Fremont Elementary School club gets students excited about science
Students in Fremont School District 79 have been getting an up-close look at science in some recent activities.
Fremont Elementary School students hovered over the gymnasium floor, water flew over head and their hair stood on end as part of a Getting Excited about Science assembly sponsored by the parent teacher organization.
Steve Belliveau presented the program, which was full of unexpected happenings. The show provided twists to science experiments that exhibited the principles of static electricity, air and water pressure, sound, light, friction, inductive and deductive reasoning and more.
At Fremont Middle School, students poked and prodded the dogfish shark during a science club activity. As teachers Jenn Novello and Jennifer Rogers spoke about the art of dissecting fish, students were itching to give it a try.
The Mundelein science club was formed to provide students with an extension to their day to engage in scientific inquiry and to problem solve. It is an enhancement to the Next Generation Science Standards.
Students requested a unit on dissecting to discover more about the organisms on the Earth.
"By dissecting, students better understand the functions of various body structures," Novello said. "By dissecting the dogfish (shark), it inspires students to pursue and answer deeper questions on how things work."
Trinity Davis, 12, joined science club "because I love dissecting things."
Amber Burgess, 13, wanted to explore science beyond the classroom. "We learn about things we don't get to explore in depth during science class," she said.
Throughout the year the science club explores different aspects of science, including water bottle rockets, physics in mouse trap cars and chemistry reactions.
This year, the Science Club was awarded a grant through the Fremont Education Foundation to purchase incubators, supplies, and fertilized eggs for an embryology unit. The incubators will be running in different science classrooms, allowing students in all three grade levels the opportunity to observe the growth and development of living things.