Selected News

Since October, French Elementary’s Science with a Twist (SWAT) students in 4th and 5th grade have been participating in science challenges in our after school club. The science challenges have focused on students working as a team to apply science concepts related to creating towers, bridges, boats, paper airplanes, and catapults using a variety of materials to meet identified challenge objectives. On February 4^th, 2022, elementary students districtwide competed in our district SWAT competition.  French Elementary sent two teams of 4 students to compete at the SWAT Challenge where they experienced similar challenges...just with a twist and materials that were not revealed until they opened their bag at competition!

Our teams competed to build:

1.    Paper airplanes that flew 10 or more feet, were lightweight, and built with only notebook paper, construction paper, tape, and paperclips

2.    Catapults that launched pom-poms the furthest built with only tissue boxes, pencils, rubber bands, a bottle cap, and popsicle sticks

3.    Towers built from construction paper, paperclips, and a plastic cup built to be the tallest and hold the weight of a baseball for 3 or more seconds

4.    Boats weighted with marbles built from only 1 sheet of foil and popsicle sticks

Our team “Fantastic Four” consisting of: Charlee Willms (5^th), Tessa Brown (5^th), Isla Stout (5^th), and Sophia Wellborn (5^th) placed 2^nd in the airplane competition with and airplane that weighed 4 grams and 1^st in the boat competition with a boat that held 122 marbles (15 oz.).

Our team “Build Creators/Build Destroyers” consisting of: Zach Byer (5^th), Korbin Dillard (5^th), Olivia Culbertson (5^th), and Lilly Betancourt (5^th) placed 2^nd in towers building a tower 51 cm tall and holding a baseball for minutes.

Congratulations to our entire SWAT team and thank you for a great build year!