Over summer break, Rice University welcomes hundreds of middle and high school students to participate in various academic camps offered on campus. The Tapia Camps, named for mathematician and Rice professor Dr. Richard Tapia, are for rising eighth-12th graders interested in STEM and honing their calculus skills before the new school year.
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HISD celebrates 100th day of school with costumes, decorations, and parades
When Principal Jose Cordova announced over the PA that it was time for the parade to begin, an earth-shaking cheer arose from the students at Memorial Elementary School on Feb. 9, the 100th day of school for HISD.
Memorial’s students range from pre-K to fifth grade, and every student hit the hallway with excitement. Some dressed as 100-year-old versions of themselves, carrying posters and wearing paper hats and costumes in celebration of 100 successful school days down.
Continue readingMock wedding ceremony joins math and reading at annual family night
Fleming Middle School recently hosted its annual Family Math Night for parents and students. This year’s event combined mathematics along with the district’s Literacy by 3 movement. The highlight of the evening was a mock wedding ceremony between “numeracy” and “literacy” in an effort to help parents and students understand how reading and math can be combined in the classroom to create academic success. Parents also got to actively participate in a variety of hands-on activities that reflected the daily work that their scholars are engaged in.
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HISD students outperforming peers in large urban districts
Nation’s Report Card shows gains in math across all student groups since 2003; reading scores unchanged from 2007 to 2013
The Houston Independent School District performed better than most large urban school districts in math, showing increases across all student groups compared to 2003, while reading scores remained unchanged, in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report released Dec. 18, 2013 (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/).
Reagan High School Team Wins UIL State Mathematics Championship
Reagan Senior also placed first in individual state competition
A mathematics team from HISD’s Reagan High School was declared the UIL State Mathematics Champion at the recent UIL State Meet. Reagan team member Dante Vela also placed first in the individual state competition.
The mathematics competition is one of the most competitive contests at the UIL State Academic Meet, drawing students from across Texas.
The Reagan team, composed of five seniors, qualified for the state championship after advancing from UIL district and regional meets. The team members have all been competing in UIL Academics for a combined total of 12 years.
Walnut Bend ES Advances to State Odyssey of the Mind Competition
Students from almost two dozen HISD schools will be competing at the state level of the Odyssey of the Mind contest on April 14—but for two groups of students from Walnut Bend Elementary School, the thrill of advancing past the regional level is particularly sweet, as 2012 marks only the first year that the Apollo 20 campus has ever participated.
A team of fifth-graders won first place in its division for designing a vehicle with two propulsion systems that could move forward and backward and display four different emotions.
A team of fourth-graders won first place in its division for building a balsa wood structure weighing less than the combined weight of three nickels (approximately 15 grams) that could support 345 pounds of steel.
“This is a mathematical engineering problem that uses one of the lightest woods on the planet,” explained Walnut Bend Principal Susan Shenker, “so a structure’s strength comes from its design. The fourth-graders’ structure held more weight at the regional tournament than any other team’s present — including those from middle and high schools.”
Both of the teams from Walnut Bend were coached by reading teacher Michele Dahlquist.
Other schools that will advance to the state competition next month are: Burnet, Condit, Herod, Oak Forest, Parker, Poe, River Oaks, Roberts, Twain, and West University elementary schools; Grady, Lanier, Pershing, Pin Oak, and Revere middle schools; Bellaire and Carnegie Vanguard high schools; and T.H. Rogers, the Horn Academy, and Sharpstown International.
For complete regional results, visit the Odyssey of the Mind website.