BPS celebrates STEM Learning at Annual Region VI Boston STEM Fair

Boston Public Schools (BPS) celebrated the creativity, innovation, and passion of our students at the 79th annual Region VI STEM Fair!

Students presented projects that spoke to the social and scientific issues currently impacting them and their communities.

BPS celebrates STEM Learning at Annual Region VI Boston STEM Fair

Boston Public Schools (BPS) celebrated the creativity, innovation, and passion of our students at the 79th annual Region VI STEM Fair! The Region VI STEM Fair is a wonderful opportunity for students to develop skills, such as collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking, developing and testing hypotheses, and data analysis, which all play an important role in our students’ overall success.

STEM is all around us in nearly every aspect of our lives. The City of Boston is home to pioneers in the fields of robotics, biotech, and medicine. Our young people should be immersed in all that our great city has to offer and the Region VI Boston STEM Fair allows our students to express their creativity and learning of key science concepts outside of the classroom.

Students presented projects that spoke to the social and scientific issues currently impacting them and their communities. Among the projects were Planetary Lunar Landing Devices, Wastewater Treatment, Color Choice & Identity, Fire Alarm Safety, Academic Stress & Mindfulness in Seniors, Light Pollution in East Boston, and Cuffless Blood Pressure Devices.

This year, the STEM Fair included:

190 Student Participants
12 Participating Schools
118 Projects submitted for Judging

BPS is grateful to all of our STEM educators who are working every day to foster critical STEM skills in our students and inspire them to apply those learned skills to classroom work and to real-world situations. The STEM Department is committed to continuing to provide programming opportunities for our K-12 students and families throughout the district.

The Region VI Boston STEM Fair Awards Ceremony took place on March 11 at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School. The ceremony featured musical performances from students at the O’Bryant School of Math & Science along with a Presentation of Colors by the Community Academy of Science and Health (CASH) JROTC program.

Matolah Dankoff, a Grade 7 Student at Boston Latin School won the Christa McAuliffe Grand Prize for the Junior Division & Cabot Corporation Grand Prize for her project: An Introduction to Hand-Eye Coordination.

Shuting Zhu and Louis Chiu, Juniors at the John D. O’Bryant School of Math & Science won the Christa McAuliffe Grand Prize for the Senior Division, and Sanofi Specialty Care Grand Prize for their project: Cuffless Blood Pressure Measurement Monitor via Pulse Transit Time Analysis and Arduino. They will now represent BPS as the Nominees for the Massachusetts State Delegation for the International Science and Engineering Fair in Columbus Ohio in May.
BPS will also have 23 Middle School projects that will move on to compete at the Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair in May at Clark University, and 14 High School projects will move on to the Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair at Gillette Stadium in April.
The Boston STEM Fair team is grateful to the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center for hosting the 79th Region VI STEM Fair, to the Madison Park Community for hosting the STEM Fair Awards Ceremony, and to the Madison Park Culinary Arts and Hospitality programs, which helped to cater and set up the ceremony.

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Results & Data Requests

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, developed by the CDC, monitors priority health behaviors and experiences among students. Boston Public Schools has a 25+ years history of YRBS results.

Boston YRBS data are used to create local and state-level estimates of youth social-emotional well-being, substance use, sexual health, violence, injury, physical activity, nutrition and hunger, and other health risk behaviors. These data are a vital resource to help guide decision-making and resource allocation for effective prevention and control programs for schools and communities.

How do we know that students answer honestly?

Research indicates that data of this nature may be gathered as credibly from adolescents as from adults. Internal reliability checks help identify the small percentage of students who falsify their answers. To obtain truthful answers, students must perceive the survey as important and know procedures have been developed to protect their privacy and allow for anonymous participation. For more information regarding YRBS methodology visit: www.cdc.gov/yrbs/methods
How do we know students tell the truth? (PDF)

When will the YRBS data become available?

Following the YRBS administration (Feb-May), scheduled results from the CDC are expected back early the following year.
Boston publications are expected to be released in the Summer following the receipt of the results. For previous publications, visit the High School YRBS Results and Middle School YRBS Results webpages.
Data are expected to become available to external researchers in the spring of even years. See below, for more information on how to submit a request for Boston YRBS data.

What is weighted data?

Weighting is a mathematical procedure that makes data representative of the entire population from which it was drawn.
Weighted data ensures that hard-to-reach demographic groups are still considered at an equal proportion to the population and therefore allows us to make more accurate inferences about the population being studied.
Only surveys with a scientifically drawn sample, appropriate documentation, and no evidence of significant nonresponse bias are weighted.
Data are weighted to adjust for school and student nonresponse
Generally, these adjustments are made by applying a weight based on district demographic data provided by BPS.
BPS has weighted data spanning as far back as 1993.

What are the limitations of the data?

YRBS data are not available by zip code, census tract, or school; sample size limitations and confidentiality requirements do not support analyses at these levels.
Public health surveillance data are collected at the population level and are therefore not meant to be used to connect individuals to services based on survey responses.
The YRBS questionnaires are not available from the CDC in languages other than English and have only been tested for validity and reliability in English.
The YRBS is a school-based survey and only youth enrolled in BPS are included in the sample; students that attend private schools, are homeschooled or do not attend any school are not represented.
The YRBS is self-administered and students must be able to take the survey without assistance from anyone else; students who need assistance because of limited English literacy or because of disability are not represented.

How can I access YRBS data?

For previous Boston YRBS publications and 2021 results tables visit the High School YRBS Results and Middle School YRBS Results webpages.
Visit the Centers for Disease Control’s YRBS webpage for all national, state, and local YRBS data, including Boston high school and middle school YRBS data.
- Youth Online is a web-based Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data exploration tool. Youth Online lets you create tables and graphs of Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) results and compare results from different locations, across health risk behavior topics, and by demographic subgroups.
- YRBS Explorer allows you to explore trends in Youth Risk Behavior Survey questions over time through ready-made charts and graphs. Results can be explored by location, health risk behavior topics, and year.
For organizations looking to conduct in-depth analysis of YRBS data, please review our YRBS Survey Data Request Info and submit a YRBS Data Request Form to Sarah Page, spage@bostonpublicschools.org

Contact:

yrbs@bostonpublicschools.org