As the 2025-2026 school year begins at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, new opportunities for hands-on science learning abound. Through experiments, demonstrations, and projects, Tologs will lead in their STEM classes and take away cherished memories.
For freshmen taking Biology, dead rats await dissection. Catalina Quispe ‘28 remembers the joy of beheading one.
“We crushed [the rat’s] skull and broke its brains,” she said, “We had fun.”
Sophomores, meanwhile, can expect to learn through laboratory experiments with Chemistry teacher Mr. Linh Tran. Brooke Ballard ‘28 fondly remembers one such interactive lesson from her summer semester of Chemistry.
“[Mr. Tran] put an egg on the counter and then he poured acid all over it and then he set it on fire,” she said, “That was a cool thing to know.”
Mr. Tran also has memories of particularly engaging Chemistry lessons from years past.
“One time I did a demonstration of how reactive sodium is to water and a fireball burst and shot up,” he shared, “That was very, very hot. I felt it on my head.”
Elsewhere in the science department, juniors in Mrs. Candace Toogood’s Anatomy class will take their knowledge of bodily systems off the page when they dissect fetal pigs.
“I wouldn’t say [dissecting fetal pigs] was disgusting,” said Savannah Clarke ‘26, “I would say more… out there.”
Clarke then praised the dissection for enhancing her experience in anatomy.
“Finally- we [got] to see it all at once!” She said, “And it was really fun and interesting. And it was definitely a little bit juicy.”
Hands-on learning doesn’t only occur in core academic classes, though. Last year in the Principles of Engineering course, Giana Bilotta ‘27 and Carys Scalo ‘27 spearheaded the development of a robotic teddy bear.
“We decided it would be funny… to give [the teddy bear] glowing red eyes,” said Bilotta, “Red glowing eyes in the dark is kind of scary. It was so much fun… to see people’s reactions when the eyes glowed red during our presentation.”
Classmate Gianna Lucio ‘26 recalls the first time she saw the bear, sharing, “It was intriguing… I adored the scary teddy bear.”
Like Lucio, we should all bring the spirit of adoration and intrigue to our science education this year. In addition to hands-on lessons, fun is a part of the STEM curriculum at FSHA. To access this enjoyment of learning requires only an open mind. And maybe a sponge, to mop up the fetal pig juice.