Good afternoon DAS parents and guardians!
This year we are focusing on 3 ELEVATE-DAS STEM clubs (Science Olympiad, VEX Robotics and SeaPerch); we will hold an informational meeting this coming Saturday (08/31/2024) from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM in the cafeteria. We'll go over our STEM clubs with an overview and answer any questions you might have. We are looking for parents to help, and is a great way to get in volunteer time (need to have a Level II clearance). Most of these clubs will meet once a week, with times to be determined. There will be a signup form available soon for the following clubs:
The Science Olympiad - we will have at least two teams, based on school year, with up to 15 students on each team. Middle School (grades 6-8) and some 5th graders will compete in Division B, while grades 3-5 will compete in Division A.
- Division B students will compete in a few of the 23 tournament events - see: https://www.soinc.org/events/2025-event-table. These events cover several different STEM topics, ranging from Life Sciences, Earth and Space Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering and general Inquiry. The previous link shows the 23 different events for Division B, and there are further links on that page to the individual links. The tournament we attend will likely be mid-February 2025.
- Division A students will compete in 15 events, which can be found on https://eso.floridascienceolympiad.org/about-elementary-science-olympiad/. The likely Division A events for 2025 are in that column -- I say likely as the 2024-2025 season hasn't been set. The tournament will likely be later than Division B (probably late April 2025).
VEX Robotics is a club that DAS has had in the past, and will be doing again. We will have 2 teams of 4, where students are tasked with designing and building a robot to play with other teams in a game-based engineering challenge. Our teams will be grades 5-8 (see https://www.vexrobotics.com/iq).
SeaPerch is a club which builds and operates a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at a regional competition, most likely near Orlando (https://seaperch.org/about/), and probably held February or March of 2025. Last year's theme wass Deep-Sea Exploration and will change this year. . We will have 2 teams of 4, again grades 5-8, and will compete in 2 different underwater obstacle courses.
Again, we'll have presentations on the clubs this Saturday in DAS's cafeteria, 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Please let me know if you have any questions, and look for a signup form soon. And again, please think about being a volunteer!
Thanks,
Dr. B
Gavin Blackett, PhD
STEM Coordinator/6th Computer Science
Discovery Academy of Science
2433 Nursery Road
Clearwater, FL 33764
Phone: +1.727.330.2424 x113