Sabot At Stony Point

SCHOOL NEWS

Peg Spangenthal Memorial Lecture featuring Paul Tough

Tickets for the June 13 Paul Tough lecture are on sale and can be purchased by clicking here.

Sabot on the Radio

WRIR's Chris Dovi interviewed our Executive Director, Irene Carney; Director of Studies, Susan Barstow; and Board President, Tom Shields about the Education Revolution. Click here for a recording of the interview.

Middle School Scientists Find Success at VJAS

Congratulations to the nine 7th and 8th grade students whose science papers were accepted by the Virginia Junior Academy of Science for presentation at the VJAS Annual Symposium on May 21-23. The nine successful students and their papers were:

Animal and Human Sciences:

John Blue - The Effect of Sepiapterin on Beta-Catenin and Stem Cell Radio-resistance

Human Behavior:

Sabrina Daglish – The Effect of Fonts on the Speed of Reading

Luke Hawkins - The Effect of Music on Running Distance

Wyatt Mingus - Can You-Tube Movies Impact your Test Grade?

Physical Science, Engineering & Mathematics:

Alex Daglish - The Effect of Internal Air Pressure on the Elasticity of a Soccer Ball

Max Frankel - The Effect of the Gyroscopic Principle on a Bicycle Wheel

Max Halbruner - Soil Composition and its Effect on Erosion

Sarah Purrington - Sound Wave Differences on Pianos

Plant Sciences and Microbiology:

Lee Martin - The Effect of Microwaved Rainwater on Plant Health

This year, the Annual Symposium will be held at Virginia Tech University. Students will stay at Virginia Tech for 2 nights. The program has not yet been published, but as in past years, there will be speakers the first night, students will present their papers on May 22 and there will be an awards ceremony on May 23.

The VJAS is directly sponsored by the Virginia Academy of Science (VAS). The objectives of the VJAS are to discover and encourage scientific aptitude among secondary school students in Virginia; to foster fellowship between its members and members of the VAS; to encourage students to continue their education in science, engineering and related fields; and to develop a background among its members which will lead to membership in the Virginia Academy of Science and other professional science organizations.

Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

Congratulations to Sabot Alum, Miles Barnett. He has been awarded 2 Gold Medals by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards program, recognizing outstanding creative teenagers and offering scholarship opportunities for graduating high school seniors. Images of his work can be seen on our Facebook page.This year, over 3,000 works were submitted by students in Grades 7 - 12 from the region. The National winners will be celebrated at Carnegie Hall in New York City at the end of May. Keep up the good work, Miles!

Nature Education with Young Children: Integrating Inquiry and Practice

Routledge Publishing has just published Nature Education with Young Children: Integrating Inquiry and Practice. Adding to our faculty's list of accomplishments, our Atelierista, Anna Golden, and Early Childhood Director, Marty Gravett, have both written chapters in it. Lella Gandini (US Liaison for the Dissemination of the Reggio Approach), who will be a featured speaker at our April Institute, wrote the foreword, and the book was edited by Daniel Meier and Stephanie Sisk-Hilton.

Nature and Education is described as "a thoughtful, sophisticated teacher resource that blends theory and practice on nature education, children's inquiry-based learning, and reflective teaching." (Back cover)

Peggy Ashbrook, author of Science is Simple says the book "reminds us to take our children outside, to experience nature in the amounts and places we can find, to notice what the children notice with their gazes and actions, and to extend their wonderings with our own."

Middle School Scientists

On Friday last week, we submitted ten science papers written by 7th and 8th graders to the Virginia Junior Academy of Science (VJAS). These papers were the culmination of 5 months of work on a scientific investigation into a topic of interest to these students. The process included identifying a question to investigate, researching the related scientific knowledge, designing and conducting an experiment, analyzing the results, concluding and then writing the paper to communicate all of the above.

The submitted papers will be read by a panel of VJAS reviewers who will determine whom to invite to the VJAS Annual Symposium in May. The invited authors will present their papers in front of panels of three judges in competition with students from other schools. In 2012, 241 middle school papers were presented. Prizes are awarded to papers that place 1st, 2nd, 3rd or “honorable mention” in each section. Usually there are 22 papers presented in each section. The proceedings and the abstracts of all accepted papers are published by VJAS on their website.

Congratulations to the Sabot at Stony Point students whose papers were submitted last Friday. The following is a list of papers (in alphabetical order), their authors and VJAS category:

Can You-Tube Movies Impact Your Grade? – by Wyatt Mingus (Human Behavior)

Soil Composition and its Effect on Erosion – by Max Halbruner (Physical Science, Engineering and Math)

Sound Wave Differences on Pianos – by Sarah Purrington (Physical Science, Engineering and Math)

The Effect of Fonts on the Speed of Reading – by Sabrina Daglish (Human Behavior)

The Effect of Internal Air Pressure on the Elasticity of a Soccer Ball – by Alex Daglish (Physical Science, Engineering and Math)

The Effect of Microwaved Rainwater on Plant Health – by Lee Martin (Plant Science & Microbiology)

The Effect of Music on Running Distance – by Luke Hawkins (Human Behavior)

The Effect of NFL Penalties on the Outcome of a Game – by Séarlait Coffey (Physical Science, Engineering and Math)

The Effect of Sepiapterin on Beta-Catenin and Stem Cell Radioresistance – by John Blue (Animal & Human Sciences)

The Effect of the Gyroscopic Principle on a Bicycle Wheel – by Max Frankel (Physical Science, Engineering and Math)

Making International Connections

Anna Golden, our Studio Teacher, was recently interviewed by Orla Kelly, a guest editor of Practice.ie. Practice.ie is the website of the first professional network in Ireland for artists working with children and young people and was developed by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership in 2008. You can read Anna's interview with Orla here.

Investigating the "Forbidden" in the "Forbidden City"

4th grade teacher, Melanie Nan, went on a study tour of China last summer with the China Institute. Her lesson plan, Investigating the "Forbidden" in the "Forbidden City" has been published on the China Institute's website. Check it out!

World Peace Game Summer Camp & Teacher Master Class

We are pleased to announce that we will be a host site for the World Peace Game Camp this summer from July 22 - 26. Along with the camp, John Hunter will be facilitating a Master Class for Teachers. Please visit the World Peace Game website to apply for the camp and/or register for the master class.

Personal Pathways & Paradigms, The Sabot Institute

We are pleased to announce that early bird registration is now open for our spring Institute, Personal Pathways & Paradigms: Exploring the Reggio Approach as a new context for teaching practice from preschool through 3rd grade. Details are available on the Institute Blog page. Register now, space is limited!

PRESCHOOL THROUGH 8TH GRADE