News Archives
RSSPompano Beach High School is selected as an Apple Distinguished School
February 08, 2008
Categories: General News
February 5, 2008
Students are pod casting and teaching nearby elementary students to do the same, communication is occurring across international waters via ePals, and digital storytelling is currently in the works. These are just a few of the activities that the students at Pompano High School are engaged in. Many schools state that they are technology-driven; Pompano Beach High School has officially been selected as an Apple Distinguished School – one of 18 schools Apple is recognizing nationwide and one of two schools in the state of Florida.
The Apple Distinguished School designation is reserved only for schools that have demonstrated a 21st century vision, leadership and successful implementation of technology that supports teaching and learning. John Couch, VP of Education at Apple, stated ‘In reviewing the great work that is underway at Pompano Beach High, I was especially impressed with your success using technology to transform the classroom from a teacher-centered environment to a student-centered source of learning. It is clear that your students are actively engaged in the learning process and take responsibility for the outcomes of their own efforts….”
Pompano Beach High School is an International Affairs with Informational Technology magnet school located at 600 NE 13 Ave in Pompano Beach. For more information, contact Bill Bankowski, Magnet Coordinator at 754-322-4200.
One of the brightest scientific minds in Broward County Schools is a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search Competition
February 08, 2008
Categories: General News
February 1, 2008
Fort Lauderdale, FL – Kimberly Sparling, a magnet student at Fort Lauderdale High School, may have a chance to win the “junior Nobel Prize.” Sparling is a semifinalist in the country’s premiere pre-college science competition – the Intel Science Talent Search Competition. The Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) – often called the “junior Nobel Prize” – brings together the 40 best and brightest young scientific minds in America to compete for $1.25 million in scholarships.
Over the past 66 years, the Science Talent Search has produced winners of the world’s most prestigious academic honors. Six former finalists have gone on to win the Nobel Prize; others have been awarded the Fields Medal, the National Medal of Science and MacArthur Foundation Fellowships.
Sparling has also received notable distinction in other scientific competitions. She has been selected as a semifinalist in the Siemens-Westinghouse Science Competition, which recognizes remarkable talent early on and provides an opportunity to achieve national recognition for science research projects that are completed in high school. In addition, Sparling has been chosen to present her research at the Junior Science, Engineering and Humanities Symposium at the University of Florida.
For more information, contact Nancy Green, Magnet Coordinator, Fort Lauderdale High School at 754-322-1100.
Normal Teens, Perfect Scores Duo Who Aced College Entrance Test Want It Known They're Not Mere Nerds
September 25, 2007
Categories: General News
By Akilah Johnson
Before two of the nation’s brightest students tell you who they are, they want to tell you what they’re not.
Jamie Tayar, of Sunrise, and Ray Peng, of Coral Springs, are not unathletic teens who spend their time cooped up inside reading dictionaries or memorizing textbooks like robots inputting data.
Yes, they’re bright. Yes, they study hard. And, yes, they have Ivy League ambitions. But they admit to spending too much time online, not cleaning their rooms and carrying cell phones but not text messaging because it costs too much.
About 446,000 American students took the ACT last year, a standardized test taken each year by college-bound high school students. Only 86 received a perfect 36. Four were in Florida, with two of those in Broward: Tayar and Peng.
The paths of these two 17-year-old high school seniors probably would not have crossed if not for their perfect scores. They attend different schools, don’t know each other and only now know of each other because of the test.
Peng goes to American Heritage School in Plantation; works weekends; runs cross country and tends to oversleep. Tayar attends Boyd Anderson High School’s International Baccalaureate magnet program. She wakes up by 5:30 a.m. and has an hourlong bus ride to school in Lauderdale Lakes, leaving little time for much else.
“We actually have a good bus driver who drives a normal speed,” Tayar said. “The guy we had last year used to race turtles down the road.”
Jamie Tayar
Tayar sits in her living room, still dressed in her school clothes: jeans and a T-shirt that says “guerrilla astronomy.” Fascinated by the heavens, her passion is physics.
“It’s the basics of everything and feeds into astronomy,” she explains. “Looking at the beginning of the universe . . . it’s wide- open. It’s not like history, which already happened.”
Her love of science started after reading Dragonriders of Pern in elementary school. The fantasy book, she said, showed her a world where someone is not confined to a single moment in time and space.
