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 14 - April 8, 2017

A Look Ahead
Mark Your Calendar:

Apr 12           Spring Market Day (K-8)
Apr 14           Scholar Holiday
Apr 22           Earth Day Campus Beautification Event
Apr 22-23      Aphelion at Main Street Arts Fest (FW)
Apr 24           Teacher Appreciation Week Begins
Apr 25           Curious Minds Event (See right.)
Apr 27           Research & Innovation Expo (Grades 7-12) 
Apr 28           Spirit Assembly (Wear all purple!)
May 2            AP Testing begins (US)
May 16           Research & Innovation Expo (Grades 4-6) 

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!

IGNITE Registration is OPEN!
Visit this link to register online!
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.
Save the Date! Five Years Young, Y'all!

It's time to Save the Date for the EA Young Academy Annual Auction Gala which will take place on 
Saturday, May 13, 2017 at the Marriott Courtyard DFW Airport North .  This year's event is celebrating "Five Years Young, Y'all" and features a western theme with amazing food, adult libations, a live and silent auction, line dancing lessons and casino games complete with amazing prizes.   And you never know- you might be able to take a ride on the mechanical bull. The attire for the evening is COWBOY CHIC so dress up those boots and jeans with your fancy threads and be ready to enjoy a wonderful evening.
Great News for Aphelion!

Aphelion is beyond thrilled to announce that we will be at the Fort Worth Main Street Young People's Art Festival on April 22nd and 23rd from 10-6 each day, selling our products!

Today, they  had a very productive workday as they prepared wares for their booth. Plan to come see them at their booth near the courthouse. If you can't come out and shop,  please shop online at our Facebook store!
K/1 ELA
Mimi Turbeville, BA

Our grandfriend, M2 (Mrs. Julia Lyda), came to visit us in ELA! She shared a special story with us!  She read a book about our state flower called The Legend of the Bluebonnet Afterwards, we got to look at some bluebonnets up-close.  There's something hidden under the "bonnet"...a cat's claw!  We each examined a bluebonnet to see the hidden wonder!  What fun to learn about our beautiful state flower!
Waste Management & Grounds Crew
Student Article by Katarina G.


Our clean campus is beautiful, thanks to the incredible Public Works Department. The most noticeable work is that of the Waste Management Crew and the Grounds Keeper Team. The Waste Management Crew is in charge of taking out every classroom's trash every day. Shannon F., one of the Public Works managers, has held that position before and has a lot of experience in the Waste Management Crew. When asked for whom she recommended this job, she said, "It's not for everyone, and you need a lot of patience and resolve. You need to be able to withstand smells and old food." Though the job is not enjoyable for everyone, it is easy and fast and contributes to the sanitation of our school. Shannon says, "It's not just the crew, but the entire school body that works together to keep the place we love clean." Ashlyn G., a member of the Grounds Keeper Team, says, "This job is important to me because I care deeply for the environment, and the job enables me to help keep the school safe and clean." It is not a particularly difficult job, but it makes it easier "if you're passionate." Though our school is small, the grounds are large, and it is important for the grounds keepers to work together. Together, these teams keep our school beautiful.
Fine Arts
Julie McGhee, BA MA



For the past several weeks in Visual Arts, scholars have been learning about art and artists of the surrealist movement and experimenting with surrealism in their own art pieces. As a school-wide art activity, scholars from the K/1 classes through the Upper School created cards in a surrealistic art style for a game titled "Dali-DRAW-ma... A Surr EA lly Fun Game" (yes, a terribly punderful McGhee-named game modeled after the family game DIXIT).  Scholars did a phenomenal job working on their cards, and it was such fun to watch the classes play the game and comment on what spoke to them in one another's surrealistic art pieces!
Middle/Upper School QUEST
Allison Ross, BS MEd; Mattie Oveross, BS
Our 7th-10th graders have started collecting data for their research projects in Applied Research and Statistics. They need your help!  Several of the scholars are conducting survey research. In order to make the results and data analysis meaningful, a large number of participants is greatly preferred. Scholars are recruiting participants through a variety of channels.
In addition to outside recruitment, participation from parents of E.A. Young scholars would be greatly appreciated. Below are the links to the surveys by Lindsey Gorman, Emily Hester, Austin Klein, Cade Blakeman/Jordan Hanes, Ashlyn Gee and Jordan Mueller. Thank you so much!! Please let me know if you have any questions!

