Excellence

I hope your holidays were happy and that your new year is resolute. We mark the beginning of celebrating a season for excellence with the NC Middle School Mock Trial champions. Did you read about The State of NC v. Kinsley Williams trial,  involving the transmission of a threat via cyberstalking? Ask one of our Apprentice Scholars III (8th grade) students about both the prosecution and defense positions.

Mock Trial is a competition in which students learn to present both the prosecution and defense positions on a legal case and is  sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Association Foundation Law Related Education Advisory Committee. The December event was the first ever middle school level competition, and the Scholars' Academy took top state honors. Three students also won top individual honors. Thank you to Mr. Yodice and Ms. Moschel, our team coaches. Attorney David Melin brought the class a plaque on Friday, December 17.  To read more and see pictures, please visit the links in the article below.

The three First Lego League teams from the Scholars' Academy are headed to the state competition. The Smartians designed "The LifeWatch," an automatic medical monitoring and alert device that can be worn like a watch. An embedded GPS device locates the patient for emergency responders. Smartians are coached by David Johnston. The RoboRaptors focused their problem solving on the topic of pediatric concussions and designed an iPad application, the Concussion Calculator, that evaluates the possibilities of a concussion in real time. The application also maintains a historical record for each student athlete, thereby reducing the incidences of Second Concussion Syndrome. Carol Van Buren coaches the RoboRaptors. The third school team is Cuz We Rule coached by Sabrina Brown. The team designed "smart clothes" which allow UVB light, helpful in treating psoriasis, to pass through material while blocking UVA and UVC light rays. The Lego robots are just one part of a long process that involves hours of research, construction, preparation of a presentation, and collaborative effort by all team members.

Congratulations to our students for their awards and a special thank you to our parent and staff coaches who make it all possible. 
 
We are pleased to announce that Metrolina Regional Scholars' Academy has been nominated by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as a Blue Ribbon School in the High Performing category. Three other North Carolina schools join us in that category. We will complete an application to the US Department of Education with results to be announced sometime in the summer.
 
Activity/club period begins Friday, January 7, 2011. The popular Friday club time makes a third appearance at the Scholars' Academy. All of our staff members are offering a fun activity for students from 2:25 - 2:55. Activities range from "The Aerie" to Yearbook and include a cheer dance group, knitting, and Jianzi.  A total of 19 clubs are available.  All class periods will be shortened by five minutes in order to provide the activity period. Lunch for all groups begins 15 minutes earlier; at 11 a.m. and 11:25 a.m.
 
Inclement weather notifications are posted on WSOC and WBTV.

For the earth,