FIRST LEGO League students used technology to collaborate on research projects and to program robotics missions for their competition last Friday evening and Saturday at the Western PA FLL Grand Championships at La Roche College. The students, Ms. Good and Mr. Rauhala spent Friday night presenting on their research project, their robot design, and their season to judges before spending a long Saturday competing at the robot game against 34 other teams. The girls earned two call backs based on their presentations on Friday, one for their robot design and another for their programming and earned special recognition for both categories.

Mrs. Christian-Michaels, Mrs. Compton, and Mr. Sidari, along with a group of students in grades 7 and 8, have been hard at work preparing for the Future City Engineering Competition which takes place on Saturday, January 21 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Carnegie Music Hall. The competition consists of solving an engineering challenge which for this year was to create a distributed network of innovative, multi-use public spaces that serves the city’s diverse population and to include descriptions of a conversion of a brownfield and a roadway. The team decided to use Kyoto as their city. They focused on making their city more walkable and people-oriented by limiting most roads to pedestrians and bicycles, creating SVPs, or special varying purpose roads, which allow for gatherings and events, and developing a belt system which connects public spaces and venues with similar themes such as history, arts, etc.

After receiving an Honorable Mention for Phipps Conservatory’s Fairchild Challenge #2, “Designing an Eco App,” Ellis sixth graders are creating drawings of “Beneficial Bugs,” with their respective plant or flower for Challenge #3.  Thanks to a generous grant from the EPA, students are learning Adobe After Effects and working with visiting artist Di-ay Battad on a project to animate stories they created about women artists they researched last fall.  

We wish Middle School Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science students good luck on the presentations of their independent science projects they have conducted and analyzed with the help of their Upper School mentors and the guidance of Upper School Chemistry teacher Ms. Holtgraver. Students undertook investigations on such topics as the Mechanical Advantage of Pulleys, the Effects of Greywater on Plants, and Observing the Synchronous Responses of Horses to Rhythm. The students will present at the regional PJAS competition at Duquesne University on February 4,  2017.

During our club period, several students in grades 5–8 have been solving complex mathematical problems in preparation for their MATHCOUNTS competition on February 11, 2017 at the AW Beattie Career Center with students from all over Allegheny County. The mission of the MATHCOUNTS Foundation is to build confidence and improve attitudes towards math and problem-solving. The students have been working on non-routine problems with an emphasis in areas like probability, counting, and geometry. They are encouraged to share and collaborate on different ways to approach problems, and faculty advisors, Mrs. Rohr and Mrs. Tomashewski, also emphasize strong traditional techniques.  

Middle Schools students who love to read, write, and create in the arts are preparing for the Battle of the Books and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Students in grades 5 and 6 engaged in Battle of the Books have completed the Lions of Little Rock and are currently reading their second novel, Fish in a Tree. Under the mentorship of English teacher and Grade 5 Dean, Mrs. Sidari, and parent volunteer, Tara McElfresh, students read, discuss, and quiz each other on the novels in preparation for the “Battle.”

For students in grades 7 and 8 who love writing and the arts, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards provide an opportunity to showcase their works. Each seventh and eighth grader was invited to submit one or more works to the juried competition which considers the personal voice and vision, originality and technical skill of the submission. A complete list of finalists will be released in advance of the awards ceremony on February 19 at La Roche College.

Through preparation involving opportunities for practice, failure, feedback and success, students have gained competence and confidence in each of these areas. As educators, our goal is to leverage this confidence and empower students to explore their passions and to realize their potential.