Expanding STEM Opportunities at SAA-SDS

St. Agnes Academy-St. Dominic School was recently awarded a STEM Classroom Grant by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Today Marcey Wright, Community Relations Manager at TVA, was on campus to formally present the award to President Hood, Upper School Dean Heather Valdez, Biomedical teacher/STEM Coordinator David Tran, and our engineering students. The Classroom Grant Program is designed to fund STEM learning projects in classrooms and schools in the TVA service area comprised of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and of course, Tennessee.

The grant has been used to purchase two Vex CTE Work cells for use by our Engineering classes. Vex CTE is a construction system for a robotic arm, conveyors, and sensors - brought together with VEXcode coding software.

“During the 3^rd quarter, students will explore the fundamentals of robotic arms and industrial automation,” said Mr. Tran.  “The class will learn to set up and control the 6-Axis Robotic Arm using a Teach Pendant and then code it to perform precise movements and tasks. These types of hands-on activities and coding challenges allow our students to gain practical skills in robotics and automation.

“We will build on these skills in the 4^th quarter as students learn to integrate sensors, conveyors, and pneumatics, and master complex coding concepts to fully automate moving, sorting, and palletizing objects,” he added.

In other STEM news on campus, our students will be out in the community this week. On Friday, 14 students from our second-year biomedical science class and engineering class will attend Christian Brothers University STEM Day, an event for high school juniors and seniors that gives them the opportunity to participate in a variety of STEM projects, hands-on activities, and competitions.

Two groups of Upper School students have advanced to the Championship Round of the Memphis-Area Joint Engineers Council (MJEC) Student Contest. This weekend they will present their inventions to a panel of local professionals from different engineering disciplines, with criteria of benefit, feasibility, creativity, and presentation.

Sophomores Emma Casey, Sophie Kerr and Karinsel Poblete will present their invention, EverSafe Christmas Tree Kits, designed to prevent fires during the holidays. These kits contain a tree topper and matching ornament, all which contain potassium bicarbonate flame suppressant.

Mia Cortez (12^th), Aubrie Odom (11^th) and Leah Branch (11^th) will present their invention Dental Detector, designed to promote better oral health. Their design will provide at-home cavity and gum disease detection through your phone camera and an app.

This contest, a part of the organization’s Engineers Week activities, is a competition for middle and high school students, designed to blend science with opportunities to generate change in the world.