So You Think Your Robot Can DANCE?

 
On April 16^th, 2011 I attended the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Robotics Challenge. The challenge is open to middle school and high school students.  This year’s competition consisted of 5 categories--Petite Slalom, Mystery Course, Search and Destroy, Innovative Use, and Robot Dance. Each category was very different yet equally challenging.  

I competed in the Search and Destroy and the Robot Dance challenges. My robot detected four tumors in 47 seconds, which resulted in second place. For Robot Dance, I choreographed two robots to dance to the Cha Cha Slide.  The robots danced well and the audience was very impressed.  I was awarded with grand prize in this category. Visit the website for the complete list of 2011 winners.

The day was challenging, rewarding, and fun at the same time. The JHU Robotics Challenge expanded my experience in the field of robotics. I learned a new programming language and improved my engineering strategies. I also found ways to apply mathematics to solve problems I encountered. At the end of the day, I was able to take a tour of the Johns Hopkins campus and the Engineering Research Center.  At the JHU mock operating room, I had the opportunity to control the DaVinci surgical robot. I learned that grad students are integrating webcams with the DaVinci surgical system. They are also trying to integrate Xbox 360’s Kinect with the DaVinci system.  This will expand the system’s gesture base to include the hands and arms. I also operated a robot that was used for spinal surgery. This system incorporated software for haptic sensation. I enjoyed this competition a lot and highly recommend it to those who want to expand their knowledge in the math and science discipline.

-- Text and Photos by Jackie M. (Class of 2016) ; Video via www.abc2news.com

Seventh Graders Learning Photoshop CS5

As Seventh Graders, we have been exploring the world of Marketing and Photoshopping Images in Digital Thinking Ι. We have looked at advertisements and websites that show how they make food look so delicious on TV, but not very good the store. We were completely blown away by the things they put in a basic meal. Ever thought about why on commercials with ice cream, the ice never melts or has any sign of it melting? Well we know why and it definitely doesn’t make your mouth water about wanting to eat ice cream. Here is the list of the ingredients: Shortening/Margarine, Powdered Sugar, Corn Syrup, Vanilla Beans Strawberry jam, cocoa and other colorings and flavorings. To add to that, you can put this type of ice cream in a plastic bag for months and it wouldn’t change its looks. Yuck! Moving away from that thought, let us explain our Photoshop projects.


 

The Projects we are working on are fun and challenging. The first project we had involved us cutting ourselves out of one picture and copying it onto another picture. They turned out pretty awesome. We took approximately six classes to complete this. We basically pasted ourselves into somewhere extraordinary that we wanted to go to or something we always longed to do. We tried to make it as real-looking as possible. For example, we put ourselves on a beautiful beach in Hawaii. It was really dreamy to pretend to be on a nice beach in the midst of the freezing cold winter. Some of our other classmates were placed on trampolines, walking down fashion runways, and even on the moon!

Now we are in the process of working on another Photoshop project. This one is being completed in pairs because it requires more work. We are using to Photoshop to create something archival from the pre-1980s. It’s slowly moving along, every pair working out all the study halls we have together to finish it as quickly as possible. Some partners have chosen to do old books, old music, etc. For example, Sakina’s partner and she are doing old animated cartoons and we are going to Photoshop all the prehistoric cartoons, like The Jetsons, and Popeye the Sailor, into a Color bar based on the year in which it was originally produced. We can’t wait to see how it all turns out!  

Text and top photos by Sakinah R. and Paige S. (Class of 2016)
Photoshop projects by the Seventh Grade Digital Thinking II students

What It's Like to be a Captain

This year I am proud to be one of the two team captains of the 2011 Lacrosse C Team. As a captain I have to take full control and responsibility of the team, while still being a friend and teammate. Part of being a captain means you have to go up in morning meeting to share when the next lacrosse game is and the score of the past ones. Also, I have to make snack lists and schedules for the games and days when we are going to dress up in fun colors and different themes. Last Friday we had everyone dress in animal print, and almost everyone did! Being a captain is hard work, but more than that, it is FUN!

To get ready for games, captains have to prepare the team and lead laps around the field, stretches, and shuttles (and the same goes for practices). While the team is warming up, we have to meet with the referees and the other team captains from the opposing team.  After we are all introduced we have to pick heads or tails when the coin is flipped, and if we win we choose which side our team defends first. No matter what, we have to follow the Middle School lacrosse rules, and set good examples for our team and school.

So far this season we have had three games out of nine. Our first game was against NDP (away) and unfortunately we lost 3-7. It was a really great game because we did not have our goalie! Our second game was against BethTiphila and it was also away, and, we won 9-7 and everyone did amazing. Our third game was on the hottest day of the spring so far, and we played home against Key school, but we lost 10-13. It was really close and we are all really proud of our team! We will have many more home games, so come cheer us on!!! The A, B, and C lacrosse game schedules can all be found on the Garrison Forest School website.

 -- Text and photos by Isabella Z. (Class of 2016)

A Visit from the ARK

On Friday the Seventh Grade had a unique opportunity to spend time with preschoolers from Baltimore City.  The ARK preschool for homeless children brought the children to Garrison Forest School for fun and games. 

The Ark School is a school that supports homeless preschoolers ages 2-5 by giving them an education, and providing a calm and soothing environment where they can play and be a normal preschooler.  The ARK stands for Noah’s Ark because it was a safe place for everyone during a time of need and the founders of the Baltimore Ark want it to be a safe place for the preschoolers.  Garrison Forest seventh graders have supported this cause by creating a carnival every year for five years. 

