GSP Science Fair Night

Dear GSP families,
I saw many of you at our Science Fair Night this week.
What a fun evening for students and families! I hope you got to explore the activities and had some time to look at our student- and classroom projects. They all did an amazing job!




Here are some things I learned Wednesday night:

• where the dirtiest place is located in school (and hopefully we can do something about it!) 
• how to make paper at home
• how many seeds you will find in a pear, strawberry and lemon
• why I should wear a helmet when riding my bike 
• how a whale stays warm
• which letters are the most common in German and English books
• the consistency of cornstarch is somewhat unpredictable 
• and many more things!

I hope you enjoyed the evening as much as I did and learned something, too.
I would like to thank all of you for encouraging our students to work so hard and our volunteers who organized the event, but also were fearless enough to lead an activity
station.
We couldn't have done it without you!

Trees!

Our 4th grade class received a special surprise last week.
Through the generous donation of one of our alumni families, they were able to participate in the fourth grade foresters program. To celebrate Arbor day in April this program donates trees to participating 4th grade classes throughout the United States.
Our students were excited to receive their tree seedlings and shared their planting ideas with the class. A few extra seedlings will be planted here at school during our spring clean up this Saturday.

For more information about the program, please follow the link:
Fourth Grade Foresters USA
A special thank you to our alumni mom Liane Nishimura!

NW Science Expo

During spring break I had the opportunity to participate in the NW Science Expo at Portland State University  http://www.nwse.org

This event gives middle school students and a few grade school students an opportunity to showcase their science projects. Many middle schools throughout the region send a handful of projects, selected by their science fair committee.

The 400 projects on display were quite amazing and ranged from engineering an automated dog feeder to research into new cancer treatments. These kids came a long way from your typical volcano project!

What impressed me most was the attention to detail and the professional way of displaying findings. Most Nobel Prizes these days are not awarded to individuals, but teams that explore together and the majority of projects here were partner projects, too.

While academic knowledge in the subject area is necessary for a successful project, presentation skills and attention to detail are just as critical for success.

The NW Science Expo showcased many projects and young scientists that proved to have all of these abilities.

While our GSP students did not win an award, they experienced what it means to present a project in front of a bigger crowd and surely got inspired by the talent present!

Our own GSP science fair is just around the corner and I can't wait to see the projects our students create!