ELA C
Kerensa Prostek, BS MEd
In ELA C, we have started our poetry unit. The latest fun activity was deciding who said a quote -Ed Sheeran or Robert Frost. After learning about the different kinds of poetry such as Haikus and Cinquains, the scholars wrote their own poems in a fun way. One of the funniest poems describes Gatti's pizza.
Upper School Research/Statistics
Mattie Oveross, BS



The Upper Schoolers who did not attend the trip to the East Coast took a day to spend time at the University of North Texas. We worked on research at the UNT library, got a tour and demonstrations at "the factory," which is a Makerspace area on campus, and had lunch at the student union.
ELA E
Brenda Edins, BEd


We held our very first Socratic Seminar in ELA E! This was based on our novel about the Lithuanian/ Russian connection during WWII, Between Shades of Gray, by Rita Sepetys.

Upper School on the Eastern Seaboard!




Our Upper School took a 9-day trip to the Eastern Part of the United States. They started in Boston and toured important Revolutionary Era sites, then Philadelphia for more history! They moved on to New York City for a couple of nights, then ended their trip in Washington, DC, where they hit pretty much every stop. There are far too many pictures to share here, but if you would like to see them ALL, and you are on Facebook, check out the EAYAbroad group !
Algebra II
Carol Raymond, BM BMEd MEd
After wrapping up function transformations, the Algebra II scholars have been exploring conic sections. They used clay and light beams to create circles, ellipses, parabolas and hyperbolas out of conic sections. Then, they transferred that knowledge to two dimensional space using push pins, string and markers. Finally, they threw in a few formulas and calculations.
Facebook Updates
Curious Minds Event! - April 25!
Attention, parents of scholars in 4th grade and up! Register now for "Curious Minds: Navigating the Standardized Testing Landscape for the Gifted & Talented Child This free workshop will discuss the advantages of out of level testing through the Duke tip program for scholars in grades 4-8 and will then discuss special preparation strategies especially for gifted scholars preparing for the PSAT, SAT and ACT assessments. This is open to the public, so first - register, and then invite friends! It is hosted by EAYA with presenters from Knowsys Educational Services. Register here
Lower School Field Investigation
Mimi Turbeville, Erin Austin, Kerensa Prostek



We had an adventure this week! Our Field Investigation to the Dallas Arboretum was cancelled due to effects from bad weather, so we took an alternative Field Investigation (which just happened to go right along with our new social studies unit)! Our central idea for this unit is Communities work together to meet the needs of people. In this unit, we will explore different community helpers and the tools they use to meet the needs of the community. At the Heritage Village at Dallas' Old City Park, we looked at how the needs of communities past were similar and different to present communities.  We got to see what homes of yesteryear looked like. We got to see some tools that doctors and dentists used in the past. Some were very different looking from what you might see at the doctor or dentist today! At noon, we enjoyed our lunch outdoors ~ what a beautiful day for a picnic! Then we headed over to a pioneer home. A woman dressed from that time period explained the process of making clothes back then.  She even let us feel some of her cotton!  At the pioneer home, we got to play with some toys children back then would've played with.  We played checkers, chess, dolls and a "catch the stick in the hole" toy.  An old-timey viewfinder was the coolest thing we played with!


We got to feed some animals that would've been essential to folks in these communities. We finished our rock candy while trying out the rockers on one of the home's front porch. Finally, we hit the "downtown" area. We discovered some very different tools at the old bank ~ we got to see ancient adding machines and a very old typewriter!
Everyone was fascinated by the wall decorations at the saloon; many different stuffed wild animals adorned the walls. We got a group picture at the water fountain before we started back home. What unexpected fun to step back in time today and learn about communities past! 
A big THANK YOU to our drivers and to everyone for being flexible about our destination!
K-1 Special Visitors!
Mimi Turbeville, BA


We had a visit from an important community helper this week: a police officer!  Before he arrived, we brainstormed some things we were CURIOUS about. He arrived and we all introduced ourselves.  Officer Jennings is a 24-year veteran of the Flower Mound Police Department!  He taught us so many things!  He started with explaining his tools.

