Hello AP/IB Boosters!

Contents

• Middle School Study Skills Workshop Recap
• High School Pre-College Study Skills Workshop Recap
• Everett School District Math Night Recap
• Cascade HS and Everett HS AP Courses
• Seattle Visual and Performing Arts College Fair, November 4^th 2004
• Seattle National College Fair, November 5^th, 6^th 2004
• Calculus.org
• Robotics Club Forming at Heatherwood Middle School
• Western Washington University’s Fall Family Open House, November 5^th-7^th 2004

 

Middle School Study Skills Workshop Recap

A middle school Study Skills Workshop was held on October 6^th, 2004, at Heatherwood Middle School. Four speakers addressed several topics during the hour and a half workshop.

Assistant Principal Mary Obrien covered the Heatherwood Student Planner. Sample planners were distributed to the audience and the different sections of the planner were described.

Kristina Shaffler discussed the math program that the district recently adopted – the Connected Mathematics Project.

"The Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) was funded by the National Science Foundation between 1991 and 1997 to develop a mathematics curriculum for grades 6, 7, and 8. The result was Connected Mathematics, a complete mathematics curriculum that helps students develop understanding of important concepts, skills, procedures, and ways of thinking and reasoning in number, geometry, measurement, algebra, probability, and statistics."

http://www.mth.msu.edu/cmp/

Kristina led the audience in a sample CMP geometry exercise.

Janie Higgins from Sylvan Learning was the next speaker. Janie covered many aspects of study skills including how parents can help provide a conducive learning environment at home, the benefits of learning time management (that all important planner), and how parents can leverage learning styles to what works best with their sons and daughters.

Jeff Heckathorn followed Janie with a condensed version of the high school Study Skills Workshop presentation. This was intended to help inspire and lessen the shock of the increasing study demands of high school and then college.

Resources presented at the workshop are available at the following link:

http://www.apibboosters.org/events/StudySkillsWorkshop_MiddleSchool.html

This workshop was co-sponsored by the AP/IB Boosters and the Heatherwood Middle School PTA. Our thanks to the PTA and the Heatherwood staff for all the assistance with promoting the workshop and for a successful implementation.

 

High School Pre-College Study Skills Workshop Recap

A high school / pre-college Study Sills Workshop was held on October 20^th, 2004 at Henry M. Jackson High School. Even though this was the evening of the 7^th game between the Red Sox and Yankees, over 70 people (mostly students) attended.

Pat Hannifin, PTSA Vice President and Chair of the PTSA Academic Enrichment Committee, was the MC for the evening. Assistant Principal Larry Fritts briefly described the new after school study club that takes place Monday – Thursday.

The main speaker for the workshop was Aileen Kane, Coordinator of Learning Support Services at the University of Puget Sound. The workshop was full of suggestions to help everyone, from struggling students to those taking AP classes. She featured a comparison of high school and college students' schedules, and emphasized the increased demands on college students, with typically 2-3 hours of studying required for each hour of class time. Good time management skills are essential for both high school and college students' success. Other ways to increase study efficiency include effective listening and note taking, improved concentration and test taking strategies. Parents and students alike commented that they could put these tips to use immediately!

This workshop was cosponsored by the AP/IB Boosters and the Jackson HS PTSA. Our thanks to all 3 speakers and to all the attendees.

You can still review the study skills tips and techniques that were presented, including the PowerPoint slides, at the following website:

http://www.apibboosters.org/events/StudySkillsWorkshop_HighSchool.html

 

Everett School District Math Night Recap

On the evening of October 18^th, 2004, at Cascade HS, Ruth Parker, of the Mathematics Education Collaborative, gave a talk on "Mathematics and Your Child’s Future." A summary of the presentation is available at

http://www.apibboosters.org/RuthParker.pdf

 

Cascade HS and Everett HS AP Courses

In our last newsletter we enumerated the expanding list of AP courses at Jackson HS. Everett HS and Cascade HS also have AP offerings.

This year Everett HS offers AP English Literature & Composition, AP US History, and AP Statistics. AP Biology is offered every other year.

Cascade HS offers AP Studio Art, AP English Literature & Composition, AP English Language & Composition, AP US History, and AP World History. AP Biology is offered every other year.

 

Seattle Visual and Performing Arts College Fair, November 4^th 2004

"The National Association for College Admission Counseling’s Performing and Visual Arts College Fairs are free events for college and high school students interested in pursuing undergraduate and graduate programs in the areas of Music, Visual Arts, Theatre, Dance, Graphic Design, and other related disciplines."

Representatives from the Julliard School of New York and many other institutions will be there.

http://www.nacac.com/exhibit/exhibit.cfm?code=04PSE

http://www.nacac.com/p&s_steps_0303arts.html

University of Washington

Room 113 Husky Union Building (The HUB)

7 PM – 9 PM

 

Seattle National College Fair, November 5^th, 6^th 2004

Washington State Convention and Trade Center

Friday, November 5^th, 9 AM – Noon

Saturday, November 6^th, Noon – 4 PM

http://www.nacac.com/04FSeattle.pdf

This is the annual Seattle National College Fair. Approximately 300 colleges from around the country will be represented. Don’t miss the opportunity to obtain the real scoop on the admissions process for specific universities.

 

Calculus.org

http://calculus.org/

A resource site for the Calculus teacher and student. Many mathematical animations are listed including this one on  Riemann Sums.

http://calculus.org/Heath/mid_riemann.mov

 

Club Forming at Heatherwood Middle School

A new after school Robotics Club has been started at Heatherwood Middle School. At the first meeting October 21, thirty two 6th, 7th, and 8th grade boys and girls showed up to find out what it is all about.

Colleen Nollette, 8th grade Science Teacher, and Mike Todd, parent volunteer, have been working to get the new club going. Based on the FIRST Lego League Challenge (mentioned in an earlier AP/IB Boosters Newsletter), the Club has joined FLL and purchased two LEGO Mindstorms sets of equipment to be used by teams to learn about engineering principles and to build and program robots to solve the Challenge problems. The teams are just getting started with some basics, but are anxious to start working with building and programming the robots themselves.

Thirty two kids and 2 robots obviously doesn't make workable team sizes, so Colleen and Mike are presently focused on getting more equipment lined up. Seed funding was loaned by the school administration, and the Heatherwood PTA is planning to grant some funds to the club. Parents of the participants are being asked to make donations to help purchase more sets, but Colleen and Mike really need to find some more sponsors. Ideally, they would like to form teams of 4, so 6 more sets (at about $260 each) is their goal. The longer term goal is to have the Robotics Club at Heatherwood become a permanent activity, and to start a Robotics Club at JHS next year as the eighth graders from the Heatherwood program graduate to the next level.

Do you know of contacts that can help? Colleen and Mike are looking for (1) Corporate sponsors who would like to donate cash to purchase equipment and (2) parents/community members who might have LEGO Mindstorms sets at home gathering dust that they would be willing to give/loan/sell at a discount to the Club. It is exciting to see the number of kids interested in this club; we need to find the means to nurture this interest before it wanes for lack of equipment.

For more information, or to find out more about how to help, contact Mike Todd at soccermike@att.net or Colleen Nollette at cnollette@everett.wednet.edu.

More information on the FIRST Lego League can be found at

http://www.usfirst.org/jrobtcs/flego.htm