On January 25, SciTech students participated in the Hamilton for Education program along with more than 40 other schools from the Western Pennsylvania region that culminated in a Q&A with the cast and a matinee performance of Hamilton. In order to participate in the program students had to create an original performance piece referencing primary source documents from the founding era. From the submitted pieces the 14 strongest were chosen to be performed live on the Hamilton stage the morning of the show. Seniors Riley D, Alex R, and Lucca S were among those selected to perform. Their piece was a tribute to Aaron Burr and a look through his eyes at his famous duel with Alexander Hamilton. Senior Shane C did not perform with the group, but was key in editing their initial project and in engineering the music.

10 students represented SciTech at the Cool Schools Polar Plunge on Friday, February 22. They joined students from other Pittsburgh Public high schools and jumped into a freezing cold pool to support the Special Olympics.

NHS members presented the American Red Cross Pillowcase Project to the third, fourth and fifth grade classes at Sunnyside Elementary today. The elementary school students learned  about fire safety, coping techniques to use in stressful situations and emergency preparedness. Each student also got to decorate a pillowcase which they can take home and use to make an emergency evacuation kit.

On Tuesday, January 22, 2019, two SciTech students, Sachin and Mia were featured on the NPR radio program called The Confluence hosted by Kevin Gavin. B&B performed a curriculum module on Biofilms in collaboration with Dr.Vaughn Cooper from the University of Pittsburgh. During the lab module, the students determined how bacteria evolve over a short period of time to become better biofilm makers. The students shared their experience on The Confluence as a focus of implementing Hands-on STEM education in the area of Evolution, usually a challenging topic in a high school classroom. Find the radio excerpt below.

http://micropopbio.org/news.html

Interact Club students volunteered at Canterbury Place. They helped the residents build gingerbread houses and spread some holiday cheer!

Nine students interested in pursuing STEM fields recently joined for the Young Women in Bio mentoring session at SciTech. Students are partnered with female leaders in STEM who mentor the students in resume building, networking and other opportunities to enhance their future careers.