• Throughout the month of February, students across the district will be learning about the achievements, contributions and efforts of African Americans to the fields of language and literature, arts and music, and science, technology and health. This week, Feb. 14-18, we're focusing on achievements or accomplishments in science, technology and health.

    Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School

    Mrs. Wall's fourth grade class read about and watched videos about Garrett Morgan, a trailblazing African American who invented the three-position traffic signal, among other innovations. The students completed a STEM challenge in which they made a balloon-powered car; next, they're going to use the cars in a competition to see how traffic lights are important at intersections of streets.

    Photo shows part of cardboard used to make paper cars stewn about a carpet, with student handsPhoto shows a student preparing to race a cardboard car powered by a green balloon.

     

     

     

    Wilson Middle School

    Photo is of a yellow Google Slide pamphlet with photographs and information about George Washington Carver.

    It's all about science at Wilson Middle School this week! Sixth-grade students are using the text "Hidden Figures," a story about three groundbreaking African American women working behind the scenes at NASA, to discuss segregation, space flight, and the importance of perseverance. Seventh-graders, meanwhile, are completing digital posters of famous African American scientists. The posters will detail the person's discovery, contribution or invention, when the person conducted the research, and how the students think the world would be today without the scientists' contributions. 

    Eighth grade students researched scientist George Washington Carver then created a Google Slide Template Pamphlet presentation about him. They used information from a video presentation and online resources to create a presentation about his history, background, scientific accomplishments, and contributions to the scientific world.

     

    Erie's Public Schools Cyber Choice Academy (Patrick J. DiPaolo Student Success Center at Emerson-Gridley)

    Photo shows a slide with photo and information about inventor Lonnie G. Johnson.EPS Cyber Choice Academy fourth- and fifth-grade students created slides about famous Black inventors. They answered specific questions about their inventor to create the slide, added pictures of the inventor and their invention, and designed their slide using ClassKick. Our students were impressed with the impact of these great inventors!

     

     

     

    Strong Vincent Middle School

    PHoto shows student researching on a laptop

     

    Sixth graders from Mrs. Miehl’s and Mrs. Lazenby’s classes took “deep dives” into researching African Americans who’ve made significant contributions to the areas of Health and Sciences. These amazing projects will be shared at class meetings later in the week.

     

     

     

    Edison Elementary School

    Edison students turned the spotlight on Dr. Mae Jemison, an astronaut and scientist. Here's what they learned!

    Photo shows a chart with a list of facts about scientist and astronaut Mae Jemison

    Jefferson Elementary School

    Photo shows two Jefferston students standing in front of wall display with colored picture & info about Neil DeGrasse TysonJefferson second-graders read about astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and his love of science and the stars. The students then created their own constellation and wrote about it. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Harding Elementary School

    At Harding, Dr. Newman's first-graders learned about Katherine Johnson, one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist, while Mrs. Woofter's kindergarteners read "Ron's Big Mission", about Ron McNair.

    Photo shows two Harding students, one holding the book "Ron's Big Mission," about astronaut Ron McNairPhoto shows Harding students with cutout colored papers of Katherine Johnson.McNair was a NASA astronaut and physicist. He was also well known for refusing to leave the segregated library in his hometown without being able to check out his books. McNair died aboard the space shuttle Challenger, and that library in Lake City, South Carolina is now named after him.

     

     

    Lincoln Elementary School

    Photo of Lincoln student creating a poster with facts about Charles R. Drew.Photo of two Lincoln students holding a poster with information and photos about Benjamin Banneker.Lincoln Lions created posters to celebrate contributions to health and science for Black History Month.  These posters celebrate Benjamin Banneker, Charles R. Drew, and Daniel H. Williams. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

    JoAnna Connell Elementary School

    Photo of a wall covered with paper reports detailing facts about Black Americans in STEM.Mr. Paluchak's 5th grade class is busy researching Black Americans who are trailblazers in the STEM fields. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Diehl Elementary School

    Photo shows tiny pictures of prek students at Diehl superimposed on a construction paper rocket ship.Preschoolers in Meghan Ore's class learned about Dr. Mae Jemison. From Ms. Ore: "We read the book "Mae Among the Stars" and watched a video of the real Mae Jemison, so they could see the book was about a real person. Then, they made their own astronauts and spaceships to be like Mae!"

     

     

     

     

     

    McKinley Elementary School


    Photo of a wall hung with paper reports on Olympian Jesse Owens.In order to be a stellar Olympic athlete, you have to be healthy, and health is one of the themes for this week. Students in Ms. Janoske's Grade 2 class researched and found text-based evidence about Jesse Owens. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Perry Elementary School

    Photo of a Perry student standing in front of a whiteboard showing a projected presentation on Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler.Fifth-graders at Perry took this week's theme of "tech" literally, using technology to research and present findings on famous African American scientists, inventors, and health care workers, including Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African American woman to become a doctor of medicine in the United States.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Erie High School

    Photo shows students hunched over microscopes, looking at slides of onion root.Ms. Chromik's B Day Block 3 Biology students "focused" on the opportunity to view onion root under the microscope. Onion root is used to observe the various stages of the cell cycle, including the stages of mitosis. The goal of the lab is for students to be able to identify a cell in each of the four stages of mitosis (prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase/cytokinesis), be able to draw it and make a case/explanation as to how and why they know that cell is in the stage they identified.