The learning and fun continue all year round at Lake Washington Girls Middle School!

LWGMS STEAM Summer Camps for girls ages 8–11

STEAM Summer Camp is an exciting and hands-on learning opportunity for girls, with a special emphasis on the STEAM curriculum areas (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics). LWGMS embraces an educational model that integrates the arts into STEM: STEAM. STEAM design classes incorporate problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, presentation, prototyping, and response to critique (resilience). Here at LWGMS, in summer camps and the school classroom, we are celebrating the STEM to STEAM initiative! LWGMS STEAM CAMPS

July 28-August 1
August 4-8

Lake Washington Girls Middle School summer camps are a great way for elementary girls to get an introduction to all things STEAM. Our summer curriculum fosters fluency in creative thinking skills and collaboration, which can then be used to solve 21st century problems. Problem-solving, risk-taking, and mistake-making are necessary skills to practice, especially at the middle school level and especially for girls. All of our STEAM summer programs emphasize the use of Design Thinking, which is the core of problem solving. The girls will work on a variety of projects, including stop-motion claymation filmmaking, model building, and Scratch coding. The girls can expect a dynamic experience working with hand tools, modeling clay, recycled materials, iPads, cameras, 3D printers, state of the art computer software, and more!

Open to rising 3rd through 6th grade students.
9am-4pm
$395 per session.
Sign Up for STEAM/Design Thinking today!

Please join the students of Lake Washington Girls Middle School as they present…

MULAN
music and lyrics by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel,
Stephen Schwartz, Jeanine Tesori, and Alexa Junge
book adapted and additional lyrics by Patricia Cotter
based on the 1998 Disney film Mulan and the story Fa Mulan
by Robert D. San Souci
directed by Jenny Zavatsky

location & time
Broadway Performance Hall
1625 Broadway, Seattle, WA
March 7 at 7p
March 8 at 2p
Tickets $10
Reserve your seats today!

This term Lake Washington Girls Middle School has been offering a robotics and programming club – FuerzaBots! Guided by science teacher Kirsten Rooks, technology director Cristina Paredes, and parent Rob McCann P’14, the FuerzaBots team has been busy preparing for the FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League (FLL) Robotics Challenge. Each year, FIRST releases a new challenge that engages teams in hands-on robotics design and scientific research. The theme for the challenge is different each year, allowing teams to learn about a variety of subjects. This year, teams will apply research and robotics to explore natural disasters with FLL “Nature’s Fury” challenge. To successfully complete the challenge, teams of young people must build and program a Lego Mindstorms robot to complete missions on a thematic playing surface and conduct research to discover what can be done when intense natural events meet the places people live, work, and play. This is Lake Washington Girls Middle School’s first year participating in the event.

The FuerzaBots, comprising sixth grade students Eva, Ula, Julia, Maya, and Lucy, seventh grade students Paisley, Hava, Jayla, and Mackenzie, and eighth grade students Rae, Alma, Sadie, Helen, Josephine, and Savita, have been tackling this year’s Challenge as a unit. Each Challenge has three parts: the Robot Game, the Project, and the FLL Core Values. Teams of up to ten kids (on the competition floor), with one adult coach, participate in the Challenge by programming an autonomous robot to score points on a themed playing field (Robot Game) and developing a solution to a problem they have identified (Project), all guided by FLL’s Core Values – that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals, and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork.

The theme for this year’s competition is Disaster Relief: Nature’s Fury. For the “project” part of the challenge, teams were tasked to develop an innovative solution to help people prepare, stay safe, or rebuild after a natural disaster. The FuerzaBots – using the process of Design Thinking – created an app that will help people find and gather an emergency supply kit closest to them (utilizing geo-location), instruct the user how to operate the kit’s contents, and offer information on how to best handle the emergency situation at hand – in their case, a volcanic eruption. The FuerzaBots are preparing a presentation of their app to share with the judges at this weekend’s tournament.

The FuerzaBots have also been working diligently on the Robot Challenge for which, over three months, they designed, built, and programmed four robots, one of which will tackle as many obstacles of natural disaster aftermath as possible in 2.5 minutes. The FuerzaBots dove into programming the “brick” – the brains – of the robot, and they quickly learned how the sensors work and in what situations they would be used. They also mastered how the motors work to make the robot go forward, backward, and to turn, as well as how to make the robots pick items up and move levers. As of today the FuerzaBot’s robots can complete six of the ten course obstacles.

