STEAM Works at WCS

Allan Miller and Abbie Bowker, WCS educators, shared this guest post and video about a powerful STEAM project that took place in the latter part of the school year. View the video to learn more about the experience that integrated  many elements of STEAM, and which included ways to support our multi-lingual learners and families. 

This spring a small group of WCS 5th, 6th and 7th graders with a strong interest in art and design were invited to be part of a special pilot project that was part of a Vermont Agency of Education STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) grant. Nine Vermont middle and high schools were selected for the project, based on their original idea for addressing a local school or community problem. The WCS STEAM Team, led by Art Teacher Abbie Bowker and Design Tech Teacher Allan Miller, proposed that a group of students could improve school climate and teacher morale by having students create a multilingual entryway welcome and individual teacher name signs using laser and vinyl cutting technologies. This video is their project summary, highlighting the process the team used, as well as the positive impact their efforts had around the school. As a pilot it was extremely successful, and the team is exploring how it can continue to make the school community even more welcoming and inclusive through student STEAM creations.

Celebratory Events at Charlotte Central School

Last week there were two events that took place at Charlotte Central School (CCS) on the same evening. In the gym, about 150 people came to enjoy a math night. There were a variety of games and activities run by both adults and students. 

In another space, seventh and eighth graders shared their Personal Interest Projects (PIPs) with families and friends. There was quite a variety! 

Please enjoy this short video which captures a few elements of each event. 

CVU Math League Accomplishments

 Thank you to Charlie MacFadyen, CVU's Math League coach, for providing this update. 

The CVU Math League Team has wrapped up a very successful year! We tied with South Burlington High School as co-champions of the Greater Burlington Math League, capping off CVU’s best season ever! And we did it in style with our new T-shirts! Of the 14 awards given out for individual performances in the league, 5 of them went to CVU students.

Team members who competed this year included Anna Dauerman, Patterson Frazier, Thomas Garavelli, Jacob Graham, Alyssa Hill, Joe Jacobs, Dan Knight, Georgia Knight, Elias Leventhal, Jacob Medici, David Merchant, Veronica Miskavage, Clay Nicholson, Lily O’Brien, Wylie Ricklefs, Keaton St. Martin, Julia Shrier, and Sam Yager.

In addition to our league competition, students also participated in the American Mathematics Competition, the UVM High School Prize Exam in Mathematics, and the Vermont State Mathematics Coalition Talent Search Contest (coordinated by CVU math teacher, Kiran MacCormick).

The results for the UVM Prize Exam just came out and CVU had three students in the top ten statewide (Elias Leventhal in 2nd, Jacob Graham in 3rd, and Keaton St. Martin tied for 8th) and six students receiving Certificates of Merit. Earlier in the year, Elias and Jacob also qualified and sat for the prestigious American Invitational Mathematics Exam, based on their scores on the AMC.

Most importantly, this is a fun, collegial group of students who just love to solve problems and it's a pleasure to work with them.

Thanks again to Kiran MacCormick for all of his help with the team and to the CVU math department for all you do!

Congratulations math superstars!

CVU's Math League's Historic Win

 Thank you to CVU educator, Charlie MacFadyen for sharing this exciting news. 

Yesterday, the CVU Math League team traveled to Colchester to compete against 14 other schools in our region and came away with the win! This is the first CVU 1st-place finish in Math League that anyone can remember (and most likely ever). South Burlington placed second and Essex third. Combined with their second-place finish in Meet 1, CVU now leads the league heading into Meet 3. There are five meets in all (ending in March) so there's still work to be done, but this is the best-ever start for the team.

Individual honors went to Elias Leventhal for top papers in Arithmetic and Advanced and Wylie Ricklefs for a top paper in Arithmetic. They were joined by Jacob Graham, Keaton St. Martin, and Sam Yager for a perfect team paper, sealing the win. It was a strong overall team effort, with contributions by Anna Dauerman, Patterson Frazier, Dan Knight, Thomas Garavelli, David Merchant, Veronica Miskavage, Clay Nicholson, Lily O’Brien, and Julia Shrier.

Even more important than winning is the camaraderie and enthusiasm in this fine group!

