Good NewsGood News

February-March 2010

The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC)team at Mount Ayr Community highschool may have a great robot and mayhave gained some great learning in thescience, technology, engineering andmath areas. Yet, the team will neverknow how their robot might have com-peted at the 2010 Rockwell Collinscompetition in Iowa City.The snowstorm on the western sideof the state was too much for the MountAyr Commuinty team to overcome onFriday, January 8.The students spent a great deal of time working and networking. Manyphone conversations were used to con-sult various engineers and program-mers at Rockwell Collins and IowaUniversity.The Mount Ayr Community teamhas a better feel for the challenge of building and programming a robot soit will respond to other robots duringa competition. The team learned to usea software program called Labview.This program is one of many programsused in industry.

This team had condence in build

-ing the robot, yet programming is an-other area with its own uniqueness.

With Project Lead the Way in its rst

year at Mount Ayr, many skills gainedStudents in Mount Ayr Communitymiddle school science classes are striv-ing to replicate experiments that aredone in the science world to strive toachieve similar results.After a series of lessons on den-sity, buoyancy, surface tension, use of formulas and calculating densities of known and unknown substances, thesixth period science class thought itwould be a great idea to calculate Con-nor Giles’ body density through waterdisplacement.Mr. Scott Giles, Connor Giles, CodyStackhouse and the shop class set upa water displacement tub. The scienceclass’s goal was to have similar data as‘real-world scientists.”The students knew that water’sdensity is one gram/cubic centimeter.Many students felt that they were less

dense than water because they oat so

easily, yet they also knew that somestudents sink when they are in a pool.Therefore they hypothesized that Con-nor Giles had to be close to the densityof one.After the submersion, the studentscollected the water that was displacedby him. They had to bail several litersof water out of the baby pool that wastheir collecting device for water dis-

Connor Giles is surrounded by Cody Stackhouse, Paige Daughton, Brook Rych-novsky, Jaylee Bogan, Quency Voss, Hannah Huntstman and Abbey Adams asthey do an experiment on water displacement.

in this program have been shared withthe First Tech Challenge team.Many people work behind the scenesin this unique program. Mr. Scott Gileshas offered his expertise in the designprocess and the engineering notebook;and Mr. Kurt Wallace has stopped into help the group in the building pro-cess. Software engineers and computerprogrammers have been available fromIowa University and Rockwell Col-lins.Hunter Brown, Christian Over-holtzer, Sheldon Triggs, Trevor Richieand Taylor Richie have had great teamcamaraderie with the Corning team.The teams and instructors, Miss Lum-bard and Mrs. Mary K. Overholtzer,were able to network with Lalinda Fer-nando, software engineer, over Christ-mas break.There have been various opportuni-ties and real-world application involvedin the First Tech Challenge program.The team had the opportunity to seeand participate in a practice competi-tion in Des Moines in late November.They have also learned the impor-tance of an engineering notebook. It

has been difcult for team members

because they have problem solving intheir heads, yet it is hard to convey iton paper. It’s not always easy to troubleshoot, share ideas and design on paper.Yet, this is what First Tech Challenge,Project Lead the Way and the realworld entail.Even though this team missed theFirst Tech Challenge competition, theywere the recipient of the First TechChallenge grant that supported theteam with consultation, equipment,and expertise.The team will be busy for IT-Adven-tures competition at Iowa State Univer-sity, which will be held in April. Thisis a robotics and programming compe-tition with a different focus.placement.They had Connor mass himself in ki-lograms. Using metric conversion andthe density formula (Density = Mass/

Volume), they gured that Connor had

a density of 1.8 grams per cubic cen-timeters. Imagine the disappointment

of the class when we gured our error

measure to be around 43 percent.When the class started analyzingthe video, they noticed the collectingpool was leaking water due to a hole.The students also talked about the im-portance of having more than one trialwhen collecting data, which is all theyhad.When all was said and done, it wasobvious the students knew how easy it

is to nd out unknown variables when

given a mathematical formula. Theyalso knew that collecting data is a te-dious process even when teamwork isused.Collecting data can be done withsimple equipment, yet overall, errortested procedures are needed in orderto have good data. The students arepresently working on research skills totackle a community challenge that theschool has.

It takes teamwork for real world application

Taylor Richie, Sheldon Triggs, and LaLinda Fernando work together on the pro-gramming of the robot.

First Tech Challenge competition snowed out

Mount Ayr Community schools willhave their spring break cut short bytwo days in an effort to make up someof the snow days the district has had sofar this winter.Thursday and Friday, March 18-19,will now be school days instead of partof the spring break.The spring break will be only threedays because of the change -- Mondaythrough Wednesday, March 15-17.

Spring break willbe shortenedby two days

BY JOAN MOOREMount Ayr Community ElementarySchool CounselorAlthough our school days have beenon again, off again due to our wonder-ful Iowa weather, the second semester

Student Council had their rst meeting

and are going full speed ahead.The Student Council meets once aweek to plan and help with events that

benet our school. One of their rst

projects will be to help with the BookFair that will be held during parent-teacher conferences from March 1-4.We are all looking forward to Febru-ary 16 in the afternoon when the BlankPark Zoo will be here to present a char-acter program about animals called“Alligators, Snakes, Good Characterand You!”

Sixth graders in DARE program

The sixth grade students are currently participating in the Drug Abuse Re-

sistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program. Ofcer Jeremy Newton is teach

-ing the D.A.R.E. program to the students. The program is designed to help

students resist pressures that may inuence them to experiment with drugs.

The program also provides a decision making model that will help students problem solve and make wise decisions.

