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Engineering girls, engagement, spelling bees, scholarships

Girls in grades 6 through 12 are invited to “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.” This free, day-long program at Agilent Technologies in Santa Rosa will introduce students to engineering as a career path. They will also do hands-on projects and discover various school and enrichment organizations that promote engineering. The nationwide program mobilizes thousands of women engineers to mentor and share first-hand experiences with more than one million girls and young women each year. Lunch is served. Reservations are required. Email kageyama@agilent.com for a registration form.

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Do you have a high school child with a learning disability or ADD/ADHD? You might worry about how they will handle college entrance tests like the SAT and ACT. There is a great website for tips on which test might better suit their learning style – ncld.org/parents-child-disabilities/teens/choosing-act-sat

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Are you curious about purchasing a market animal at the Sonoma County Fair? Students from Sonoma FFA, Hanna Boys Center and Sonoma Valley 4-H invite you to hear the details in person. The get-together will take place on Monday, Feb. 11, from 4 to 6 p.m. at 2568 Dale Ave. Students from all three organizations will do short presentations on their livestock programs. For more information, call Sonoma Valley 4-H at 933-6755, Hanna Boys Center at 337-0943 or Sonoma FFA at 933-4010, ext. 5226.  

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According to a recent Gallup Poll of students, a majority of elementary school students – almost eight in 10 – qualify as actively engaged in their schoolwork, but that number drops in the older grades. By middle school, only six in 10 students were found to be actively involved and invested in school and when students enter high school, it drops to four in 10. To measure their engagement, Gallup surveyed 500,000 public school students in grades 5 to 12, asking them to indicate their level of agreement with statements such as, “My teachers make me feel my schoolwork is important,” and, “At this school, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.”

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On Thursday, Feb. 7 from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Woodland Star Charter will offer a Introduction to Waldorf talk with its education director, a tour of classrooms and an overview of student work. Complimentary childcare with an advanced reservation: 996-3849.  There will be a subsequent tour for prospective families on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 8:30 to 10 a.m.

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You have probably noticed that some people are great at searching online while other people aren’t efficient at it. I’m guessing that the critical thinking it requires will be crucial for our children in school and in life. Google’s Search Education feature gives educators free access to lesson plans and classroom activities to help students cultivate better online search skills. The site has in-class lessons; tips and tricks to finding online information quickly and efficiently; and skills challenges and webinars to help teachers integrate search literacy into existing lesson plans.

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Children registered to attend Prestwood Elementary School in the fall, who have never been to preschool, are invited to join the school’s “Stepping into Kindergarten” program for parents and children from March 5 to May 28 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Call the Prestwood office at 935-6030 for more information.

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Some school spelling bee result are starting to come in. Fourth-grader Elsa Winter and fifth-grader Mason Matulaitis were first and second place winners in the Prestwood Spelling Bee Contest. They will be representing Prestwood in the North County Regional Spelling Bee. Congratulations also to Prestwood fifth-grader Reese Dobson who won third-place in the Vineyard Trails Daughters of the American Revolution History essay contest for the fifth-grade local level.

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Over at Presentation School, sixth-graders Amanda Jue and Jack Wolff won the school spelling bee and they will also compete in the regional spelling bee in March. Five Presentation School students had projects selected to compete at the Synopsys–Sonoma County Science Fair in February at Sonoma State University: Natalie Gulrajani, seventh-grade; Renee Serota, eighth-grade; Alexandra Garber, seventh-grade; Corbin Cook, eighth-grade; and Alexia Lema, seventh-grade.

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In restating what I’ve seen elsewhere and written about before, the San Jose Mercury News ran the numbers and swears that a family of four earning $130,000 a year will end up spending close to $24,000 a year for tuition, room and board at the average Cal State campus, and at least $33,000 a year at UC Santa Cruz. The kicker … that same family will pay only $17,000 a year if their child goes to Harvard (yes, getting in is a whole other matter). The country’s most prestigious colleges have huge endowments. Princeton’s $17.1 billion endowment means that less than a quarter of its students have student loan debt after graduation. In comparison, UC Berkeley’s smaller $3.1 billion endowment means that 41 percent of students graduate with debt.

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Most students think that taking Advanced Placement classes will enable them to graduate faster, but that is typically dependent on scores of four or five (out of five) AND many colleges use AP scores simply for admissions and placement, rather than academic credit.  Earlier this month, Dartmouth College became the latest Ivy to change its policy and no longer accept APs for credit.

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Scholarship Sonoma County has launched a scholarship portal that local students should find very helpful. One application (due March 2) allows a student to apply for as many scholarships as he or she is eligible. The program targets students with the drive, but not the finances to attend college. The program’s goal is to distribute $2 million in scholarships annually within five years. sonomascholars.communityforce.com

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Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition’s Safe Routes to School program is launching its first countywide, “I Love Walk & Roll” essay/poetry contest this February. More than 70 Sonoma County schools and 12,000 students participated in the one-day, “International Walk & Roll to School Day” promotion last October. Of those schools, about 24 receive ongoing technical support and services from the Safe Routes to School Program. To participate in the essay and poetry contest, students in grades 4 to 6 must attend one of these schools (check with your school office). The contest asks students for a short essay or to capture in a poem the spirit of why they love walking and rolling to school. Entries are due Thursday, Feb. 28. Email sonomasaferoutes@gmail.com for more information, or go to sparetheairyouth.org/.

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 “Parenting with Positive Discipline” is coming to Sonoma. The workshop covers long-term solutions to everyday parenting dilemmas. It begins on Monday, Feb. 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. and will run for three consecutive Mondays at the Community Room at 252 W. Spain St. Contact Katherine Llodrá at 812-4918 or familiallodra@gmail.com for more information. The cost is $95 a family (adults only) and includes a Positive Discipline book by Dr. Jane Nelson.

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There are now 23,795 Chinese students studying at U.S. private high schools, up from 4,503 in 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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Correction: Sometimes I write way too fast … The correct number of unduplicated applications received by the UC system this year was 175,000 (I gave a lower number). The UCLA campus received almost 100,000 applications and UC Davis 70,000. UC Santa Cruz saw the greatest increase in applicants this year.