Celebrate the Earth this week!

STEAM Challenge #5 -“Planet vs Plastics”

Each year, Earth Day takes on a particular theme and the theme for 2024 is Planet vs. Plastics. According to the official Earth Day 2024 webpage, the organization is committed to helping to reduce global plastic production by 60% by 2040.

Thank you students, staff, and our friends at South Bay Sustainable Communities, UCSD Pollinator club, and Urban growth for making our STEAM Challenge, this past Friday, an amazing event. Scan the QR code to view some of the day’s highlights.

Congratulations Mr. Ballard!

Mr. Ballard is one of 5 recipients of the 2024 National Teacher’s Hall of Fame. Every year, the National Teacher’s Hall of Fame recognizes a handful of teachers across the country who have gone above and beyond in the profession for at least 20 years.  Mr. Ballard has been selected for this prestigious honor and joins as the ninth California educator to receive this recognition since the committee’s inception.

We are incredibly proud and honored to have Mr. Ballard as an integral member of our Southwest Middle School family.

This Week’s Schedule:

This Week’s Announcements

STEAM Challenge #4

“Harnessing the Power of STEAM- Finding Diversity and Opportunity in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics”

Thank you staff, students, and community members for making our STEAM day a great success 🙌

Our morning celebrated brilliant women in STEM in honor of #internationalwomensday, followed by a mini engineering design build that challenged kids to think like brilliant STEMinists and harness the power of wind to propel a puff mobile to travel the furthest on a single puff of air.

Following nutrition break, the kids attended 1 of 15 workshops ranging in topics on “Light and Optics”, “Building Drones”, “Learning through Art”, “Biomimicry and Design”, “Hydroponics”, “Protecting our Watersheds”, “Painting Rocks of Kindness”, “Powered by Plants- Eating for a Healthier Planet”, “Science of Tortillas”, “Production Design”, “Laser Etching and Circuitry”, “Minecraft and AI”, “Learn to Play an African Drum”, “Listening to Waves”, and “Lines, Shape, Color and Pattern”.

Thank you so much to all of our presenters for bringing amazing learning experiences to our kids!

Next STEAM Challenge Day: “Planet vs Plastics”- Friday, April 19th!

Codechella 2.0

Thank you staff, students, and community members for making Codechella 2.0 a great success 🙌 Codechella 2.0- a perfect way to end the first semester and kick off winter break!

At Southwest Middle, the last day of school isn’t a wasted day. Our students learn about the power of computer science, and it’s diverse fields and pathways, like flying drones, robotics, 3D printing, laser cutting, cybersecurity, Bioinformatics, video game design, binary code, pixel art, animal cognition and physical computer modeling, circuitry, hydroponics and automation, graphic design and programming.

Thank you so much to our community presenters UCSD CREATE, Mr. Akshay Nagarajan from UCSD, SDSU MESA, Mr. Dean Worra from Qualcomm, Ms. Heidy Estevez and SOH robotics, Ms. Amanda Birmingham from UCSD Health, Mr. Emilio Flores from Urban Growth,  Haiku Inc, Cesar Gonzalez from cesarfpvdrones, and Mr. David Cobian from Launch Academy, you made this amazing day possible!

Bring your student to Southwest Middle to broaden their experience with our award winning STEAM, Dual Language, and AVID programs.

Be a Part of Positive Change! Together We can Make a Difference!

Visit our Y4SF table at lunch and place any unwanted food in the bins located in the cafeteria and in the ASB quad next to the food carts. If you are interested in helping out, please see Mrs. Barron in room 403, or at lunch at the Y4SF booth located in front of the ASB building!

Check out our Student Handbook