SEVEN HILLS
November 17, 2011
The Buzz
A Brief Word from Chris Garten
Students earn high honors at Chinese Singing Competition
This month touches off a series of arts events that lead us into the holiday season.
Zhùhè (Congratulations) to Peggy Lovro’s Chinese I and II Honors students, who earned high honors at the Chinese Singing Competition at the Confucius Institute of Miami University on November 10. Chinese I students Elizabeth Young, Carly Harten, Sara Hodgkins, Allan Loeffler, Terrance Webb, and Lin Liu won the second place award at the competition. Peggy Lovro said,“Carly, Sara, Allan and Terrance surprised themselves with an outstanding performance. Elizabeth and Lin’s beautiful flute accompaniment definitely helped with scoring more points. Chinese II students Emily Bedell and Katie Cirulli also Chinese I students Terrance, Elizabeth, Carly, Allan, Sara, and Lin. did a great a cappella, winning fourth place in their group, with merely .04 points short of third place.”
Last Tuesday night, our brimming Middle School Choruses treated a very enthusiastic crowd to a terrific concert that showcased our students’ newfound confidence with three- and four-part harmony. We’ll be regaled, this coming weekend, with a lavish production of The Hobbit, also in Middle School, followed in quick succession by another choral concert at Upper, instrumental concerts at both Middle and Upper, a Feydeau farce performed by the Upper School drama students, and, of course, a host of musical and dramatic productions at both Doherty and Lotspeich. These events offer our students a chance to showcase their skills, but even more importantly, they give them a chance to collaborate, to work together in crafting a product whose success depends on their concerted effort and commitment. We recognize that effort and their joy in succeeding together, and that is one of the reasons these events bring us so much pride! See you there! Chris Garten Head of School
Annual Running of the Gravity Cars The students in Dr. Lenore Horner’s AP Physics B class built ramps and cars to run 7.60m down the hallway as quickly as possible and then stop as close to the mark as possible. Dr. Horner said, “All cars were entirely mechanical and were required to have masses under 1 kilogram. The ramps were not permitted to be more than 0.75m tall. Teams were also required to predict the time their car would take to run the distance. “The top three of seven teams, based on best-of-three runs were: Emily Bedell (pictured) and Katie Cirulli, who stopped 14.8cm from the mark and arrive in 3.85s (predicted 3.9s); Ian Grosghal and Betsy Johnson, 50.9cm, 3.8s, 3.6s; Thomas Carlino and Suhel Singh, 18.8cm, 4.96s, 4.682s.”
Inside this Buzz “Shantytown” at Upper
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Fifth grade scientists
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Upper School News
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Middle School News
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Lotspeich News
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Doherty News
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Shantytown at Seven Hills What: Seven Hills Shantytown Experience When: Took place Sun., Oct. 16, 3:00pm—Mon., Oct. 17, 3:30pm Where: Seven Hills Upper School Quad Details and Rules: The cost of Shantytown was $5, which covered the cost of t-shirts, food and guest speakers. Participants brought boxes to sleep in, tarps to cover the boxes in rain, coats, blankets, school work, etc. They did not bring food, money, drinks, or electronic devices of any kind. Students and teachers who participated in Shantytown agreed to sleep outdoors and eat only the food provided for dinner on Sunday and breakfast and lunch on Monday. Participants did not have access to showers or laundry facilities. (Indoor restrooms were accessible.) Students went to classes on Monday with the understanding that special accommodations would not be made for them. Why: To raise awareness about and give participants a glimpse of the issue of homelessness.
Quoting from senior Claire Duncan in the October, 2011, Canvass: “Seven Hills’ first Shantytown was both informative and impactful [for 15 Seven Hills students]. Shantytown was a city-wide effort led by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and the Mayerson Foundation, designed to educate students about the issues of homelessness. It was part of an early kickoff to National Homelessness Awareness Week November 12–20. ...”
Working for Prepare Affair
Claire continued, “The most moving part of the night came when speaker Tommy Thompson talked about his two-year experience with homelessness. His optimism and enduring spirit made everyone think twice about trivial complaints and more grateful for the things they had been given. ...” She concluded, “Shantytown was an amazing experience for all who participated and left everyone with a newfound determination to break down the stereotypes set on homeless people and to appreciate more than ever what they have.”
