HMS Spelling Bee

On Monday, January 27, Harrison Middle School held the School Spelling Bee.  Congratulations to all participants; with a total of 471 students in Grades 5, 6, 7, and 8 the finalists did very well.

Participants: 

• Grade 5: Ellie Gabrielson, Emma Pazar, GW Ruth, and Sam Whipple
• Grade 6: Brie Hathcock, Spencer King, Michael McNeil, and Hayden Van Alstein
• Grade 7: Dylan Doyle, Michael Guertler, Grady Welsh, and Sophie Wink
• Grade 8: Max Coury, Madi Dickinson, Ellie Purgavie, and Emi Ruth

Finalists:   

• Spencer King and Grady Welsh 
• Alternate:    Max Coury

Good luck (spelling) to Spencer and Grady  for their upcoming efforts to move onto the State Spelling Bee.

Spencer King, Max Coury and Grady Welsh

The Cumberland County Spelling Bee is scheduled for February 4 at the Falmouth Middle School Library - registration at 6:30, Spelling Bee at 7:00.

Claire Scott and Kyaira Grondin Honored For Their Work

Claire Scott and Kyaira Grondin, 7th grade art students at HMS, have been honored for their accomplishments in Visual Art!

Kyaira Grondin’s beautiful painting titled “Silent Moment” (a boat at rest on the shore of a lake at sunset) was selected by the MLTI Project as a statewide winner of the MLTI Screensaver Art Contest. Her work will become a screensaver image choice for all Maine students!

Claire Scott’s lovely painting of buildings on a canal in Venice, Italy, "Buon giorno Venezia",

was selected to represent HMS at the annual Youth Art Month Show at the Portland Museum of art. Only ONE work from each school may be exhibited in this show! This show will be at Portland Museum of Art throughout the month of March, and will display work by art students throughout Maine.

Claire and Kyaira's paintings were created during the 7th grade Abstract Tempera Painting Unit in art class.

Please congratulate these talented, hard-working artists on their outstanding accomplishments!

 

Kyaira Grondin's "Silent Moment"

Claire Scott's "Buon giorno Venezia"

Exciting News for the HMS Robotics Team!

On Saturday, January 18th,  Mr. Harrington, Mr. Cuthbert and the HMS robotics team, The Clipperbots, competed in a VEX Robotics State Qualifying Event at Erskine Academy.  After forty-nine match rounds, The Clipperbots were safely in 9th place. During the alliance rounds a 5th place Team from Lake Region High School chose to compete with the HMS team; this proved to be a great partnership. 

The two teams qualified for the semifinals, and defeated the 2nd place team, Cape Elizabeth High School and Madison High School, to make it into the finals. The HMS team was defeated by the 1st place team, Cede White Mountain Academy and Hampden Academy.

The HMS team has qualified for the state championship in the second year of their program, outranking twenty other high school teams! This is a fantastic showing from our dedicated students and staff.

Mr. Harrington and Mr. Cuthbert are so proud of the students' work. These teammates demonstrated the following:

• team work
• trouble shooting
• calm under pressure
• programming
• discussion
• planning
• trial/ error
• compassion
• understanding
• leadership
• networking
• honesty

A HUGE thank you to our supportive parent volunteers, Rich Weinberg and Adam Moore!  The team would not have been able to move forward without their support!

 Congratulations to the Clipperbots!

Tori Moore

Reed Oestreicher

Emilie Hardel

Phil Bock

Emmett Herr

Jackson Rollins

Hannah Zimmerman

Eli Anderson

Sam Weinberg

Geography Bee 2013-2014

The school-level Bee, at which students answered oral questions on geography, was the first round in the 26th annual National Geographic Bee. The school finalists included:

7th Grade students: Olivia Feeley, Mackenzie Peloquin, Justin Pietropaoli, Lula Rasor and Paige Reinfelder

8th Grade students: Emilie Hardel, Molly Malczynski, Cal Owen, Sam Potter and Sage Waterson

Emilie Hardel (center), an 8th grade student at HMS, won the school-level competition of the National Geographic Bee and a chance at a $25,000 college scholarship; she will compete at the state level following a qualifying written exam. Along side Emilie is Sam Potter, the runner-up.

