SCHOLAR — Taylor Steeves, chair of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors Club Anita Jackson Scholarship Committee, handed a check for a $500 scholarship award to non-traditional student Alex “Cookie” West. Joining the two in her Steubenville office was Chamber President Emily Byers. — Christopher Dacanay
STEUBENVILLE — Fourth-grade students in Steubenville City Schools will learn all about the field of science during the sixth-annual Dr. Santiago Ching Memorial Health Fair on March 13-14.
Pupils from Wells Academy, McKinley STEM Academy, East Garfield Elementary, Pugliese West Elementary and Steubenville STARS are invited to attend the presentations at Pugliese STEM Academy, and events will be held each day from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. A different format is set for this year, and instead of judged events at each building, students will take part in a series of learning stations to gain insight about science.
Kayla DiMarzio, chair of the science department, is coordinating activities with gifted director Jackie Reeves and said it was a wonderful way to honor the memory of Dr. Santiago “Sonny” Ching, a physician at Trinity Health System who was involved with local health clinics.
“It’s an event that has transformed over the years since its inception,” DiMarzio said. “It started in 2019 in terms of a fair after Ching came to the school and wanted to start a partnership. He was so invested in the area and said compared to other nations, we didn’t have as many students going into medicine.”
As a result, Ching and his wife, Wilma, provided funding which helped launch the health fair. It initially began at Harding Middle School and eventually included building competitions at the elementary schools, as well as grade-level contests where students created projects that were judged by educators and local health professionals. Now it has been scaled down to focus on educating fourth graders.
“They will go through 11 stations and everything is fully immersive,” DiMarzio continued. “Bringing the students here is something new. We wanted to bring them together because they will merge into fifth grade and this is a way to do a meet and greet, while students get out of their comfort zone and can collaborate on activities.”
She added that high school science teachers are responsible for the stations, which are led by upperclassmen and include topics including Body Armor, Germ-Busting Blitz, Candy Colony, Brain Games, Medical Terminology, Healthy Eating, Mental Health, Vitals, Yoga and Water Quality. The subjects follow core curriculum standards and interweave English, science and more. In addition to the fourth-graders gaining some project-based learning, DiMarzio said high schoolers will gain an understanding of communication and also perform some service learning along the way.
Organizers hope that the event not only helps students become better problem solvers but also builds interest in becoming future health care professionals. They said the key was to have experience in their curriculum early on and they also gain some STEM and career-technical education experience.
“It also helps build the STEM program because we have health informatics and biomedical programs and can highlight those as well.”
