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Congratulations to all our budding scientists who participated in the K-4th Grade Science Fair sponsored by the PSA on April 7th. We had a total of 42 projects with 85 students participating. Our kindergarten through 4th grade students worked with the scientific method to create amazing exhibits like “Dancing Popcorn,” “Gummy Bear Growth,” “What Makes the Rocket Fly,” “Fun with Water Density,'” and “For Whom the Ball Rolls.” Mrs. Farley, our STEM Instructor, created the “Interactive Zone” where parents and students could participate in STEM activities. Thank you to Mrs. Amanda Burdi and Mrs. Jill McDonald for organizing this event, to Mrs. Farley for all her work creating hands-on STEM activities, and to all the SIJ families for supporting this venture into science! Regional Science Fair Results for St. Isaac Jogues School Riley K. - Gold- Best in Category of Biochemistry Julia C. - Gold -Best in Category of Health Science Abigail G. - Gold- Best in Category of Environmental Science Anika O. - Gold- Best in Category of Behavioral Science Matthew K. - Gold- Best in Category of Electronics Liam C. - Gold- Best in Category of Chemistry Joe S. - Gold- Best in Category of Botany Caroline S. - Gold Ruslan H. - Gold Lukas J. - Gold Mairin S. - Gold- Best in Category of Physics James S. - Gold- Best in Category of Engineering Liliana P. - Gold - Best in Category of Zoology Aly G. - Gold AND Best Artistic Brennon H. - Gold AND Best Artistic Ava K. - Gold Max B. - Gold Packey M. - Gold Aleksia N. - Gold Jack Q. - Silver All Gold Medalists have earned the opportunity to advance to the State Science Fair in Peoria this April. Congratulations to all our 7th and 8th grade students and Mrs. Annamarie Boyle for all their hard work! The fifth through eighth grade SIJ musical students performed Mary Poppins JR. at Nazareth Academy February 25th- 27th led by Ms. Jackie Martin, Ms. Bernadette Senick, Ms. Lindsey Riker, and Mr. Peter Bromann. The cast members have worked on characterization, dancing, singing, and acting while the crew members spent the last few months designing and painting the set pieces and props. The performances were a culmination of cast and crew students working side-by-side to give audiences a live musical theatre experience. Congratulations to the musical students and staff on a magical run! All St. Isaac Jogues 7th and 8th grade students participated in the annual SIJ Junior High Science Fair on Thursday, January 13th. The students have diligently worked cross-curricularly in Science and Language Arts in order to complete a major research paper and detailed lab reports focused upon a scientific experiment. Students have practiced the important skills of researching, note taking, writing of citations and reference lists, conducting scientific method, calculating statistical analysis, developing data tables and graphs, and public speaking by presenting the project results to peers and science fair judges. In addition to increasing these skills needed in higher education, students also had the opportunity to practice imperative life skills of time management, planning,and analysis. A great variety of topics were studied during this process; a sample of topics included aeronautics, biochemistry, electronics, environmental science, microbiology, and physics. Some specific projects studied the comparison of alternative ice melting techniques in terms of its melting time and conductivity; how the Bionix ShotBlocker Affects Pain in Routine Childhood Immunizations; the effects of the denaturing of enzymes: and the effect of exercise on academic performance. We are very proud of all our students for their commitment to their projects! SIJ is a member of the Illinois Junior Science Association and will compete with students from all over the state at the upcoming Regional and State Science Fairs. The students who earned the privilege to compete at the Regional Science Fair include: Jack Q., Quinn R., Brennan H., James S., Packey M., Liliana P., Chase B., Marin S., Sean R., Aleksia N., Abigail G., Julia C., Joe S., Lukas J., Caroline S., Riley K., Liam C., Ruslan H., Oresta H., Anika O., and Matthew K. On Monday, November 1st, St. Isaac's first graders celebrated All Saints' Day by dressing up as "little saints." Each child selected a saint and learned about his/her life. The children dressed up as their chosen saint and processed into church for an All Saints' Mass Celebration. Father DeSalvo celebrated Mass and gave a special sermon about the meaning of being a saint and following Jesus. Everyone enjoyed the Mass celebration and the special saint outfits. On Friday, October 29th, St. Isaac’s celebrated Halloween with our Annual Halloween Walk. Parents and students enjoyed the creative costumes that were designed by the 8th grade students for their 1st grade buddies. All of the costumes and themes were amazing! Congratulations to all our 8th grade students on a job well done! Under the direction of Mrs. Farley, our new STEM instructor, the students have started this year by learning about the Engineering process and making flying machines to fly on the zipline in the STEM classroom. Currently, sixth and seventh graders are working on cardboard roller coasters. They are doing a great job! The eighth graders are working on mini golf obstacles to create a mini golf course! Grades PreK to second grade have been doing some fun Halloween STEM activities, making spider webs, monsters, and studying pumpkins. Fourth and Fifth graders are currently working on a robot car that they will code. The car robot will move, flash lights, and make sounds. By the end the students will code a remote for the robot. Finally, third grade is working on Binary code. They built a sensor that checks if a plant needs water or sunlight. They created a Binary code that is displayed on the sensor to show them when it needs water or sunlight. The students are constantly impressing Mrs. Farley with their critical thinking and problem solving skills! The students and the coaches are sad to say goodbye to weekday practices at Robbins Park and Saturday meets but what a great season it was! Our team of 50 runners (5th – 8th grade girls and boys) put in tremendous effort all season and ran their hearts out at every meet! With average temps in the 80’s for all our races, our runners still showed up and powered through with incredible grit and determination to put forth their best individual performance and contribute to the team. We participated in 2 preseason meets (Fenwick and CHMS) and 5 regular season meets. Our league is made up of 30 schools which make for very large and exciting meets-- roughly 800 runners at each meet. And, for the first time we had a team of our fastest runners compete at Sectionals on Oct. 9th. We had one individual on the team qualify for the State meet—congratulations to Thomas P.! For those of us that had an opportunity to see the comradery of this team and how they came together to support and cheer for one another, it was a truly touching and memorable experience. Until next year…run fast, run hard and don’t stop smiling!  Homecoming weekend kicked off with a Pep Rally on Friday, September 17th. It was an exciting time for the entire school from Preschool to 8th grade to cheer on their school’s football team and cheerleaders. The students were able to show their SIJ pride and school spirit by competing for the coveted “spirit stick.” Congratulations to 3rd and 8th grade students who were the 2021 winners of the “spirit stick.” The VARSITY UNITED squad played their homecoming game at Benet Academy in front of a packed house. The Varsity team, led by 8th grade leaders, made a valiant effort against a stacked St. Francis team but came up short. The week post homecoming, the VARSITY was an underdog yet notched its first victory with a resounding 24-0 defeat of nearby rival St. John of Cross. VARSITY is looking to get back to .500 and march into the playoffs. The JUNIOR VARSITY UNITED team is currently 2nd in the league and sealed another win over Visitation with strong all around play. The coaches would like to thank all the SIJ volunteers and Benet Academy for the field and preparation! During half time, the Junior Varsity cheerleaders and Varsity cheerleaders gave crowd pleasing performances. Hard work and countless hours of practice paid off for both squads. |
