ROBOTS HAVE TAKEN OVER!

If you were brave enough to venture through the main lobby at the elementary building, you, most likely, side-stepped an obstacle course of large city maps, excited robotics engineers, and speeding spheres. Our Kindergarten-5th graders were part of teams that created maps, manipulated robotic spheres, and challenged themselves in their accuracy, control, and speed. The Sphero™ and its iPad app allows learners to begin with a Draw program, advance to Block coding, and work toward Text (writing code) to command the robot through various tasks. While enjoying the thrill of “manning a robot,” students also honed their skills in the area of patience, cooperation, gratitude, and perseverance.

We’re so grateful for our generous PTO that provided the funds for this Computer Science program.

–Julie Bennett, K-5th Computer Teacher

What most makes NPC special is the people. Our ability to faithfully maintain institutional commitment to Jesus Christ and His gospel is only as great as those we entrust to carry it out daily. God has been so good to us in who He brings to carry out our mission of “equipping students to impact their world for Jesus Christ.”

This year’s new faculty and staff are no exception to this rule—wonderful Christian servant leaders. But our administrative team loses a long faithful partner this year as Shon Cottle (Athletic Director/ HS Assistant Principal, former counselor) departs. We appreciate the indelible impact Shon has left on our students and community over his decade-plus at NPC.

–Tom Molenkamp, High School Principal

One of the highlights each year is our Middle School Marketplace. Our students spend the first semester studying business through interdisciplinary, project-based learning. Our 8th graders determine a product or service to sell and become CEOs of a company. They hire a 7th grader who is a Marketing Manager and a 6th grader as an Operations Manager. Together they form a company, create a name, business plan, company mission statement, and ads, and then sell their actual product or service on the night of our Marketplace event. Each company is required to do a service project together or give some of their profit away to a charity.

–Megan Willink, Middle School Principal