THE TOWN CRIER, Vol. 30, Num. 36, Sept. 4 - 10, 2009
Seminole Ridge SECME Awarded Grant For Model Solar System
The Education Foundation of Palm Beach County has awarded a $1,000 grant to the Seminole Ridge High School SECME Club for “Planets, Proportions and Pottery,” an interdisciplinary exploration of art, science and math. Their scale model of the solar system will encompass public school campuses and community supporters across the county, starting with the “sun” at Seminole Ridge and expanding to sites at other schools and businesses to give students, parents and the community a visual understanding of the vast distances involved in space exploration.
For this project, students will use proportional mathematics and ceramics construction, working with NASA images to create in clay textures and patterns of continents and craters, then glazing their globes. The finished products, with captions and location graphics, will be viewable at the appropriate “scale” distance in display boxes at feeder schools and SRHS business supporters: “Earth” at Lion Country Safari; “Mars” at Loxahatchee Groves and Golden Groves elementary schools and Western Pines Middle School; and “Asteroids” at Pierce Hammock, Acreage Pines, Royal Palm Beach and H.L. Johnson elementary schools. To model the sun, SECME proposes planting an 86-foot circle of sunflowers in the center of the courtyard.
