Students at Hemlock Middle School are participating in several exciting classroom activities this school year that engage them in STEAM-related activities inside the classroom as well as outside the classroom walls.

All students in seventh-grade attended the recent STEM festival at Delta College. Students were able to explore a vast array of activities and labs. Attending the STEM festival also allowed the students access to resources that are not always available in the regular science classroom.

The sixth-grade students are participating in the “Salmon in the Classroom” program through Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources and funded by the Leon P. Martuch Chapter of Trout Unlimited. In this program, the students raise Chinook salmon from eggs to smolt, while learning about energy roles, ecosystems, food webs, and the importance of Michigan’s fisheries to our state economy. To culminate the project, the students will release the salmon smolt into the Tittabawassee River in the spring. You can see pictures of the salmon on the middle school portion of the Huskie App, the MS Facebook page and Mr. Wilkowski’s twitter page @MrKowsRoom. The school is also part of another DNR initiative “The Michigan Waterfowl Legacy.” In this unit, students study waterfowl and our local wetlands in order to better understand our state’s rich and diverse waterfowl and wetlands heritage. Sixth-grade students will be taking a field trip next spring to release the salmon and tour some of our local wetlands.