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The Pew Research Center and Smithsonian magazine randomly polled 1006 Americans on thirteen science and technology questions. Only 7% scored 13/13.

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Pew Research Center - Science & Technology Quiz

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Wacky Word of the Week: Slavish

slav·ish  

Adjective Relating to or characteristic of a slave, typically by servility or submissiveness. Showing no attempt at originality, constructive interpretation, or development.

Synonyms servile - menial - obsequious

TCS Green Day 2013

 Earth Day was celebrated at TCS with a Green Day designed and executed by the Oceans Group of the Green Team. This group spent weeks brainstorming ideas, culling the possibilities down to what was manageable, accounting for the wide range of age groups, having limited supplies and resources, and running the whole event from start to finish. These students demonstrated great initiative and leadership qualities. They designed activities to engage the Kindergarten through seventh grade students in environmental awareness and activism. There was a schedule for each class to rotate through three stations. The stations were: a bike-powered smoothie maker, a planting station, and a collaborative collage made from the environmental initiatives students are making to make the earth greener. The feedback and response was positive and enthusiastic. Overall, an educational and successful event. Many sixth graders were instrumental in making this day happen, and the rest of us enjoyed the fruits of their labor!

Thank you to the Green Team for your time, effort, and commitment to helping educate others on the environment.  Bravo!

Pobre Ana

Sixth grade student started reading a short novel in Spanish called, Pobre Ana, by Blaine Ray. It's a great first reader about a girl from California who has an opportunity to study abroad in a small town in Mexico. There she stays with a nice family, meets new friends, compares her life with theirs, and her view of her life begins to change. Having the experience in Mexico helps her see that her life in California really isn't that bad. Students are really engaged in reading, sharing and discussing this novel in Spanish. They are learning new words and phrases in Spanish too. Below is a glimpse of some of the words they've learned so far.

Wacky Word of the Week: Homogeneous

ho·mo·ge·ne·ous  

Adjective Of the same kind; alike. Consisting of parts all of the same kind.

Synonyms uniform - similar

Great Artists Finale: Panoramic Photo of Studio

In case you did not get a chance to make it to the Great Artist Finale, here is a panoramic view of the completed studio.













Click to view interactively: http://360.io/WBrJqV

Great Artists: The Process by MHS

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” 
- Ansel Adams

        When you look at our photographs, you see an image that will hopefully make you feel something. We put effort into the picture, but you might not see our process.

       Stage 1: The Beginning. First, we had to learn about Ansel Adams and what inspired him. We watched a documentary called “Great American; Ansel Adams”. Then Bret C.came in and taught us about the grey scale, which is a scale invented by Adams that goes from light to dark and has all the shades of grey. To practice this technique, we drew simple things like a box and shaded it. Then we applied it to an Ansel Adams Photograph. We took our new found skills and transferred it to our photographs.

        Stage 2: Experimenting. After we collected background information we started to go out into nature and take photographs. At first, we started simply taking pictures around the school. We experimented with our own cameras and occasionally we got the opportunity to use a Sony a57. We tried taking pictures of different things to find our vision just like Ansel Adams did in nature. We wanted to take pictures that made us feel passion. After we had some experience we, decided we were ready for a bigger challenge.

        Stage 3: Dedication. We wanted to experience the dedication that Ansel Adams had for his photographs. Our first thought was it would be a great experience to camp out somewhere. The S***** graciously volunteered their lawn. With a lot of planning and cooperation we all packed into cars and off we went to KS's house. When we got there we set up camp (literally CAMP!) Then we went on a hike to a waterfall. “ When I was hiking to the waterfall I felt like Ansel Adams because I had to lug all of my stuff up hills.” says sixth-grader SW. We ate dinner and then went outside and slept. In the morning we woke up at 6:30 a.m to take early morning photographs. We ate breakfast and left our campsite. We still wanted more opportunities to take photographs.


       Stage 4: Field Trip! On March 20, we went on a field trip to Torrey Pines State Reserve. We had to hike up a hill which gave us a lot of good photo-taking opportunities. The we went on a short 3/4 of a mile beach loop. On the way we bonded and took lots of amazing pictures with the help of Carwai (our advisor) and Laure (our film and photography teacher.) After we had hiked down to the beach we walked back along the beach. Which gave us amazing scenery to snap photographs of. After we were happy with our photographs we had to make some decisions.

      Stage 5: Decisions. One of the best parts of Great Artist in NMY is the opportunity to choose. We knew that we wanted to print our photographs in order to display them. So Carwai did some research. We had to take a lot of things in consideration for example we only had a budget of $16.50 per person. Carwai found two good places to print but we ended up printing at Cove.  We got our prints back and we were all happy with the result. Then we had to decide what to do about our banner. We decided to have a committee come up with the idea and our entire class to work on it. Then all we had to do were the finishing touches.

    Stage 6: Panic Mode. I say panic mode because this is where we had loos ends to tie up. First, Amy C. came in to share her expertise in matting with us. We had to complete our banner and set up the room to for it to look like the beautiful exhibit that we envisioned.

I would like to close the same way I began, with a quote. This time, one said by a sixth grader, “If a photograph does not capture an emotion it does not achieve a photograph’s purpose”.

Great Artists Finale 2013

You did it! The Great Artist Finale was last night and it was a smashing success.  Everyone who came into your studio was impressed and awed by your talent and vision. There have been several requests to purchase your prints! 

Enjoy your spring break and bask in the knowledge of a job well done. Rest and be safe!

Los Deportes

Sixth grade students were interested in learning about their favorite sports in Spanish. To begin, students were given four sports categories (winter, water, outdoor and indoor). In groups, they listed as many sports they could think of in English for their category. Once they generated their list, they found the words for the sport in Spanish. Students shared the list with their peers and explained some of the rules of their sport. This lead students wanting to choose a favorite sport or game and teach it to the class in Spanish. Students divided themselves into four groups, wrote the rules of their sport in Spanish, and practiced how they would teach it to their peers. Sixth graders were clear in their explanations. If they noticed there was some confusion, they resorted to actions rather than using English. We enjoyed learning how to play tag (encantados), volleyball (voleibol), golf, and baseball (béisbol). 

Wacky Word of the Week: Tokamak

to·ka·mak  

Noun

A toroidal apparatus for producing controlled fusion reactions in hot plasma.


If you wish to read more about this device, here is the Wikipedia entry for Tokamak.