Seven Hills Buzz for May 4, 2012

SEVEN HILLS The Buzz

A Brief Word from Chris Garten One of the highlights of a very busy Seven Hills weekend was an Upper School drama performance of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

Pursuant to a long-standing tradition, the script the students performed was actually written by the members of the Acting Workshop class. Over the course of the first semester, students adapted the novel, transcribing all of the dialogue, pruning, and crafting it for maximum emotional impact.

Once the play was cast, the students worked alongside Kate Riley, their very able director, on all of the elements of the production: sets, costume and lighting design, as well as staging, sound effects, and incidental music.

It’s hard to describe the impact on our students of this incredibly ambitious collaborative experience. It makes for great theater.

Chris Garten Head of School

(Editor’s Note: Photos from Upper’s production of Tess of the D/Urbervilles and Middle’s production of Willy Wonka Jr. will be in our next Buzz.)

To submit news to The Buzz, email kathy.deubell@7hills.org.

May 4, 2012

2012 Goodall Distinguished Alumna inspires students with her work Family and friends gathered in the Lotspeich Library on April 25 as Head of School Chris Garten presented the Goodall Distinguished Alumni/ae Award to Betsy Gaines Quammen, Seven Hills Class of 1986. Seven Hills’ highest alumni honor, the Goodall Award honors an individual “who has achieved distinction in a public or private career or activity bettering the lives of others.”

That certainly describes the contributions of Betsy Quammen, and Upper School students had the opportunity to meet Betsy and learn about her work at an assembly and in Linda Ford’s Environmental Science class.

Betsy Gaines Quammen is the founder and president of The Tributary Fund (thetributaryfund.org). Started in Mongolia, The Tributary Fund protects endangered wildlife and animal species and their habitats by celebrating

Gloria Garcia, Ellen Coombe, Linnea Head and Sammy Head with Betsy Quammen.

and amplifying cultural traditions that honor nature; encouraging faith communities to follow tenets that honor the Earth and to replace traditions that harm species with wildlife-friendly practices. The Tributary

Spring brings news of many honors for our students!

The Buzz is eager to share news of the many honors that our students have received so far this spring!

Juniors Kyle Patel and Leah Yuan were honored at the American Chemical Society banquet on April 18 for qualifying for the second round exam in the Chemistry Olympiad competition. Chemistry teacher Linda Ford said, “They will take a six-hour battery of both written and laboratory-based chemistry activities along with 1000 other top chemistry Continued pages 2 & 5

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Inside this Buzz Many honors

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Upper School News

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Middle School News

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Lotspeich News

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Doherty News

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See next Buzz for many more spring events!

C O N G R AT U L AT I O N S !

Chemistry Olympiad continued from page 1

Senior Ryan Ferrell signed a letter of intent to play baseball next year at Denison University! Ryan is pictured with his parents, Donna and Joey Ferrell, and (at left) Zachary Huttie, Assistant Coach/Pitching Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Denison. students across the nation. The top 20 students from that competition are invited to compete for the national team of four students who will compete internationally. Leah and Kyle were congratulated for their success by Rick Mullins (above at right), Chairperson of the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society and a chemistry teacher at Xavier University.”

Sophomore Ben Sorscher placed third on a first-year competitive chemistry examination offered by the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society. The test was taken by 132 students from 14 Greater Cincinnati high schools. Ben was awarded $100 for this accomplishment.

Middle School math students took top honors on three math competitions! See page 5 for all the results.

Sophomore Andrew Ligeralde’s essay “An Ode to Garfield” has been accepted for publication in Creative Communication’s Annual Compilation of Student Essays and Poems that will be published in Fall 2012.

It’s a compilation of essays and poems submitted by students in grades 7–12 from all over the country. page 2

Senior Sharon Liao has been named a recipient of a NASSP/Herff Jones Principal’s Leadership Award scholarship (PLA), co-sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and Herff Jones, Inc. One hundred national state PLA winners were chosen among more than 3000 applications. Winners were selected on the basis of their leadership skills, service activities, achievements in the arts and sciences, academic record, and written essay. Each state winner will receive a $1000 college scholarship.

