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 16 - May 15, 2017

A Look Ahead
Mark Your Calendar:

May 15 & 18 MENSA on campus
May 16         Research & Innovation Expo (Grades 4-6)
May 16-18    MAP Testing
May 18         MENSA on campus
May 20         MORP 
May 22         4/5 Theatre Production
May 23         Lower School Awards 8:30 AM
May 23         Middle School (6-8) Awards 2:30 PM
May 23         Upper School Awards 6:30 PM
May 24         LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!
May 25-26    "The Play that Goes Wrong"
May 27         Graduation Ceremony 11 AM

To access the General School Calendar, click here. This calendar is downloadable/uploadable to your smart phone, as well.  iCal: http://bit.ly/EAYAOfficialCalendar  
Five Years Young, Y'all!
Thanks to all for coming to the Gala last weekend! Photos to come!
Mrs. Brown Honored by Students

Parker Horn and Tyler Young honored Mrs. Gayle Brown as Most Influential Teacher of the Year at a Teacher Appreciation Dinner at their church. The theme was Hawaiian, so Mrs. Brown even got a fresh flower lei and this official commemorative portrait! Congratulations, Mrs. Brown!
More Teacher Tributes
Each year, Keller ISD sponsors their "Teacher Tribute Initiative." This initiative asks all members of the Keller High School Freshman class to acknowledge a former teacher or mentor who played a significant role in their intellectual, academic, social and personal development. This year, both Evan Fuchs and Carol Raymond were recognized by two former students! Please share with them our heartfelt gratitude for all they do - each and every day.
K-3 Play: Candy Land
Mimi Turbeville, BA; Erin Austin




Our K-3 scholars put on quite a show! Their production of Candy Land: A Comedy in Three Acts was a huge success! They worked so hard with their teachers to make this play so entertaining! Way to go, everyone!
MS/US Research & Innovation Expo 
Student Article by Katarina Garcia



Thursday, April 27, was the Research and Innovation Expo. The 7th through 12th grade scholars each presented their research projects. Each student chose a research topic, wrote a research question, got IRB approval, recruited participants or collected data, analyzed their data, and made a presentation. They each presented their findings to an audience at the expo. For all the scholars, conducting a research study was an adventure-a thrilling one for some and a dizzying one for others. All who attended the expo learned a lot-there were a variety of fascinating subjects studied. Pianos, acting, religion, goldilocks planets, child grief, RPGs, wallabies... the topics were countless! Most of the studies were quantitative as opposed to qualitative. The majority of the scholars were interested in their research topics and had wondered about the answers to their research questions before conducting their studies. Most studies included human participants, but some did not. There were several different research methods used for data collection: surveys, experiments, interviews, etc. When asked if they would be interested in continuing their studies, some students said that they would like to delve deeper into their research topic, while others said that they had learned all there was to know about their subject and would like to study something else. Everyone can safely say that they learned something from this experience: it is possible to analyze a whole data set in less than a week.

Seventh Grade QUEST
Ms. Allison Ross' seventh graders have wrapped up their research projects (as you may have seen at their Research Expo), so they are spending the rest of their QUEST time on fun things like training their rats. There is a video on Facebook that is proof that they have some serious skills! Check out the school Facebook page to see!
Fine Arts
Julie McGhee, BA MA
Check out these amazing c lay pinch pots, figures and tile pieces our scholars have been creating!

Seventh Grade Science
Brenda Edins, BEd
Seventh grade Science presented their Culture Capsules today, designed to protect cultural items they chose in Social Studies to represent our nation.
Algebra I
Brenda Edins, BEd
Algebra 1 is finishing the year strong with functions and quadratic equations using quadrangles.
Geometry
Gayle Brown, BS MBA

Here are last year's Geometry students enjoying the beautiful quilt they started last year! Mrs. Brown's sister-in-law recently finished quilting it for them! It looks amazing!
Current Geometry scholars recently presented their projects to the Algebra 1 class. Algebra scholars got a glimpse of what they can expect in math next year. The projects included topics on calculating the circumference of the earth, the original Fibonacci Rabbit Problem and its relationship to the Golden Ratio, identifying types of symmetry in logos of popular products and companies, Buffon's Experiment that approximates the value of Pi, and a history of mathematics vocabulary words, many of which are thousands of years old and translated from other languages. Scholars are now tackling the world of "proofs" as we end our geometry year.
A Note About Yearbook Signing
Among the highly-anticipated events of the end of the academic year are spring productions, awards ceremonies, graduation and the distribution of the yearbook. The first three of these events usually come with much fanfare, while the yearbook is often simply delivered the last week of school. The distribution of yearbook, however, is just as important a day as the other occasions, and should be celebrated as such. The end-of-year activities as mentioned above also deserve to be memorialized within the yearbook.
Accordingly, we are changing our tradition of distributing yearbooks on the last day of school to an official yearbook signing party to be held the evening of Friday, Sept. 1, 2017! All current and former scholars will be invited to attend the celebration! However, don't worry! We will hold a yearbook preview and autograph signing event in conjunction with this year's Field Day on May 25, 2017.
Research & Innovation Expo
REGISTER NOW!

