Email  Print

Exploratorium, iCivics, science fair winners, host families, enrichment toys

Education Roundup

Several Sonoma middle schools students won big at the Sonoma County Science Fair earlier this month. In an unusual honor, two blue-ribbon winners from Sonoma, out of 100 plus students from around the county, were chosen to head on to the statewide science fair competition in Los Angeles. The talented two were Hanna Maillard (St. Francis, seventh grade) and Renee Serota (Presentation School, seventh grade). Presentation eighth-graders Jack Greenberg and Emma Cooper were chosen to join Serota and Maillard at the San Francisco Bay Area Science Fair in March. Other students from those schools, and from Altimira, received ribbons as well. You might think about taking your child down to the Randall Museum in San Francisco to view the projects Tuesday through Saturday, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. until March 2. 

• • •

Elsewhere in science news, 59 Sonoma teachers are actively using Exploratorium Science in their elementary school classrooms. Nearly 1,400 of our students are getting a chance to participate in this new hands-on science curriculum developed by the San Francisco Exploratorium.  In the fall, students studied snails, magnets and electromagnets.  Now they are beginning a new round of investigative lessons called “Sink or Float,” “Lifecycle of a Ladybug” and “Stream Tables.” This program is funded by Sonoma Valley Education Foundation and the Vadasz Family Foundation.

• • •

Assemblymember Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, has co-authored legislation to help make California’s public colleges and universities more affordable to qualified middle class families. CSU fees have increased 191 percent, and UC fees have increased by 145 percent, since 2003. With the “Middle Class Scholarship,” students with family incomes less than $150,000, who do not already have fees covered, would receive a scholarship cutting UC or CSU tuition costs by two-thirds. It is expected this would impact 200,000 students who would save an average of $4,000 to $8,000 a year. Huffman proposes paying for the scholarship by eliminating a tax loophole that benefits out-of-state corporations.

• • •

Sonoma host families are sought for students from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Spain this summer, from June 27 to July 23. Families provide a bed, meals and transportation to and from a local drop-off location (students gather to take English classes). Students speak English, come fully insured and bring their own spending money.
If interested, contact EF’s Sonoma rep Heloisa Heinen at 504-994-4159 or indelevelgirassol@yahoo.com.

• • •

I love the idea behind Sassariniopoly. This is a six-week reading incentive program for students with weekly prizes and a culminating ice cream party. The program is overseen by Tirzah Dressen and other classroom parent volunteers. The goal is for Sassarini students in six weeks to read up to (but, hopefully more than) a total of nine hours, for grades K-3, 12 hours for grades 4-5, and 18 hours for teachers (or be read to). Anyone who completes the Sassariniopoly game board also wins a book.

• • •

The most comprehensive catalog I’ve ever come across for enrichment toys, games and supplies for grades preK-6 is available through Lakeshore Learning (www.lakeshorelearning.com). If you can’t find what you are looking for there, it doesn’t exist.

• • •

I think the gaming web site, iCivics, founded by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, is just about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. The site is free and its 16 educational video games provide the most comprehensive, standards-aligned civics curriculum for middle and high school students online. The curriculum includes lesson plans and games that are linked to subjects and skills that various states require students to master. O’Connor founded the nonprofit in an attempt to reverse the decline in civic education in America. For more information, go to icivics.com.

• • •

The latest hot parenting book is called “Bringing Up Bebe” by Pamela Druckerman, an American living in Paris who is amazed and impressed by French parenting. She was inspired to write the book after years observing French children sitting calmly through endless meals, amusing themselves at playgrounds and on plane rides and displaying a distinct lack of tantrums. French parents do not live through their children or hinge their own identities on their offspring. A 2009 study by Princeton researchers comparing French and American parents found that American parents considered it more than twice as unpleasant to deal with their own children as French parents. You can draw your own conclusions, but it is certainly food for thought.

• • •

Moody’s Mega Math Challenge is a free, Internet-based, applied math contest for high school juniors and seniors. Teams of three to five participants are asked to solve an open-ended, realistic problem focused on a real-world issue, using any free, publicly-available and inanimate sources of information, in 14 hours.

Scholarships totaling $115,000 are awarded to the top teams. Sign up by Feb. 24 at m3challenge.siam.org/participate/. The challenge weekend is March 3 and 4.

• • •

The Vox Populi choir is holding auditions for VP KIDS on Feb. 9, 16, and 23 at 7:30 p.m. at Vintage House senior center. Children in grades 2 through 5 may audition. Contact vpkids@gmail.com to set up an audition appointment.

• • •

De La Rosa & Co. (a regional municipal finance firm) will award a $2,000 scholarship to a student from Sonoma Valley High School (assuming students enter) in their “Fabric of Society” essay competition. Seniors just need to submit an original essay, of 600 to 800 words, reflecting on the observation by Maya Angelou that, “Each of us, famous or infamous, is a role model for somebody, and if we aren’t, we should behave as though we are – cheerful, kind, loving, courteous. Because you can be sure someone is watching and taking deliberate and diligent notes.” Essays are due by March 1. All info is available online at www.ejdelarosa.com. Last year’s winner was Daniel Maggioncalda.

• • •

Revolution Prep is offering another SAT prep course in Sonoma, beginning March 26, leading up to the May 5 SAT exam, and scholarships are available.  The price is $599.  Call 877-REVPREP for more details, or stop by the Sonoma High College & Career Center. They are also offering a special “PrepFest” of up to 40 hours of live online group micro-courses, taught by Revolution Prep instructors, for $199. These sessions include content instruction (coordinate geometry, etc.). This is only offered Feb. 26 to March 8. 

• • •

The next Sonoma Valley High School Scholarship Night for seniors is Thursday, Feb. 23. Students will hear about many new local scholarships available and how to use the school web site to find more. College Night for juniors and parents is also just around the corner on Thursday, March 1, at 6:30 p.m. in the Pavilion.

• • •

Register at childhoodfriendships.eventbrite.com/ to hear best-selling author Michael Thompson, Ph.D., speak on “Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Friendship, Popularity and the Social Lives of Children,” on Monday, Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m. at The Presentation School (www.presentationschool.com) Admission is $10.