President Barack Obama talks with astronauts on the International Space Station, accompanied by students including Davidson IB Middle School's national champion Future City team: from right, Ruth Swallow, Emily Yue and Luke Churchill. Click to watch the NASA video (Photo from NASA video)

By LAURIE DENNIS
DavidsonNews.net

The Davidson IB Future City team thought their work was complete when they won the national title Tuesday in Washington, D.C.  It turns out they had one more task: meeting with the president.  Yes, THE president.  As in Barack Obama.

“We won nationals and we were flooded by the press,” said a weary team coach Jay Hager, who spoke by cell phone from his hotel room and said his students gave interviews to Voice of America and a news crew from Russia, among others.  “Then we were called to a special meeting and we had no idea what it was about and they said, ‘You’re going to see the president.'” Read the full story

Scouts at CSD saluted the Stars and Stripes Friday morning.

The raising of the flags at Community School of Davidson Friday included a special ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.

We have photos from that event, plus more spelling bee news (including McKinney Academy’s first-ever bee winner), an ArtsStamp winner at Davidson Elementary and a calendar listing upcoming open house dates at Woodlawn, McKinney, Davidson Day and Cannon School.

All that, plus how to register for the 2nd annual “Run Too Overcome” and sports scores. Read the full story

The 3 presenters for the Davidson IB Middle Future City team posed with judges and their winning model. From left, judge Catherine McKalip-Thompson, Emily Yue, judge Kenny Warren, Luke Churchill, judge Sanna Gaspard, Ruth Swallow, and judge Blaine D. Leonard. (Vera Yue photo)

By LAURIE DENNIS
DavidsonNews.net

First came the breathtaking news that they were in the top five, announced at a gathering in a hotel conference room in Washington, D.C. and immediately passed along by emails and cell phones to friends and family back in Davidson.

Then came a final round of presentations before a panel of judges. Finally, at a mid-morning awards ceremony Tuesday, Davidson IB Middle’s Future City team was named the best in the nation. Read the full story

Fifth graders at kick-off day for the 2009-10 Tigers on the Prowl program.

On Tuesday, Feb. 9, First Lady Michelle Obama launched “Let’s Move,” a national campaign to tackle childhood obesity.  That got Davidson resident Amy Klett thinking about the success of the “Tigers on the Prowl” running program at Davidson Elementary.  Last school year more than 800 Davidson Elementary students completed a marathon’s worth of laps around designated school fields,  and more than 200 achieved multiple marathons.

We hope the First Lady will give a close read to Amy’s letter: Read the full story

Davidson Day invited a panel of speakers from Davidson College to speak to students Wednesday. Speakers included (from left): Todd Resley, Abby Jones, Brittany Pillsbury, Chris Marsicano and Brandon Yeargen.

What’s it like to live in a college dorm?

What to make of that public lecture on the collapse of the Maya Empire?

Davidson College students addressed a panel of Davidson Day juniors and seniors Wednesday about how to handle these and other situations.  And their advice:

“It’s pretty fun to live in a dorm room, but you gotta get sleep,” said Chris Marsicano, a Davidson College senior majoring in political science. Read the full story

Wesley King of Troop 19 is an Eagle Scout.

Davidson Day’s Wesley King turned his lunchtime musings into a record-setting Eagle Scout award.  Find out about his recent honor, and also learn of more fundraisers for victims of the Haiti earthquake, a seminar on college planning and our calendar of school events.

Also, good luck this weekend to the Davidson IB Middle Future Cities team, which will be heading to Washington, D.C. to compete at the national level!

Read the full story

The blue ribbon winners at this year's Davidson Elementary Math Fair include, from left: Aubrey Dyckman (4th grade), Sydney Hennighausen and Julia Desmond (5th grade), and Nicholas Trovato (3rd grade)

From the appetites of sheep and goats to the weight of school backpacks — students at Davidson Elementary were able to find math in just about everything for this year’s annual Math Fair.

The fair featured 170 projects by over 200 students, showcasing scale models, measurement, probability, statistical analysis … and also Skittles, M&Ms, paper airplanes, and of course, Stephen Curry.

Students in grades 3-5 participated, hauling in three-fold display boards Tuesday morning and transforming the school gym into a math mecca.  Wednesday, teams of judges — consisting of retired educators, Davidson College professors and other members of the community — went through the projects and awarded ribbons to top entries. Read the full story

Here’s a video called “Change Over Time,” by Davidson resident and Woodlawn School eight grader Stephan Snyder. The 7 1/2 minute film won a “Gold Key,” a regional prize in the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers national competition. Fellow Woodlawn students Sayre Weir and Mallorie Ables also won Gold Keys. Their photos and Stephan’s video will be on display at Spirit Square in Charlotte Feb. 6-March 27, then advance to the national judging in New York Feb. 21.