WCPSS students will join hundreds of central North Carolina high school and middle school students competing in the Raleigh Regional Science Olympiad Tournament Feb. 5 at Green Hope High School.

Olympiad officials are expecting 60 middle and high school teams each with 15 – 18 members from Wake, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Vance, and Warren counties.  Competing in 47 different events, the teams are vying for the opportunity to represent the region at the State Science Olympiad on April 30 in Raleigh. Winners there go on to the National Science Olympiad.

Popular events will include:

• Battery Buggy: Teams will construct a vehicle that uses electrical energy as its sole means of propulsion, quickly travels a specified distance, and stops as close as possible to center of the finish line.
•  Storm the Castle: Teams will design, construct, and calibrate a device capable of launching a projectile into a target area and collect data to develop a series of graphs relating launch-configuration to target distance and height.

 WCPSS teachers, local professionals and college students volunteer to design events that will produce scores that result in an overall point total to determine medal winners with trophies from state and national organizations going to the top finishers in each division.  Top finishers qualify to compete at the State Tournament held in Raleigh at NC State University.  The top two placing teams at the State Tournament will advance to the National Tournament.

 The North Carolina Science Olympiad (NCSO) is third in the country in student participation.  Currently, 250 middle and high schools representing over 6,000 students and 60 counties in NC are participating in the NCSO.  In 2009, NCSO had over 5,000 volunteers involved in reaching middle and high school students for science.  NCSO events align with the NC Standard Course of Study as well as the National Science Education Standards.  The events are designed to enhance and strengthen both science content and process skills.  

 The NCSO is a nonprofit organization with the mission to improve the quality of science and technology education in all North Carolina schools.  The NCSO accomplishes its mission through professional development workshops, summer institutes, after school programs, summer camps and intramural, regional, and state tournaments that are rigorous academic interscholastic competitions that consist of a series of individual and team events that are well-balanced between the various science disciplines of biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, and technology.

For more information on the NCSO, contact Co-Directors

• Kim Gervase, Science Educator at kgervase@hotmail.com
• Michael Tally, Science Supervisor, Wake County Public Schools, at mtally@wcpss.net
• Kristen Hellier Lead Science Teacher, WCPSS Middle Schools, at khellier@wcpss.net

Interim Superintendent Donna Hargens spent some time in four fourth-grade classrooms at Joyner Magnet Elementary this week. For Hargens, it’s one of a series of visits she is making to schools with Tama Bouncer of Wake NCAE to connect with teachers and get a firsthand look into the classroom. In the coming weeks, she plans to visit classrooms from kindergarten through high school.

The Joyner fourth-grade team includes Adrianna Pardo, Katherine Johnson, Joanna Wallace and Charles Jones.

At Joyner, Dr. Hargens visited the classrooms of the fourth-grade teaching team located in the schools modular classroom building where students were working on long division.

Click to listen to Dr. Hargens Visits Joyner Fourth-Grade Teachers

This is a 17.5 minute mp3 file.

You can see photos of Joyner fourth graders working on math here.

Dr. Hargens observes students using playing cards to generate numbers as part of a division game in Katherine Johnson’s fourth grade class at Joyner Magnet Elementary.

Heritage High School has been named an official SAT Testing Site. Information is available now on collegeboard.com when students register. The test center code for Heritage High School is 34874. You may direct questions to Herb Nowak at hnowak@wcpss.net.

The deadline for the March SAT is February 11.

Thanks to Herb Nowak for sharing this information with GotNews.

WCPSS teachers who earned certification and re-certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards were honored at a recent reception hosted by the school system.

Dr. Stephen Gainey who leads WCPSS Human Resources offered his congratulations to the teachers who submitted a demanding one-year review of their instruction and then took certification testing in their area of expertise.

WCPSS had 319 teachers earn certification, first in the nation and the state in the total number of teachers who earned certification this year. And WCPSS now has more than 2,000 teachers who have earned certification.

Click to listen to Teachers Honored for Earning National Board Certification.

 This is a 6.5 minute mp3 file. Continue Reading . . .

West Lake Middle School will host an open house for prospective students and parents on Jan. 24 and 25 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the school auditorium. If West Lake is your base or year-round application option, this is an opportunity to tour the school and learn more about the year round program. More information is available at westlakems.wcpss.net.

Thanks to Dell Edwards for sharing this story with GotNews.