Junior Sarah Shim has been selected to participate in the 2013 Regional Youth Leadership (RYL) program, which recognizes young leaders in the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati area schools.

This leadership development program informs, motivates and increases the awareness of selected high school juniors through issueoriented seminars and interaction with community decision-makers, thus building leadership skills and further encouraging community involvement among young people.

Doherty fourth grader Kevin Wang won one of the top prizes in the primary division at the 88 Tri-State Piano Concerto Competition over spring break.

Kevin played the “Haydn Concertino in C Major, Movement III.” Thank you to his mother, Kejian Zhang,who sent this video link of Kevin playing with the Northern Kentucky Youth orchestra and Sinfonia at the winners concert: https://www.youtube.com/user/ drnypianostudio?feature=mhee Lotspeich fifth grader Emma Heines is one of 24 Ohio students in Level I whose letter made it to Round Three of the Letters About Literature writing contest. Emma’s letter was one of 495 submissions in the contest sponsored by Ohio Center for the Book of Cleveland Public Library.

Doherty has been recognized by Teaching Tolerance (http://www.tolerance.org/) as a “Mix It Up Model School” for 2012–2013. See the full story on page 9.

A look at what’s happening at Upper School

See page 5 for Middle School, page 7 for Lotspeich, and page 9 for Doherty

The Tributary Fund continued from page 1 Fund brings together religious, scientific, and political leaders to work together to protect the Earth’s species, “working with both the heart and the head” for conservation.

Betsy has an M.S. from University of Montana in Environmental Studies and is a Ph.D. candidate at Montana State University in Religion and the History of Science.

She lived in Kenya and worked for Swara (the magazine of the East African Wildlife Society), served on the national board of directors for the Sierra Club and for American Wildlands, and worked with a number of conservation groups.

Betsy credits the direction of her life to her Seven Hills teachers, starting when she transferred to Doherty from a public school in fifth grade, and “the wonderful treasure trove of opportunities that Seven Hills gave me,” including hands-on learning experiences at the Cincinnati Zoo and study trips abroad. “I’m so lucky. I absorbed so much here. It’s at the core of who I am.”

Teacher Lowell Wenger had a World War II show-andtell of artifacts (flags, weapons, ration books, unit patches, and so on) for his AP U.S. History, U.S. History, War & Peace in the 20th Century classes on April 20.

Congratulations to the new members of French Honor Society Allie Feuerlein Maddie Rogers Mia Samaha Monica Blanco Ellen Coombe Federica Fernandez Andrew Korn Sarah Williamson Zoë Pochobradsky Linnea Head Anu Vora Sara Johnson Izzy Arjmand

Spanish Honor Society Bethany Buck Allie Baretta Rachel White Shea Renusch Co-President Carson Quimby Hannah Batsche Co-President Allie Scheiber Priyanka Parameswaran Leah Yuan

Congratulations to Boys Tennis Coach Tim Drew and the Stingers for their win over the fifth-state-ranked Indian Hill Braves on April 25! Tim said, after the win, “We are ranked third in the State right now!”

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Noted poets at Upper

Lara Arnold was a visiting artist in Diane Kruer’s Beginning Pottery class.

Teacher Meredith Brown’s English 9 students (and a few seniors) and the pre-Kindergarteners recently collaborated, as the Upper students wrote down oral stories dictated by the young writers. The stories may be included in the year-end issue of Upper’s literary publication, Paper Noise.

Another collaboration brought Linda Ford's Environmental Science students together with Lotspeich third grade science students. See page 8.

For the latest Upper School news, check out the online student publication, Canvass, at http://7hillscanvass.org/.

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Seven Hills was pleased to present noted poets Lisa Fishman (above left) and Nicole Wilson for a poetry reading for the public in the Young Family Library on the evening of May 1, followed the next day by the poets teaching two of Erich Schweikher’s English classes and doing a poetry reading on the deck at lunchtime. Erich said, “The highly-praised author of five books of poetry, Lisa Fishman

is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Poetry Program at Columbia College Chicago. Nicole Wilson is a 2008 graduate of the MFA Poetry Program at Columbia College Chicago where she is the Associate Programs Director of Creative Writing. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and finalist for the 2011 Black Box Poetry Prize from Rescue Press.”