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Sign on an Upper School bulletin board.
On Saturday, November 12, a group of students and faculty volunteered as part of Prepare Affair, an annual event organized by People Working Cooperatively. Junior Andrew Berliant and sophomore Emily Addy joined Upper School faculty members Lenore Horner and Meredith Brown, Lotspeich kindergarten teacher Theresa Cohen, and Terry Fox, husband of Lotspeich Head Carolyn Fox. Meredith Brown said, “This team visited four houses in Kennedy Heights, raking leaves, cleaning gutters, and making other small repairs to help weatherize homes owned by elderly individuals who struggle to complete these tasks themselves. We enjoyed a beautiful fall morning outdoors, working together.”
Fifth grade science students collaborate on “Future Inquiries” A great deal of scientific thinking and inquiry is going on at Doherty and Lotspeich! One example is the collaboration of the Doherty and Lotspeich fifth grade science classes, who worked together on the unit, “Future Inquiries.” The unit was designed by Doherty Unit III teacher Regina Daily and Lotspeich science teacher Natalie Williams with a 2011 summer curriculum grant. Mrs. Williams said, “Students used their scientific thinking skills to solve problems about future inventions and comparative questions based on certain types of science.” Students Skyped with one another throughout the unit and came together to share their projects, creative hypotheses, and scientific findings at an impressive science exhibition in the Lotspeich science lab on November 1.
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A look at what’s happening at Upper School
See page 5 for Middle School, page 7 for Lotspeich, and page 9 for Doherty
Mary Beth Young
More honors in track from the fall sports season: Congratulations to Michael Bain (pictured), who made First Team All-City Div. II-III, and Alex Ferree, who made Second Team All-City Div. II-III! Their selections were based on their finishes at the district, regional and state meets. Math Department Head Anne Ramsay told us about one of the uses of the iPads in her classes: “I am using a ‘flexbook’ iPad textbook (www.ck12.org/ flexbook) for the current unit of study on parallel and perpendicular lines (our geometry hardback doesn’t have an iPad version). As one ‘warmup activity’ at the beginning of a class, we each examined the driving route from home to school, looking for roads on our path that were parallel or perpendicular. We did this on our iPads using Google Maps, Mapquest, or the map app.” Mrs. Ramsay continued, “Students recently completed a Geometry Up Close photography project. The photos were taken using the iPad camera feature, and the displays were made on the iPad using iMovie or Keynote. It’s great to be able to take the photos and then create the display on the same electronic device!
Photo by Aditi Varshneya. page 4
“In photography, zooming up close allows a certain feature of an item to be highlighted. The geometric properties
Challenge Sharing Day
From left, Upper Head Nick Francis and Sam McHugh; Monica Blanco; Katie Lewis.
Upper students shared their Personal Challenges with the school community on Personal Challenge Sharing Day November 8. Projects ranged from creating a cookbook of gluton-free recipes (Allie Scheiber), to learning the martial art skill Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (Jacob DelMauro), to drawing an original cartoon, then creating a movie in the software Flash and writing an orchestral score to serve as the cartoon’s narration in the software Finale (Broti Gupta).
Pictured are Sam McHugh, who constructed a specialized type of longboard and learned its riding techniques; Katie Lewis, who took photography classes and “tried to capture the essence of living in three different places around the world”; Monica Blanco, who constructed a personal computer from scratch, altering it to make it a “workstation” computer, which allows for easier production of projects like game development or for use in engineering.
of items in the world around us can be emphasized in this way.” Mrs. Ramsay shared the students’ assignment: “Using the camera feature of your iPad or some other digital photography device, photograph 30+ items, zooming up close to emphasize their geometry. You will then create a photo slideshow using iMovie, Powerpoint, Keynote, etc. Ultimately your classmates will view these on their iPads, so think about that as you create your slideshow.”
David Henry Hwang Tony Award winner for M. Butterfly
Lecture Luncheon Feb. 3 Dinner with the Author Feb. 2 Invitations will be mailed in December. For more information, go to http://www.7hills.org/booksforlunch or contact Committee Chairs Nancy Silverman at ngsilverman@cinci.rr.com or Kari Ellis at kaellis2@aol.com.
