This year Will Rogers hosted its first ever family STEaM Night! STEaM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Technology. Friday night June 5th the Will Rogers cafeteria was transformed into a fun-filled fest of hands-on STEaM activities for the whole family! Also on display were all science fair projects, as well as the amazing environmental science theme projects that students worked so hard on throughout the entire year to complete during class time. UC Santa Barbara's REEF also...

Congratulations to all of our participants and winners of our 23rd annual Science Fair here at Will Rogers! For the first time, students were able to enter projects into three distinct categories: Experiment, Research, or Engineering. This expanded the range of projects students were able to do, as well as increased the creativity level! Additionally, this was also the first year students were asked to explain their projects to live judges. Our judges included Dr. Susan Johnson, science educatio...

The brand new Will Rogers running team of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students took 2nd place for VUSD and 3rd place overall in elementary division at the Summerfest 3,000 meter run on Saturday May 30th! Over 50 Will Rogers students were represented at the race. The running team students have been training every Tuesday and Thursday at lunch for the past 6 weeks with coaches Ms. Jacobs, Ms. Esquivel, Mrs. de Witte, and Miss Vicki. Their hard work paid off! In addition to the running team students, s...

Fourth grade students built, tested, and raced solar cars this week as part of their yearlong study of energy sources. Students worked in small groups to build the cars, then took them out into the sun to test them out. They were pleasantly surprised to see the wheels immediately spinning when the solar panel was pointed towards the sun! Students had to troubleshoot how to fix wheels that fell off and cars driving crooked to prepare for a solar car race. This experience provides students with me...

In May, Mr. Soles' 5th grade class went on a special field trip to the UC Santa Barbara Chemistry Lab. At the lab, UCSB Chemistry students and professors led the 5th graders through several different hands-on and educational chemistry activities. Students learned what a chemical reaction truly is by making them happen! Students lit methane bubbles on fire, shattered flowers in liquid nitrogen, made "golden" pennies, and much more. They also had the chance to talk with University students and tou...

On April 23rd all four of our Kindergarten classes took a trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo! Upon arrival, all students got to experience a special "Animal Senses" class where Zoo educators led students through all of the ways animals use their senses to survive. Students got to see and hold creepy crawly critters, simulate the ways that animals use their sense of smell, play a predator vs. prey game, and learn all about lizards and their skin. After that, students got to spend the entire afternoon ...

Although we celebrate our planet everyday at Will Rogers, Earth Day was an extra special day to celebrate environmental science! All first, third, and fifth grade classes went to the cafeteria for a special Harvest of the Month food tasting to celebrate the amazing fruits and vegetables our Earth provides us to eat. Seven classes participated in a special Earth Day Recycle Relay where students had to run in teams to correctly sort waste into Recycle, Trash, and Compost. At lunch, all K-5 student...

On March 2nd 2015, the Will Rogers fifth graders headed to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific for their exciting overnight field trip! Students got to tour the entire aquarium with their chaperones before the aquarium closed to the public. Once closed, our students got the Aquarium to themselves for the rest of the evening! The students got to interview an Aquarium scuba diver, and Aquarium staff led the students through hands on activities and a behind-the-scenes tour of the aquarium. After...

As part of their yearlong study of energy sources, fourth grade scientists at Will Rogers participated in a wind turbine design challenge! After learning about how wind turbines work, students used KidWind wind turbine kits and worked in teams of 4 to design wind turbine blades that would produce the most electricity, as measured by a multimeter. Once students completed their blade design, they tested it on the KidWind wind turbine, with a fan simulating the wind. Students recorded their results...

On Tuesday, January 27th, over 200 Kindergarten and First Grade students joined with parents, Santa Barbara Zoo Volunteers, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Personnel to plant 90 new native plants in our Schoolyard Habitat. Fifteen new species were added to our current inventory of over 50 species. Students used sticks from our fruit tree pruning to build Chumash fences around the new plants to protect them from playground balls. These native plants not only provide a rich outdoor learning environment...