The STEM Times Moore Magnet eleMentary School Clarksville, Tennessee
VoluMe 1, ISSue 1
Spring 2016
‘Rescuing’ breakfast, serving others Moore students help feed hungry By BJ BARNES Fifth grade .
Two Moore Magnet students collect breakfast foods for the Manna Cafe. The food is used to help feed the hungry in Clarksville.
Photo by BJ Barnes
You’re probably asking, “Where does all the breakfast we don’t eat go?” Well, every school day, the breakfast club collects the unopened leftover food, then they donate it to Manna Café. Manna Café is a local program that provides food to the needy. The types of food they donate are milk, orange juice, fruit, and other breakfast foods like Pop Tarts and breakfast pizza. In the first semester, 10 students
helped collect the breakfast. In the second semester, 11 students help collect the breakfast. Students Parker Gibbs and Eddie Quintanilla said they volunteer because they understand the impact that a daily breakfast can have on people who are less fortunate. You’re probably also asking, “How did it all start?” Manna Café asked if we would like to help and we agreed. “Someone from CMCSS Central Office asked if other schools would like to volunteer to donate our leftover breakfast foods,” said Mrs. Hammond. See BREAKFAST on Page 2
Journalism Club new ‘first’ for Moore Magnet By KIM SMITH Moore Magnet Principal What an exciting time at Moore Magnet! Our elementary school on the hill believes in firsts! The idea for this newspaper was the brainchild of our fabulous academic coach, Patti Sinclair. She reached out to Dee Boaz and Patricia Ferrier, who previously worked for our local newspaper, The See JOURNALISM on Page 2
Members of the Moore Magnet Journalism Club celebrate finishing the first issue of The STEM Times, the first newspaper published by students at the school. Six students met after school once a week to produce The STEM Times. This newspaper was written by, from left, Brendon O’Bryant, Brady Cooper and Janey Stevens, all fourth-graders, BJ Barnes, fifth grade, and Mackenzie Fields and Anna Bradley, both fourth-graders.
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The STEM Times
BREAKFAST Continued from Page 1 “As a ‘green school,’ Mrs. Smith and I thought this would be another great opportunity to recycle.” If you want to learn more about the Manna Café visit www.mannacafeministries.com. Another fact is that Manna Café gives away more than 1.5 million pounds of food to hungry people every year. JOURNALISM Continued from Page 1 Leaf-Chronicle. The purpose of our newspaper is to share with our stakeholders in and outside of school about STEM. This will be our only edition this year, but Ms. Boaz and Ms. Ferrier have agreed to return next year to continue our journey as budding journalists. So in October 2016, the journey continues and fourth-grade students will be added to the journalism club.
Spring 2016 The person who runs Manna Café is Kenny York. He says some of that food comes from Clarksville’s schools. Breakfast food that isn’t eaten is collected and then donated to Manna Café. Truck drivers from Manna Cafe pick it up and take it back to the Manna Café warehouse. Kenny York says people all over the city are healthier and happier because of the breakfast food rescue program. As a principal, watching our students participate in real-world activities and deepen their 21st Century Skills is very gratifying as we can see our students prepare for a brighter future right before our eyes! Ms. Snyder and I are very honored to work in our school each day! This is our goal every day at Moore Magnet: to produce students who will be college and career ready! Congratulations, Moore Magnet’s Journalism Club, on your first Moore Magnet students pack up bananas, milk and other breakfast edition!
items to give to the Manna Cafe to help hungry people in Clarksville.
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The STEM Times
Spring 2016
Our Voice
We get it ...
NOTE: In early March, Tennessee lawmakers voted to change age limits for child safety seats. The proposed law was passed by both the House and Senate and sent to the governor for his signature. Later, the State House Transportation Committee voted to withdraw the bill for further study. Changes would have required children younger than 12 or less than 4 feet 9 inches tall to use a booster seat when riding in a car. The current booster-seat rule applies only to children 4 to 8 years old and less than 4 feet 9 inches tall. Members of the Moore Magnet Journalism Club decided they “got the point” of the proposed legislation but didn’t agree with it. They voted to use their editorial voice to express their opinion about the bill.
but we don’t like it
Students speak out against proposed booster seat law change Should all kids have to ride in car
seats unless they’re 12 or older or taller than 4 feet 9 inches? This possible law is something we don’t agree with. We understand why the state Legislature would want to pass this law. They want the safety of the children of Tennessee. But this law is unfair, and we have some opinions on this law. The proposed law states you must be 12 or older to not ride in a car seat. What if you’re 11 and under
the height limit? BOOM! You’re sitting in a car seat. “I don’t want to be in a car seat in middle school,” said Brendon O’Bryant. The law also states that you must be taller than 4 feet 9 inches to not ride in a car seat. “Sitting in a car seat can lower self-esteem and make you feel like you’re a 5-year-old,” said Anna Bradley. “I don’t want to feel like a baby in a car seat,” said BJ Barnes. What if a family has already
given away the car seat you had when you were little? “If a family has many kids and this law goes into effect, parents might have to buy more car seats and possibly a bigger vehicle,” said Janey Stevens. “It can make parents buy car seats that cost a lot,” said Mackenzie Fields. We have opinions on this possible law. This is something that we don’t agree with. We have lots of reasons why we don’t agree with this law.
