What’s Happening at AHS

2017 Season in Review

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The Assumption Girls’ Soccer Team won its second consecutive Iowa Class 1A State Tournament title, marking the program’s sixth state title in the last seven years. A convincing 3-0 championship game win over Center Point-Urbana on June 10 at the James W. Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines, marked the eighth time the Lady Knights have claimed the Iowa Class 1A state trophy.

Making their 11th straight appearance at the State Tournament, the Knights downed Nevada 2-0 in the semifinals, after setting a new state tournament record with 9 goals in their 9-0 win over Iowa City Regina in the quarterfinals. Assumption set a new all-class goal total record with 14 scores in the tournament’s three games.

Sophomores Carly King and Anna Vonderhaar, were named to the Class 1A All-Tournament Team, as were juniors Bridget Poster and Molly Gervase (captain). Following the tournament, Gervase and junior Annie Argo were voted 2017 Iowa Class 1A First Team All-State by the Iowa Girls Coaches Association. The Lady Knights finished the year 19-2 (7-2 MAC) overall under second-year head coach Elizabeth Maus ’03.

Watch the 1A State Championship Game on YouTube

Assumption Students Join the VR Revolution

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“It’s making learning real.” This is how science teacher Wendy Martin describes AHS’s new STEM BEST partnership with VictoryVR, a Quad-City tech company. From a phlebotomist to a veterinarian and an industrial engineer to a science teacher, Virtual Reality (or VR) is changing the way students learn about STEM careers.

The program, “VR STEM Career Exploration,” uses phone-based virtual reality software to bring STEM careers from throughout the U.S. directly to students, giving them the opportunity to virtually “step into” the worlds of 20 different STEM careers (and growing). Each vignette physically places students in laboratories, green houses, observatories and more as these STEM employees explain the day-to-day duties of their job, their educational pathways and their passion for what they do.

The Iowa STEM Council provided a STEM BEST cost-matched award of $25,000 to Assumption last October based on its proposal to collaborate with a local business and develop a tool that would benefit students not only in Iowa but also across the nation. Come fall, Assumption will begin using the tool in all of its classrooms as well as for career guidance conversations between students and counselors.

The program is available to anyone, anywhere, with a smartphone and access to Google Cardboard or other affordable, VR headset gear. The free app is available now in the Google Play Store and a version for the iPhone will be available in the Apple Store soon.