The Seven Hills Buzz The Seven Hills School Bulletin
A Brief Word from Chris Garten Last week’s elaborate Celebration of Birds marked the culmination of the sixth grade’s yearlong interdisciplinary study of birdlife. Orchestrated by science teachers Jennifer Licata and Karen Glum and the entire sixth grade team, this project epitomizes for me what is unique about our Middle School program. Here is a sustained interdisciplinary investigation that exposed students to field-based scientists. Bird studies were incorporated into most topics covered in Life Science, including ecology, cells, body systems, and genetics. Students work with birds included bird identification in the field, biweekly bird counts as part of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s citizen science program (eBird), bird banding and monitoring with the help of Drs. Dave and Jill Russell, regular Skype sessions with field scientists, and the dissection of bird hearts and a study of bird circulation guided by a professional ornithologist. Students used iMovie to produce electronic field guides to birds, bird-cams used to monitor migration patterns, CLO’s eBird website, and class wiki pages to post pictures, video, information about our birds and to share our iMovies with the scientific community. This protracted and collaborative inquiry-based project, supported by a host of instructional technologies, is exactly the kind of project that arms our students with “21st century skills.” This summer, the project will be extended into the seventh grade Earth Science unit that will focus on migration as the theme for the year. Karen Glum is working to develop a partnership with schools in Alaska to jointly study birds, particularly the effects of differences in latitude on shared species. Wow! Chris Garten, Head of School
Vol. 1 No. 16 May 6, 2010
Math honors: Individual First in State, Team Second in State Members of the team that placed second in the state among allsized schools in the Ohio Math League competition were (front) Britt Cyr, Ellen Coombe, Peppar Cyr; (back) Chris Baggott, and Alex Markovits.
Senior Britt Cyr had the highest score in the state on the 2010 American Mathematics Competition. The AMC 12 is the first step to the USA Olympiad for which Britt subsequently qualified with his score on the American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME). He was one of two Ohio students and 250 students nationally to qualify for the USA Mathematical Olympiad, which is the qualifying test for the United States team which will compete in the Interna-
tional Mathematical Olympiad in Kazakhstan this summer. Other Seven Hills students who had high scores on the AMC 12 were seniors Robby Woodworth, Josh Wang, Sarah Kloepper, Walker Schiff, Henry Warrington, and junior Peppar Cyr. Sophomore Isabel Arjmand was the top Seven Hills scorer on the AMC 10, and other high scorers were sophomores Alex Markovits, Betsy Johnson, Dan Lang, Ginger Johnson, and freshman Sebastian Hoar. Math honors continued page 2
Middle teachers accepted to first Posen Foundation Seminar Eighth grade English teacher Linda Maupin and history teacher Judith Neidlein-Dial were accepted to the first annual Posen Foundation Seminar on integrating Jewish Studies topics into middle and high school classrooms in New York City. Mrs. Maupin and Mrs. Neidlein-Dial spent the weekend
of April 17 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage— A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, analyzing primary source material, discussing the validity and implementation of pedagogical strategies, and generally reveling in the intellectually stimulating collaboration with like-minded passionate
Posen Seminar continued page 2
Congratulations to the new members in the Seven Hills chapter of the National Spanish Honor Society: (seated) Nathan Markiewitz, Heidi Garrett, Lilly Fried, Chris Clark, Haley Brunner, Katherine Steinman, Luke Wulsin; (standing) Lloyd Ulicny, Emma Weitzenkorn, Julie Berger, Haleigh Monaco, Elisse Hill, Celine Shirooni, Sasha Lieberman, Lauren Truncellito, Sydney Larkin, and Julianne Bain.