PACER Test: Loved by some, hated by others By BRENDON O’BRYANT Fourth grade
Nine students line up across the gym. Over the speaker, a voice says, “start”. The students take off running across the gym. But they aren’t doing it for fun, they’re doing the 15-meter PACER Test.
The PACER Test stands for the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Run Test, giving it the acronym, the PACER Test. Moore Magnet Elementary School has been doing the 15-meter PACER Test for three years. In the PACER Test you wait until a disc says start and then you run to the other side of the gym. Then the disc will beep and you
run to the other side of the gym and then again and again and so on. Seems easy and simple, but it is dreaded by most participants. Emanuel TaCuba, a fifth-grader in Ms. Valazquez’s class, holds the school record of 73 paces. But why do we do the PACER Test? What’s the purpose? Well, it increases the knowledge
of pacing yourself, and it’s athletic! It is also a state requirement, says Coach Young, a Moore Magnet PE coach. The main reason it’s disliked is because of its intensity. Scores on the PACER Test can range from 9 to 73, it just depends on how well you pace yourself. This is why the PACER Test remains “loved by some, hated by others.”
The STEM Times is produced by fourth- and fifth-grade students The newspaper is printed using soy-based color inks and partialat Moore Magnet Elementary School, 1350 Madison St., Clarksville, ly recycled paper. TN 37040. The STEM Times is a member of the National Elementary It is part of the school’s after-school activity program. School Press Association.
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The STEM Times
Spring 2016
Robotics Team takes first place in Cookeville competition, preps for May contest at Kenwood Middle
winning
Gizmos By JANEY STEVENS Fourth grade
In only two months, the Moore Robotics Team, the Gizmos, has won two awards in competitions and is preparing to compete again in May. The Gizmos, made up of student engineers and dedicated mentors, has a very interesting history. At first the team was the Moore Magneteers, but eventually changed their name to the Moore Magnet Gizmos. They had to have lots of preparation for the first competition in December 2015. They worked with a focus, but had lots of fun along the way. A lot of things were considered when looking at the overall score. The Gizmos came away from the competition with the “Judges Award.” After qualifying at the state competition, the Gizmos worked even harder as they prepared for their next competition. The Gizmos had a lot of work to do on “Gizmo,” the team’s competition robot. The judges said the bot was “sturdy.” The FLL (First Lego League) Core Values were judged for the overall score.
“Keep doing what you’re doing! You had a fantastic presence for a first year team! “Loved the nicknames given to participants,” were some of the comments made by the judges. That competition was held in February 2016 in Cookeville, and the team walked away with first place in the presentation section! They are preparing to compete again in May at Kenwood Middle School here in Clarksville. Go Gizmos! Mrs. Jane Weakley and Mrs. Jenifer Averitt were the mentor masterminds behind the Gizmos. They put lots of time into working with all of the team members. Mrs. Gurnon, who made the team’s shirts, got a very special thank you from all of the Moore Magnet Gizmos! When things got rough the mentor masterminds were always calm, cool and collected, which helped everyone stay focused on working as a team. Team members are Katelyn Mann, Ella Averitt, Da’Leila Ladd, Ethan Dowdy, Ryan Bellamy, Cooper Smith, Antonio Perez, Andrew Bailey, Gavin Weddington and Nate Smith. You can check out their bot, Gizmo, and the trophies in the display case in the front lobby.
In top photo, Nate Smith and Ella Averitt work on programming Gizmo, the Moore Magnet School’s competition robot. (Photo by Janey Stevens). At left, Post-It notes lay out Gizmo’s missions. (Photo by Brady Cooper)
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The STEM Times
Spring 2016
s t s i t n e i Sc k r o at w
STEM learning starts early at Moore Magnet Story and photo by Mackenzie Fields Fourth grade STEM is a way of learning that combines science, technology, engineering and math. STEM Projects can take about three days to one week. STEM challenges are real-world problems students solve using what they have learned in science and math classes.