A look at what’s happening at Middle School Congratulations to two sixth graders who have roles in the Cincinnati Ballet production of Frisch’s Presents The New Nutcracker (World Lorelei Robinson Abby Smith Premiere) December 15–24 at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. Lorelei Robinson portrays “Clara,” and Abby Smith portrays a chicken. Members of the Environmental Science class at Upper and the Roots and Shoots Club at Middle went to the Civic Garden Center to participate in four activities focused on sustainable living in the urban setting. The activities included pervious surfaces and bioswalles, green roofs, composting, and gardening in small spaces. After this experience, each group will examine the school campus and, using their new knowledge, implement a project based on the campus needs.
(Pictured at right) Students in theatre classes made masks out of gauze plaster strips for their fall acting workshop production of The Hobbit.
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It was great having Drs. Jill and Dave Russell back at Seven Hills on November 10! Drs. Jill and Dave are the professors and bird banders who work with the sixth grade bird studies program. They banded birds from the Middle School Bird Garden. An added dimension to this visit: students used their iPads as cameras. Teacher Jennifer Licata said, “The students were SO excited to take images and videos of the presentation to show their families.”
Students in art classes created intricate silhouette figures for tableaux they designed in black boxes—all of which made an incredible art installation atop the lockers when backlit in the Middle School Commons. The boxes, only some of which are pictured here, should be seen in person to be fully appreciated!
Congratulations to Middle’s Roots & Shoots Club, which was selected by Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots to receive the Project of the Week Award for its Support the Court bakesale, which raised $258. The money will be used by teacher Karen Glum’s nephew, Sam Kirschner—a Peace Corps volunteer in Moldova—to create an outdoor basketball and volleyball court for children in the town of Sodova. The bake sale was combined with learning about Moldova. The recognition from the Roots & Shoots team at Western Connecticut State University stated, in part, “Thank you so much for your dedication to fostering compassion while tackling pertinent issues in your community and throughout the world. Thank you for your commitment to Roots & Shoots!”
Collecting cell phones to save gorillas.
Roots & Shoots at Seven Hills now oversees all of Middle’s many community service projects, and every student is an R & S member.
The Middle School is participating in the “Recycle a Cell Phone—Save a Gorilla” campaign of the Cincinnati Zoo and other zoos around the country. From the National Geographic website: “Conservationists point out that recycling cell phones protects landfills from the many potentially hazardous chemicals found in the phones, including antimony, arsenic, copper, cadmium, lead, and zinc. But cell phones also include coltan, a mineral extracted in the deep forests of Congo in central Africa, home to the world’s endangered lowland gorillas. Fueled by the worldwide cell phone boom, Congo’s out-of-control coltan mining business has in recent years led to a dramatic reduction of animal habitat and the rampant slaughter of great apes for the illegal bush-meat trade.”
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Middle Schoolers had the opportunity to learn fly fishing casting techniques during their PE classes on October 10. Instructors were Northern Kentucky Fly Fishing Organization Director Mike Arnold, fellow casting instructor Jerry Benson, and teacher Beth Leonard.
A look at what’s happening at Lotspeich
Karla Balskus said, “During their study of D’Aulaire’s Greek Gods and Goddesses, fifth graders (pictured above and below) enjoyed working in small groups to present Greek skits to their classmates. Their presentations of The Trojan War, Theseus and the Minotaur, Jason and the Golden Fleece, and Heracles encouraged student collaboration and creativity.”
An intriguing mystery solved in the second grade! See the next page. page 7
Marilyn Braun told us, “The first graders are doing a yearlong study of nutrition focusing on the Five Food Groups. Each month we will explore a different food group. October was ‘Fruit Month’ and ended with a delicious Fruit Tasting Day. Our tasting table was filled with many familiar fruits along with some wonderful new fruits to try. We tried pineapple, watermelon, grapefruit, plums, blueberries, raspberries, pears, blackberries, cantaloupe, mango, grapes, kiwi, dragon fruit, horned melon, guava and dried apples, just to name a few. Everyone tried something new and enjoyed all the tasty treats.” Pictured below, the Schoolhouse Symphony visited the pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade music classes on October 17. They learned about the instruments, their families, loud and soft, fast and slow, and high and low terms in music.
