E.A. Young Academy is a not-for-profit, private academy created to generate transformative changes to meet  the needs  of the K-12, gifted, talented, and high ability scholar.

The Source for Firehawk News and Information
Vol. 5 Issue 12 - February 25, 2017

A Look Ahead
Mark Your Calendar:

Mar 1            MS Field Investigation: Holocaust Museum
Mar 3            FLARES Meeting
Mar 3            Spring Dance for MS/US Scholars
Mar 6            US Field Investigation: Perot Museum
Mar 7            Spanish Presentations Grades 9-12
Mar 9            Spanish Presentations Grades K-8
Mar 9            Pi Day Celebration
Mar 10          Faculty/Parent Conferences
Mar 13-17     Spring Break
Mar 26-31     MS Trip
Mar 26-Apr 2 US Trip
Apr 24            Teacher Appreciation Week Begins

To access the General School Calendar, click here. This calendar is downloadable/uploadable to your smart phone, as well.  iCal: http://bit.ly/EAYAOfficialCalendar  
Save the Date! IGNITE is coming!

SAVE THE DATE! Ignite! Summer Intensives will be held during the weeks of July 10th and July 17th! Ignite! is EA Young Academy's answer to summer camp! Ignite! Summer Intensives offer extraordinary opportunities for students looking for something above and beyond the usual summer camp experience. Ignite! is open to all students in grades K-12, whether or not they are enrolled at EAYA.
Firehawk Family Campaign
From Firehawk Mom and HP teacher, Amy Klein:
"A little over 3 years ago I stepped inside the doors of EA Young to participate in a parent SENG group. Through my participation, I came to better understand my children and I met educators that actually understood the challenges and joys of having gifted kids. Instead of "disabilities and problem behaviors," they spoke the language of overexcitabilites and the need to feed the gifted mind's hunger for deeper knowledge. I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about the school.  After further investigation, I discovered that I hadn't just met two educators who were passionate about guiding the learning of gifted minds; I had found an entire school of educators who truly feel called to care for the academic, social, and emotional well being of gifted scholars. It was in that moment when I knew that EA Young was the right fit for our eldest child.
Since that time, I decided that I, too, wanted to join the journey of transforming education for gifted scholars and joined the EA Young team as a faculty member. This year, our youngest son began EA Young as a seventh grader.  
Our family has been blessed. We have found a school that cares for our kids for who they are and encourages them to explore who they wish to become. 
As a faculty member and parent, I want to share this blessing with other families. Participation in the Firehawk Family Campaign is one way that I know that I can help to continue the growth of our school. We all realize that each family's financial situation is different. However, even a small donation can make a difference in our school's future. Grant evaluators and lenders look for indicators of commitment from a school community. 100% participation in annual fund campaigns show that community commitment. If you haven't given, I sincerely hope that you will consider doing so and show your commitment to EA Young Academy."
Spanish
Marilu Rosales, MEd

Scholars have been busy finishing up their masks, stories and props needed for their upcoming
Spanish showcase for the year. I am so excited to see their ideas and pieces come together. We will be rehearsing lines and working on different Spanish concepts in the next few weeks before spring break. Hope to see everyone there!
Tuesday, March 7th - 6:00-8:00 PM will showcase our 9-12th grade Spanish scholars sharing their stories. 
Thursday, March 9th - 6:00 - 8:00 PM will showcase our K-8th grade Spanish scholars sharing their stories. 
Here is a preview of the K-1 class, who will perform a Spanish version of "The Little Red Hen."

Duolingo has had an upgrade, and it is awesome! All my Spanish classes have created accounts, or logged in to old ones. We will be working on this program to help reinforce concepts we are learning in class. I am encouraging all scholars to work on this on our off days to keep concepts and Spanish fresh on their mind. :)
Chemistry Class
Student Article by Katarina G., Edited by Jameson M., Photos by Audrey D.


