Early in March, the Blossom Hill Home & School Club sponsored an assembly for all students in from kinder to fifth grade starring David Hagerman, also known as the Science Wizard. He put on quite a show! He performed three different shows, one for kinder and 1st, one for 2nd and 3rd, and one for 4th and 5th with each show being slightly different and age appropriate. In each show he pulled students out of the audience to perform science experiments, linking magic, science, and humor into one amazing show. A few of his experiments he performed include floating a beach ball (and then two) in mid air, making water disappear, creating vortex rings, and showing the mysteries of a continuously spinning wheel.  Check out the videos (below) from these incredible assemblies. Hagerman the Science Wizard has appeared on America's Got Talent and has his own YouTube channel, if you'd like to check out more!

Assemblies (and much more) at Blossom Hill are all made possible by parent contributions to One Community LG.

Thank you to all of the participants of this year’s Science Fair. The goals of the event were to provide an opportunity for students to BEE CURIOUS while fostering enthusiasm for science, engineering, and an understanding of the scientific method. The Science Fair actually began in January with registration and library presentations about the scientific method. The excitement began to mount as students shared ideas for potential projects. For the past two months, students worked diligently to question, hypothesize, research, experiment, analyze, and report. The buzz continued as completed scientific investigations were put on display for class visits during the day and our annual Family Science Night on Friday, March 18th. We had over 200 student participants and 160 projects. Students had the opportunity to present their projects to their classmates, teachers, families and even Superintendent Paul Johnson. We learned that bubbles can bounce, evaporation cleans water the best, fast food can last a VERY long time without molding and that the dirtiest thing in your house may be a refrigerator handle. The school was also very lucky to have Iron Claw Robotics from Los Gatos High School demo their robot for the kids and even give them the opportunity to control the robot. 

A special thank you to the Los Gatos High School Robotics Team, Iron Claw 972, for their fun-filled demonstration during Science Night. Iron Claw is an FRC (First Robotics Competition) team that operates through the Robotics Class at Los Gatos High School. It was founded with a strong belief in the importance of student leadership. Each season, the team has about six weeks to design, build and program an entire 125-pound robot. Their members initially collaborate on design and prototyping and contribute to sub-teams like manufacturing and programming for the remainder of the season. The Robotics Team shared their 2020 build, "Voltaire," with Blossom Hill students who loved watching Voltaire fire dodgeballs left and right. Blossom Hill students even got a chance to use the controls themselves! To find out more about Iron Claw 972, their robots, and their competitions, please visit their website here.

From March 14th to March 16th, Blossom Hill fifth grade students traveled to Livermore to the Web of Life (WOLF) School at Camp Arroyo for three days of hiking, learning about our environment, and having fun. Students boarded the busses Monday morning full of excitement for three days away from home. After settling into their assigned cabins, students were off on their first hiking explorations with their naturalists, teachers, and chaperones, learning about adaptations, interdependence, communities, cycles and diversity in nature. Wildlife was all around us as flocks of turkeys and a herd of deer wandered through the camp and rolling hills. Students were excited for the spaghetti and garlic bread dinner that night as they were hungry from all the activity. Skit night followed dinner with many student groups choosing to participate as well as a fun skit from a three head creature that looked a lot like Mr. Joanides, Ms. Valentine, and Mrs. O'Donnell.

The next day started with a great breakfast of pancakes and sausages and our morning meeting where we learned a fun song about the FBI (Fungus, Bacteria and Invertebrates) and how the FBI is in action all around us. Then we were off on our first hike of the day. A little rain in the morning, but that couldn't dampen the fun of science camp. The sun came out and students enjoyed another beautiful day of hiking and exploring the vast grounds of Camp Arroyo. After dinner on Tuesday night (where every single piece of chicken, grain of rice and vegetable was devoured), students did one last hike - a night hike. With no flashlights, we allowed our eyes to adjust to the dark and experience the outdoors the way our nocturnal friends do. We also played a bat-moth game using our echolocation skills and enjoyed identifying the constellations in the night sky.

The last day of camp was bittersweet as we were having so much fun, but ready to get back home. Students were up early to pack and clean out their cabins, and then off to another hearty breakfast of eggs, potatoes and toast. Students then had their last activities with their naturalists before boarding the busses to return to Blossom Hill. Everyone agreed it was a wonderful trip with lots of learning about nature and strengthening of friendships and connections with classmates. Thank you to Mrs. Adams and the fifth grade teachers for all of the hard work it took to arrange and plan Science Camp, and to all the chaperones who attended. It was an experience we will always remember.

Thanks to your contributions to the One Community LG Campaign, LGEF will be funding a STEAM "TOSA" for the 2022-2023 school year. STEAM is an acronym for the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. A STEAM "TOSA" is a STEAM "Teacher on Special Assignment." Our new STEAM TOSA will work with teachers on each of the campuses to guide student inquiry and critical thinking and coach teachers on how to integrate STEAM into their curriculum. This new position originates directly from Objective #2 of our district's Strategic Plan.

More information on the LGUSD Strategic Plan can be found here.

If your child enjoyed the Science Fair, check out the following resource. The Bay Area Science Festival website maintains a year-round calendar of fun science and nature related events at: http://www.bayareascience.org/calendar/ . Collaborating together, we can continue to support a sense of wonder in the world and encourage our children to think about how things work and ask questions.

Lisa Reynolds, Principal | lreynolds@lgusd.org

Melissa Crow, President | president@blossomhill.org  

Submissions can be made to The Beehive editor, Jennifer Shapiro,

at beehive@blossomhill.org.