Teachers at St. Mark’s Catholic School in Plano dedicated several school days to the Olympics, using a creative curriculum to keep students engaged in what can sometimes be difficult subjects.

“They had to create a bobsled track and a bobsled,” explained science teacher Cathy Pantuso, “It had to be three meters long and had to have three turns.”

Pantuso let the kids play with solo cups, tape, and hot glue guns with an ulterior motive.

“We bring our speed, our math, our acceleration, our friction, and our gravity,” Pantuso said.

Their physics lessons proved invaluable.

“We want to get the best speed without flying it off the track and also get it, so just stay up and all of that combined is really hard to do,” Mason Hoak said.

He and his team did the math, getting everything to precise perfection. They had one of the nicest bobsleds.

Ethan, Esther and Courtney tried a different approach.

“Everyone doubted us at first, but we got it,” said student Courtney Osong, who admitted her team’s project looked messy.

In the end, it worked, and more importantly, they knew the science of why!

The Olympic program was not only in science class.

Classes across Saint-Marc adopted an Olympic theme.

Diyah Cham, a student, spent her English class in an escape room. She had to use her literary and problem-solving skills to find a lost Olympic torch.

“It’s much more effective than asking students to write a five-paragraph essay on the Olympics because most kids will do it because you have to, but when you do an escape room, it makes it fun and it usually sticks more,” Cham said.

The school also brought in North Texas natives who were former Olympians to talk about the hard work it takes to compete and how it helped them not just in the Olympics, but in life.

Gold medals were awarded in these classrooms for student achievement and teachers‘ creativity to put it to the test.