Kindergarten A kindergarten STEM challenge was to study salmon and the environments in which they live. They worked in small groups and designed streams for the salmon to travel. The students had to make it so the salmon could travel up and down the river. Salmon are born in freshwater streams and swim to the ocean to grow into adults. The materials included foam piping, yarn, hooks, Swedish fish and other living and nonliving things that could be in or near the stream. They made 3-D models of their design, tested their route, and then improved.
Kindergartners work on their study of how salmon travel through streams. The project is part of the school-wide STEM learning at Moore Magnet.
First grade First-graders built pollinators for their STEM challenge. Students had to build their own pollinators to keep vegetation alive. They had to find a way to pick up and spread pollen. “This STEM challenge was a tricky one!” said Lyla Stephens in Ms. Skorup’s homeroom. “Mostly everyone had to go back and improve their pollinator. “In the end we all got them to work. Now other scientists can take our designs since we improved them,” she said.
Second grade A second-grade STEM challenge was to figure out how temperature effects water evaporation. They set three cups of water in three different places, putting 8 fluid ounces in each cup. The locations were outside in the cold, by the classroom heater, and away from the heater at room temperature. They used temperature probes
to measure the temperature. Also, every day they calculated how much water had evaporated. At the end, they calculated how much evaporated in all and concluded that temperature does effect evaporation.
Third grade A third grade STEM challenge was to create a plan to build and maintain a sustainable garden. They have planned to use leftover breakfast food to compost. They have been working to get the garden beds ready in the outdoor classroom. Once the beds are ready, they will plant and hope to grow vegetables and plants by the end of the school year.
Fourth grade A fourth-grade STEM Challenge was filtering water and turning it into energy. Students drew blueprints of each plan. Although they drew blueprints of the water filter with the water as energy, they only created
Photo by Mackenzie Fields
the filters. Kira Fordham in Ms. Green’s homeroom said, “We used rubber bands, coffee filters, rocks, sand, 2-liter bottles, milk jugs and other things from home.” They worked in groups to build their filters. Once they had created the filter system, they used dirty water from outside to test and improve.
Fifth grade A fifth-grade STEM challenge was to create insulators to keep an ice cube from melting. They had 20 minutes to choose their materials. The students had two rounds to pick their materials. The first round they chose between paper, Styrofoam or plastic cups. On the second round they could choose between aluminum foil, wax paper, cling wrap, felt, foam sheets, cotton balls and construction paper. They weighed the ice cube before and after the insulation process. The successful prototype lost the least amount of weight.
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Spring 2016
Earth Day Fun Earth Day is Friday, April 22, a day to celebrate the Earth and remember our responsibilities to it. Here are some fun activities about Earth Day. Earth Day Word Scramble
Word Search Words from the fourth- and fifthgrade STEM vocabulary lists are hidden in this puzzle. Some words are hidden forward, some downward and others diagonally. Can you find these words?
C O N S E R V A T I O N
S E T L R H A B I T A T
E U N P D E N P K T Z R
C P S V B C U Y T J L L
SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION ECOLOGY HABITAT BIOME
Here’s an Earth Day coloring page for younger readers of The STEM Times!
O A O T I I O S R P X X
L G Q L A R O M A Y J L
O L V U L I O M P B T R
G Y Y N A U N N E O L L
Y J D Q P T T A M W S E
D N J Z T D I I B E X T
X T Y J X M J C O L N D
COMPOST AQUATIC POLLUTION ENVIRONMENT REUSABLE
D P M Y G L Y R N N E T
Instructions: Unscramble the letters to find Earth Day words from this list: litter, earth, green, recycle, energy, clean. NERGE __ __
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__
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CLYREEC __ __
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HARET __ __
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NERGYE __ __ __ __
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TRETIL __ __ __ __
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NECLA __ __
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The STEM Times
Spring 2016
After-school clubs fun ways to learn, make new friends By BRADY COOPER Fourth Grade
Both can have approximately 25 students. Seth Booth is a part of Art Club. One of his favorite things is Moore Magnet enrichment playing around and being creative. clubs meet weekly from October Quamond Linsey, fourth grade, through March after school and enjoys being in Fitness Club beare open only to students in third cause he likes playing games, like through fifth grade. Robotics meets on Tuesdays and basketball and kick ball, working out and just doing fitness in generis taught by Ms. Weakley. al. Ms. Weakley is our school’s The fifth-grade Beta Club meets tech coach. on Thursdays and so does choir. This year the robotics team They each have about 20 kids. competed in two competitions and Choir is run by Ms. Alexander. brought home a trophy each time. She teaches voice, pitch and There are only 10 people on the harmonizing. The choir performs team of fourth- and fifth-graders. at our winter celebration and for the One person I interviewed on the fifth grade graduation. team was Gavin Weddington. Ms. Hammond’s Beta students I asked what he enjoyed about have to have good grades to be in being there. Beta where they work on goals to He said, “I enjoy building ropromote the ideals of achievement, bots and programing them. character and leadership. “I also like being creative If you would like to join a club and traveling to other competinext school year, information is tions.” shared in early September. Maybe you don’t enjoy robotics Spaces are limited, so be sure to or you can’t do that. return your permission early! How about physical fitness or These are the people I interart club? viewed who like to do clubs, and Fitness is run by Coach Jean they would encourage you to join and Coach Young, and art is run by one too. Ms. DeYeso.