Thanks as always to Kiran McCormick for all his help with the team.

Math and Music Are Connected

The information for this post was shared by Lori Marino, music teacher at Shelburne Community School. 

A fourth grade class was learning musical notation. Specifically, the associated number of beats each note is “worth” in a 4/4 measure. I drew the diagram shown in the pictures below. The last student to leave class had left the class line and drawn a note with multiple flags with a number written beneath it in the first picture. The student knew to increase to the power of 2 each time a flag was added to the eighth note which is valued at 1/2 beat in a 4/4 measure.

Curious when I saw the large number written below the note the student had drawn, I called a colleague, Jodi Sanders, in to see if we could verify. Sure enough after we worked through each power of 2 (we did have to resort to a calculator!) we verified that the student (who did not have a calculator!) nailed the value!! 

This was a remarkable accomplishment! After acknowledging the student's achievement later this afternoon, they told me that they had memorized all of the powers of two through 300 something million and proceeded to rapidly rattle off all of the numbers Jodi had worked to figure out earlier in about 5 seconds!

I thought this was a great academic/artistic connection to share!

Note: The excitement spread to others and students continue to make these connections. Here's another photo of what they worked on 2 days later. 

Wow, thank you for sharing this with us, Lori!

Summer Learning at WCS

WCS had two week-long summer learning experiences for some students. This slideshow showcases the 6th-8th experience with a focus on real-world application of math, science and reading. Thanks to Cris Milks and Colleen O’Brien for their work on creating and leading these experiences for our students.

Math Counts in CVSD

6th, 7th, and 8th grade students from CCS, HCS, SCS, and WCS competed in the district MathCounts competition this week. 

For the individual part of the competition AJ (WCS), Anna (SCS), and Will (HCS) were the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers. 

One of the Hinesburg teams won the team competition and took home the trophy. Students will be competing in the regional competition, which is virtual this year, on February 17th.

Congratulations to all competitors! 

New Math Offerings at CVU

We are excited to announce a change to the Math curriculum at CVU for the 2019-2020 school year. In the past, most incoming ninth graders have been placed into Algebra or Geometry. While this structure provided an appropriate base for future math courses, it also created a gap in practicing algebraic thinking for the courses students typically take in their 10th and 11th grade years: Algebra II, Advanced Algebra, and Trig/Pre-calculus. Next year, we will be offering two new integrated courses for incoming ninth graders called Math 1 and Math 2. This curriculum redesign will allow us to explore natural connections between Algebra and Geometry content, and add important concepts that are not currently in our curriculum. We are confident that this improved and updated approach will enhance students’ mathematical skills and understanding.

To allay concerns about our transcript and college application process, please know that this is a change that many high schools have made. For example, Mount Mansfield, South Burlington, Harwood, Mount Abraham, and Vermont Commons teach integrated math courses.

Most students will experience a pathway similar to one of these:

Grade 9		Grade 10		Grade 11		Grade 12
Math 1	➡	Math 2	➡	Algebra 2	➡	Advanced Algebra or Trig/Pre-calculus or AP Statistics
Math 2	➡	Algebra 2	➡	Tri/Pre-calculus	➡	Calculus or AP Calculus or AP Statistics
Math 1 resulting in credit for Math 1 Part 1	➡	Math 1 Part 2	➡	Math 2	➡	Algebra 2

CVSD middle school teachers will use district common target data to recommend placement in Math 1 and Math 2 at CVU. There will opportunities to discuss this change and ask questions during the teacher panels on January 24th at CVU’s 8th Grade Parent/Student Night.

Teaching and Learning Math in CVSD

Wow, the CVSD Central Office conference room is packed this week! Educators from all of our schools are working with CVSD instructional coaches and math coordinators. These educators, most of whom are new to our district in the last year or so, are being trained in "math best practices" to support and enhance student learning. Most CVSD educators have been engaged in this work for a number of years. We are ensuring that all educators are informed about math best practices and ready to work with students, regardless of which grade span or math program used.

We appreciate the commitment and hard work of our instructional coaches and coordinators, as well as the amazing room full of dedicated professionals.