| For Immediate Release February 19, 2010 |
For more information, call: Cecelia Price, 502/585-3291 |
St. Aloysius School Receives Physics Grant
(Pewee Valley, KY) Ms. Theresa Murphy, a sixth-grade science teacher at St. Aloysius School in Pewee Valley (122 Mount Mercy Drive) won a $200 grant from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. This AIAA Foundation “Educator Classroom Grant” will allow her to purchase materials for a hands-on unit on the physics of flight.
For this unit, which will begin in May of this year, sixth-grade students will be divided into groups of “scientists” who will be responsible for collecting enough data about aerodynamics to create a video explaining what they have learned about the principles of flight and the relationship among the forces acting on an airplane in flight. Each group will build a model of a hot air balloon to measure exterior and interior air temperatures and to determine mass and calculations of lift. Students also will build a “Big Betty” rocket with a B6-4 engine to discover how Newton’s “Third Law” enables flight. The data collected will be made into graphs to explain trajectory, velocity and acceleration. With the conviction that the ability to ask critical questions creates better citizens, leaders and persons, Ms. Murphy hopes this project will instill in students the initiative to ask “why” and “how” about phenomena such as flight.
For information, call: Mary Ann Hayslip, Principal, 502/241-8516.
St. Nicholas Holds Science Fair
Saint Nicholas Academy will be hosting a Science Fair on Tuesday, February 23, in the gyms at both the north (4333 Hazelwood Avenue) and south (5501 New Cut Road) campuses. The fair will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Students in grades 6-8 will present experiments with supporting written documents and display boards. Topics of the projects include: plants, atomic energy, plasma, electricity, sound, light, motor building and pulleys. The public is invited to attend.
The students prepared for the science fair in class and in the SNA Science Club held after school. The St. Nicholas Academy Science Department develops and enhances students’ understanding of the importance of science in life and presents opportunities for students to consider career choices in the field of science.
For information, call: Kitty Schloemer, 502/368-8506.
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