Students are dancing for science at Lakewood Elementary.
Dancers Unlimited, a Dallas-based dance company, is meeting with Lakewood students through Feb. 14 as part of the school’s annual Artists in Residence program.
During physical education classes, the dancers are choreographing movements for the students to explore scientific principles, such as the laws of inertia. Some students are learning dances that illustrate how solids turn to liquid and then gas.
“It’s a way to get away from the textbook for a little bit and look at things in a creative way,” says Carol Thomas, the PTA coordinator for Artists in Residence. “The students will never ever forget how a solid, a liquid and a gas behave.”
“Kids find it much easier to learn if they can get physically involved in what they are learning.”
The Artists in Residence program began at Lakewood five years ago. Each year, artists representing a different art form are brought to the school to work with the children. This year, the artists are preparing Lakewood students for their science fair on Feb. 23.
Long Sweeps Up in Design Contest
J.L. Long Middle School swept up at the Classroom of Optimum Learning School Model-Building Contest. It was sponsored by Heery International, the firm overseeing construction projects that are part of the school district’s bond program.
About 175 middle school and high school students designed their ideal classrooms. The students worked in teams of two to four people and were judged for their creativity, says Jon Danielson, Heery program director.
Long students won first, second and third place in the middle school category for their futuristic classroom designs. First place team members were Meagan Riggins, Kathleen Myers, Jennifer Galliher and Courtney Love. Second place team members were Andrew Tristan, Jocelyn Davis, Sheryl Ray and Brad Fralick. Third place team members were Jordan Munn, Trey Segner, Nathan Painter and John Thompson.
“The contest tries to create interest and awareness in the kids of their own environment,” Danielson says. “Conceivably, the ideas might even be able to be utilized.”
Each member of a placing team received an educational savings bond, and the teacher working with the teams received a certificate for school supplies. Long’s sponsor, seventh grade science teacher Armelia King, cleaned up, walking away with all three of the prizes for the middle school division, an award worth $175.
Contest judges did not know which design came from which school until after prizes were awarded, Danielson says.
News & Notes
FANNIN TEACHER WINS MEDAL: Second grade teacher Dorothy Ann Odum of James W. Fannin Elementary received the 1994 Valley Forge Teachers Medal for excellence in education. Each year, the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge presents the award to educators who excel in teaching students about citizenship and freedom. The Freedoms Foundation received nominations for the medal from across the country. Odum was one of 12 selected nationwide and the only teacher from Texas.
Calendar
Feb. 9 – Stonewall Jackson Elementary Kindergarten Round Up, 6:30-8 p.m., at the school, 5828 E. Mockingbird. Open to next year’s kindergartners and their parents. Call, 841-5155.
Feb. 9 – Stonewall Jackson Early Childhood PTA children’s outing, 3:30 p.m., to the Lakewood Library. Call Jan Neal, 824-5788 or Julie Sneed, 821-9867.
Feb. 15 – J.L. Long Middle School presents Dessert Theatre at 7 p.m. for $3. Call 841-5270.
Feb. 16 – Lakewood Early Childhood PTA Founder’s Day Brunch and Fashion Show, 9:30 a.m. at the White Rock Pump Station, 2900 White Rock.
Feb. 23 – Stonewall Jackson Early Childhood PTA meeting, 7:15 p.m., in the school’s library, 5828 E. Mockingbird Lane.
March 2 – Lakewood Elementary’s “Let’s Safari – Explore Your School” kindergarten roundup, 6:30-8 p.m., at the school, 3000 Hillbrook. Open to next year’s kindergartners and parents. Call, 841-5250.
