Acadia National Park grabbed another child’s interest. In another room, an inflatable planetarium led to oohhs and ahhs. In the cafeteria scientists hosted tables of exploration.
“Our partnerships with local organizations and businesses is incredibly important because they are the ones that teach us what we actually need to be teaching our students to be successful both in today's workforce and in a workforce 20 years from now that we can't even imagine yet,” Parkinson said.
THE OLYMPIADS
For the Conners Emerson Olympiad team, one of those best days was the Saturday before the STEAM night and it definitely involved science and a lot of celebration.
When “Conners Emerson” flashed twenty times for individual events on the huge auditorium screen at the University of Maine, the Olympiads were jumping in their seats.
Every flash meant a win.
“When they saw on that same screen that they had placed first in the state, they knew they would be going on to Nationals and their energy vibrated the three rows in which we were seated,” said Conners Emerson gifted and talented specialist and Olympiad advisor Mary Mackay.
They began meeting as soon as the 2023-2024 school year began and thanks to their win, their season isn’t over. The Science Olympiad National Tournament will be at the site of its first National Tournament at the University of Michigan. The students are currently working to raise money to get there. The website explains, “Founded in 1984, Science Olympiad is the premier team STEM competition in the nation, providing standards-based challenges to 6,000 teams at 425 tournaments in all 50 states.”
“What better way to kick off our STEAM Week at CES than having our Science Olympiad Team score first place in the state championship this weekend!!! To say this team is amazing is an understatement! They have been working hard all school year (and on some weekends) to get ready for this competition. Great job to all our Science Olympians and Coach Mackay,” Dr. Webster wrote in the school’s newsletter.
The team took the state championship and over 30 individual awards. But the students also took home experience and a relationship with STEAM that could make huge impacts for their future.
STEAM AND TEACHERS AND THE FUTURE
At STEAM night, Jenna from the Jackson Lab was volunteering. She said that she was in third grade when a teacher said, “One day you’re going to be writing my things.” That teacher saw something in Jena and introduced her to a world of science and writing and learning that made an impact. “She was the best.”
At the same table, her co-worker Samia said, “I had a really cool teacher in high school.”
That teacher told her, “You can do anything.”
Now, she’s a graduate student in her fourth year at the lab, proving her teacher right. Both women were positively impacted by adults believing in them and interacting with those adults in positive ways.
Those same kind of interactions are happening with devoted teachers and staff at Conners Emerson in the class room, at STEAM nights, and at clubs like the Science Olympiads. The club met throughout the year before its big win.
“At first, the team met during ‘Clubs & Classes’ during flex time at the end of the day. In December we began meeting for a couple of hours after school and two hours every other Sunday,” Mackay said. “As we neared the competition date, we met more frequently and for longer periods of time. After school vacation we will meet after school once a week for at least two hours and for several hours on one weekend day. Students also spend time at home working on their build and research projects since September.
The school has a history of wins.
“Three of our team members competed last year — one of them placing tenth nationally in the Disease Detectives event. One of our teams also placed fifth in Green Generation. Both of those team members are now in high school,” she said.
The club and the event, the team work and learning, are more than just the glory of the win.
“Science Olympiad gives these kids the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics beyond what they will encounter in a typical middle school curriculum. They all prepared for the research projects by taking tests designed for high school students, studying high school and college texts in the areas of physics and calculus. The build projects are not only an opportunity for students with hands-on strengths, but also require adherence to a very strict set of parameters and a need to develop detailed design and practice logs. Several of the events require spontaneous responses, requiring the students to develop critical and creative problem solving strategies,” MacKay said.
“Being a contributing member of a team that focuses on the scientific process (accepting failure, redirection, creative solutions), develops a life skill that will prepare them for the academic and career journey ahead. Simply being part of a team, showing up, focusing on the task at hand, overcoming relationship obstacles, making connections, and building partnerships gives students a sense of community that is vital to their wellbeing,” she said. “Any time we give students the opportunity to address and overcome challenges, their self-esteem increases.”
Nationals is a whole extra level of experience with 121 15-member teams from the United States and Japan. Mackay said it was the opportunity of a lifetime.
“Not only do they have the opportunity to communicate with other students who are as excited about science as they are, they also meet and interact with some of the greatest minds in science today from professors to representatives from corporate entities,” she said. “They witness high school students being awarded scholarships and internships at the awards ceremony. And they are able to take pride in the fact that they are representing the state of Maine in this tournament.”
The Science Olympiad has held national tournaments for 40 years. Currently, in Maine, there has been a struggle to attract teams.
“The Dean of the Engineering & Computer Science college has joined with the Education College to increase outreach to Maine schools,” she said of the university system and the need to build up the program. “My support for this program and its successful continuation in the state of Maine has led me to be a part of that outreach with the university this summer. David Sturm, Maine state director, and his team have made huge strides in making the state tournament more enticing to participants by engaging professors and graduate students to run events.”
That role had previously been the head coaches’. Head coaches such as Mackay, who had that role in the past.
“It has been wonderful to watch these students as they have grown in responsibility and determination. There are many opportunities for young people these days and dedication to this team has meant momentarily giving up other interests so that they are available to meet during out of school meetings,” Mackay said. “This team has worked diligently to get where they are today and even after the push to get to the state tournament they had no reluctance when it came to enthusiasm for the nationals. In our meetings since the state tournament, they have been able to review their successes and identify the weaknesses that need attention before we get to Michigan State in May. I celebrate that willingness and each and every one of them!”
Update: This story was updated at 5:37 p.m., April 15 to include quotes from Chrissy Parkinson.
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