Blackstone Valley STEM Conference October 2017

On Saturday, October 21, 2017, ten Douglas 7th and 8th graders joined 100 middle school students from across the Blackstone Valley at the 10th Annual STEM Kids Conference, held at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, MA. The purpose of the conference was to inspire students to pursue career opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), while also giving them a taste of college life.
Students each participated in three workshops out of ten available to them: Building a Military Ration, Candy Bar Battle, Clinical Pathology Lab Detective Work, Electrophysics of Music, Exploring the Intersection of Veterinary Medicine and Engineering, Forensic Science, How to be a Dog Doctor, The Incredible Power of Weather, Making Your Own Video Game, and Why You Should Think Like a Hacker. In the afternoon, students enjoyed a keynote presentation from Julia Paxson, an Associate Professor of Biology at Holy Cross, who discussed the science of regeneration and answered lots of great student-generated questions. 
Concurrently, parents also participated in presentations about early college planning. The day concluded with a high-energy Van de Graaff generator demonstration by Mr. Macdonald Andrews, Senior Principal Raytheon Engineer and Douglas resident. The program was organized and funded by the Blackstone Valley Education Foundation and the Tufts/Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Funding was also provided by Homefield Credit Union and Southwick’s Zoo.
STEM Kids

7th grade students who attended the program were: Emma Camosse, Kenneth Horne, Rylee Mitchell, Brianna Taylor, and Tyler Wills. 8th grade students who attended the program were: Zophia Cherrier, Miranda DeGaetano, Kaleb Schimmelpenningh, Sarah Stevens, and Joshua Zetlan.