Alumni Career Cafe Kathryn Findlay Balnes, Greg Schoeny, Head of Lotspeich Carolyn Fox, Helen Mattheis, Assistant Head of School Susan Marrs, Craig Willis, Jamie Willis, Jonathan Hawgood, David Kern, Director of Development Margo Kirstein; Rob Anning.

The first Alumni Career Café was held on April 4. Eight local alums from different professions returned to campus to share their experiences with the junior class. The juniors were divided into four groups and interacted with two speakers during the lunch bell. Nancy Bassett ’83, Director of Alumni Relations, said, “Many thanks to our speakers Rob Anning ‘86, Senior Vice President of Investments UBS Financial Services; Kathryn Findlay

Balnes ‘95, Midwest Account Executive for Lilly Pulitzer; Jonathan Hawgood ‘87, weekend morning anchor for WLWT; David Kern ‘92, a partner at Roetzel & Andress; Helen Mattheis ‘84, Program Director for Thriving People at the Greater Cincinnati Foundation; Greg Schoeny ‘92, Manager of National Sales for Cisco Systems; Craig Willis ‘87, orthopaedic hand surgeon; and Jamie Willis ‘90, a clinical psychologist.”

A look at what’s happening at Middle School Head of Middle Bill Waskowitz told us, “Teacher Andy McGarvey has been doing a cool project in his sixth grade Geography class on ‘raw elements’ in which students trace a raw element from its country of origin, then follow how it is ‘harvested’ and eventually turned into a product.”

Andy explained the Raw Material to Final Product project: “What we had the students do was develop an interest in a country from Asia. They first did some basic research about the country of their choice: area, population, government type, GDP, and currency.

They looked into the natural resources of the country and, from that list, did some digging into one of the resources. The goal was to find out how the resource goes from being a raw material to a final product: how it is extracted, how it is processed, and how it becomes a product.

“Most students did a Keynote presentation with detailed text and photographs to help show the process. Some included short video clips they found to help explain the process.

“The interesting thing was how they found natural resources (some but not all) that they knew nothing about and how that became something they might see and use here in the U.S. Three examples were Thailand (gypsum turned into wallboard/drywall), Philippines (bamboo into bikes), and Thailand (rubber/latex to erasers).”

At right are four images from two of the Keynote presentations which accompanied the sixth graders’ detailed oral presentations. At near right, Louann Kovach’s Raw Material to Final Product project was rubber to erasers. At far right, Kate Stein drew all of her pictures by hand on the iPad for her fish to fish oil Raw Material to Final Product project. page 5

Top honors in chapter, state, region on these math competitions MATHCOUNTS Team of Tigar Cyr, Bennett Smith, Alex Jiang, and Matthew Clayton placed 2nd in the chapter and 12th in the state. Individual chapter rankings were Tigar, 6th; Bennett, 13th; Alex, 15th; Matthew, 18th. Individual state rankings were Bennett, 25; Alex, 28; Clayton, 53; Tigar, 56.

AMC 8 (scores out of 25) Eighth Grade Tigar Cyr, 23, Gold Medal; Matthew Clayton, 21, Silver Medal; Alex Jiang, 20, Bronze Medal, Bennett Smith, 19; Ben Nordmeyer, 18, Lily Lou, 18.

Seventh Grade Daniel Grass, 18, Gold Medal; Chase Gardner, 17, Silver Medal; Calvin Arbenz, 15, Bronze Medal.

OML (scores out of 35) The eighth grade team of five top scorers in the grade was 4th in the state and 2nd in the region. Individually, Bennett Smith (score of 31) tied for 12th in the state and tied for 3rd in the region; Tigar Cyr and Alex Jiang (30) each tied for 18th in the state; other team members were Matthew Clayton and Andrei Savu with scores of 29.