First graders made mandalas in art class to coincide with their classroom study of India.
Second grade mystery!
From left, the crime scene; teacher Danielle Necessary and a detective with a piece of evidence.
We were intrigued by this shades-of-Law-and-Order report from second grade teacher Kristen Feeney: “Recently the Lotspeich second graders investigated a peculiar case. A crime was committed sometime over the weekend. Among the clues students discovered were these: wadded-up balls of words were scattered across the floor, the trash can was tipped over, and several thesauruses were askew in Mrs. Necessary’s classroom. “After sharing multiple theories and suspicions, the second graders discovered that a thesaurus was responsible for these ‘dead words.’ “To honor such words accordingly, students worked in small groups to create a tombstone for each ‘dead word,’ identifying its synonym survivor words. The tombstones were then placed outside of the second grade classrooms to create a Fallen Words Cemetery.” Culprit identified, case solved!
As part of the fifth graders’ study of scale in math, they measured themselves and their first grade buddies.
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Above, the investigators. At right, a fitting ending.
Lotspeich students added drama to the important lessons they learned in the Cincinnati Fire Department’s Safety House (or “smoke house”). The Safety House was one part of Safety Week at Lotspeich and Doherty.
A look at what’s happening at Doherty
In Unit II, Sarah Roberts’ students (three of whom are pictured) wrote letters to their state legislators asking that they change the law pertaining to individuals being allowed to keep wild animals on their property. These letters were in response to the killing of 56 wild animals that had been released from an animal farm in central Ohio.
In Anne Vanoy’s class, Unit I science students discovered how prism glasses affect light. They found the properties of opaque, transparent, and translucent objects as well as mirrors. page 9
Second and third grade students and their parents explored Christianity and Judaism after school in the Doherty library, thanks to the Bridges program designed and implemented by Patti Guethlein and Linda Wolfe. After reading several books on the topic, the
group was spellbound by parent Tessa Maislin, who was raised as a Christian and later converted to Judaism. Afterwards, the students created giving jars to fill and donate to the charity of their choice.
Unit I is studying Scientific Inquiry and, in Amy Kulhavik’s class, some of the students completed an experiment in the science lab to see what happens when a corn kernel is heated. The students created an hypothesis and recorded the results. The experiment helped the students determine why things occur when an element is added.
Inside the Earth Dome
Unit III Coordinater Vaishali Sarbhoy told us, “Unit III embarked on a wonderful adventure around the earth, learning about continents, habitats, oceans, latitudes, and longitudes, with a 19-feet high earth dome that had satellite images superimposed on it. Then we got to enter the Earth Dome through the international date line and learned more about what it is made of and how it was formed.” Units I–II Coordinator Elisa MacKenzie added, “Unit I students, their teacher Mrs. Kulhavik, and even Doherty Head Mrs. Guethlein were taken back by the Earth Dome’s size—19-feet high and
22-feet in diameter. It is made of 24 panels silk-screened with photographs shot from satellites of the surface of the world on
cloud-free days. It is quite an eye opener to see the earth as it appears from space as opposed to painted globes or flat maps!”
Librarian Linda Wolfe (at left) told us, “Eric Grohsgal, TSHS parent and woodworker extraordinaire, designed and built this unique table created both for storage of and a student work area with the iPads 2’s that are now a part of the Doherty curriculum. This beautiful work of art stores and charges the iPads securely inside the work table. The table also features wolves that are howling with joy over the new iPad program. Mrs. Wolfe felt almost like howling with the wolves in her delight.”
Mrs. MacKenzie said, ”Unit II second graders enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Fuji House in Hyde Park. The luncheon was the finale to Mrs. Roberts’ unit of study on Japan, past and present. Arigato (thank you) to special guests, Schillinger-san and Garten-san, who also attended.” page 10
Linda Wolfe and Eric Grohsgal.
Unit II students participated in an important safety exercise in the Cincinnati Fire Department’s Safety House (or “smoke house”), as they learned basic fire safety skills during Safety Week at Doherty and Lotspeich.