The Shields of Sparta

We had a fun day in the fourth grade classroom! One of our students brought in an apple pie to celebrate PI day during lunch. Thanks P! We greatly enjoyed it. 

We also had another small treat as our own chefs prepared ambrosia (the food of the gods). They will perfect the reciepe for our future dinner guests.

We are continuing our study on Classical Greece. Students are learning of education, history, and focusing in on mythology. 

Today we learned about the city state Sparta and created our own Greek shields. Students designed their own symbols and some included secret messages using their knowledge of the Greek Alphabet. Some of the students researched ancient designs for their creations, while others added a modern day twist.  Nice job kids. 

Next week our focus will switch back to research of greek heroes, gods, and monsters.

Middle School Computer Fair 2014

Today was the annual PA Middle School Computer fair regional event run by the CSIU. This fair was postponed from the beginning of the month. This year it was hosted by our neighboring school district to the north,  Central Columbia Middle School.  Our students had a great time seeing the amazing projects of their peers.

This year we brought 2 digital movies, 1 animation, 1 webpage design, 1 computer fair logo, and 1 graphic design project. Our students did an amazing job! We are happy to say we will be sending three teams to states this year.

Thank you so much to the CSIU, Central, and everyone else who helped make this day a memorable day for our kids.

K'NEX CHALLENGE: Headed to States!

Today was the 6th-8th grade teams turn to take on the K'NEX Challenge at the CSIU. Our kids had  very creative approaches to tackle this year's challenge.

Our sixth grade team created a cable car, The Canyon Crosser, that soared on suspended cable across their city. Our seventh grade students created M.A.R.V.E.N. (an extra special tractor), that towed five pounds of weight on their farm.  Our 8th grade team created a plow, EC2, that safely pushed snow and zombies out of the way.

Talk about an A for Effort! The students stayed after school and came in on weekends to finish work on their environmentally-friendly people movers.  They arrived bright and early today (6:30 am), which wasn't easy after the daylight savings time change.  Everyone worked hard and made us so proud.

7th grade came in second, with our 6th grade team taking first. Both teams will travel to Harrisburg for the state competition in May.  Our 8th grade team did an amazing job and scored very high on the rubric as well.  It certainly wasn't an easy decision for the judges with all school districts bringing wonderful ideas and inventions.

A big thank you to our student's parents for bringing the kids in and supporting their efforts these past few weeks as they got ready for this fun event.

All students across the IU should be extremely proud of their efforts and hard work. Keep challenging yourself to build and succeed.

Read More about today's event at the Daily News Item.

4th and 5th Graders take on the S.T.E.M. Challenge

Our 4th and 5th grade students did a great job of representing Southern Columbia Area at the recent K'NEX Challenge at the CSIU on Tuesday.  Students worked together in groups to create environmentally friendly people movers. Each team had only two hours to build their vehicles based on blue prints they designed ahead of time. Students had to also create an obstacle that their vehicles would over come. Our students designs included cars that would travel over mountains, tanks in the dessert, and a transporter that easily traveled up and down a steep incline.  Students completed a small presentation to a team of engineers to end the event. 

It was an amazing day to see all the neat projects that students from other area schools came up with. I couldn't be any prouder of how well our students did in this event. They have been working extra hard and their effort shone through! We hope our 6th through 8th Grade teams do as well as you all did when they compete next Monday. 

Computer Fair Make Up Date

The Middle School Computer fair’s new make up date will be Thursday March 13^th at Central Columbia High School. Students are asked to meet in Mrs. Kozlek’s HS classroom no later than 7:25 the morning of the fair. Students will pick up projects (Computers, Paperwork, TriFold Boards) and head to bus together for 7:30.  The CSIU will provide judges for the event, and lunch. After the awards ceremony, the students will stop for ice cream before heading back to the school district for afternoon classes.

If you have any questions, please feel free to Contact Mrs. Kozlek.

Mars Rovers and Space Exploration

As our 4-8 students prepare for the computer fair and STEM Challenge, our youngest students have been busy engineering their own projects. 

K-3 students recently were challenged to design their own Mars Rover.  Students learned that mars rovers are automated motor vehicles. These machines propel themselves across the surface of the planet Mars. 


We discussed how different engineers, scientist, and technicians work together to build these amazing machines.  Students were given a limit amount of resources (legos) to build their own rovers. 

Students wrote stories to discuss what planets their rovers would visit and what jobs they could complete.  


Students took pictures of their vehicles against our classroom green screen. Kids then used a word processing program to replace the green background with out of this world backgrounds.



At home Extension/Website Connections:

1. NASA For kids
2. Solar System Exploration
3. Mars Rover Game

Keep on Exploring Kids!

It's that time of year again

 The Pennsylvania Middle School Computer Fair is an annual event that highlights Pennsylvania middle school students' application skills and computer knowledge. Students are able to unleash their creativity, learn how to convey information more dynamically, and enhance the learning process.

(last year's web design team, 3rd place at state competition)

Seventh and Eighth grade students have begun work on their PA middle school computer fair projects. Students not participating in the STEMs challenge have opted to compete in this fun event.

This year we have students creating projects in web design, animation, digital movies, logo design, and graphic design.  Rules and Guidelines are located on this official website.  This years event will be March 3rd at the CSIU. Students should be working hard on completing their projects, posters, and reports.

High School Students interested in participating in the High School event should contact Mrs. Shively or Mr. Gengler. This is a great opportunity to put your tech skills to a test.