Thomas Simpson Middle School is proud to offer an abundance of S.T.E.A.M. opportunities for our students. All classrooms are equipped with an interactive whiteboard and we have over 200 individual devices (iPads, Chromebooks, etc.) that teachers use to enhance our students' educations. Here a few of the more structured programs and activities we have.

 

At Simpson Middle School, we use 8^th hour as a daily opportunity to expose students to a variety of nontraditional, elective classes. A majority of 8^th hour courses require students to use 21^st century skills like teamwork, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving. They are low-stress, highly-engaging classes where learning is frequently disguised as FUN! Our students take four different classes every year. These are our S.T.E.A.M. specific opportunities for them:

 

We have a relatively large Science Olympiad team at Simpson Middle School. The self-named Nerd Herd competes in the March against other schools from Wayne and Monroe counties. The events vary from year to year, but Food Science, Crime Busters, Bag of Bones, and Roller Coaster were a few of them this year. 

 

All students participate in two school-wide S.T.E.A.M. challenges during the school year. The first challenge is before winter break and the second is during the first week in June. All students are given the same task and compete against other students in their Academic Lab. The winners from each Academic Lab then compete to determine a grade-level winner and eventually a building winner.