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From palindromes to tessellation to correlation to random numbers - Davidson Elementary School students displayed a creative range of interest in numbers last week at the largest math fair in the school’s history. We have the scoop on who received top honors and also information on the school’s winning quiz bowl team, plus news about a teacher award to Rosemary Klein of Bailey Middle, National Merit Scholar finalist Kelsey Ross at Cannon School, and a poetry award for Faye VanHecke of the Davidson IB Middle.

Math fair results at DES -

Nearly 260 students posted about 200 math fair projects throughout the Davidson Elementary School gym Thursday, Feb. 21, for the annual Family Math Fair. Colleen Thrailkill, who organizes the event together with Kristin Retort, called that “a huge increase” from the previous year.

“I also think the quality of the projects is steadily increasing,” Ms. Thrailkill said. “The judges did comment on this.”

The math fair is part of the school’s “talent development” program and is open to all third, fourth and fifth graders. Students are judged on how they are able to develop and present a mathematical concept. First-through third ribbons are awarded by a panel of judges that includes math professors from Davidson College, retired teachers, talent-development teachers from other schools and select community members.

Ms. Thrailkill said she and Ms. Retort encourage students to think about how math applies to their lives.

“We said, ‘What interests you? Any topic. Now find the math in that subject and explore it,’” Ms. Thrailkill explained.

Students responded in kind. Several fifth graders looked at the math in presidential elections, focusing on Super Tuesday, how gender impacts voting decisions and other areas. (All the presidential math projects found Barack Obama to be the favored DES candidate.) Two third grade projects studied the math in “Walk to School Wednesday,” in terms of best routes and gas savings. Fourth grader Frank Bragg, a student in Mr. Kyle Verlin’s class, analyzed the current drought deficit and just what 15 inches of rain means. “If 15 inches of rain fell on the DES campus, it would fill the gym over four times!” he reported.

That project earned Mr. Bragg a blue ribbon for his grade. Also earning top honors was Ciara Conway, a fifth grader in Nicole Verzi’s class, who applied origami to real life by figuring out how to fold origami cups into specific recipe measuring sizes and then use them to cook up some waffles. Elizabeth Holmes, a third grader in Megan Jackson’s multi-age class, won a blue ribbon for her study of a method for using decimal notation to multiply by five or ten. As she carefully documented, you take a number, any number(say 3,288), and to find out what that number times five is without using a calculator, you just divide the number in two (3288/2=1644) and put a zero on the end (16440). Voila!

It just makes you wonder - should the TV hit be “are you smarter than a third grader?”

The first and second place winners in each grade level advance to the regional math fair competition to be held at Appalachian State University in Boone in mid April.

Here’s a complete list of winners:

5th grade:
1st place, Ciara Conway, “Need a Measuring Cup…Got Paper?
2nd place, Via Savage, “Monopoly Math”
3rd place, Chris Venzon, “Suction 101”

4th grade:
1st place, Frank Bragg, “2007 Drought – How Bad Was It?”
2nd place, George Guise, “Volume and the Best Way to Win a Jar Contest”
3rd place, Clare Flaherty, “Geometry Transformations in Quilt Blocks”

3rd grade:
1st place, Elizabeth Holmes, “Deciply: Decimals and a New Way to Multiply”
2nd place, Catherine Castoral, “Save Money on Food”
3rd place, Hugh Michael Chatham, “Coming Soon…Davidson’s Rushco Markets – how to build using a site plan”

Klein honored for math teaching prowess 

Speaking of math, the former Davidson Elementary and current Bailey Middle math teacher Rosemary Klein was recognized as “an out-of-the-box teacher” who inspires her students.  Ms. Klein was a January Employee Excellence Award winner for the entire Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.  (She’s holding the certificate in the photo.)

In a press release about the award, Principal Angela Baucom called Ms. Klein a “fabulous teacher.”

“She’s a teacher who doesn’t go by the book,” Ms. Baucom said. “She creates lessons that totally engage her students in high-level thinking.”

In addition to teaching, Ms. Klein works with the school’s English as a Second Language students. She has secured needed resources and tutors from Davidson College to assist the youth and has also worked to expose sixth-grade Hispanic girls to professional role models.

Quiz bowl tops in NC -

Davidson Elementary’s quiz bowl team continues to rake in first prize honors. The team’s latest victory came in the North Carolina Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl contest. The DES group of fourth and fifth graders, coached by Celia Felthaus, scored 1200, the best among 32 teams from across the state. Team members include: fifth graders Emma Boraks, Celeste Campbell, Adam Cosgrove, Wilson Goode, Julianna Lopp, Chad Parrish and Sharad Wertheimer and also fourth graders Nell Buechler and Gabby Moore.

Ross among Cannon’s National Merit finalists

Kelsey Ross of Davidson was among five students at Cannon School (a private college prep school in Concord) to be named National Merit Scholarship Program finalists.  Kelsey, the daughter of Kelly and Pam Ross, is a senior at Cannon and plans to attend Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, this fall.  She is involved in theatre and the visual arts  at Cannon and also enjoys science.  Her younger brother, Kevin, is an eighth grader at Cannon.  The Ross family moved a few years ago from Michigan to Davidson, to be closer to the Lowe’s Corporate Headquarters, where Kelly Ross is a senior vice president.

To become a National Merit candidate from Cannon, students must have an outstanding academic record and high SAT scores and also be endorsed and recommended by the school headmaster.  The five from Cannon are among 16,000 nationally who will now be considered for college scholarships in 2008.

IB writer wins Gold Key

Faye VanHecke, an eighth grader at Davidson IB Middle, received the Gold Key Writing Award for the 2008 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for her poem, “Vietnam Boots.” She was recognized in a ceremony at Spirit Square in Charlotte earlier this month. Ms. VanHecke (the daughter of the school’s art teacher, Evelyn VanHecke) first presented her poem at the IB school’s “poetry slam” last year. Writing teacher Andrea Reimers then entered the poem in the Scholastic competition. The regional win means the poem now advances to the national competition. 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR -

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