Celebrating Chavez — and a student voice
Meadowdale High School unveiled a mural by artist Andrew Morrison on March 31 in honor of Cesar Chavez Day and a state bill that would formally recognize the day, thanks to a Meadowdale student.
House Bill 1560 was approved 68-30 in the House on March 6 and was still under consideration in the Senate last week. The bill would recognize Cesar Chavez Day while not making it a legal holiday, akin to other recognized days, such as Mother Joseph Day (April 16) and Marcus Whitman Day (Sept. 4).
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Zach Hudgins, who drafted it after being asked by Meadowdale student Jon Cruz Martinez last year why the state does not recognize the day named for the late farmworker activist. Martinez’s native Spanish speaking class had just finished a unit on Chavez.
Present at the mural unveiling were Martinez and his classmates, Morrison, Hudgins, and members of Colores Unidos, Meadowdale’s Latino student union.
Fifth-grader finishes in top 10 at Geo Bee
Jack Kidd, a fifth-grader at Woodside Elementary School, placed seventh at the Washington state National Geographic Geo Bee. Over 5,000 students competed in schools across the state, advancing to regional and state bees.
“The best thing, as a teacher, that I could hear was at the very end Jack said, ‘I had SO much FUN!’ There’s nothing better than that, because Jack was doing what he loved,” said his teacher Deborah Wrobel.
Graham Everhart, a seventh-grader from Brier Terrace Middle School, also competed at the State Geo Bee.
Test your geography know-how:
1. There’s a forest of crooked trees in Poland. These oddly shaped pine trees are located near the Baltic Sea on which continent?
2. Khone (cone) Falls, a cataract on the Mekong River, has acted as a barrier preventing an upstream country from using the river as a major trade route. Khone Falls is located in which landlocked country?
3. Taylor Swift performed songs from her album Red last summer in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of which Asian country that borders the South China Sea?
Check your answers are at the end of School Winners.
Explorer orchestra wins at festival
The advanced orchestra from Explorer Middle School in south Everett was awarded second place at the prestigious National Orchestra Festival, held March 19-21 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The selective festival is produced by the American String Teachers Association.
The Explorer group, which is made up of 60 seventh- and eighth-graders, was there among four middle school orchestras, nine high school orchestras, and one adult orchestra.
“It is a significant honor to be invited to participate in the festival,” said Robin Enders, the orchestra teacher at the school. “The orchestra students were proud to represent Explorer and the Mukilteo School District.”
Eco teams return from Detroit competition
The Granite Falls High School Eco-Teams returned from the Shell Eco-marathon Americas competition, held April 9-12 in Detroit. The competition challenged high school and college-aged students to design and build a car that would travel the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel. The ShopGirls earned the Safety Award for the fifth time in six years. The team also achieved a new school record of 682 mpg. The Urban Autos team got 223 mpg. Both teams placed fourth in their categories. They also got to meet and talk with television personality and comedian Jay Leno.
Destination global finals
Local schools finished at the top of their categories at the Destination Imagination state tournament held March 28 in Wenatchee and now head to the World Global Finals to be held May 18 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Winning local teams were DI Girlzillas and Ultra Energetic Creators, both from Mukilteo Elementary School; and Homeless Helpers and Third Rock, both from Brighton School in Lynnwood.
Science club presents work
The Henry M. Jackson High School Science Research and Engineering Club recently participated at the Central Sound Regional Science and Engineering Fair, with nearly every member earning an award.
In addition, Harshu Musunuri, Dhruvik Parikh and Indira Rayala were recognized at the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Musunuri won the top prize in a poster presentation category and was invited to compete at a national symposium in Washington D.C.
Learn more about their research at www.everettsd.org.
Hi-Q team finishes third
The Arlington High School Hi-Q team finished third in the 2015 National Hi-Q Championship contest behind teams from high schools in Pennsylvania and Michigan. The championship was held April 16 entirely online. Arlington advanced after out-scoring Archbishop Murphy and Monroe high schools in a state championship in March.