He addressed Ryan's question about pepper spray and explained how important it is.  We learned he will always use pepper stray before his taser or gun.  We learned police officers must be good communicators, and we got to see the tool that helps policemen communicate  quickly . We got to hold REAL handcuffs! He even showed us the special key that not only unlocks them but also keeps them from getting too tight.
Officer Jennings stressed the importance of never playing with guns.  He wouldn't even take his out because he said the only time an officer would take out his weapon is if he was going to actually use it.  He did show us where he keeps his bullets and taught us what to do if we ever find any (at a park, for instance). 
Officer Jennings complimented our scholars on being respectful listeners and asking thoughtful questions.
He left each of us with a bag of goodies that he said would make great dinner table discussions with family ~ they include pamphlets on stranger danger, dialing 911, etc.
Our question of the day today was Have you ever met a police officer?  Now we can all not only answer YES but say that we have an officer as our friend!

We had our second community helper visit this week, too!  Cadence's dad, Dr. Stone, came and shared with us how DOCTORS help in our community.

We brainstormed some questions for him before he arrived.

He started by showing us his official doctor badge.  We learned that everyone who works in a hospital has one, and that it does more than tell who he is. It also opens hospital electronically-locked doors!  He showed us two kinds of doctor gloves. The regular kind he would use to examine a patient,  and  sterile  gloves that he would use to do procedures on patients. We also learned that some of his tools have many different uses. We were all familiar with stethoscopes, but Dr. Stone's was electronic!  What a treat to learn about this important community helper from a real doctor!  THANK YOU, Dr. Stone!
4/5 Advisory/Social Studies/Science/QUEST
Kerensa Prostek, BS MEd
The scholars have been planning their last fundraiser for our Purple Cord organization, Make-A-Wish. We will have be having a Fun Run at EAYA on April 19th. The scholars have done a great job meeting their separate groups and organizing their different fundraising events.

Scholars went on a field investigation at the Dallas Heritage Village. They learned what life was like in a different century. They were able to participate in hands on activities that demonstrated how hard life was without computers and laptops.

In Science, scholars were testing their Pinwheels Power. They had to construct their pinwheel and test to see what makes it turn faster. Then, they had to analyze which setting produced more work faster.
Math Lab C
Kerensa Prostek, BS MEd
In Mrs. Prostek's math class, scholars are learning how to analyze data through using Microsoft Forms and Excel Spreadsheets. The schoalrs designed their own survey in class then put the link on Edmodo. After the scholars have their data from Excel, then it will be presented in Powerpoint.
Health Promotion
Amy Klein, BS MS


The 7th and 8th grade and Upper School HP classes participated in CPR Training in late March. Along with manual CPR, they also learned how to properly use an AED.
Middle School Trip to South Texas




Our Middle School group took a trip to South Texas to experience many different things! They started at the Johnson Space Center, then moved along to Port Aransas and the University of Texas Marine Science Institute. There, they stayed in the dorms and had an excursion on a research vessel (and some time at the beach). Then, it was on to San Antonio for a bit of Texas history and some more fun! You can check out all of the pictures on Facebook, here!
Honors Biology
Carol Raymond, BM BMEd MEd
The biology scholars have continued to progress through their ecosystem creation. They have developed all of their organisms at this point, identified their abiotic factors, created important aspects about their organisms, such as their niches and habitats. They have explained the nitrogen and carbon cycles within their environments and the organisms responsible for carrying out these important cycles. They have also identified symbiotic relationships within their environments. They have a few more ecological touches to add to their environments, and then they must create their environments and present them!
AP Research
Carol Raymond, BM BMEd MEd
The AP Research scholars are finalizing their data analysis and completing their papers. They will be giving their final presentations on April 18th and 20th. It has been a long journey, but they have learned SO much throughout this year!
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