Fall activities, field trips, and after-school clubs...just a few of the MPH happenings this week!
|
|
|
|
Second graders explored the concepts of estimating, measuring, and problem solving with an interactive pumpkin unit. Students estimated and then measured the weight, height, and circumference of their pumpkins. After cleaning them out, each group of students worked cooperatively to design their pumpkin face. The unit will wrap up with a seed-counting challenge, when each group will come up with their own plan to find out just how many seeds are in their pumpkins.
|
|
See video to the left and photo gallery above!
|
|
|
LEGOs Have Come a Long Way!
|
|
|
|
On any given Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday, you'll find a group of curious Middle Schoolers in Mr. Zlomek's room, some elbows-deep looking for the exact LEGO piece they need, others in front of the computer creating code, and some on the floor testing their creations. It's all a part of the MPH LEGO Robotics club, which allows students the opportunity to engineer with LEGO's EV3 robotics technology. LEGO develops a series of challenges annually that students can accomplish through designing, building, and coding their own robots. Students take ownership of the process by working together to learn the skills necessary to complete the challenges. Mr. Zlomek and Mrs. Reeve are the advisors of the club.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Check out the photo gallery on the left and the video above!
(The LEGO car is supposed to hit the wall, and it is programmed to automatically turn around upon impact...so cool!.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Over 100 MPHers Visit Our Farm
Lower School families, more than 100 people in total, had a wonderful time at Our Farm in Manlius on Saturday. Everyone had the opportunity to ride the tractor into the pumpkin field, try out the dragonfly corn maze, take a horse ride, meet the animals in the barn, and check out the pumpkin trebuchet! Admission and snacks were generously provided by the MPH Parents' Association. Thank you! Another thanks to MPH parent Theresa Heath for facilitating such a wonderful Saturday afternoon gathering!
|
|
|
|
|
|
College Planning Is in Full Swing!
|
Last Tuesday morning, we happened to catch one of the many fall visits to campus by various college admission representatives organized by Mr. Will Cardamone, MPH’s director of college counseling. Peter Hagan, Syracuse University’s Director of Admission, joined four seniors around the college counseling conference room table to provide them with some materials, an overview of the university, an account of his own search for a college fit at their age, specific information about SU’s admission process, and answers to the students’ follow-up questions. This type of exposure to the wide variety of colleges and universities can be useful to seniors who need to pare down or who would like to add to their list of schools to explore; it can also help them get some of their questions answered in a comfortable setting. Mr. Cardamone says that the admission reps visiting MPH typically review applications from our school, so it is important for interested seniors to attend these sessions, but juniors are also invited to attend.
|
|
|
Upper School Geology Students Explore a Drumlin!
|
|
|
|
What better way to learn about a drumlin, a 45m high,1.5km long oval glacial deposit, than to walk through the interior of one? Chimney Bluffs, on Lake Ontario in Walcott, NY, is an actual drumlin, truncated by Lake Ontario in a way that reveals secrets of the most recent ice age, which ended about 12,000 years ago. While at the bluffs the young geologists discovered glacial till, glacial striations, clay that demonstrates liquefaction, and layered sediments from the now-extinct Glacial Lake Iroquois. With a trained eye, one can walk back in time and appreciate the work of glaciers.
|
|
|
|
|
Our resident beekeeper, Miss Critz, returned to the Kindergarten classroom recently with the “fruits of the honeybees' labor” for the students to sample. Before they dipped in, however, she described the process of carefully opening the hive, extracting three of the honey-filled combed frames, then separating the golden honey from the comb inside her kitchen. She protects the health of the hive by leaving most of the honey inside the boxes for the bees to consume (and survive on) during the winter months.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