Tigar Cyr, Bennett Smith, Matthew Clayton, Alex Jiang

The seventh grade team was 4th in the state and 2nd in the region. Individually, Calvin Arbenz, Daniel Grass, and Matisse Peppet, with scores of 29, tied for 15th in the the state; other team members were Jack Lane and Calvin O’Brien with scores of 27.

The sixth grade team tied for 11th in the state and was 3rd in the region. Individually, the following students had these scores: Michael Barresi and Mary Grace Ramsay, 27; Garrett Reich, 25; Natalie Choo, 24; Jonathan Harsh, Sam Francis, Jessica Nordland, Tindar Cyr, 23.

Sumo wrestling at Seven Hills Middle School!

As part of the outreach of the Japan America Society of Greater Cincinnati (www.jasgc.org), two sumo wrestlers demonstrated their ancient tradition for an enthusiastic audience of sixth, seventh and eighth graders on April 20. The event was coordinated with JASGC by Seven Hills parent Amy Murray. Social Studies teacher and event organizer Doug Huff said, “The purpose of JASGC and of this cultural presentation is to promote a better understanding and cultural awareness between the people of Japan and Americans/Cincinnatians.”

Amy Murray shared the traditional and religious significance of sumo wrestling in the Japanese culture, and the guest wrestlers took on—much to the delight of the audience—eighth graders Kevin Brenning and Matthew Shepherd and sophomore (and friend of the wrestlers) Ben Murray, as well as Upper/Middle PE intern Chelsea Graham, Upper/Middle Spanish teacher Cassandra Bruce, and Head of Middle Bill Waskowitz.

Seven Hills wrestlers pictured are (top row) Bill Waskowitz; (middle row) Matthew Shepherd, Chelsea Graham, Ben Murray; (bottom row) Cassandra Bruce, and Kevin Brenning, with Amy Murray providing cheering in the background. Great sports, all!

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A look at what’s happening at Lotspeich The annual Third Grade Living History Museum gave visitors a look at a wide range of Cincinnati area landmarks, as well as student experts who were eager to share what they learned through their projects.

From left are Charlie Ringel, Skyline Chili; Aaron Ziegler, Lunken Airport; Manny Keeling, Loveland Castle.

Lemonade

“The first graders had a wonderful time preparing and performing the First Grade Spring Show, Lemonade,” said teacher Marilyn Braun. ”The message of our show was ‘If the world gives you lemons, make lemonade!’ We had such fun learning our lines and all the new songs and then getting our costumes

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ready. We performed the show for our friends at The New England Club Retirement Community. We also entertained our families and all of our classmates at Lotspeich. Our special guests were our fifth grade buddies. Each performance received rave reviews!”

(Front) CJ Dye as Theodore Roosevelt, Ben Skibo as Henry Ford, Michael Stein as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Kellen Newman as Thurgood Marshall, Bryan Fisher as Roberto Clemente; (back) Alex Newell as Albert Einstein, Ethan Rising as John James Audubon, Peter Stein as Sir Isaac Newton, Poppi Baylor as Anne Frank, Claire Ramsay as Queen Elizabeth I, Ella Samaha as Elizabeth Blackwell.

Teacher Pegi Leonard told us, “As part of their reading and literature curriculum, the fourth graders participate in Living Biographies, where the students research a character in history who has made a positive contribution to society. They are introduced to the process of writing a research paper—from note taking to creating a time line and, finally, to learning to write a report that includes information about their character’s early, middle, and late years.

When the students’ research is complete and their papers are written, they assume the personas of their characters and share their legacies with their classmates and families.”

At left, Ben Gimpel (as Milton Hershey) with his family.

One of the special features of the fifth grade colonial studies is the visit of the blacksmith, who guides the students in forging dinner triangles. Much more on colonial studies and Colonial Day in our next Buzz.

“It has become a tradition for Linda Ford’s Environmental Science class and Lotspeich science students to come together during Earth Week,” said science teacher Natalie Williams.

“This year we got together on April 18 for a variety of activities. Senior Claire Duncan presented to the third graders about the collapse of the honey bee colonies (with guest visitor Stinger Bee, thanks to senior Harrison Addy) and senior Annie Schwandner taught a lesson on buying locally and sustainably. Throughout the class period, the Upper students and third graders worked in the garden, planting seasonal plants and cleaning up the beds, and played games together.”

