Bismarck board hears student and teacher science presentations, accepts science achievement report

President Danny Eastgate opened the March 24 Bismarck Public Schools board meeting to a series of science-focused presentations from elementary and high‑school classrooms and later accepted the district's R2.1 academic achievement report for science, which staff recommended as "making reasonable progress."

Elementary teacher Jeanette Sale and two fifth‑grade students, identified in the meeting as Maggie and Tate, demonstrated hands‑on units used in their Prairie Rose classroom. Tate described star trails as “when the Earth rotates around its axis and it then it makes the stars look like they're rising and setting.” The students showed projects used in class, including sundials, a “universe in a box” that maps visible constellations by month, an art project combining moon phases and night‑sky paintings, and water‑cycle experiments that illustrated how a cold atmosphere over a warm “ocean” produced the most condensation in their trials. Sale also described an engineering design unit in which students build marble‑run “super slides” from cardstock, tape and shoe boxes as an end‑of‑year project.

Century High School science teacher Bart Bracken described the high‑school curriculum and extracurricular science opportunities. Bracken said Century offers AP Physics, AP Biology and AP Chemistry, dual‑credit options through Bismarck State College, and plans to add AP Environmental Science in the fall. He noted that, over a five‑year window, Century’s AP classes met or exceeded national and North Dakota averages on AP exams. Bracken highlighted hands‑on labs and student programs — Envirothon, Science Olympiad and the Science Bowl — saying the school’s Science Olympiad team won the state championship last year and the Science Bowl team placed third and sixth in statewide competition.

District staff presented R2.1, the monitoring report on academic achievement in science. Dr. Ben Johnson told the board the district’s results show Bismarck outperforming statewide results on the North Dakota State Assessment (NDSA) in fourth and tenth grades and matching the state in eighth grade; he also said Bismarck’s average ACT science scores exceed the state average, noting the comparison uses a cohort of all students because Bismarck still administers the ACT to all students. Johnson asked the board to accept the report with one correction: indicator 3 should read that the district is "making reasonable progress" rather than the wording that appeared in the printed packet.

Board member Mr. Lee moved to accept R2.1 as making reasonable progress; the motion passed unanimously. President Eastgate thanked presenters and staff for the evening’s focus on science.