The 4th-6th grade scholars of EAYA would like to invite you to their Research and Innovation Expo. Our Quest and Research classes have devoted time this academic year to develop research-related skills including reviewing current literature related to their topic, drafting research questions, developing a research design, and ultimately collecting and analyzing data. Scholars in grades 4-6 will be presenting their research at this Expo. Please use this link to register for these specific research presentations:

Room 1
Development of a Literary Dragon Trait Prediction Model - Annika R.
Measuring Perceptions Regarding Penguins After Exposure to Modern Media -  Ben A.
Potential Correlation Between Attitudes About Animals and Knowledge of Axolotls -  Broderick D.

Room 2
Age Correlations With Willingness to Endorse Virtual Reality -  Nathan H.
Measuring Factors Influencing the Belief in Aliens -  Diego R.
Elephant Ethogram Analysis -  Esha P.

Room 3
Grade Correlation as it Relates to Knowledge Regarding Endangered Species -  Hannah P.
Potential Potato Preference -  Jayden S.
Art Perception Study: Animated vs. Stills -  Ryder P.
 
Date: Tuesday, May 16
Time: 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Who: Scholars and Parents of all grade levels are invited to attend

MENSA on Campus

The Mensa Foundation has selected EAYA and Carol Raymond (a MENSA member) as well as several of our own MENSA scholars to highlight in an upcoming initiative. Interviewers and videographers are on campus this week! Here, they are conducting an interview with eighth grader, Caiden Trivedi. We are very honored to see our own Mrs. Raymond and Firehawks highlighted in this wonderful initiative!
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.  Be sure to sign up for courses soon! A few courses only have a few remaining slots open!
4/5 STEM Teaching K-1!
Kerensa Prostek, BS MEd


The K/1 scholars met with their 4/5 journal buddies yesterday, but this time the older kids were showing the younger kids their work!  Before the exhibition began, Mrs. Prostek briefly explained what an ATOM is . . . a pretty abstract concept for the K/1s to grasp! She showed them a model of an atom, complete with a NUCLEUS. Then, she challenged them to walk around the classroom and find the NUCLEUS of each atom model. What fun when the K/1 scholars can learn from their 4/5 peers!
Theatre Arts
Brenda Edins, BEd; Jeremy Edins, BS
Last week, Ms. Edins' sixth graders performed their play: "The Forgotten Door!" Such poise and confidence on stage! Congratulations, everyone!

The 4/5's will present "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" on the 22nd, and the Firehawk Players end the year with performances of "The Play That Went Wrong," opening May 25!
Eighth Grade Humanities & Advisory
Gayle Brown, BS MBA

ELA: Scholars recently completed a reading of To Kill A Mockingbird, which concluded with watching the award-winning movie. Lit circles and lively class discussions helped us delve into the depth of racism and the courage of the human spirit during this time in history. Over the past few weeks, we took some time to reflect on the amazing literature we have studied this year. Scholars were then charged with choosing a character from one of these books for whom they would develop and write a character analysis. In preparation for analyzing character traits, scholars wrote and performed a rap song describing themselves! Such talent within this group for rhyming and rapping!


HISTORY: In History class, scholars completed their collage of the 27 Amendments to the Constitution. It depicts their interpretation of what these laws mean and is displayed on the wall outside our classroom, serving as a reminder of how important this "living" document is in our everyday lives.

ADVISORY: Scholars are discussing what characteristics they feel make up a good human being. Each day scholars are asked to incorporate one of the identified traits into their day. Learning to be more "intentional" with being kind and showing respect to fellow classmates and understanding how we impact others is becoming more of a norm as we continually remind ourselves why it matters.
Sixth Grade QUEST
Gayle Brown, BS MBA

Scholars are doing an amazing job with their projects in preparation for the Research and Innovation presentations on May 16th. We had a little fun with discussing the importance of step-by-step procedures in carrying out an experiment. Mr. and Mrs. Lyda demonstrated this often tedious process by having scholars tell them how to make a sun butter and jelly sandwich. When told to "stick the knife in the sun butter," Mr. Lyda did just that (see photo). It was a rather messy but enjoyable session and scholars got a feel for the importance of giving accurate and detailed instructions.

Sixth Grade Advisory
Brenda Edins, BEd



The 6th graders have been busy getting ready for their Research Expo, Food Drop, and raising our new brood of five ducklings (highlighted by our one-legged duckling named Peggy). They are a week old now.
ELA E
Brenda Edins, BEd
 ELA E is writing poetry for our "Book of Random Poems."
Spanish
Marilu Rosales, MEd
In LS Spanish, we've been working hard to finish up our portfolio sections and finishing the year with some sentence building and reading some new books. 

In MS Spanish, we have entered the world of verbs, exploring the different endings for the present tense. This has allowed us to make better connections when formulating sentences. 

In US Spanish, we have been working on verbs for a couple of months now. Not only have we been exploring present tense verbs, but we have begun the exploration of different tenses and how they change sentences. We've even been making connections between ways to answer questions in English and how those would translate differently in Spanish depending on the tense and verb. 

As we end our school year, I ask that scholars continue to expose themselves to Spanish through music, books, television, etc. during the Summer! 
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