Two Davidson schools are involved in projects this April designed to provoke comment and raise public awareness. Davidson IB Middle students will walk laps around the South Street baseball field April 26 in silence, without water and without shoes, to draw attention 
to the plight of atrocity victims and refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan. Meanwhile, Woodlawn School students have been creating T-shirts that examine how stereotypes impact everyday life. We have more details on both of these projects, along with reports on math fair winners from Davidson Elementary, the IB’s Science Olympiad team and Beginner’s Day for rising kindergartners.
Community invited to Darfur walk April 26
Students at Davidson IB Middle School will be holding a “Community Walk for Darfur” on Saturday, April 26, from 9 a.m. to noon. The walk will be held on the South Street baseball field in Davidson.
Will collect funds to send to Darfur to help provide food, water and necessities for the millions of refugees that have been displaced by terror and fighting in Sudan. To create empathy for the victims, walkers will be encouraged to walk two or three laps in silence, representing the idea that the refugees have no voice; walk two to three laps without stopping for water, creating the sense of want for basic needs as experienced by the people in Darfur; and, conditions permitting, walk a few laps without shoes, to provide a sense of the discomfort that millions of people feel everyday.
The community is invited to participate in this event by showing up to walk that morning, deliverng a monetary donation that morning, or sending a monetary donation to: Davidson IB Middle School, 251 South St., Box 369, Davidson, NC 28036. Please make checks payable to: Davidson IB Middle School, and write “Darfur” in the reference line. For further information, contact school Principal Jo Karney (jo.karney@cms.k12.nc.us) or call the school at 980-343-5185.
The walk is part of a school-wide focus on the political strife in the Sudan region of Africa. Besides the walk, IB students are also holding presentations, discussions and readings about the Darfur crisis.
Science Olympiad team is second in state
Also making news, Davidson IB’s Science Olympiad team placed second out of 50 middle school teams at the state competition on Saturday, April 5, in Raleigh. (Among high schools, the North Meck team placed fifth among 43 in the state in a competition won by the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.) Davidson’s team had a score of 193, while the overall winner from Jay M. Robinson scored 131. The team will now advance to the nationals, to be held in Washington D.C. on May 30. The Science Olympiad program encourages students to solve questions related to various science disciplines.
Woodlawn students’ project at McColl Center
Students in grades 6-10 at Woodlawn School will hold a premier for their project, “Labels, Tags and Misconceptions,” Thursday evening, 6-8 p.m., at the McColl Center in downtown Charlotte. Students have been working with professional artists and printmakers to illustrate how stereotypes about gender, age, religion and class can impact everyday life. After conducting peer interviews and other classroom activities, students worked to apply what they learned to design T-shirts. Following the Thursday premier, the T-shirts will be displayed in the windows of Main Street Books in downtown Davidson through the end of April, and then will be featured at the Cornelius Town Hall throughout the month of May.
“It’s been great to see how artists can use their medium to put messages out into the community,” said art teacher Kim Lysne.
Two from Davidson head to state math fair
Two students at Davidson Elementary advanced from the West Regional level of the state math fair Saturday at Appalachian State University in Boone. Fourth grader Frank Bragg, tied for first place for his project analyzing the impact of the drought and explaining just what 15 inches of rain amounts to (a whole lot of water). Fifth-grader Ciara Conway, 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, tied for second place. The two winning projects were among six that represented Davidson following the elementary school’s math fair in February (see our Feb. 26 report on that fair, which included over 200 projects).
“Notice that the six kids who attended did it during their spring break,” said Colleen Thrailkill, who coordinated the DES math fair with Kristin Retort.
The state competition will be April 25 in Durham.
Beginners’ Day is Friday at DES
Parents of rising kindergarteners assigned to Davidson Elementary School will get a preview of the fall at “Beginners’ Day 2008,” set for this Friday, April 18. The event will include a program from 10-11 a.m. and time to for parents to meet with faculty and administrators. Children will be able to visit a kindergarten class and join with other “Tigers” (the school mascot) for a fun story and craft. For more information contact the school office at (980)343-3900.
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