National History Day Competition

The following are results of this year's National History Day competition:

On Saturday, April 26, thirteen Birchwood students traveled to Columbus, Ohio for the state level of the National History Day (NHD) competition. NHD is an educational program devoted to improving the teaching and learning of history in schools. Beginning in the fall, students choose a topic related to an annual theme, which this year was Conflict and Compromise, and then conduct extensive primary and secondary research. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics' significance in history, students present their work in original papers, exhibits, performances, web sites and documentaries. In March, all the 7th and 8th graders, along with one 6th grader, participated in the district level of the competition. Based on the outcome of that competition, thirteen students advanced to the next level held in Columbus.

In the individual documentary category, Ani D was a national finalist for his documentary on Japanese internment in WWII. For the third year in a row, Ani also received an award from the Society of Ohio Archivists for his excellent research and use of archival material. Oliver D was also a national finalist for his paper on the Berlin Airlift. Both of these students will travel to the University of Maryland in June to compete at the national level against qualifiers from across the country. Receiving an honorable mention award were Sahar A and Shulamite C for their group performance on the Red Scares of the 20th century, and Caitlin S and Lina W for their performance on the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. Also receiving an honorable mention were Serena C and Jocelyn L for their group documentary on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. In the individual exhibit category, Sarah L received an honorable mention for her board on the bombing of Coventry, England in WWII. Also competing at the state level were Jacques D with a web site on George Crile, Lulu S with an exhibit on the Boston Tea Party, and Riza M and Ilona K with a group performance on the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Congratulations to all these students and good luck to Ani and Oliver at the National competition in June!

* As an interesting note, two Birchwood alumni, Hannah Miller and Timothy Miller, competed in the senior level in the group performance category. They also were national finalists and will compete at the University of Maryland in June. Their topic focused on the US response to the Armenian massacres in Turkey during WWI.

Earth Day Contest Winner

Earth Day Contest results

Hajira A in the fourth grade, was chosen as a winner of the Earth Day Coalition 2008 Art, Poetry and Essay Contest. Students were asked to share their thoughts and feelings on “Climate Change Solutions” through drawings, paintings, photography, essays, or poetry. Hajira chose to write a poem, and thought of a unique title, Recyclution. The contest was open to all students grades K-12 in Cuyahoga, Ashtabula , Lake, Geauga, Lorain , Medina , Summit , and Portage counties. This year there were 35 winners, and they were recognized and awarded at Earthfest 2008 at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Each winner was awarded a $50 cash prize and also the Hope and Stanley Adelstein Award for Excellence, presented by Mayor Frank Jackson. Hajira was the only winner from Birchwood School . Winning entries were displayed at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Education Auditorium for thousands of visitors to see. Hajira’s poem will also be displayed across Cuyahoga Libraries for community viewing later this year.

25th Anniversary Committee

The April meeting for the 25th Anniversary Committee is Tuesday, May 6th,at 7:00pm at the school. Please feel free to come and join in to various efforts that are being planned.

Science Awards 2007-2008

The following are 2007-2008 science awards:

Chemistry Week

The Cleveland Section of the American Chemical Society and NASA Glenn Research Center sponsor chemistry contests for grade-school students in grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12, as a part of their National Chemistry Week (NCW) celebration. The contests are designed to provide students with a real world examples of chemistry. All of the contests require that students perform a task, record observations, and organize his or her thoughts to answer age-appropriate questions.

Students in grades K through 4^th made a Red Cabbage Indicator and used it to test whether various solutions (substances dissolved in water) are acidic, basic, or neutral.

Students in grades 5 through 8 made a Red Cabbage Indicator and used it to create a pH scale with various solutions and used their pH scale to determine the pH of other solutions, as well as how to make different pH solutions from their test solutions.

There were more than 952 entries from numerous schools. Birchwood School student William L, won the K – 4 level of the competition; Trevor L won the 5^th – 8^th grade level of the competition.

Young Astronaut Day

NASA Glenn held its 15th Annual Young Astronaut Day on November 3rd. The all-day program provides opportunities for teams of grades 3-12 students to focus their energies on many different tasks related to engineering problem solving. More than 325 students from 24 different schools participated.

