St. Thomas the Apostle Science Program

We offer a comprehensive science program based on the California Science Content Standards and a hands-on approach to science for Kindergarten through Eighth grade students at Saint Thomas the Apostle School. Students are motivated, inspired, and excited to learn about science in our state-of-the-art science lab completed in 2004. Mrs. Daragh Powers is the full-time science specialist, and she has been teaching science at STA since 1980.

Students in Kindergarten through Sixth Grade use the Silver Burdett and Ginn Science Series that includes units for each grade in biological science, physical science, earth science, and health. Content and scientific thinking are taught in the lab and reinforced by experiments, projects, and demonstrations. Each student has weekly hands-on experiments in class. Mrs. Powers and students share the wonder, joy, and excitement that occur when science is taught in a richly stimulating learning environment that nurtures growth and invites curiosity.

Students in Seventh and Eighth Grade delve into specific branches of science with Prentice Hall Science Explorer Series. Seventh Graders study cells and heredity, astronomy, and physics. Eighth Graders study chemistry, human biology, and earth science with an emphasis of what occurs inside the earth. Students are offered opportunities to think like a scientist, and they enhance their understanding of science concepts by participating in many different discovery experiments and activities. Students receive additional preparation for high school by writing up laboratory reports, using mathematical and graphing skills, enriching their reading comprehension, and using technology in the science lab.

We are proud of our science program at Saint Thomas the Apostle. We are raising the achievement level of all the students at our school, and we are challenging our students to think critically.


Science is Alive at St. Thomas the Apostle School

Science is alive, exciting, and motivating to third graders at Saint Thomas the Apostle School. When asked what they like best about science, the students remember making snail glasses to see like a snail, dissecting flowers, taking apart a seed and studying its parts, looking at the parts of an egg, making a fulcrum, creating clouds in a jar, and racing cars down ramps. They speak of their interest in the biological, physical, and earth sciences.

In a state-of-the-art science lab competed in 2004, students from kindergarten through eighth grade are involved in a comprehensive science program based on the California Science Content Standards and a hands-on approach to science. Content and scientific thinking are taught in the lab and reinforced by experiments, projects, and demonstrations. Each student at the school has weekly experiments in class and a chance to share the wonder and joy that occur when science is taught in a richly stimulating learning environment. Beginning in kindergarten, students learn to write laboratory reports, use mathematical and graphing skills, enrich their reading comprehension, and use technology while working in the science lab.

By offering science to the youngest students, STA is raising the achievement level of all the students at the school, challenging its students to think critically, and building a foundation and a love for science that will offer the students many options in life. Come by and visit the science lab at St. Thomas Apostle School and see first hand young students truly involved in science.