Rest, Relax and Recharge

Happy New Year of the Dragon 2012!


Captains Cindy Dosch (2010-2011), Caitlin Miller (2011-2012), and Brian Bartels (2010-2011)

Adopt-A-Classroom and Wells Fargo Get Into The Holiday Spirit Helping Classrooms

At this Holiday Season, a generous partnership is putting much needed dollars into the classroom. The School District has partnered with Adopt-A-Classroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, in efforts to increase community support and donations for local classrooms. Wells Fargo is sponsoring the campaign in challenge and matching grant dollars. Thanks to the generous donation, Wells Fargo has helped raise over $125,000 for Palm Beach County schools, providing for much needed materials and supplies in the classroom.

Adopt-A-Classroom is the nation’s only nonprofit organization that enables donors to identify and make a donation to a specific classroom. Donations are tax deductible and teachers receive 100% of funds donated. Teachers have full discretion to budget the expenditure and purchase classroom materials that meet their students’ specific needs. The best part is that donors get to see exactly what the teacher purchased.

Grassy Waters Elementary School in West Palm Beach was recently awarded one of the Wells Fargo $5,000 Challenge grants. According to Grassy Waters Principal Amy Wilkinson, “Adopt-A-Classroom and Wells Fargo have been extremely beneficial to all our teachers and students. It’s enabled the teachers to get many of the materials and supplies that they need to become better teachers and our students love the new supplies.” Lisa Park, Senior Relationship Manager, Wells Fargo At Work believes, “The Adopt-A-Classroom program has been tremendous. What a gift to see how we have been able to help the classrooms, and most importantly get the extra school supplies and all the things students need to be more successful in their day-to-day endeavors in school.”

Since 1998, Adopt-A-Classroom has raised more than $16 million on behalf of classrooms, impacting more than one million students in the United States. “Anyone can easily make a difference for a teacher and a classroom of children by using our program to make a donation,” said James Rosenberg, Founder and Executive Director of Adopt-A-Classroom. “There is no easier way to donate to a classroom in such a transparent and accountable way. We are thrilled to partner with the School District of Palm Beach County in order to bring much-needed funds into classrooms.”

“Wells Fargo invests in building strong communities, and our matching grant to Adopt-A-Classroom goes right to the source: the classrooms where our teachers teach and where our children learn,” said Frank Newman, Wells Fargo’s regional president for South Florida. “At a time when county funds are being scaled back, we need to contribute to public education and inspire others to do the same.”

To make a donation to Seminole Ridge SECME, go to http://www.tinyurl.com/AdoptSeminoleSECME and click on Donate $ button to give $2, $20, or $200. Donations can be made by credit card or check.

About The School District of Palm Beach County
The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida, is the eleventh largest in the nation and the fifth largest in the state of Florida with 187 schools, serving 174,000 students who speak 141 languages/dialects. The School District has 21,361 employees including 12,480 teachers. Over 37,000 community volunteers provide academic assistance to students through the Volunteers in Public Schools (VIPS) Program. Additionally, approximately 1,000 business partners offer resources to support increased student achievement. For more information please visit www.palmbeachschools.org .

About Adopt-A-Classroom
Adopt-A-Classroom is a national, award-winning 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting classroom teachers and ensuring all children have equal access to a quality education. Since 1998, the organization has raised over $16 million on behalf of classrooms across America. Donations are tax-deductible and 100% is passed through to the teacher. Teachers have the ability to purchase resources that create a more engaging learning environment and also provide valuable new ways to inspire children about the wonders of learning. To support a classroom, visit www.adoptaclassroom.org .
About Wells Fargo Foundation
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com and wachovia.com), and other distribution channels across North America and internationally. We want to help all of our customers succeed financially and create long-term economic growth and quality of life for everyone in our communities. In 2010, the Company invested a record $219 million in grants in 19,000 nonprofits, and team members contributed more than 1.3 million volunteer hours around the country. For more information, please visit: www.wellsfargo.com/about/csr.

Never met a scientific illustrator? Meet Carol.

Image of the Week #20, December 5th, 2011:


Original source: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 1992 cover illustration of the reconstruction of the skull of Stegosaurus stenops in left lateral view. Ink on paper, by Carol Abraczinskas.

Never met a scientific illustrator? Meet Carol.
by Kalliopi Monoyios at Symbiartic.

Stipple is a pen and ink technique used in scientific illustration that utilizes millions of tiny dots to create areas of shadow and light. This stipple drawing of the skull of Stegosaurus stenops by Carol Abraczinskas appeared on the cover of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology in 1992. It’s a favorite teaching tool of Abraczinskas’s because it tests students’ observational skills. One missing dot prevents this illustration from being complete. Can you find it? To check if you got it right, see the original post for an enlarged view of that detail.

Hawks Compete in Gulliver Gateway VEX South Florida Championship

(Click on the first picture to flip through the Gulliver VRC Gateway photostream)

20111204 VRC Gulliver Gateway

Seminole Ridge SECME students competed in the South Florida Championship of the VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) at Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami on Sunday. VRC Team 1614 consisted of robot drivers sophomore Connor Piegaro and freshman Bert Sivongsay, field scouts junior Kadeem Spencer and sophomore Jesse Mendheim, and programmer Brandon Gearty. To prepare for the competition, the group worked together to design and build a robot (affectionately nicknamed “Iron Dragon”) that could quickly and efficiently solve the specific obstacles and challenges that come with playing the game VEX Gateway.

The goal of Gateway is to attain a higher score than your opponent alliance by scoring barrels and balls in goals, earning bonus points and doubling or negating goals. Two alliances—‘red’ and ‘blue’— are composed of randomly paired teams to partner that compete during a twenty-second autonomous period followed by two minutes of driver-controlled play. The allies work both independently in the isolation zones behind the Gateway, and together in the interaction zone.

The students competed with and against 47 teams from across the state, Melbourne to Miami, from Bradenton to Boca, at the tournament. The Hawks qualified for the quarterfinal’s but were one-and-done during the playoffs. (Their record in the qualifying rounds was 2-4, and just made the playoffs cutoff as team 32). Still, the team’s coach, physics teacher Erich Landstrom, is impressed with the team: “We are building more than robots here - we are shaping our future innovators to positively impact the world around them.”

Each week, Seminole SECME students apply what they’ve learned about science, technology, engineering, and math in order to build these semiautonomous VEX machines. And through the competition students learn an equally important skill set: communication, project management, site management, and composure, because students have to learn to ‘fail faster’: not just how to win. but how to recover from losing. They work together on a variety of challenges and obstacles requiring new problem-solving skills.

Seminole SECME VRC team #1614 raises funds to cover the cost of the robot parts, competition entry fees and transportation expenses by asking the local community for support. Please support Seminole SECME this holiday season and make a matching gift at http://tinyurl.com/AdoptSeminoleSECME . Give $3, $30, or $300 -- all gifts are welcome.