Yarmouth Digital Media Presents: HMS Pig Race 2014

Top selling advisor groups from Frank H Harrison Middle School's fall magazine/cookie dough fundraiser compete in a pig race to win a pizza party. The newly founded Yarmouth Digital Media Club* created the following video which provides a look inside the HMS pig race. Enjoy.

*Yarmouth Digital Media is a project funded by the Yarmouth Education Foundation.

Student art work on display at Central Office

By Anders Corey

 Anders Corey, 7th grade student, and Caroline Chittum, 8th grade student, both have paintings on year-long display in the conference room at Central Office.

Anders' piece is a tempera painting of a trout jumping. Caroline's work is an acrylic painting of apples in a barrel titled, "Picked with Love."

Both pieces demonstrate these students' amazing talent and artist's eye. The conference room display is a new, in addition to the rotating hallway displays of student art at Central Office. Please make sure to check out this art work when you're at central office!
                                                                                   

By Caroline Chittum

Emma Pazar surpasses fundraising goal for the MJ Fox Foundation

Emma Pazar has surpassed her goal of raising $1000 for the MJFox Foundation for Parkinson’s research! Thanks to the support of many people who visited her site, Emma now has the time to reflect on her mission, and how it feels to contribute to this important research. 

Emma sold her duct tape bookmarks at the IDEXX craft fair recently; this was another way that she was able to raise awareness for her cause. 

Please check out Emma's inspiring  link to learn more about her wonderful efforts.  

Emma Pazar

Congratulations to Franz-Peter Jerosch

Franz-Peter Jerosch, an 8th grade student at HMS, has qualified for the U.S. Pairs Championships in Greensboro, NC on January 17 - 24. He and partner, Lindsey Stevenson (15 years old from Southboro, MA), are the U.S. Figure Skating Eastern Sectional Juvenile Pairs Silver Medalists.

Franz-Peter and Lindsey (far left) on the podium.

YEF Grants Awarded to Randy Dehetre and Bob Gross

Randy Dehetre and Bob Gross were visited by the wonderful YEF Prize Patrol on 11.21.14 They were thrilled to receive YEF grants for their work!

Randy's STEAM lab received a grant that will allow the 6th grade students to learn about “Pneumatics and Hydraulics: Harnessing the Power.” Students will discover the differences between these two technologies, and will be able to distinguish when one system would be used over the other. Students will work with "Fischertechnik Pneumatic 3" kits and teacher built hydraulic models. Essential learning will focus on experiments with fluid pressure, an introduction to a simple formula for calculating pressure (P=F/A), and taking measurements using appropriate units for fluid pressure. Students will be encouraged to dig deeper by analyzing the parts that make up the two systems, think critically as to how these systems achieve work, and use this knowledge to build working pneumatic and hydraulic models that solve a problem. 

Bob's 7th and 8th grade Think Lab groups received a grant that will allow them to design and build boats out of one sheet of plywood.  Since the beginning of the school year the students have been exploring why boats float and how the volume of displacement determines the weight that a boat will hold. They have constructed boats out of clay and heavy stock paper ‘waterproofed’ with duct tape. From this exploration the students have asked if they can actually build boats. After some some mathematical and online research, the groups determined that a boat built out of one sheet of plywood could float comfortably with a 200 pound person in it. Students will be able to build a workable small boat and then use that boat to study the displacement weight of the water.  Based on their calculations, they will be able to determine where to place the water line on the hull.  This hands on project will allow the students to begin with design, build a small boat, and then test their calculations on something that they can enjoy using once the project is complete.

Congratulations to Randy, Bob, and their students!

Randy Dehetre

Bob Gross

Mr. Brann In Action

 Mr. Corey captured this impressive action and priceless quote during 6th grade intramurals today as Mr. Brann played knockout with the students:

 "Mr. Brann is so good.  He hasn't missed a swish. He is wicked good!"  - 6th grade observer

Not many principals receive this kind of praise and admiration!

                                                                       

Mr. Brann in action

The Future of Food

Merry Stuhr shared the following information about a trivia event called, "Chew on This."


It's National Geography Awareness Week, and this year's theme is "The Future of Food." The HMS Library is observing this with a school-wide trivia event we're calling, "Chew on This." Daily questions tie into national and international issues surrounding food, such as genetic modification and fair trade.  Each day the question will be different and most will require a tiny bit of research.  While the trivia event is designed to be fun, our ultimate hope is to raise awareness so that students will be able to make informed decisions where food is concerned.  The food choices we make are not always black and white……even when it comes to something as seemingly basic as chocolate!