BY LYNNE WALLACE

MAC Elementary Principal

A series of meetings in preparationfor the 2010-11 school year are beingplanned for parents and students whowill be coming to school in variousprograms next year.They include:

Kindergarten Round-up

Kindergarten round-up will be heldMonday, March 8 at the elementaryfrom 8:30 to 11:15 a.m.Students will meet to experience kin-dergarten activities. On Friday, May 7,students will have an appointment toreceive an individual screening. Thekindergarten teachers will be mailingout results following the screening.To be eligible for admission toschool for the school year, a child must

be ve years old on or before the 15th

BY STACEY ANDRESENMount Ayr Community School NurseFebruary is Dental Month. Junior

kindergarten through rst grade stu

-dents will be learning about healthydental practices.They will be instructed on toothbrushing techniques and will be giventooth brushes. Be sure to ask themwhat they learned!

Hearing screening

The Area Education Agency justcompleted hearing screenings on kin-

dergarten, rst, second, third, fth and

eighth grades and all new students.If your child had a normal screen-ing, he or she will have a pink half slipreporting normal results. If your childdid not have a normal screening, or has

already been identied with a hearing

problem, he or she will receive morecomprehensive testing in February.

Illness a struggle

Meetings for pre-school, kindergarten parents

Notes From the Elementary Principal’s Desk

of September 2010.

Junior Kindergarten/KindergartenParent Meeting

We will have a parent meeting onMonday, March 1 at 6:30 p.m. in theMount Ayr Community elementary li-brary.Mrs. Stacey Andresen, our schoolnurse, will inform you of new regula-tions for eye and dental exams as wellas immunizations. The kindergartenand junior kindergarten teachers willexplain the difference in their pro-grams.Please bring a copy of your child’s

birth certicate, immunization record,

and physical. A physical for your childdated between June 2009 and August2010 will be considered current.

Little Raider Preschool Registration

You may sign your child up for Lit-tle Raider Preschool, Head Start andthe Family Resource Center on March9 from 8:30 to 11:15 a.m.If you are unable to sign your childup at this time, we will also have a pre-school parent meeting on March 22 at6:30 p.m.

Little Raider Preschool RegistrationParent Meeting

We will have a Little Raider Pre-school parent meeting on March 22at 6:30 p.m. in the preschool room inthe lower level of the Family ResourceCenter.You will be able to sign your childup for Little Raider Preschool andlearn all about our preschool program.Please bring a copy of your child’s

birth certicate, immunization record

and a current physical to the meeting.A physical for your child dated be-tween June 2009 and August 2010 willbe considered current.To be eligible for admission to LittleRaider Preschool for the 2010-2011school year, a child must be four yearsold on or before September 15, 2010.

Step in the Right Direction

On Tuesday, March 9 from 8:45 to11 a.m., we will have a program called,“Step in the Right Direction.” This isa program to screen the general devel-opmental progress of three-year oldchildren.If your child is currently three yearsold or will be three by the end of May,we would like for your child to attend

this screening. Please call the ofce at

464-0539 to receive information andget your child signed up.

Notes From the School Nurse’s Desk

Dental month, hearingscreenings important

Our students and faculty continueto struggle with illness. If you or yourchild suffers with cold symptoms,cough, runny nose, congestion, or head-ache for more than 10 days, or a feverlasting more than three days, a trip tothe doctor should be considered.Viral illness can sometimes progressinto bacterial infection and require an-tibiotics to resolve. Your physician willdetermine the need for medication.

Flu peak coming

If your child has not been vacci-

nated against the seasonal u virus

or the H1N1 virus, it is not too late.

The CDC is anticipating the u virus

to peak again in the coming months.

Please contact the public health ofce

or your local doctor for further infor-mation.You may also call Stacey Andres-en, school nurse at 641-464-0546 or641-464-0533.We have had a couple of guest visi-tors to our school to speak to childrenabout staying safe. Darla Dolecheckfrom Positive Parenting Inc. visited

K-fth grade classrooms talking about

good touch and bad touch and that noone has the right to touch your body if you don’t want them to. Kari Ohne-mus from the Rural Iowa Crisis Centeris talking with our sixth grade classesabout sexual harassment. We are for-tunate to have knowledgeable peoplewho can provide important informa-tion our students need to stay safe.

February 24 -- Internet Safety Pre-sentation for Kids and Parents

Who is faster on the computer? Youor your kids? Most often these days,our children can type circles around us.Even though they have a lot of com-puter savvy, they can still become vic-tim to wiser, older online predators andscam artists.We need to be as smart as our kids if we want to keep them safe. On Febru-ary 24, Karen Gale from the FBI Vic-tim Specialists, will talk to the fourththrough twelfth grade classes about in-ternet safety, and teach them ways they

can stay safe while surng the web.

More importantly, we especially wantto invite parents to an early evening in-

ternet session designed specically for

them. Parents can learn important factsto keep them up to date with what theirchildren already know, and keep theirfamily safe as they cruise the pages of the internet.The parents’ program is tentativelyset for 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Mount AyrCommunity high school. We hope youwill join us. If you have questions, youcan call Joan Moore at Mount Ayr El-ementary School at 641-464-0539, orKurt Christensen at the High School at641-464-0549.

Student council, internet safety program set

Notes From the Elementary Guidance Counselor’s Desk

Parent’s InternetSafety Program

Wednesday, Feb. 245 to 7 p.m.Mount Ayr CommunityHigh School

7-12Nurse464-0533BusGarage464-05347-12Principal464-0510K-6Nurse464-0546K-6Principal464-0539ElementaryCounselor464-0541High SchoolCounselor464-0532Supt. of Schools464-0500TransportationDirector464-0502Special Ed.Coordinator464-0554PressBox464-0535