Chemistry students are learning about the different types of solids. Did you know that diamonds and Jell-O have similar molecular structures? To better understand this phenomenon, the Chemistry class simply made Jell-O. They used learned concepts from chemistry to cook cherry, orange, and lemon Jell-O, then waited for it to solidify. When it was ready, Mr. Edins demonstrated how hammers and Jell-O are similar by showing the class that vibrations run through both hammers and Jell-O no matter where they are hit, because all of their molecules are connected. He did not actually hit the Jell-O with a hammer. Nonetheless, the students were terrified, anticipating the sudden destruction of their culinary prize. At the end of class, the scholars eagerly devoured most of it. They are uncertain as to where the rest of the Jell-O went; however, Mr. Edins was the last person seen near it. Mysterious...
Upper School Advisory
Marilu Rosales, MEd; Jeremy Edins, BS
Upper School will be setting up a day of volunteer work to help our school. They have been brainstorming ideas on areas that the school needs and create a good plan for that day. This volunteer work day is part of their 100 hour volunteer requirement for Purple Cord.
Health Promotion
Amy Klein, BS MS
Please remember to adhere to the school's health and wellness policy: any scholar who has gone home with a temperature of 100 degrees or greater and/or has been prescribed antibiotics must be fever-free and have been on antibiotics for twenty-four hours before returning to school. We have had several students who were unable to participate in HP because they said they had had a fever the day before. Thank you!
Facebook Updates
Destination Imagination Tournament!
Today was the Mid-Cities Regional Destination Imagination Tournament! Two of our Firehawks, Sydney and Annika, competed in the middle school improvisational challenge entitled "3-peat." In this challenge, they had to act out a similar scene three times in three different genres with a different stock character each time. They placed fourth at the regional tournament against teams from all over the Metroplex! High five, Spicy Unicorns!
K-1 STEM
Mimi Turbeville, BA
We were very busy in Science these past two weeks! On Thursday of this week, we learned about liquids' density in an experiment called  Layered Liquids . Our question..."Do all liquids mix?" Cadence poured our first liquid...honey.  Miss Ross was a guest scientist in our room that day, and she poured in molasses.  Kai was next with some dish soap.  Then, we each took a turn adding some water that we had dyed blue.  Ryan added the next liquid, vegetable oil.  Ria noted that the rubbing alcohol was clear, so she dyed it purple for us so we could see it better in our experiment.  And Krish added in that last liquid, our purple rubbing alcohol.  We learned that because of differences in density,  not  all liquids mix!
Will it sink or float in water?  That was the question posed to our curious K1 scientists today as we further explored matter and density.  Below are the objects we tested. Cadence noted they were all  solids . Before we began our investigation, each scholar made a prediction about whether each of these solids would sink or float.  They were anxious to see which predictions were correct! At the end, I asked if any of the objects could do  both Krish figured out if he put a marble (which sinks) inside a pattern block (which floats)...the pattern block would then SINK! What a thinker!!

We also finished writing our lab report on our Eggs in Vinegar experiment this week.  We learned that the vinegar dissolved the eggs' shells, which allowed them to get bigger.  These observations got two of our K1 scholars CURIOUS...  Ryan and Kai wondered if other liquids would also dissolve egg shells.

They made a "cleaning potion" out of water, dish soap and Lysol wipes juice. Then they experimented...
MS Scholars at Visioneering Event

Some of our middle school scholars spent the day at the Visioneering Event at Southern Methodist University with their teacher, Brenda Edins. "Visioneering is a free, half-day event held on the SMU campus that brings together middle school students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades from across North Texas to engage with engineering concepts. Held annually in February, around National Engineers week, this event celebrates the creative problem solving side of engineering."
AP Research
Carol Raymond, BM BMEd MEd
Thank you to all of you who completed Collin and Raquel's research projects! Your help is greatly appreciated. Scholars are completing their data collection and beginning the analysis of their data. 
SPUT!
Student Article by Raquel G., Edited by Jameson M.
Perhaps the most beloved of all of the varsity-level sports here at Young is Sput! As the savvy followers of this sport are no doubt aware, this intense, action-packed game that tests both the mind and muscle of our scholars was created in ancient Egypt and is centered around the movements of the sun. (Some say that the upper schoolers invented the game, but this rumor is widely unsubstantiated.) Though the origins of Sput! are shrouded in mystery, the rules of the game persist to this day. Scholars form a circle, Ra lifts the Sun (some call it a bouncy ball) up into the air with a cry of "Sun up!", and the others players reply "Amun Ra!" After this, Ra yells "Sput!" and the Sun is served into the air. From that point, the game becomes a fast-paced battle against the elements to keep the Sun in the air as long as possible (think "keep-the-ball-off-the-ground"). Every time someone hits the Sun, the whole team gets one point, or one hour. The goal is to get to 24 hours, at which point the designated Anubis of the team hits the Sun into the ground, and one round, or day, has ended successfully. The record number of days scholars have achieved in the game is three weeks worth, and scholars work hard every day during recess to beat this record. Emily H, a longtime Sput player, says an invaluable part of the game is that "you're not playing against anyone, so it's not competitive or stressful." And Sput! is so much more than a game; in the few months that Sput! has been played at Young, it has morphed into a team-building social event full of "camaraderie, sportsmanship, and valor," according to scholar Jameson M. Another avid Sputula (Sput-player), Jameson also said that Sput! "represents everything that is good and pure about human society," and the other scholars hastened to agree with him. I am sure that without Sput!, many high-schoolers would not be the outstanding scholars they are today.
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