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STEM with the Saints
“When you seek truth, you seek God whether you know it or not.”
St. Augustine
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July 2025
 Tues., July 1stBattle of Gettysburg: Did STEM play a role at the Battle of Gettysburg? Absolutely! For troops to maneuver effectively & efficiently, commanders must have: an awareness of the terrain – Geology. Distance of Cannon Fire – Physics. Artillery limitations - Technology. The apogee & launch angle of a cannon – Engineering and Math. Imagine managing all of this on the battlefield. To learn more about the Battle of Gettysburg, click the link below. |  Wed., July 2ndMade in the USA Day: Today we are thrilled to highlight a website that features toys that are made ONLY in the USA! Please take a moment to review this site as well as American manufacturers they feature! To learn more about Made in the USA toys, click the link below. |  Thur., July 3rdTomorrow we will celebrate the 249th birthday of the United States! We were planning to take this day off – but learning about STEM and uniting it with our Catholic faith is our passion. So, we just have to highlight a founding father who was also “STEM”ist. We are of course referring to Thomas Jefferson! Tomorrow not only recognizes our nations birthday – but also the passing of this great patriot. To learn more about Thomas Jefferson, click below. |
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 Fri., July 4thWe are going out with a bang and learning how fireworks work! To learn more, click the link below and make sure to have a fun and safe day! Happy Independence Day and may God bless the USA! |  Sat., July 5thToday is National Play Outside Day and the perfect time to explore the great USA by visiting American Revolutionary Battlefields. Today we journey to Massachusetts and the first battles at Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord. To help you get started, click the link below to learn more about this National Park! |  Sun., July 6thHappy Sunday! May God Bless You and may God Bless the USA! Have a beautiful and blessed day! Fun Fact: St. Francis of Xavier Catholic Church, Leonardtown, MD is the oldest Catholic Church in the original 13 colonies. To learn more about this Colonial Church, click the link below. |
 Mon., July 7thDid you know the Liberty Bell wasn’t rung on July 4, 1776, to announce our independence? In fact, it wasn’t until July 7th or perhaps even July 8th, that the bell was finally rung to, “…summon citizens for the reading of the Declaration of Independence, which had been officially adopted by the Continental Congress three days earlier.” We think today is a great day to learn more about the engineering of the Liberty Bell and the science of sound! To learn more, click the link below, | Tues., July 8thWe are continuing our journey into learning more about the STEM of the Liberty Bell and bell ringing. To learn more about how bells are made, click the link below, |  Wed., July 9thThis month offered the unique opportunity to feature Colonial America inventions – some of which are from our founding fathers! So, today we thought we would get spun up on one invention that really made us sit down for a moment and think about how Thomas Jefferson came up with the invention of the Swivel Chair! To learn more, click the link below, |
 Thur., July 10thToday we are putting pencil to paper and recognizing two men who discovered the ability to erase your mistakes! To make matters more interesting, one is an American (Joseph Priestly) and the other an Englishman (Edward Nairne)! Both accomplished scientists and inventors. Today, we’ll highlight Nairne - there is much more to come about Joseph Priestly. To learn more, click the link below. |  Fri., July 11thWe’re just bubbling with excitement over the post for this day! Today, we get to highlight Joseph Priestley, a true American Patriot, scientist, and inventor who not only invented Carbonated Water he discovered Oxygen! Time to breath in the genius of this great American “STEM”ist! To learn more about Josephy Priestley, click the link below: |  Sat., July 12thToday, for National Play Outside Day we travel East to explore more of the great battlefields from the American Revolution. Our travels lead us to the great state of New York approximately 40 minutes north of Albany to learn more about the Battle of Saratoga. To explore this battlefield and, “Our glorious successes of our arms in the North,” click the link below: |
 Sun., July 13thHappy Sunday! May God bless you and may God bless the USA! Today we are featuring St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Port Tobacco, MD. Make sure to the visit the website for this beautiful colonial church! |  Mon., July 14thWhile George Washington is known for his presidency and military leadership, he considered himself first and foremost, a farmer. He consequently invented the threshing barn to aid in his farming. The 16-sided barn was two stories where horses trampled the wheat stalks on the top level and the grain fell through slats in the floor to the granary below where the grain would be protected from rot and mud. To learn more, click the link below. |  Tues., July 15thThe Revolutionary War witnessed many innovations in how wars are won, including guerilla warfare, mobilization of citizen soldiers, use of artillery in sieges, and gathering intelligence via spies. Many of these tactics are used today in modern military tactics. Today we are featuring the technology of the guns from the American Revolution, to learn more, click the link below. |