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A look at what’s happening at Doherty Doherty has been recognized by Teaching Tolerance (http://www.tolerance.org/) as a “Mix It Up Model School” for 2012–2013. This was based on Unit III’s monthly Mix It Up at Lunch Days, when “students moved out of their comfort zones and connected with someone new over lunch.” From the Teaching Tolerance website: “Mix It Up Model Schools embrace respect and inclusiveness as core values—they ‘mix it up’ all year long. These schools have done an exemplary job of organizing, publicizing and implementing Mix It Up at Lunch Day. By sharing their recipes for success, Model Schools are beacons for other schools striving for inclusiveness.” Congratulations to Doherty and Mix It Up at Lunch organizer teacher Regina Daily!

Fifth grade trip to colonial Virginia Thank you to the Fourth Grade Cub Scouts, who volunteered at the Council on Child Abuse for a service project. “They worked extremely hard and put together 560 packets of information about normal infant crying and the dangers of shaking an infant or child. These packets will be distributed to new parents. April was Child Abuse Prevention Month,” said Kathi L. Makoroff, M.D., M.Ed., Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children, Medical Director, Continuing Medical Education, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and Mom to fourth grader Alex and seventh grader Daniel.

The Unit II Seeds and Sprouts are working to thin decorative grasses outside of Haile Hall. page 9

Unit III teacher Tracy Hickenlooper said, “Over spring break, 25 fifth graders participated in The Virginia Trip.

They stepped back in time to experience the ideas and dreams of the people who lived and worked to create this great country of America. They spent four-days visiting the Jamestown Settlement, Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown Victory Center, and Monticello. Students experienced colonial life firsthand.

“They had a private tour of the Governor’s Mansion as well as several trades shops, participated in a reenactment of an actual Witch Trial, trained to fight with the Jamestown militia, and spent a whole afternoon on a roundabout tour of Thomas Jefferson’s home and plantation. It was an amazing experience!”

Many more photos can be seen on Doherty’s flatscreens.

Librarian Linda Wolfe told us, “The fourth grade students rushed to the library every day to hear the book Wild Wings by Gill Lewis. After tracking the flight of an osprey from Ireland, over the Pyrenees and on to Northwestern Africa, the students worked in teams with Mrs. Stricker in art to create life-sized 3-D images of an osprey to be hung in the library. The excitement went beyond the classroom for Annie Leeper, who was thrilled when a naturalist on Marco Island showed her an osprey nest and she had the opportunity to see a live osprey!”

“In the Friendship Unit fourth graders (pictured at right) were divided into different ethnic groups to learn about the culture and traditions of each group through different activities,” said Unit III Coordinator Vaishali Sarbhoy. ”Asian Americans made cherry blossom paintings using a blow ink technique, Native Americans made totem poles, Irish Americans made a colorful cross, Latin American worked on their pinatas, Jewish Americans worked on a diorama, and African Americans made masks. Each ethnic group learned a game, then taught it to the other groups. There was lion dancing, limbo, and even a spoon and potato race!

“In a discrimination activity, students had to stay with their ethnic groups and were not allowed to interact with the other groups.

Everyone felt this was the hardest thing to do! They compared and contrasted the ethnic groups and concluded that you can still be a friend and learn new things even if you come from a different cultural background!” page 10

Teacher Tracy Hickenlooper said, “Part of the fifth grade curriculum is a three-day experience at Glen Helen Outdoor Education Center. Trail groups ventured into the 1000-acre outdoor classroom with their naturalist-teachers. Students learned about the environment and how to protect it through hands-on, authentic experiences. Students explored native ecosystems and searched for macroinvertebrates in the streams to determine water health. They worked together to meet wasted food goals in the dining hall. The Glen Helen trip emphasizes cooperation and teamwork!”

As part of their Cincinnati History unit, third graders toured City Hall. A highlight was visiting with Councilman PG Sittenfeld, Seven Hills Class of 2003.