The 7^th –12^th grade students (Commander Teams) competed in Space Spud or Spudnaut, where competing student teams use the same materials to design different protective suits for the Space Spud from an onslaught of small meteorites from an impactor Lego Microgravity Challenge THEY WON 3^rd PLACE, Space Shuttle Tile Design, where each team experiences how difficult it is to perform simple tasks when working in space and Planetary Rover Competition, in which students build a robot that can travel across a simulated planetary surface. Birchwood School’s Commander Team: Jacob B, Serena C, Oliver D, Thomas W, Sahar A, Ani D, Jacques D, Stuart F, Sarah L, and Lina W.

The 5^th and 6^th grade students (Pilot team): Nicholas J, Trevor L, Sanjana R, Susmita R, Bradley S, Hannah Y, Shawki A, Nathan C, Grant F, Jocelyn L, LuLu S, and Ben WConnect the Dots, in which the tallest tower able to hold the most weight was made of “Dots” (candy) and toothpicks, (they won an “Honorable Mention”), Egg-cellent Landing, which is the safest egg-drop made within a budget competed in (they won a first place), In-Space Repair Challenge, in which teams of students performed tasks with workman’s gloves and tongs, and Space Spud or Spudnaut (they won a first place).

Earth Day poster Contest

The annual poster contest is sponsored by the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District to honor Earth Day through artwork. It is opened to first through eighth grade student and grade level winners are featured on an Earth Day Calendar. This year's theme related to climate change/global warming and recycling.

There were over 1,000 students from almost 40 classrooms entered this year. The following Birchwood School students were winners:

First Place –3^rd Grade, Pheby L

First Place – 5^th Grade, Alexander I

Runner-Up – 7^th Grade, Serena C

Birchwood School also had some finalists, those in the top ten:

3^rd Grade: Prathna K

4^th Grade: Katelyn V

6^th Grade: Jocelyn L, Clare P, Nina R

7^th Grade: Jacob D

8^th Grade: Shulamite C, Cait S, and Forde R

Zero Waste

A “Zero Waste” School contender will attempts to make the least amount of waste during lunch on their challenge day. This contest is sponsored by Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District. The winning school the “Zero Waste” title holder for the year and is awarded a recycled milk jug bench. There are anywhere from 6 – 15 schools that compete. Students submitted their results and will know very soon if they are winners three years in a row.

Earth Day Coalition

Earth Day Coalition is Cleveland ’s own nonprofit environmental education organization serving Ohio and the nation. They provide a broad range of community-based environmental education and leadership initiatives through our four award-winning and nationally recognized programs.

One of the contests that the Earth Day Coalition sponsors is a “Poster Contest.” Clare P’s poster was chosen from thousands of entries in 2006. During the 2007-08 school year her winning poster was, not only featured on the web page, but was on display at various libraries and city buildings. Her poster is shown.

The Northeast Ohio Science and Engineering Fair (NEOSEF) is open to grades 7 – 12 from Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, and Summit Counties. The Fair has been held every year since 1954 and is affiliated with the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

During the four day event, approximately 500 students from over 80 schools in the area set up their science fair displays, discuss their projects with judges and compete for more than $20,000 in prizes.

At the fair students compete in nine categories which are subdivided by grade levels. NEOSEF awards one 1st place, and multiple 2nd place, 3rd place and honorable mentions per subdivision. Students also compete for over 300 Special Awards totaling more than $15,000.

NEOSEF selects students in grades 9 – 12 to move on to the next levels of competition, ISEF where they compete with almost 1,500 students from all over the world for over $4,000,000 in scholarships and prizes.

Anirudh D won a third place for his project titled: Is Skeletal Muscle Mass Depletion Related to the Worsening Severity of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)? Anirudh was also accepted as a Discovery Young Scientist Applicant.

Science Fair

The 5^th and 6^th Grade Students are not “old enough” to compete in the NEOSEF science fair, but have an “in-house” science fair.

