STEM Academy Team Plans Trip to Iowa

thumb_50946c6b6f5493ab3b000000_default_small

Monday Morning

We had 19 members at Monday’s meeting back at the Retlaw Hotel along with five speakers and guest Lois Towne. Joining us was Archie Barribeau along with three of his Odyssey of the Mind students and one of their Moms. Bonnie Baerwald announced that the Children’s Museum is looking for a couple of volunteers to help with a Garden Project with young children from 10:00AM – 1:00PM this Saturday. Let Bonnie know if you can help. Bonnie also announced a Wild Goose Trail Clean Up on Saturday, May 10th. We’ll start with breakfast at Pump N Pantry starting at 7:15AM and meet at the trail head about 8:00AM. “Happy Bucks” were offered by Charlene Pettit for someone turning her lost iPhone in to Verizon, Pete Vercouteren for a good mission trip to Biloxi and Del Waldschmidt for a successful Brewers start to the season. Del also was the 50/50 Raffle winner but he drew the three of Spades, not a winner. Next week’s 50/50 Raffle drawing will have 25 cards with five pay cards and a pot of at least $364.

Odyssey of the Mind Team – STEM Academy

Many hours of hard work have paid off as the STEM Academy‘s Odyssey of the Mind (OM) team earned an invitation to the World Finals at Iowa State University. The team of Mason McGrath, Miles Dennis, Sophie Schmidt, Jared Ott, Eleanor Sitter, Allison Riley, and Alexis Lord became Wisconsin Odyssey of the Mind State Champions on March 22 in Madison by placing first in Division I with their solution for the problem, “The Not-So-Haunted House.”

Students prepared for the competition by studying science, math, art, and the language arts to develop an eight-minute solution to the problem. The five-month process included the OM team researching special effects, learning about communication, researching music, studying language, practicing creative problem solving, writing a play, and creating building plans. In addition, students learned how to operate power tools safely. Students then combined all their acquired knowledge and skills to create a production.

The students will represent Fond du Lac and the state of Wisconsin at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa on May 26-31.