Mrs. Newick, Emilie Hardel and Sam Potter

Some questions the students responded to:

1. The islands of Madura and Bali are part of which country?
2. Mount Kosciuszko, located in the Snowy Mountains, is the highest peak on which continent?
3. And ironically, The city of Portland is the eastern terminus for an oil pipeline that connects with Montreal, Canada. Portland is located on Casco Bay in which New England state?

Congratulations to all participants and thank you Mrs. Newick for organizing the Geo Bee.

Elaine Fletcher's work featured at upcoming show

One of Elaine Fletcher's beautiful paintings will be featured at an upcoming event from the Maine Art Education Association! Please see the details below for information:

Dates:  January 14 through March 1; Opening Reception on Saturday, January 25th

Place: Saco Museum (Hours: T,W,Th: 12-4; Fri: 12-8pm; Sat: 10-4)

Event: MAEA art show entitled "AFTER HOURS"

This is a show of artwork in many media, created by art teachers from throughout Maine. Drawings, paintings, collage, glass, metal, wood, ceramics, sculpture and mixed media will be showcased. Many pieces will be for sale.

Elaine's painting is a 2'X4' oil on canvas entitled, "Brothers: Skipping Stones at Pittee Creek". Please see her amazing work below. Holly Houston, from YHS, will also have work featured in the show.

The Maine Art Education Association is an arts advocacy organization that promotes artistic learning for children, encourages innovation and research in art education, and the exchange of ideas and practices among teachers and artists. You can visit their site at: mainearted.org

Skipping Stones at Pittee Creek

Robotics Gets New Energy Thanks to YEF

Robot on the move.

Fifth grade students in Mr. Dehetre’s STEAM lab pair up to build and program Lego Mindstorm robots. The robotics unit in STEAM has been very popular with students for the past 6 years. As the years went by, our robots began to tire. Thanks to a generous donation from the Yarmouth Education Foundation, the robots have received new batteries and now have lots of energy - just like our 5th graders! During the robotics unit students work on 35 different experiments and challenges. The experiments have step by step instructions while the challenges require students to problem solve and use prior learning. Our robots are pretty smart! Not only can they do simple tasks like speak, they can also do things that are pretty advanced like distinguishing the color differences of two different balls.

Programming the robot.

Congratulations to Karen Jagolinzer, Grade Five Mathematics Teacher

President Obama Honors Outstanding Math and Science Teachers 

Karen Jagolinzer

WASHINGTON, DC -- President Obama today named 102 mathematics and science teachers as recipients of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. This year’s awardees represent all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Department of Defense Education Activity. The educators will receive their awards at a Washington, DC, event in the coming year.
The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching is awarded annually to outstanding K-12 science and mathematics teachers from across the country. The winners are selected by a panel of distinguished scientists, mathematicians, and educators following an initial selection process done at the state level. Each year the award alternates between teachers teaching kindergarten through 6th grade and those teaching 7th through 12th grades. The 2012 awardees named today teach kindergarten through 6th grade.
Winners of this Presidential honor receive a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation to be used at their discretion. They also are invited to Washington, DC, for an awards ceremony and several days of educational and celebratory events, including visits with members of Congress and the Administration.
“These teachers are inspiring today’s young students to become the next generation of American scientists, mathematicians, and innovators,” President Obama said. “Through their passion and dedication, and by sharing their excitement about science, technology, engineering, and math, they are helping us build a promising future for all our children.”
Excellent math and science teachers, exemplified by these awardees, are critical to getting more students engaged in the increasingly important science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. That’s why President Obama has committed to strengthening STEM education and has called for preparing 100,000 excellent science and mathematics teachers over the next decade—a goal that inspired the creation of “100kin10,” a coalition of leading corporations, philanthropies, universities, service organizations, and others working to train and retain STEM teachers across the Nation. The President has also proposed to further strengthen the STEM teaching profession by launching a new STEM Master Teacher Corps, leveraging the expertise of some of our nation’s best and brightest teachers in science and mathematics to elevate the teaching of these subjects nationwide.
Nominations for the 2014 PAEMST are open through April 1, 2014. For more information about PAEMST, please visit www.paemst.org.

The recipients of the 2012 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching are:

Maine
Karen Jagolinzer, Yarmouth (Math)