This year the 6^th Science Fair Projects were:

Energy

Brian O: Cool Coal - 1^st Place

Carlf C: Electrical Generators - 2^nd Place

Nabil J: Wind Turbine - Governor’s Energy Award

Trajectory

Zaeem M and Miguel P: Thrown for a Curve - 1^st Place (tie)

Hannah K: Egg-A-Pult - 1^st Place (tie)

Zach I: 3-2-1 Blastoff

Health

Tia L: Calorimeter - Special Award for Complexity of problem,

Mohammad M: A Peek into the Circulatory System - 1^st Place ,

Clare P and Nina R: Zoom to the Tune - 2^nd Place

Chemistry

Miranda M: Salt Crystals - Superior Award in Chemistry

Nardine T: Disappearing Liquid - 1^st Place

Deepak K: Egg Power - 2^nd Place

The 5^th Grade Science projects were:

Aeronautics

Nikola D: Paper Airplanes - 1^st place

Alexander I: Paper Airplanes - Special Award

Health

Hassan S: Heavy Heart Rates - 1^st place

Marla and Hannah Y: What is the effect on your pulse when you listen to music?

Susmita R: How does running affect Heart Rate? - 2^nd place (tie)

Brad S: Exercising hearts - 2^nd place (tie)

Life Science

Sanjana R and Sarah D: How plants are affected by different colored light? - 1^st place

Vikas N: Dominant Handedness Affects Motor Speed.

Chemistry

Alex P: Battery Battle - 1^st place

Max L and Amir F: What is the most efficient substance for melting ice? - 2^nd place

Sean F: Rust and What Removes It

Physical Science

Trevor L: Surface Tension

Nicholas J: Which bridge is Stronger?

Clean Up Big Creek on WVIZ

Several years ago Birchwood School students helped clean up Big Creek, part of the Cuyahoga Watershed. They appeared for a few minutes on Return of the Cuyahoga River , which premiered on WVIZ/PBS Tuesday, April 22 at 9:00 PM (Earth Day). Repeat broadcasts: Thursday, April 24 at 8:00 PM; Saturday, April 26 at 9:00 PM; Sunday, April 27 at 7:00 PM.

~ Linda Brown

Lecture at Westlake Rec Center

I wanted you to know that as a part of our community service and efforts to market our educational program, I will present the lecture on Identifying and Developing Talent in Gifted Students at the Westlake Recreation Center on Thursday, May 8 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. If you have friends who are interested in this topic it might be a good time to invite them.

Sincerely,
Mr. Debelak

SCHOLASTIC AWARD WINNERS

The following are 7-8 grade language arts Scholastic Awards:



SCHOLASTIC AWARD WINNERS



Birchwood students grab national limelight. Four middle grade students were recognized on the national level for the Scholastic Writing Awards of 2008! Sahar A (8) received the coveted national gold award. Receiving the national silver awards were George B (8), Thomas W (7), Isaac Y (7). This distinction placed these four students at the top one percent of all submissions across the country in this prestigious competition.



Seventh and eighth grade students each submitted longer narratives in their category of choice after many revisions. Sahar’s short short story entitled “Bird” was an allegory of how a young person struggled to overcome destitution and fly free of his bounds. George wrote a humorous piece called “Hang On, Sloopy” to portray the perspective of a teen as he coped with football-fanatic of a dad, obsessing over his favorite team during the National Championships. In “Wings”, a fantasy by Thomas, a boy discovered his roots even as he is faced with tough decisions when his long lost father reclaimed him. Finally, Isaac’s “Ninth Section” centered around two special agents in a secret organization who ventured into space to save Earth from a dying sun.



The national winners together with six other Birchwood students have been recognized with Gold Key Awards at the regional level. As the Senior Manager of this national program noted: Only the most accomplished works submitted to the regional programs of The Awards earn Gold Keys; out of 5000 submissions in the writing category of the Region-at-Large this year, 1000 works were given this distinction, which were then submitted for consideration at the national level.



Recognized for their creative achievement at the Regional:

Sahar A - “Bird”, Short Short Story Category

George B – “Hang On, Sloopy”, Humor Category

Nathan C – “The Easy Way Out of It”, Short Story Category

Jacques D – “Beyond Haven”, Science Fiction Category

Oliver D – “The Evil of Greed”, Short Story Category

Sam J – “They Called Them Thieves”, Science Fiction Category

Jocelyn L – “Dragons, Hawks, and Moonstones”, Science Fiction Category

Sarah L – “Shot to the Heart”, Short Story

Thomas W – “Wings”, Science Fiction Category

Isaac Y – The Ninth Section, Science Fiction Category



The national award winners were also invited to join the celebration in New York at Carnegie Hall from June 4 – 6 which includes creative industry workshops. View their names on the recipient list and find out more about the competition at http://www.artandwriting.org/assets/pressreleases/2008/National_Recip.pdf.