Tayar’s mini-dissertation, a requirement of the magnet program, is about how the book changed her life.
Unlike some math-shy students, she took an extra algebra class in middle school and is currently taking physics after school because her schedule’s so full. As for college, she wants to attend the California Institute of Technology, which she says “has one of the best physics programs in the country.”
She visited the Pasadena school and immediately connected with its intimate feel, and the students, she said, “weren’t stuck up at all.”
“It’s nice to have people to hang out with and make jokes with because in middle school I didn’t have that,” she said. “I was definitely a bit more geeky than I am now, and that’s saying a lot.”
Ray Peng
Peng surrounds himself with friends who are like him, effortlessly able to mix SAT words with silly jokes from The Simpsons. He recently downloaded a song he heard during a Simpsons rerun and played it during English class as a joke. That teacher describes Peng, and his friends, as fools – albeit brilliant fools.
After a recent class, Peng listened to his friends engage in a conversation moving between goofy exuberance and philosophical gravity. As they talk, he smooths his bangs – as is his habit – and laughs out loud.
“Why are we brilliant fools?” classmate James Pickens mused while rubbing his chin, pantomiming deep thought.
“We’re immature beyond our years,” added Joseph Porter, who missed one question on the SAT, scoring a 2380 out of 2400 on the other college entrance exam. He didn’t take the ACT.
Peng and his friends want to create a music program at a local community center. He’s played piano for almost a decade and can’t imagine life without the sounds of Johann Sebastian Bach. He practices daily.
“It’s better than sitting down and doing math for four or five hours,” he contends. But don’t let adolescent sarcasm fool you; Peng cares about learning. He taught himself statistics and aced the Advanced Placement exam – and six others.
Like his piano and pencil-pounding skills, cross country, he said, is kind of like a metaphor for life and his academic successes.
“The idea that you push yourself to the end, no matter how hard or grueling, just shows that you, if you put your mind to it, can do anything,” he said.
Top recruits
Most colleges, even those in the Ivy League, spend lots of money to recruit high-scoring students. But getting a perfect score is hard. Depending on the test, students must master reading, writing, science and math. It’s not enough to be genius in one but only marginally smart in another.
Peng, for example, said he studied the most and did the worst on the writing section of the SAT, getting a 710 out of 800. His composite score was 2310.
“It’s the only one I didn’t do perfect on,” he said. “It’s kind of ironic.”
Akilah Johnson can be reached at akjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4527.
Copyright 2007, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive Inc.
Sun-Sentinel.com, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
Learning is Global at School in Manors
August 26, 2007
Categories: General News
By Elizabeth Baier
Students and teachers at Wilton Manors Elementary long ago embarked on a global perspective of education, but now it’s official: the school is the first in Broward County to offer an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program.
As the Broward School District opened its doors to 234,000 students on Monday, Wilton Manors’ only public school inaugurated the internationally accredited program, which teachers and administrators have been working toward for four years.
“When you look at how quickly the world is becoming global, you have to keep the kids educated and up to date,” said Lori Goldsmith, the school’s magnet coordinator.
For the school to become authorized, the district’s magnet office paid the International Baccalaureate program $8,300 in application and training fees, she said. The district will pay an annual $5,220 fee, which gives teachers access to an online curriculum center.
The program is designed to promote global citizenship and service using year-long themes that direct the way teachers structure their curriculum, Goldsmith said. The themes include: who we are; where we are in place and time; how we express ourselves; how the world works; how we organize ourselves; and sharing the planet.
In a way, an international education at the school is easy, said guidance counselor Ana Maria Leon, a native of Venezuela. The 623 students at the school represent 28 countries – from Australia and Sweden to Haiti and France. Flags from around the world welcome students and parents in the main office; world maps hang in all the classrooms; and many hallway bulletin boards have signs in English, Spanish and Creole.
Students also carry a Passport to Peace, a yearlong project that teaches them about different cultures and attitudes, and are required to learn Spanish.
The program “works off the diversity of the school, the different cultures,” Leon said. “They love sharing their culture.”
In all, there are 11 International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programs in Florida, 116 in the United States, and 385 in the world, according to the program’s Web site. Two are in Miami-Dade County and two in Palm Beach County.