The FIRST Lego League (FLL) Robotics Regional Tournament is this Sunday, December 8, at Ballard High School. During the tournament, teams have three rounds on the competition tables to get the best score possible. When not competing with their robots, teams give their research presentations, and are interviewed about the technical design of their robots and how they work as teams. Regional qualifiers may advance to the championship event in January. The winners of the Champion’s Award, the most prestigious award, may be eligible to participate in a variety of post-season tournament opportunities both domestic and abroad. Our FuerzaBots, whose motto is “Code Like a Girl,” are excited to be participating in the tournament for the first time and will be focusing on getting as far as they can and learning from the mistakes they make along the way.

Go, FuerzaBots!

Lake Washington Girls Middle School, located in Central Seattle, is a place where girls explore, experiment, discover, create, and learn about themselves and the world around them. Since 1998, LWGMS has challenged its students with high standards and helped every LWGMS girl find the tools she needs to succeed. Here, girls are empowered to think critically, develop leadership, and enjoy learning through an integrated curriculum that has proven to prepare girls for success in high school honors and college preparation courses.

Our cooperative, experiential, holistic education supports girls throughout their middle school years – academically, socially, and emotionally. We have small classes, caring teachers who work with students as they move from sixth through eighth grade, and strong parent and community involvement.

Lake Washington Girls Middle School will be hosting its final open house of the fall admissions season tonight, November 13, from 7-9pm.

Our October Open House was attended by 130 families from all over Seattle; over 100 are expected tonight.

You are cordially invited to join us tonight. Meet teachers, parents, and students, and come learn more about our program and what it means to be an L-Dub girl!

Our Open House is a full two hour program, so please plan to be here from 7-9pm. No RSVP necessary.

Lake Washington Girls Middle School
810 18th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122
206/709.3800

For more information click here.

You are cordially invited to visit Lake Washington Girls Middle School. Please  join us for one of our two fall Open Houses to meet teachers, parents, and students, and to learn more about our program and what it means to be an LDub girl!

Our Open House is a full two hour program, so please plan to be here from 7-9pm. No RSVP necessary.

For more information click here.

First ever Day of the Girl proclaimed by City of Seattle Council President Sally Clark
and Lake Washington Girls Middle School. 

SEATTLE, October 9, 2012 – City of Seattle Council President Sally Clark and Councilmembers Bagshaw, Burgess, Conlin, Godden, Harrell, Licata, O’Brien, and Rasmussen join Lake Washington Girls Middle School to proclaim October 11th the Day of the Girl in the city of Seattle. 

The day aims to highlight the challenges girls face around the world to gain access to education and other basic rights, and empower them to advocate on their own behalf.

Lake Washington Girls Middle School empowers its students to become young women strong in mind, body, and voice, and our students are passionate about supporting the United Nations General Assembly Resolution on the International Day of the Girl Child and the mission of Girls Schools Unite “to galvanize worldwide enthusiasm for goals to better girls’ lives, providing an opportunity for them to show leadership and reach their full potential.” 

Lake Washington Girls Middle School student body president Rachel Kaftan ’13 and Head of School Patricia Hearn spearheaded the effort, along with the Seattle Girls’ School chapter of Richard’s Rwanda-IMPUHWE, and other organizations, to have Seattle join with other communities to commemorate the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/170, which designates October 11th as the International Day of the Girl Child. 

Yesterday the entire Lake Washington Girl Middle School Class of 2013 went to Seattle City Hall to meet with Councilmember Mike O’Brien to accept the official proclamation. Councilmember O’Brien spent thirty minutes speaking to our students about their experiences in middle school, as young women, and as residents of Seattle and Washington State. The group spoke of ways to use their strong voices to make change, and discussed the fact that the past eight years have been the only time in the country’s history when a state’s governor and two senators have all been women. O’Brien offered, “this is the norm in Washington and we expect you all to be leaders.”

Students at Lake Washington Girls Middle School will spend the Day of the Girl working on sister-group video projects focusing on what it means for girls to empower one another to be strong in mind, body, and voice which will be shared on our website in the coming weeks.