 Wed., July 16thDuring the Revolutionary War, field hospitals were established to treat injured soldiers near the front lines of combat. This was essential for raising survival rates and accelerating the return of wounded soldiers to combat. An important development in military medicine was the creation of field hospitals. Modern medicine has incorporated the ideas of field hospitals. Advanced trauma care and mobile medical units are now commonplace in military operations. To learn more click the link below. |  Thur., July 17thIn 1790, just seven years after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, Congress passed the first patent statute. After the passage of the act, the first Patent Board began examining patents and granted the first to Samuel Hopkins for the process of making potash, an ingredient used in fertilizer. |  Fri., July 18thThough a handful of variations of the odometer had existed for centuries prior, Benjamin Franklin can also be credited with inventing a form of the odometer. In 1775, while serving as Postmaster General Franklin wanted to determine the best routes for delivering the mail so he created a simple odometer to attach to his carriage that would measure mileage. To learn more about this revolutionary invention, click the link below. |
 Sat., July 19thFor our third National Play Outside Day, we head south to a battlefield that is on the North and South Carolina border and according to Thomas Jefferson the Battle at King’s Mountain was, “The turn of the tide of success.” To learn more about King’s Mountain Battlefield, click the link below: |  Sun., July 20thHappy Sunday! May God bless you and may God bless the USA! For this blessed Sunday we travel to another St. Francis of Xavier Catholic Church located in Warwick, MD. Truly a beautiful sight to behold! To learn more about the history of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, click the link below. |  Mon., July 21stBenjamin Franklin is known as a prolific inventor and one of his most widely used inventions are bifocal glasses. Farsighted and nearsighted glasses had been around long before Franklin, yet it was him who had the revelation to combine them. His original bifocal design has remained relatively unchanged since his original invention. To learn more about bifocal glasses, click the link below. |
 Tues., July 22ndAt the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, David Bushnell, built a turtle-shaped vessel designed to be propelled under water. It was armed with a mine to be attached to the hull of an enemy ship. While the attacks were unsuccessful, the submarine gave proof of underwater capability. George Washington, however, gave him a commission in the engineers, where he rose to captain and command of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. To learn more about this invention, click the link below. |  Wed., July 23rdTime to shed a little light on one of our favorite subjects… lighthouses. We love the nostalgia of lighthouses; but most of all we see them as a beautiful representation of engineering and technology and how both can save many lives. To learn more about the first lighthouse in American, The Boston Light of 1716, click the link below, |  Thur., July 24thWhile serving as George Washington's secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson proposed a secure method to encode and decode messages: the wheel cipher. Encoding letters was needed once he became America's minister to France and a risk of sensitive letters being intercepted was ever present. The wheel cipher became a building block in cyber security to protect information. To learn more about the wheel cipher, click the link below. |
 Fri., July 25thIn 1730, two inventors, John Hadley, and an American glazier, Thomas Godfrey almost simultaneously developed the octant. The octant is a navigational instrument that was used to measure the altitude of the Sun or other celestial body. The latitude of a ship could be calculated using the date and the height of the Sun. To learn more about this invention, click the link below. |  Sat., July 26thFor this Saturday and National Play Outside Day we are making our way North along the Eastern Seaboard to where America Won Her Independence! We are visiting Virginia to learn more about Yorktown Battlefield. While you’re there, make sure to visit Colonial Williamsburg, particularly the Blacksmith! For more information about the Yorktown Battlefield National Park, click the link below. |  Sun., July 27thHappy Sunday! May God bless you and may God bless the USA! For our fourth and final Sunday in July we are heading to New York City to visit St. Peter’s Catholic Church established in 1785. We also have to mention the Basilica of St. Mary, located in Alexandria, Virginia that was established in 1795. |
 Mon., July 28thAnother invention by Benjamin Franklin is the lightning rod. He developed this rod in the 1750s to attract and dissipate electrical charge from lightning bolts. This helped limit lightning strikes that would have potentially caused fires and loss of life. To learn more about the lightning rod, click the link below. |  Tues., July 29thAlexander Cumming, a Scottish inventor, was granted the first patent in 1775 for a flush toilet. The most significant aspect of this invention was the S-shaped pipe below the bowl created a seal, preventing sewer gas from entering through the toilet. To learn more about this invention, click the link below. |  Wed., July 30thJust over a decade after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, American born inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin. This invention transformed the cotton industry by speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. To learn more about this invention, click the link below. |
 Thur., July 31stThe American Revolution consisted of numerous tactics that were designed to hide or disguise true intentions – and the use of invisible ink was just one of many. Now it’s your turn, click the link below to learn more about how you can make your own invisible ink! |
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