Week 34 marks the start of our final three weeks in the 2015-2016 school year. In this final stretch, students and teachers continue to push the envelope by learning and applying content in innovative and engaging ways.
Monday evening, seniors in Mr. Ray’s Senior Scientific Investigations class presented their scientific research posters to the community. They conducted research on a variety of questions including:
- Can students that participate in sports still perform academically as well as those who don’t?
- How does gravity affect spacetime?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of PBL compared to more traditional learning styles?
- How does the height of a volcano change its eruptive potential?
- How does the height and diameter of silicon nano pillars effect the color and intensity off of a patterned Si substrate?
- What are the effects of gatorade versus water on the body during physical activities?
- How do diet and exercise compare in terms of their health effects?
- How do pheromones affect human mood?
- Doe the level of training affect how much muscle you gain?
- What are the correlations and difference between inherited traits among different races?
- How does certain amounts of mosquitoes affect the percentages of pregnant women with newborn babies that have microcephaly?
Several of the students told Mr. Ray that this project produced the results they were most proud of in their high school careers.
On Tuesday, students and teachers in the Operation MNTHS Committee held their first meeting. They brainstormed activities and topics that could be taught to incoming freshman that could help them develop 4 academic mindsets of successful students:
- I belong in this academic community
- I can use effort and practice to grow my knowledge and skills.
- I can succeed at this.
- My learning has personal relevance to me.
On Wednesday, seniors attended a district-wide academic awards ceremony that celebrated the college scholarships they have won this year.
On Thursday, juniors in Ms. Tillson’s and Ms. Thompson’s Integrated ELA / US History class started preparing their StoryCorps interviews. They practiced using the StoryCorps app to record a mock interview. They reflected on their recording and generated new Knows and Need-to-Knows to prepare for their final interviews.
On Thursday, students in Mrs. Garner’s Art class worked on creating sets for parodies of famous movie scenes. Mrs. Garner met with all the teams to review their proposals and provide them with early feedback related to the project rubric on their planning and build steps.
On Thursday, students in Mr. Adeboyejo’s Biology class performed virtual labs on Labster that related to topics of their choice. They will develop projects on their topics and write rubrics that relate to their projects.
On Friday, seniors in Mr. Ray’s Senior Scientific Investigations class started designing and testing labs and demos for lesson plans they are creating for their final project of the year. We got to observe some early tests of lab demos that need to be tweaked to improve their explosiveness, i.e. appeal to other students.
Throughout the day on Friday, the seniors in the Mr. Santos’ and Ms. Young’s Senior Humanities class met in the Media Center to discuss whether the story they are reading is a tragedy or a comedy.
Juniors in Ms. Davis’ and Ms. Schimel’s Integrated Engineering and Physics class practiced performing orbital motion calculations. These calculations will help students determine orbital motion quantities for solar systems of their own design.
Students in Mr. Fishman’s Electronics class used virtual labs to investigate electromagnetic induction. They started off the class discussing their results of a warmup – find 3 applications of electromagnetic induction. One interesting thing discussed was the properties of an induction cooktop; it will not burn hands on contact as long as you are not wearing any metal rings. This is because they generate heat by inducing currents in conductive materials.
In Mr. Beckett’s and Mr. Foster’s Integrated Physics and Engineering class, freshman investigated sources about the moon landing and used a series of question prompts to investigate the validity of these sources. The students got individual feedback on their findings from Mr. Foster and Mr. Beckett throughout this research activity.
In Mrs. Fain-Jackson’s and Mr. Chamber’s Integrated World History / ELA class, students are reading Night by Ellie Wiesel to learn about events in World War II. They are also working on a large research paper. For this paper, students will formulate thesis statements that they will support with evidence gathered from all the units they studied this school year.
Students in Mr. Rodriguez’s Art class are using Adobe Photoshop to create images that describe students’ origins and futures. Their bisected images are unfinished but already very expressive and fun to examine.
Friday evening, the Robotics team, FRC 2789 TEXplosion, met for our annual end-of-season team dinner. We had a lovely dinner at Texas Land and Cattle thanks to our generous principal and mentor, Mr. Garcia. Following dinner, the seniors gave their traditional, very moving, end-of-high-school-Robotics speeches. Their speeches spoke to the depth of the relationships and knowledge they have gained over all their Robotics experiences.
Saturday evening, Manor New Tech HS held its annual Junior Senior Prom at the Doubletree Hotel in Austin. The prom had an glamorous Old Hollywood theme that was carried through on the decorations, awards, party favors, and snacks ….
… and in the students’ elegant attire.
Many students came out (record prom attendance!). Our students really know how to dance and have a great elegant time.
