School Nurse Newsletter – April 2025
Germs There are four types of germs: Bacteria- strep throat,
The Robotics Program at American Renaissance School provides students with a unique opportunity to engage with technology, engineering, and problem-solving through hands-on learning and collaboration. This program is designed for students of all skill levels, from beginners to advanced, fostering a passion for robotics, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and innovation.
• Student Grade Levels: 4-8 grade
• Number of Students: 45-50
• Point of Contact: Jeremy.Troyer@arsnc.org. Mario.Torrence@arsnc.org
• Brief Description of Focus: ARS is going to be embarking on it’s second season of competitive robotics. This program helps students gain a variety of skills that will help them in their educational journey. We focus on team building and project management skills along with coding using the Scratch format. Each team will compete in a First Lego League event in the greater Charlotte area with hopes of qualifying for a regional event. Our hope for next year is to host a local qualifying event in our new gym.
• Start/End Date or Ongoing: This is an ongoing/year-long program that will feed into our summer STEM/Robotics Camp.
• Financial Need: Each Team will require a $400 donation to successfully register for the season. This donation will help with registration fees and the purchase of the required materials to experience a successful season. We are looking to fund at least 6 teams for a total of $2,400. Your donation will secure you a team sponsorship that will include advertising space on the team’s created jersey.
• Volunteers Needed: One lead teacher along with three assistants. A total of two to three parent chaperones would also be requested. We may request more if we can get a qualifying event at our school.
Student Grade Levels: K-8
• Number of Students: This program would expose all of the students in some way to this program, with 875 total students affected.
• Point of Contact: Jeremy.Troyer@arsnc.org. www.troutintheclassroom.org
• Brief Description of Focus: Trout (or Salmon) in the Classroom (TIC or SIC) offers students of all ages a chance to raise Salmonids in a classroom setting and then release them into a nearby stream or river. Caring for the fish fosters a conservation ethic in the students while the act of walking to a stream bank and directly releasing the fingerlings into the water makes a concrete connection between caring for the fish and caring for the water.
• Start/End Date or Ongoing: This program would go from the beginning of spawn season until the trout were ready to be released into the stream. This will be an ongoing program for the school for years in the future. The curriculum is provided by the state and will be used in the classroom in conjunction with the program.
• Financial Need: After consulting with the NCDNR, the school would need around $1500 as an initial investment. This includes all of the equipment approved by the NCDNR to safely and successfully care for the Trout eggs and hatchlings.
• Volunteers Needed: Volunteers will be needed on release date to transport students to and from the event.
• Student Grade Levels: 4-8
• Number of Students: This initiative would affect a total of 15 students per season. The program also includes a curriculum piece to be used in the STEM classroom and would be a self-sustaining annual program. The total number of students would be 100 plus per year.
• Point of Contact: Jeremy.Troyer@arsnc.org.
www.dronesinschool.com/start-a-team
• Brief Description of Focus: The initial purpose of this program would be to expose students to the technology of Drones. Many teachers are also using drones in programming courses where the students are writing programs to allow drones to conduct autonomous flights. Most classrooms are utilizing the popular coding language Python, creating code to pilot their drone around a gymnasium. Students see their code in action, helping emphasize the value of computational thinking and letting students realize the power of programming from a young age. It also teaches troubleshooting and trial and error skills as they learn to eliminate bugs or errors in code.
Overall, the use of drones in STEM courses can help expose students to new careers. In addition to piloting or aviation, students may also discover a love for engineering, design, programming, mechanics, or data analytics.
• Start/End Date or Ongoing: This would be an ongoing program.
• Financial Need: The initial start up cost for this program would be $2,000 but would include everything for a competitive Drone team. The $2,000 dollars includes 2 complete drones along with all of the simulation software to compete at the local and state levels. Once established the Drone team would take a total of $250 dollars. This includes all of the registration and competition fees to compete for an entire year.
• Volunteers Needed: No Volunteers would be required at this time.
• Student Grade Levels: 4-8
• Number of Students: This program was held in the Summer of 2024 and had 65 students attend.
• Point of Contact: Jeremy.Troyer@arsnc.org
Brief Description of Focus: This program is geared towards students who would not normally be exposed to STEM programs. It is offered in an AM and PM format so the maximum amount of students can attend. The camp consists of various STEM activities with a focus on robotics and coding. This camp has served as a launching off point for our newly created competitive robotics team. This would be a great opportunity for us to partner with local businesses for field trips and other engagement activities.
• Start/End Date or Ongoing: This program is offered for a week in the summer from 8am to 4pm.
• Financial Need: This program can be done for around $1,000. This money would be used to purchase supplies and replace some equipment as needed.
• Volunteers Needed: We would need to recruit at least 3 staff members to run this camp.
• Student Grade Levels: 4-8
• Number of Students: 200+
• Point of Contact: Jeremy.Troyer@arsnc.org
• Brief Description of Focus:This is an initiative utilizing the 3D printers. The students would learn about aerodynamics and the combination of factors that make a fast and competitive race car. Part of this unit will have the students learning about the 3D printing process along with all of the benefits it presents. The students will be immersed in the world of 3D printing using tinker cad and then transferring their design to the 3D printer for execution. In addition, the older students in 7-8th grade will learn about the construction process as they design and build the school racetrack for the 3D printed cars. The culminating event for this project would be a trip to Charlotte Motor Speedway where the students would take part in the STEM programming provided.
• Start/End or Ongoing: This project would be started whenever funding is secured. The racetrack will be built in such a way it can be torn down and reused for years in the future.
* Financial Need: This project has an initial investment of $2,000. This would cover all of the filament for over 120 students to design/print and build their own race car. This money also covers the materials needed to build a collapsible track that can be set up in our gym for a school wide event. The track would be built out of wood and be approximately 20 ft long and have 3 racing grooves. This event would be a good place for a corporate sponsor to come in and talk about the investment in the project and their partnership with the school.
• Volunteers Needed: The culminating event would need a few teachers to volunteer to bring their classes over to the auditorium to see the races. Parents would be invited to this event so we may need some volunteers to coordinate parking.
Want to support Robotics in a more general way?
Join Us in Shaping the Future.
At ARS, we’re not just teaching students how to build robots; we’re teaching them how to think critically, innovate fearlessly, and create solutions that will drive the future. The ARS Robotics
Program is more than just a class – it’s a chance to become part of a community of innovators.
For more information, or to get involved email Jeremy.Troyer@arsnc.org.
Germs There are four types of germs: Bacteria- strep throat,
American Renaissance School (ARS) is excited to invite the community
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