Academy of Science and Technology

September and October are two of the busiest months in AST, here are additional reminders and updated information.

September 19th-Distinguished Lecture Series Speaker, Mr. Baek

• Students interested in earning an exploration credit for our next lecture can check out the AST General Canvas Course for information on our DLS on the 19th

September 21st-Science Fair Information Night

• 9th grade-required if at all possible, 10-12 SF Participants encouraged to attend
• Please see the link below for parent volunteers

September 21st-EFTA Distinguished Speaker Series

• For students not involved in Science Fair Night, EFTA will be hosting a lecture that students can earn an Exploration Credit for attending. Students MUST pre-register for this. Registration information is located in AST General under the heading Exploration Credits 2023-2024

September 23rd and 24th-The REMIX

• Our Texas Torque Robotics Team in conjunction with CavBots will be hosting the REMIX which is a great opportunity for students interested in robotics to learn more about it!
• Exploration Credits are available to anyone (not currently on Texas Torque or CavBots) for attendance one or both days-up to 2.0 ECs. Forms to complete for those credits are in Canvas.

September 25th and 27th-AST Information Nights-Class of 2028

• We need parent volunteers...please see the link below

October 10th-Conroe ISD College Night

• Lone Star Convention Center (not Lone Star College)
• 5:30 pm Military Academy Info Session
• 6:00 pm College Night Doors Open
• Any student (9-12) can earn Exploration Credits for College Night. A College Night EC form is located in the AST General Course under the heading Exploration Credits 2023-2024

PSAT Testing:

October 17th-9th graders (who registered) and 11th graders (all)

October 24th-10th graders (all)

Free SAT/ACT Practice Exams: will need parent volunteers to proctor (see below)

October 21st-SAT Practice Exam

October 28th-ACT Practice Exam

Congratulations to our 18 recently named National Merit Semifinalists!

Kate Ashford, Mila Ashford, Jacob Daniels, Bethany Elliott, Isabel Eshetu, Rishab Ghosh, Hana Jeong, Rohan Mehta, Roshan Mehta, Avery Moriyasu, Shivani Mundra, Cindy Shen, Kathleen Song, Asong Suh, Zachary Thibodeaux, Nicholas Woravka, Acacia Zhang, Grace Zhang

We are so proud of you all, and look forward to your journey in this process!

Over 1.3 million juniors in about 21,000 high schools entered the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2022 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state-this year Texan Semifinalists had to have minimum of 219 selection index on the PSAT . The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

We should know our commended students, National Hispanic Students, National Achievement Students, and National Indigenous Students soon.

Academy students have a great opportunity through Woodlands Test Prep to take a FREE practice Digital SAT and (paper) ACT coming up. The Digital SAT will be offered on Saturday, October 21st and the ACT on Saturday, October 28th.

The Digital SAT test will begin at 9:00am on Saturday, October 21st at College Park High School. Please arrive by 8:45am and allow three hours for the test. (Testing with 1.5X extended time is available on campus. If you have been approved for 1.5X extended time on the SAT, please indicate on the sign-up form to make arrangements to take it with extended time.)

For the Digital SAT, each student will need to have a fully charged laptop or tablet capable of holding a charge for 3+ hours. Optional but suggested items are a power cord, an external mouse, an external keyboard if you’re using a tablet, a calculator, and a snack and drink. For full technology specifications, check here. You do NOT need to download the College Board Bluebook app, as we will be using a browser to access the practice test.

To see what kind of calculators are allowed for the Digital SAT, see here. REMEMBER: The Digital SAT gives you access to the Desmos online graphing calculator for the test. Desmos is significantly better suited to the SAT than any other handheld calculator. It’s HIGHLY recommended to get accustomed to using Desmos as part of your testing plan.

The (paper) ACT test will begin at 9:00am on Saturday, October 28th at College Park High School. Please arrive by 8:45am and allow 4 1/2 hours for the test. (Testing with extended time is available AT HOME. If you have been approved for extended time on the ACT, please indicate on the sign-up form to make arrangements to take it with extended time.)

For the (paper) ACT, each student will need to have a calculator, #2 pencils, a snack and a drink. To see what kind of calculators are allowed for the ACT, see here.

Woodlands Test Prep will return a detailed score report to you for each test with suggestions on how to improve your scores. Taking one of each test is a great start to your college admissions testing process so you can see which one you naturally score higher on. Please note that Woodlands Test Prep is one of many businesses in The Woodlands that offers test prep services. They happen to offer AST students and their families free practice exams. Please note that you will receive scores back from this business at no cost to you, but other services are available. Those services are are not required or endorsed by CISD as this is a private business.

Interested? Fill out the form here to sign up!

AST could not function without our parents! Not only do you nurture, protect and encourage our greatest commodity, you serve in such a helpful capacity to the faculty, staff, and future students of AST. We do not say it enough...parents rock! There are two upcoming opportunities to help out with AST.

First, we need Science Fair Panel Volunteers! We need parents each fall to volunteer to sit with our students as they speak briefly about their projects. Many of our students will have questions pertaining to areas that you study or currently work in. Even if you can't volunteer for September 21st, please consider adding your name to our expert panel list, as we may have a question at some time throughout science fair season that you can answer!

The following week, on Sept 25 and Sept 27-we will be hosting prospective students and parents for AST Class of 2028! . I am really looking for Prospective Parent Experts--some parents will participate as parent panelists those evenings--speaking briefly about their experience as AST Parents. Other parent experts will serve as a group of parents that prospective parents can contact if they have detailed questions that we can not answer. Please do not fear that I will openly post your email/phone numbers-I will not. Parent experts may be called up to speak to a family that contacts me about the transition from private to public school or the transition from the GOHS feeder to AST, or simply being very on the fence about even applying, etc. Quite often we get calls at AST that we can answer from our perspective, but I feel as though some of our parents may be of great help with this.

For these parent panelists (who will speak briefly after my presentation) I am looking for predominately junior and senior parents or underclassmen parents who have had an older student graduate. The reasoning for this is that we need parents who have experienced both freshmen year, the transition to high school, and then the transition from Science Fair to an independent R&P. Additionally, I will need parents who have students who participate in predominantly AST activities and parents who have students who participate in outside activities as well (band, athletics, etc.). I expect a lot of you will probably volunteer, so please understand that I can only select a few in each group...but I will definitely need you later!!! I am going to ask quite a few questions on the link to sign up, but that's due the nature of making sure that I have covered a ton of different scenarios (distance driving, transition from private schools, etc.).

Please sign up here! Thank you in advance.

Please consider joining an organization that is crucial to the Academy of Science and Technology...PAST! Parents of the Academy of Science and Technology is a dedicated group of individuals that help in every aspect of AST, from booking DLS Speakers, completing senior gala, to feeding students and teachers, to supplementing things financially that we can not purchase as a group.

For more information about PAST or to complete your annual membership in PAST click here.

Teacher Appreciation

The PAST Teacher Appreciation committee works to show the AST teachers and staff how much we appreciate all that they do for our students. Along with presenting a birthday card and gift card to each staff member on their birthday, we also provide lunch for our ten AST teachers and staff once a month. If you are interested in supporting Teacher Appreciation, please go to the PAST website, choose Fundraising on the left-hand side and select AST Teacher Appreciation. Once you are on that page, click on the Paypal button to donate. Also, if you might be interested in sponsoring an entire month’s lunch (either by purchasing or making lunch), please contact Susan McGowan at susmcgowan@gmail.com for more details.

Thank you for helping to show our appreciation to our AST teachers and staff!

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