Hannah started tutoring this last week. She said it was interesting. She was tutoring another student in Algebra Geometry.
Hannah is also taking two classes outside of school, online. She is taking an English class and Math class extracurricularly. I brag about this to mention that, while she claims that the work is not difficult, she spends a lot of time on homework. She spends at least three hours a night, often more, working on schoolwork. I do not have to push her at all. She is pushing herself harder than I would. Impressive that a freshman takes school this seriously.
On a related note, she is starting to get letters from schools/colleges and summer programs inviting her to attend. The school must have added her name to a list somewhere.
A freshman getting invitations letters to check out campuses? That just seems weird to me.
</parental boasting>
I was asked to help judge the school science fair last week. A note for kids doing science fairs: Make sure you work extra hard on your hypothesis, mentioning WHY you think what you do (use science, avoid opinion) and have a good summary and conclusion.. Just being honest here, as a judge I have a lot of science projects to get through.. I read those first, and if they don’t catch my attention, I don’t go much farther…..
We registered this domain (99 cents at godaddy, what a deal) and forwarded it to the page the kids made in school. I gave the teacher this info so she could share it as part of the lesson plan if she wanted to.
(Future reference: When this page is gone, the forwarded URL was http://tundrarussellmelinda.webs.com and the whole site has been archived in a file called melindawebtundraproject with today’s date)
We also found out that Melinda was chosen to be in a small group that is going to be doing a special activity at the hospital tomorrow. I’ll let you know more when I fond out myself! It sounds like it might be special though.
I visited Hannah’s school to talk to her teachers and pick up her report card. She did really well with all A’s this semester. Excellent Job Hannah!
I walked in to her Math (Honors Geometry) teachers classroom, and she says “Hello Mr. Elser!” Before I got a chance to finish asking how Hannah is doing in her class, she replies “Oh, don’t worry about Hannah, she could teach this class”. Alright then! I guess we are done here!
🙂
Actually, after a little conversation, The teacher offered Hannah the opportunity to be a tutor. She said they usually only offer that to NHS members (sophomore-seniors), but that Hannah is more than qualified, and it would look good on her resume. I like this teacher more and more!
Melinda and Rockwell are doing fine in the VI. I got to visit with their teachers while I was down there. Melinda submitted a Story about horses to be judged in the state fair they have down there. I will let you know how that turns out.
I’m so proud of my kids, and how seriously they are taking school. I am thankful for that!
So, Hannah Kept her All A’s average.
She aced that math test like she thought. She said she got A’s on all her exams except English. She got a 88% on that one, but she was able to keep her 93% (I’ve been corrected..:) 94% average (by a hair!) in that class. She was the only one in her science class to get a A on the final.. that had to feel pretty Good!
But importantly, she has been working on studying, so I give her a high grade on “effort”.
Dad: “So how did tests go today?”
Hannah: ” Eh. No problem. The ones tomorrow are what I’m concerned about.”
D: “What tests were today?”
H: “Math.”
D: “How did it go?”
H: “Too easy. Pretty sure I aced it”
I like to hear that.
She is really studying too. She has stacks of flashcards! She even made flashcards for gym(PE, whatever)…
It’s English she is sweating. She wants to keep that A pretty badly. If the effort she has put into it is any indication, she will do fine. Good luck Hannah.
Well, They launched the Balloon yesterday! It was pretty exciting, I must say. Here they are preparing the insulated box. It is supposed to get below -30F at 60000 feet, and we did not want the camera shutting down unexpectedly. It also allowed them to put a little Fox creek logo in the shot, so it would have their High school logo in space! Sarah writing the note that will go into the box in case we cant retrieve it, to make the odds better that it can get back to us.
Getting the Balloon ready for filling.
Getting ready.
Still getting ready..
Counting down! seconds before launch!!
Here is a youtube video of the launch itself! This was as exciting as it seemed..
We were able to track it for about 15 minutes. Here are the last two readings before we lost contact. It looks like was at about 15000 feet when it tried and failed communication the last time. We waited for about 2 hours for it to come back down into cell service again, but it never did. it must have landed in an area with no cell service. 🙁
So, what did they (we) learn? Well, lot’s really. number one, make sure we use a checklist!! There where a couple things that we failed to do that would have helped it be returned to us in case of communication failure (like we had). We learned that cell service stops around 15000 feet! We learned the rate of ascent was around 1000Feet/M… pretty fast. We also learned that we need to use a cell carrier with better coverage. Turns out virgin mobile pretty much only covers the major highways. And we learned to be patient.. we could have avoided some of these pitfalls with a little more patience and research. Also, I feel I participated a bit too much.. But it was fun! Next time I will make sure they do all the work. They are perfectly capable of filling the balloon and sealing it, and tying the knots on the string. Dad just got a little too interested for his own good.
But other than that? It was science! Even in failure you learn a lot.
Hannah’s science project is to launch a balloon and see how high it goes.
It’s T minus 14 hours to the Balloon Launch. 122cuFT of industrial helium costs 75 bucks these days.. But I guess I should be glad it was available.. the guy said he has not been able to get any lately. She is going to be attaching her cell phone to the balloon and using an android application ( spacetracker ) to track its location and altitude, and take pictures along the way. The only risk is if it lands in a area with no cell service, it’s pretty much gone. But she will still have the data of its height, speed and location sent back to my phone while it is in the service area.
Wish her luck! We will report back here with the results!
More good student news. These kids know how to make Dad happy.
The Beta Club induction ceremony was the other night. I attached the certificate that they handed to the students below. One other interesting note.. There where only 5 kids out of the whole freshman class (~120kids?) that received straight A’s.
4 of the 5 where Hannah and her friends she eats lunch with. I think that is cool. (I asked who the 5th person was, and Hannah said she did not know her.. Evidentially the 5th girl is not in the honors classes)
Here is the program for the night.
You have to be a sophmore, junior or senior to be in the NHS.
Both Rockwell and Melinda are in this Edition.
Rockwell placed 3rd in his age group in a track competition, and Melinda had a part in the 5-6th grade play “Bunnicula”. Kath said the play went off really well.
Melinda and Rockwell received their report cards recently.. Melinda received her first b she ever got.. in Spanish. It’s sort of unfortunate, because all the kids in the school have been taking Spanish since they where in kindergarten, and this is the first year she has ever taken it. I’m impressed she received a B in this situation… Way to go Melinda! Rockwell received all “satisfactory” I guess they don’t give letter grades in his grade. He did really well, he loves math. All of his teachers love him. Actually, we received another “I wish all my students where like Melinda” note from a teacher. That always makes us feel good.
Anyway, Here is the newsletter.
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