The curriculum also emphasizes real-world experiences through project-based learning and the use of multimedia technology, Goldsmith said.
Throughout the year, students will learn how to use digital cameras and videoconference with students in Bonn, Germany. By first grade, they will learn how to use computer software programs such as PowerPoint to create multimedia presentations and have the option of joining an iMovie club to learn how to make and edit short movies.
“I go on the computer in the library. I use Google to do my projects,” said Niketa Reno, 10, a fourth-grader at the school. “I was 2 when I started using the Internet.”
Parents also understand the need for a globally focused education.
“This is the way our world is going – global,” said DeeDee Hernandez, whose daughter, Chloe, is in second grade. “To have an understanding of the world and how it works is so important.”
Elizabeth Baier can be reached at ebaier@sun-sentinel.com or 954- 356-4637.
Copyright 2007, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive Inc.
Sun-Sentinel.com, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301
These Knights Shine in the Day South Plantation High's Solar Car in National Contest
July 04, 2007
Categories: General News
By Akilah Johnson
The school year may be over but there’s one more test for South Plantation High School’s Solar Knights: Can their car maintain speeds of 30 mph without using gas?
The solar-power vehicle can travel at 20 mph and never refuel as long as skies stay sunny and clear, but that extra oomph would really improve the team’s chances in the Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge, a nine-day, 1,600-mile, cross-country competition.
“Who’s the sun god? We should pray to him,” Taylor Sawyer, 18, joked Tuesday at a corporate sponsor’s send-off party in Hollywood.
Sawyer and seven other students spent the last year scavenging scrap heaps and scouring the Internet to create their sun-powered, three-wheeled car. Building the $35,000 vehicle, dubbed the Solar Knight, began as a senior project for Sawyer and two other recent graduates.
The competition and the vehicle represent the fusion of three things: The end of their high school career, a memorable road trip before college and an environmental statement about the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels.
Solar power, they said, is a resource that deserves further exploration.
“The main goal is to get the idea out that there are things besides petroleum that move the world,” said Daniel Myers, 18, who will attend Northwestern University, near Chicago.
“We’re just three high school kids, and if we can do it, then major manufacturers with all their brains and think-tanks, should,” said Sawyer, who will be a freshman at the University of Florida this fall.
Even the construction of the car was a lesson in recycling.
The back wheel was taken from a Kawaski motorcycle. The front two tires are ATV wheels. The steering wheel was ripped off a motor scooter. The one and only seat is a Mazda Miata car seat. The solar panels rest on top of the buggy.
“We’ve been digging around the Internet and through junkyards,” Noah Stahl, 18, of Davie, said. “We’ve pulled parts from all around.”
Grants and sponsors, including Toyota, Best Buy and BP Solar, helped buy those things that couldn’t be found.
The race begins on July 16 in Roundrock, Texas and ends on July 24 in Newburg, N.Y. While the race is only nine days, the team will be gone for 19 total: three days to haul the car to Texas, three days of road testing, and four days to drive back from New York. Students are still fundraising for hotel expenses, gas and food.
Students will drive in two-hour shifts. The car is weight sensitive and requires more energy to carry more weight. So heavier students will drive downhill and lighter students will drive uphill. No one will drive certain parts of the route because some communities didn’t want experimental cars on their roadways.
When the Solar Knight is on the road, it will travel in between two vehicles: A lead and chaser.
A van will follow the car with the rest of the team and computer equipment to make sure the solar car does not use too much energy. A pickup truck with an attached trailer will be in front.
“If it rains, you just stop, drop and pull it into the trailer,” said Allan Phipps, a South Plantation environmental science teacher.
Phipps discovered the competition while Sawyers, Myers and Stahl were still juniors. He knew they loved both engineering and the environment and proposed the car as their senior project. They got an A.
“This is what makes teaching so worthwhile,” Phipps said Tuesday as the students chatted about power output and topography. “These kids keep me on my toes. Otherwise, I’d be sitting in a classroom teaching the same thing over and over.”
Plans for the Solar Knight II are already in the works. The original will be retired car in December and scavenged for parts. Then construction on car two will begin.
Akilah Johnson can be reached at akjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4527.
Related Websites
Copyright 2007, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive Inc.
Sun-Sentinel.com, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301