Competing for Arlington were Aysia Brenner, Dakota Brenner, Quinn James, Hannah Martian, Nick Mendro, K. J. Mullin, Feliciti Neeleman. Team member James Piscioneri was in Vermont for a college visit. The Eagles are coached by Ben Mendro and Jane Joselow.
Smarty Pantses: PUD art, photo winners
Snohomish PUD has awarded 17 students in its annual art and photo contests, designed to engage students and the community in energy-related issues.
The art contest challenged students to create an “Energy Smarty Pants” character to help spread the word about making smart choices about energy: Avery Nasin (grade 2, Garfield Elementary), Ethan Huber (grade 3, Dutch Hill Elementary), Mei Matsui (grade 4 Shelton View Elementary), Lucy London (grade 5, Cedarhome Elementary), Dacian Moses-Lindenmuth (grade 5, Pioneer Elementary), Marcus Rodriguez (grade 6, Seattle Hill Elementary), Kaelyn Destiny Tupuola (grade 7, Lakewood Middle School), Julianna Hivick (grade 8, Eisenhower Middle School), Lucy Leonard (grade 10, Mariner High School), Megan Sorn (grade 10, Glacier Peak High School), Nikole Foster (grade 12, Sultan High School), Sierra Schulte (grade 12, Lake Stevens High School).
For the PUD photography contest, high school students were challenged to capture the theme of “Energy in Action” in a photograph: Haley Eyre (grade 11, Arlington High School), Abby Iblings (grade 11, Lake Stevens High School), Kyleigh Magness (grade 12, Glacier Peak High School), Jacob Matray (grade 12, Glacier Peak High School), Makenna Wheeler (grade 12, Snohomish High School).
The winners of the competitions will be recognized at the April 21 PUD Board of Commissioners meeting. The winning entries are on display through April 24 in the lobby of the PUD’s Everett headquarters at 2320 California St. Both the art winners and photography winners are also posted at www.snopud.com, under “Education” and then “Contests and Camps.”
EdCC student among undegrad research presenters
Alexandra Serdyuk, a student at Edmonds Community College, had her research paper accepted at the 29th annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research, held April 16-18 at Eastern Washington University.
Serdyuk’s research paper, “Experimental and Theoretical Determination of Geometric Dependence of Townsend Coefficients in Paschen’s Model of Dielectric Breakdown in Gases,” focuses on voltage breakdown — specifically, lightning in a controlled chamber.
“Basically, it is a study of cold static plasma that occurs in a low pressure environment (vessel) with applied to electrodes inside the vessel high voltage,” Serdyuk said.
Physics instructor Tom Fleming assisted Serdyuk.
Serdyuk is an international student from Russia. She plans to transfer to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and, ultimately, hopes to build planes.
Six students from the University of Washington Bothell also presented work. In all, more than 3,240 submissions were accepted for the conference from institutions across the country.
Arlington director honored by tech group
Mark Ehrhardt, director of technology for the Arlington School District, was recently honored with the Northwest Council for Computer Education 2015 Eric Jensen Award. The award honors an NCCE member who has provided “extraordinary leadership” to the educational technology professional development organization.
“His successful robotics club has inspired many students to choose STEM careers, and I appreciate his valuable time and selfless dedication for our organization,” NCCE Executive Director Heidi Rogers said.
Multicultural group honored by WEA
Edmond’s Equity Alliance for Achievement (EAACH) Committee was recently recognized by the Washington Education Association Human and Civil Rights Committee for its work as a community partner. The EAACH Committee is made up of parents, teachers and administrators from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and meets once a month to support students.
EAACH aims to ensure the Edmonds School District recognizes and responds to the diversity of the community by creating programs and outreach activities that meet the needs of all learners and their families. EAACH, which was nominated by Madrona K-8 teacher Robert Allen, received a check and an award at a ceremony at the Educational Services Center.
How did you do?
Answers to the National Geography Bee questions posed above:
1. Europe
2. Laos
3. Malaysia
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