CAMPUS CURRENTS
Nĭ Hăo!
PC WELCOMES CHINESE STUDENTS AND YEAR OF THE MONKEY Penn Charter hosted 11 high-school-aged students from Chongqing Number 1 Middle School for two weeks in February. Because middle school in China is equivalent to high school in the U.S., the Chinese students lived with Penn Charter Upper School students studying Mandarin. Penn Charter added Mandarin Chinese to the curriculum in 2010, offering courses up to Level 5 for students in seventh through 12th grades. “It is a small but growing program,” said Chinese teacher Lea Ekeberg. “We use story-based strategies, and there is no textbook. The students learn to speak Chinese by telling stories.” The Chinese visitors attended classes with their hosts, visited the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Constitution Center, University of Pennsylvania and sites in New York City. They had the opportunity to assist with set production for Beauty and the Beast and cheer on the girls and boys basketball teams. A group of PC students visited our sister school, Yaohua School in Tianjin, over spring break, and also spent time with the Chongqing students after two days in Beijing. PC students and exchange students from Chongqing celebrate Chinese New Year at Timmons House. Happy Year of the Monkey!
Gordon Robertson, Amelia Dogan, Josh Patton and Ian Harbison represented PC at Philadelphia FIRST Tech Challenge League Championship.
ROBOTICS CLUB WINS PHILLY, COMPETES AT STATES Penn Charter’s Robotics Club won the Philadelphia FIRST Tech Challenge League Championship this year and went on to capture 13th (of 36 teams) at States. The team, comprised of Upper School students from every grade and advised by science teachers Tim Clarke and Corey Kilbane, constructed and coded a robot that would complete tasks assigned in advance by the competition. “Our robot was reliable,” Clark said after the city competition. “Other teams had robots that could do more things, but they fell over and were useless, or just didn’t work. So, reliable was good! And we continued work to improve our robot.” The 17-member PC club worked in advance to design and build the robot, write its JAVA programming, code tasks, and design parts that were laser cut or 3D printed at Penn Charter. The win in Philly earned PC a spot in the state championships, where the competition team of Amelia Dogan, Ian Harbison, Gordon Robertson and Elizabeth Ominsky placed 13 out of 36 teams after the placement rounds. “The team had a great rookie year and is excited for next year,” Clarke said.
SPRING 2016 •
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