Members of Davidson IB's winning team include: (front, from left) Grayson Godwin, Ruth Swallow, Thomas Churchill, Emily Yue, (back, from left) Hanson Wang, Mr. Jay Hager, Luke Churchill, Edward Wu, Mikayla Murphy, Ashley Baber, and Stephen Dunn.

The Future Cities team at Davidson IB won it all in Raleigh this weekend and is headed to Washington, D.C., next month. Find out about the team’s successful project and also check out our calendar of school news, which has CMS lottery info and news of an upcoming workshop on bullying prevention.

ON TO NATIONALS!

Davidson IB Middle School’s Future City Team was in Raleigh over the weekend, but not for the governor’s Inaugural Ball.

The team was facing 14 schools from North Carolina and Virginia in a regional Future Cities competition.  The Davidson IB students designed and wrote an essay about a city of the future, incorporating this year’s theme of “water conservation.”  That means the IB team will be heading to Washington, D.C., next month to participate in the national finals, timed to coincide with National Engineers Week, Feb. 14-19.

Besides first place overall, which comes with a $1,000 prize, Davidson students were also recognized for “Best Computer City Design” and “Best Oral Presentation.”

The team is coached by science teacher, Jay Hager, together with assistant coach, John Carmichael, and engineering mentor, Dane Horna. Team members include: Ashley Baber, Luke Churchill, Thomas Churchill, Stephen Dunn, Grayson Godwin, Mikayla Murphy, Miles Robinson, Ruth Swallow, Hanson Wang, Nicholas Wilber, Edward Wu, and Emily Yue.

The Future City Competition is sponsored by National Engineers Week to inspire students to explore futuristic concepts and explore careers in engineering. It has  four components; a SIMS City computer generated competition, an essay, an exhibit, and a presentation.

ONLINE LOTTERY RUNS THROUGH FEB. 9

It’s magnet lottery season for the local public schools, which means families have until Feb. 9 to apply for acceptance into magnet programs for the 2009-10 school year.  Local magnet programs include the Davidson IB Middle and the IB program at North Meck High School.  See the calendar below for tours and inforamational meetings planned for local schools, or check out the CMS website.

Mark Your Calendar!

• Monday, Jan. 12 – Registration opens for  the Girls on Track program, which will be held at Bailey Middle School this spring.  The group will meet Tuesdays and Thursday mornings form 7-8 a.m. starting the week of Feb. 9, and ending with the Girls on the Run 5K race May 9.  Registration closes on Jan. 27.
• Monday, Jan. 12 – Family Night for Bailey Middle students will feature the band RollNThunder (which includes two band members who attend Bailey) playing at Midtown Sundries of Lake Norman starting at 6 p.m. A portion of all sales that night will go toward the Bailey PTA.
• Tuesday, Jan. 13 – Informational meeting for the International Baccalaureate program program at North Meck High School.  This meeting will be held in the school’s media center from 6-7 p.m.
• Wednesday, Jan. 14 – Walking Wednesday for Davidson IB Middle.
• Wednesday – Friday, Jan. 14-16 - Informal walking tours through the North Meck High IB program classrooms will be held from 8-10 a.m. daily.  Call the school at 980-343-3940 to sign up for a tour.
• Wednesday, Jan. 15 – Monthly meeting of the Davidson Elementary School PTA board, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the DES Media Center.  All parents are invited to join this meeting.
• Thursday, Jan. 15 – Open house at Cannon School for families considering enrollment in the 2009-2010 school year.  The open house will begin at 7 p.m. and include tours and a talk by the Head of School and other administrators.
• Monday, Jan. 19 – Most schools will be closed for the Martin Luther King holiday.
• Tuesday, Jan. 20 and Thursday, Jan. 22 – First of several informational open houses for the Northwest School of the Arts, a free public school in Charlotte that specializes in dance, music, theater and visual arts for 6th-12th grade students.  The open houses will feature  tours of the facility and discussion time with staff.
• Wednesday, Jan. 21 – Walking Wednesday for Davidson Day School.
• Friday, Jan. 23 – CMS (public) schools will be closed for a teacher work day.
• Tuesday, Jan. 27 - CMS Parent University will present a class, “Bullying Prevention and Intervention” at Davidson Elementary School.  The free class is open to the public and will run from 6:30 – 8 p.m.  Topics to be addressed at the workshop include how to identify bullying behavior and how to teach children coping skills and reporting techniques.
• Wednesday, Jan. 28 – Walking Wednesday for Children’s Community School.
• Monday, April 20 - The 2009 Annual Davidson Day School Golf Tournament will be held on at the River Run Golf Club in Davidson.  This will be the main fundraiser for the Patriots Club 2008-09 year.

Send calendar items and press releases about local school news to us at lauriedennis@bellsouth.net . Don’t forget to include a contact phone number, in case we have questions.