In honor of the winter Olympics, middle school students in Ms. Dobler’s STEM club designed and tested their own bobsleds. They had to plan their design using a limited number of materials and make modifications, trying to create the fastest bobsled that stayed on the track! Of course, the races were heated, though not quite as frosty and anxiety producing as the Olympics in Beijing.
The upper school community service and wellness volunteer group Red Hearts went to the Fort Totten metro station to walkway on Wednesday to help remove trash and beautify the area. The club, advised by school social worker members using their early release day to clean up Fort Totten station walkway. The club is advised by school social worker Hope Foster, and is lead by upper school students committed to building connections between teachers, students, staff, and the larger Washington, D.C. community through acts of kindness in the building and beyond.
Wordsmith and bibliophile Brittany Lee-Bey, who is the school reading specialist held a virtual Distinguished Speaker Series event on Wednesday. Ms. Lee-Bey is the author of EtymologyRules: Back to Basics. She spoke about how to foster a love of language by building word consciousness in our children and adults.
Upper school Chinese teachers Mr. Liu and Ms. Han lead students in a Lunar New Year celebration this month, complete with festive decorations, food, and games. The teachers taught lessons about Chinese language and culture in their classes, and their students created projects on the Chinese New Year. Feel free to look here for more detail into student projects
Ninth graders in Mr. Torrence and Mr. Keller’s physics classes participated in the science fair on Thursday. Students conducted original research on everything from animal behavior to physics. One pair studied the impact of energy drinks on heart rates. Another pair evaluated the impact of vitamin C on a guinea pig’s ability to move rapidly through a maze. Another student built his own motor, and a pair of students completed an engineering challenge, building bridges and testing the weight they could hold. Judges included parents, former students, teachers, and community members. The upper and middle school science fairs ask students to do some preliminary research, form a hypothesis, assemble materials, plan their procedure, conduct research, evaluate results, write a conclusion, and showcase their work, citing the sources for their research. The work is time-consuming, challenging, and hands-on, to build better scientists and critical thinkers.
In last week’s wrestling tournament Mr. Torrence’s elite group of wrestlers beat the tournament winners (Saint Anselm’s) in heads-up matches and took 2nd place as a team. This is the first time the team has placed as a team in any tournament, and the highest the team has placed in the MAWL conference, which includes public and private schools in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area. Senior Keith Stancil won his final match by pin to claim silver. Junior Jackson Lewis won his two official matches to claim the top spot at 170. Zemen Sium won all of his matches by pin. Sophomore Zaire Jackson notched an upset victory in a revenge match against his foe from Saint Anselm’s with a rare defensive pin. Junior D’Andre Person and freshman Eamon Price battled injuries off the mat, but still showed up for their teammates, along with freshman Maccabi Epstein who faced his teammate in an exhibition.