‘Quickest Kid in Clarksville’ coming to Moore library Daredevil penguin and cookbook for princesses also on list of new books Mrs. O’Bryant has ordered new books for the library, and one of the new books is “The Quickest Kid in Clarksville” and it’s really about Clarksville, Tenn.! According to a review on www. goodreads.com: “It’s the day before the big parade. Alta can only think about one thing: Wilma Rudolph, three-time Olympic gold medalist. She’ll be riding on a float tomorrow. “Alta is the quickest kid in Clarksville, just like Wilma once was. “It doesn’t matter that Alta’s shoes have holes because Wilma came from hard times, too. “But what happens when a new girl with shiny new shoes comes along and challenges Alta to a race? Will she still be the quickest kid?” You’ll have to read the book to find out! Ms. O’Bryant said these books also will be on the Moore Magnet library shelves soon: Robinson Crusoe (Graphic Novel) by Daniel Defoe A Princess Cookbook by Sarah L. Schuette
SuperBowl: All about Pro Football’s Biggest Event by Hans Hetrick Magic Treehouse: Balto of the Blue Dawn by Mary Pope Osborn Football’s Greatest Quarterbacks by Matt Doeden Football’s Greatest Running Backs by Eric Braun Bookspeak!: poems about books by Laura Purdie Salas Archie the Daredevil Penguin by Andy Rash Ranger in Time: Rescue on the Oregon Trail by Kate Messner
Can you guess the most popular library books? These are the 10 most checked-out books at the library: 1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth 2. Dog Finds Lost Dolphins! and More True Stories of Amazing
Animal Heroes 3. Dork Diaries: Tales from the Not-So-Fabulous Life 4. Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
8. Scary Places
6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel
9. Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not So-Smart Miss Know-It-All
7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
10. Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star
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SPRING 2016
Outdoor garden helps students learn to be ‘green’ Moore Magnet is the first green-certified elementary school in Montgomery County By ANNA BRADLEY Fourth grade The teachers and students at Moore Magnet Elementary have an outdoor garden located in front of the school. This garden includes two rain barrels, five raised garden beds, a pond and several compost bins. The garden area was designed for the use of students at our school but can also be used by other schools in Montgomery County if they would like to come. The garden opened in fall of 2013 during Moore’s “Green Certification” green ribbon-cutting ceremony. Mayor Kim McMillan cut the
ribbon to celebrate Moore Magnet STEM School as the only green-certified elementary school in Montgomery County. The garden is used for many things. Students use the garden area to learn about composting, ecology, agriculture, gardening, sustainability and how to be green. Being “green” means we are learning how to protect earth’s resources! The students of Moore Magnet care very much about conserving the earth’s natural resources and want to learn more and more on how to take care of our environment so that it is a healthy place for future generations to enjoy.
This garden includes two rain barrels, five raised garden beds, a pond and several compost bins. Students use the garden area to learn about composting, ecology, agriculture, gardening, sustainability and how to be green.
Photo by Anna Bradley
Did you know ... Moore Magnet is a Weather Bug school, part of the largest weather network in the world?
There are neighborhood level-sensors located all across the United States where people live and work. The sensors help keep everyone informed of current weather conditions. You can see what the weather is like in Clarksville by watching Nashville’s WSMV Channel 4 Weather Bug report. The WeatherBug station includes a live action camera that measures wind speed and direction, amount of rainfall, lightning strikes, and much more.
WeatherBug also provides extended weather forecasts and serves as an early warning system when severe weather is forecast.
Science and math concepts become easier for students at Moore to understand as they track weather systems, rainfall averages, barometric pressure, dew points, and observe seasons change with animated time-lapse images. You can download a free WeatherBug app to any smart phone for real-time weather forecasts anytime! Mrs. Albertia, our school psychologist, says, “I love WeatherBug. “It gives me an accurate local weather forecast for home or wherever I go when traveling!”