IN Norwin Fall 2018 | Page 41

Highmark Foundation Grant Provides GARDEN GREENHOUSE T his year, the Highmark Foundation awarded Norwin High School a grant to support a program called “From Land to Table.” The premise behind the grant was to increase healthy eating by increasing student involvement in growing their own fruits and vegetables. Norwin High School was awarded $6,756 to purchase a greenhouse, garden tools, plants and various outdoor supplies to create a working garden in the High School courtyard. In order to reach as many students as possible, a team of teachers worked together including Mrs. Annie Grimes-Essay, Special Education, Mrs. Barb Gubanich , Family and Consumer Science, Mr. Bill Hribar, Technology Education, Mrs. Elaine King, Special Education, and Ms. Lindsay Reynolds, Special Education. Many students from the Peer Mentor and Buddy Club as well as the technology classrooms assisted in the garden this year. Students Tyler Plunko, Logan Cibak and Tom Javorski built the greenhouse during their study halls and when schedules could accommodate. Tyler assisted often on his own time afterschool. The greenhouse is complete and ready for use this fall by Special Education and Science classes. The garden will be able to seat up to 20 students. It is a welcome addition to the Norwin High School. During the project, students took a pre and post-test listing their fruit and vegetable consumption. The testing revealed that students ate more fruits and vegetables per day. Hillcrest Intermediate School Students Named as Finalists in the 2017-2018 National Book Challenge Hosted by Studentreasures Publishing T eacher Natalie Janov and the sixth-grade class at Hillcrest Intermediate School have been named finalists out of 800,000 Entries from Across the Country in the 2017-2018 National Book Challenge hosted by Studentreasures Publishing. For this honor, the class will receive a $50 gift card, plus a published author certificate for each student. Each of the 30, sixth- grade authors were recognized for their contributions to their book, Countries of the World, which was published earlier this year through Studentreasures’ free publishing program. Mrs. Janov’s class came up with the idea for Countries of the World when researching about different countries. The sixth-grade authors put forth their best effort, researching, writing about, and illustrating their book of countries, from hitchhiking in Serbia to celebrating New Years in China, before they sent their completed pages to be published. NORWIN ❘ FALL 2018 39