7th and 8th grade students participate in the Synergistics program
as part of their science curriculum. The Synergistics Lab at St.
Thomas has 13 different workstations including Alternative Energy,
Flight, Robots, Audio Broadcasting, Computer Graphics and
Animation, and Bio-Technology. Each workstation takes about seven
classes to complete. Working with a partner, students get hands on
experience doing experiments and projects associated with the
workstation topic. For example in Engineering Bridges, students
design and build a bridge which is then placed in a testing rig to
determine how strong their bridge is. In Flight, students make a wing
which is tested with a wind machine to see how much “lift” it
generates; in Robots, they program a robot to perform a repetitive
task. One of the real strengths of the Synergistics program is that it
exposes students to a wide variety of possible career choices before
they get into high school and need to choose a course of study for
their college years.