Middle School (Grades 6, 7, 8) Activities
Every year for the past 7 years, Raytheon Company sponsors a nationwide scholarship contest (Math Moves U) aimed at getting/keeping Middle School students excited about Math and Science. Students submit a PowerPoint presentation or an essay describing how “Math Puts the Action in My Passion”. Over the years, I have seen students talk about Math in sports, construction, vacations, cooking, crafts, and more. It never ceases to amaze me how creative the students are. The scholarship prize is $1000 for college and a matching $1000 for the students’ school.
Over the years, Immaculate Conception School students have been very successful in this contest. Annually, the number of entrants continues to grow across the nation, and the ICS students still continue to win! This year was no exception. With a record number of national entrants (3100+), ICS had 21 entries. Only 150 scholarships are given annually. ICS students managed to win 5 of those this year! In the 7 years the contest has been in existence, ICS students have won 54 scholarships of the 1,050 given out across the country! Yes, that’s $54,000 in college scholarship money for ICS students, and $54,000 grant money for IC School. Math Moves U grant money may be used for any Math-related expense in the school. In the past, we have purchased an interactive whiteboard, laptops, Math text books, calculators, and robotics kits.
OK – so let’s do some Math:
Percent winners based on ICS entrants = 5/21 = 23.8%
Percent winners based on scholarships given = 5/150 = 3.3%
Percent all winners based on total scholarships given = 54/1050 = 5.1%
Percent of ICS entries on total entries = 21/3100 = 0.68%
As you can see, even though our students made up less than one percent of the overall entries, they still managed to win 3.3% of the prizes. And, our winning isn’t a one-time thing. With a 5.1% overall win rate, our students are consistently selected for the prize. That means that we have students who can articulate how Math/Science is involved in something they love to do, and they present it well. Quite impressive if you ask me!
I’d like to congratulate the 2011-2012 Math Moves U winners, Emily Cattarin, Shyala Jayasinghe, Bethany Mitchell, Sarah Pierce and Ryan Sheehy, for a job well done! I look forward to seeing continued success in future Math Moves U contests.
Mrs. Shipp
ICS Middle School Math Teacher (submitted May 7, 2012)
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The Immaculate Conception Middle School has held its annual National Geographic Geography Bee. Qualifying for the School Final by being finalists in the classroom bees were the following students: Grade 8 – Alex Cronin, Ryan Sheehy, and Eric Wicks, Grade 7 –Victoria Breitenfeld, Fernando Lopez, and Bethany Mitchell , Grade 6 – Gabriela Batista-Oliveira, Jonathan Kim, Tyler Sheehy, and Alexander Young. All the finalists will receive a certificate for their fine achievement . The School Winner in the finals was Fernando Lopez who will receive both a certificate and a medal for his winning performance in this nationally recognized Bee. Congratulations to all !
(submitted by Cheryl Ryan, March, 2012)
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The new students in the Middle School have made a quick adjustment to their new routines. All are settling in quite well. My language arts classes have started the year off by reviewing the rules of punctuation. Careful attention is being given to the uses of the comma. The sixth, seventh, and eighth graders have completed their first writing assignment and will soon be editing and revising them. The summer reading selections have been discussed, and we have now moved on to the reading and studying of fiction and non-fiction selections in our anthologies. (submitted by Linda Short, September 2011)
Social Studies
The Middle School Social Studies classes are off to a great start. Grade 6 has worked with globe and map skills and is looking forward to an archaeological dig project. Grade 7 is finishing up a unit on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and is eagerly anticipating “building castles”. Grade 8 has been waging the American Civil War and will soon tackle the Reconstruction era. (submitted by Cheryl Ryan)
Middle School Religion
This year’s Middle School Religion classes will be enhanced by the instruction from our Parochial Vicar, Fr. Andreas Davison. (submitted by Cheryl Ryan)