Spring (Break) Finally Arrives

As I noted this past December (in my post, Winding Down for the Holidays – Not), the previous eleven weeks have been full of innovation and excitement, more than I can remember in recent memory. The energy and enthusiasm of my colleagues was infectious as they integrated new projects at a rapid pace. So instead of the six projects that I highlighted, it turned out to be double that. And this was on top of helping coach our Science Olympians, guiding my yearbook staff through the Pareto Principal (that the last 20% of the book sucks up 80% of our […]

The Science of Community

by Thomas Fortieth, Humanities Teacher published in previously in the Pioneer Press newspapers in Illinois I know embarrassingly little about science.  As a teacher of humanities, I consider myself a student of letters and, in my nobler moments, of human nature.  Experiments and formulas, dissections and hypotheses, have unfortunately never been a part of my mental universe.  It is therefore odd that, over the past few months, I have become a fascinated observer, perhaps even a fan, of a passionately pursued academic phenomenon known as Science Olympiad.  Your April 15th issue ably covered the recent state Science Olympiad competition.  However, […]

Another Six Weeks

In addition to the duties and responsibilities of being the Director of Academic Technology and our yearbook adviser, I also am a co-founder of our Science Olympiad team. Science Olympiad is a competition in which a team of 15 students prepares, builds, and then demonstrates their knowledge in 23 different events/subject areas over a six hour period. (For more details, visit Science Olympiad National Web site). If the team does well over all 23 events, then they are invited to participate in the state tournament. And if a team does exceptionally well at state, then they are invited to a […]

My Internal Clock needs to be Patched

For the last seven years, the switch to Daylight Savings time has either occurred during our Spring Break, either in the middle weekend or the last weekend. This is one of the benefits of a two week break. This means that my internal clock has had a chance to adjust to the fact it is darker in the morning, making it harder to wake up. I definately enjoy the benefits of having daylight longer. The switch during the final weeks before Spring Break, with our yearbook deadlines and our Science Olympiad Regional event, which this year was a 15 hour […]

A Request for Your Consideration – 11th Grade Service Learning

I am posting this for a third group of Juniors, who are working on a third project. If anyone is interested, either comment or email me. The Juniors at the North Shore Country Day School have been actively researching many different project as a result a research project which has arisen from a service learning initiative. After hearing a presentation by Jeffrey Sachs, a noted macroeconomist who created the U.N.’s Millennium Goals towards global development and improvement, the students became very interested in Millennium Promise.  This is an organization Sachs created that works to make the U.N.’s Millennium Goals actual […]