Parent Teacher Magazine Cabarrus County Schools May/June 2015 | Page 10

Weddington Hills Elementary Students Win Odyssey of the Mind Competition Congratulations to Weddington Hills Elementary School’s Odyssey of the Mind teams. Three teams participated in the regional competition on March 7th at Wingate University. Weddington Hills’ Team One finished first in the competition and will now move on to the state competition scheduled for April 11th at Appalachian State University. Odyssey of the Mind is a program that provides creative problemsolving opportunities. Team members apply their creativity to solve longterm problems as well as spontaneous problems. Congratulations to all the WHES Odyssey of the Mind team members! Team One: 1st Place Regional Winners Colin Seets Nicholas Tost Trey Tarzia Haven Tyler Corinne Boyd Lexi Waller Jake Denner Coaches: Eileen Seets and Kris Tost Harris Road Middle Celebrates Pi Day Harris Road Middle School students celebrated the Pi Day of the Century – 3. 14.15, which would only occur once in our lifetime – so students and teachers celebrated by participating in engaging mathematical tasks in classrooms, as well as encouraging participation in service learning. Just as the irrational number pi never ends, teachers and students decided to use the slogan “Hunger Never Ends” for a fundraising campaign. Students purchased pi digits for 25 cents and each grade level created a pi chain. The grade level with the longest pi chain won a pi party. Sixth graders won, raising more than $600 by purchasing more than 2,400 pi digits. As a school, the total raised was $985.25, which will be donated to the food pantry at the Salvation Army of Concord. The week culminated on Friday, March 13th with nearly 500 students wearing their personalized pi t-shirt. These students were rewarded Friday afternoon by joining in a group picture and being able to view the “p” in the face for some of our teachers (Mr. Jones and Mrs. Sims). Students also had a lot of fun in their math classes Friday where they wrote “Piku” poems (like Haiku), designed cityscapes with the pi digits, participated in contests to see who could memorize the most digits of pi and investigated pi with yummy edible treats. 8 •May/June 2015 • Parent Teacher Magazine  Team Two: Gracelyn Donahue Lauren Bradshaw Lane Bradshaw Kaden McConnell Alice Zhong Jack Sterka Jessica Fan Coaches: Kelly Donahue and Melissa Sterka Team Three: Eric Guo Katelyn Fox Alyssa Padilla Mykenzie Carmichael Caleb Thomson Dylan Perry Coaches: Ting Li and Cordella Fox Robinson Robotics Team State Champions Again Congratulations to the Jay M. Robinson High School VEX Robotics Team on its second consecutive win as state robotics champions! On Saturday, March 7th, Jay M. Robinson High School hosted the 2015 North Carolina VEX Robotics State Championship with 35 strong robotics programs from across the state seeking the N.C. VEX Robotics State Champion title and looking to secure one of the five coveted qualifying slots to compete at the VEX World Championship event in Louisville, Kentucky in April. After a full day of competition, the Bulldog A and B teams emerged victorious and continued their dominance in this exciting competitive platform, which strengthens students’ critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, and team work skills. As two-time champions, the Bulldogs have dominated the VEX platform in North Carolina. In 2014, the Bulldog Team 5139 captured the State Title in the platform’s inaugural year in North Carolina and sent all three teams to Anaheim, California where they squared-off against 470 other high schools from 26 different countries. The team is looking forward to competing at Worlds once again this year.