Page 23 - Griffin Network May 2017

around

CAMPUS

2016 Homecoming King Alex Jansen
& Queen Danielle DeStasio

“STREAM Week”
Donovan Catholic implemented a “STREAM WEEK” each semester where all class-
room subjects concentrated their studies on an approved STREAM theme. Stream
lessons are built to accommodate the broad spectrum of learning styles and abilities
while connecting the various disciplines throughout the school.
S-T-R-E-A-M is an acronym for the collaborative study of Science, Technology, 22
Religion, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics. STREAM is an interdisciplinary ap-
proach to bridging subject areas. It allows for higher level critical thinking skills
and a deeper understanding of content material. The 2016-17 school theme
was Let’s Do Something Beautiful for the Earth, “one bottle” at a time.; a com-
prehensive, collaborative study of the effects of plastics on our environment.
During STREAM Week, videos were shown, information was gathered, and proj-
ects were created and completed bringing our students a better understanding
of how one community’s actions can affect the world.
The awareness raised on how much plastic we use as a community and country
and how plastics effect our environment has impacted our students in so many
ways. The physics classes gathered all the recycled bottles from the cafeteria to
use again to build recyclable bins for use around the school. The math department
counted the bottles each semester to determine if in fact we lowered our use of
plastic bottles in the building. Math classes determined that the student body
lowered the use of plastic bottles by about 30%. Religion classes focused on the
Catholic social teaching principals of caring for the earth as they relate to Pope
Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si.
Health classes studied the codes on plastic containers that indicate the amount of BPA
in the plastic. In doing so, the students realized that containers used in the school cafete-
ria had a high BPA number and brought this information to the cafeteria manager who in
turn contacted the company and the containers were changed. The student council has
begun a campaign to change all
the water fountains in the building
to water refill stations. The first re-
fill station was installed in the
cafeteria over the Easter break.
so it’s true....

dONOVAN CATHOLIC
“It Makes A difference!”