The morning started out when half the Seventh Grade ran games and painted faces.  The preschoolers loved getting tattoos and their faces painted. The parachute, obstacle course and ball pits were a big hit with the seventh grade and preschoolers alike.

After the Preschoolers and Seventh Graders were finished playing, they went back to the middle school for some yummy snacks and story time! The Ark kids loved the having books read to them, and even got to take some books home!

By the end of the morning with the adorable and energetic preschoolers, the Seventh Graders were just as tired as the preschoolers were. This was definitely one of the favorite service projects that the 7^th graders get to make happen!
 
To learn more about the ARK and all they are doing to help the preschoolers check out http://www.ecsm.org/programs/ark.php

-- Text and Photos by Jessica M. and Brooke F. (Class of 2016)

Diversity on Campus!

Here at Garrison Forest School there is not only a large amount of diversity, but also a great feeling about it – there are different cultures, races, religions and nationalities. If I were to walk through the lunch room on a busy lunch day where there are Upper School students, you would see so many different cultures that you’d have to blink twice. Even at breakfast I hear different languages being spoken: Spanish, English, Korean, and Chinese. We even have events that support diversity such as Community Connections Day.

We celebrate all cultures that attend Garrison (or even that don’t.) At Community Connections Day, for example, we have the Lower School singing in Chinese, the Middle School chorus singing a song in Korean, and Moncrieff students singing in Spanish. At the Chinese Moon Festival, all the students who take Chinese had the opportunity to engage in a celebration in the Confucius classroom with Dou Xiaoshu (the previous Chinese teacher). Lastly the Martin Luther King dinner celebrated cultures around the world, with African dancing, and flags of many countries hung up in the dining hall.  They are still there to this day.

As you probably have already assumed, we have many international boarders here at Garrison. Ten students from Mexico, Sixteen students from China, and fourteen students from Korea.  All of these students bring a cultural uniqueness to the school. Even in the dorms, they try their best to mix up cultures by pairing roommates with different nationalities.   

Personally I enjoy having many different cultures here on campus. Not only does it broaden my knowledge about different cultures, but it prepares me for my future because the world will be much more diverse in a short amount of time. Not only that, but having these diverse students around me has inspired me to learn more languages on my own, including Korean: 안녕히 계세요 (Goodbye!)

-- Text and Photos by Sidney B. (Class of 2016)

Can you D.I.G. It?

Building with Magnets

Thanks to Mrs. Chrobocinski and Mrs. Oleiski, we have an extracurricular class called DIG, which involves science and math.  Students from Sixth and Seventh grade were able to have the opportunity to participate in this fun club.  Every Thursday the participants meet at the Upper School where we complete the warm-up and move on to the fun activities the teachers had planned for us.  Although math and science are not all of the students’ favorite subjects, we do many exciting activities, such as mixing colors, making goo, and causing explosions!

On March 24^th we were challenged to make a structure that would stand with powerful magnetic sticks and balls.  We were split into two groups.  Group 1 decided to use triangles, since that is the strongest structure, and build up, while Group 2 also decided to use triangles but build out.  Do you know which group won?  Group 2 won the challenge!  It stood for more than 30 seconds, while Group 1’s building fell immediately.  After the challenge we all went to the lab for an exciting and a mind blowing experiment.  We put milk in an aluminum pan and we added four drops of colored dye (blue, red, green, and yellow).  Then we put a cotton swab with dish soap in the pan.  Suddenly, the colors came into the center and started to combine.

As you can see we do many interesting experiments and challenges in this club!

-- Text and Photos by Zena S. (Class of 2016)

SCIENCE LAB - This isn't Dinner at Phillip's Seafood Restaurant!

Alex T. and Gabby C. dissecting a squid.

Seventh-grade Science has been full of fascinating topics, all relating to the diversity of life.  Right now we are studying Invertebrates, animals without backbones.  One of the most interesting facts we have learned about Invertebrates is that only 2% of all animals in the Animal Kingdom have a backbone, where 98% do not.  There are so many invertebrates to study, but due to our limited amount time, we have focused on four major groups.  These groups include Cnidarians (ni - dare’- ee - uns), Mollusks, Worms, and Arthropods.  These four groups show a wide range of body forms and lifestyles that we can explore in our labs.

Brianna T. dissecting a clam.

Cnidarians are invertebrates that have two body forms.  They can be a polyp or a medusa.  Both forms have a sac-like body with one opening surrounded by tentacles.  The most common Cnidarians are jellyfish and coral.  In our lab, we observed a type of Cnidarian called Hydra.  It has a polyp body form.  We looked at it under a microscope and watched its movement.  At the end of this lab, we were able to feed the Hydra a shrimp and watch it digest the food.  This part of the lab was the most fascinating, because we were able to watch how the Hydra detected the food with its tentacles and forced it into its food grove.  Once the food got into the Hydra’s body, its longitudinal muscles contracted and helped digest the shrimp.  Once we completed all the lab activities, we recorded our observations in our lab manual.

This is the squid we dissected.

Another type of invertebrate that we studied was mollusks. There are about 50,000 different species of mollusks.  The most familiar mollusks include snails, clams, slugs, oysters, squid, and octopuses.  We studied two species in this group, the clam and the squid.  Both are very different in their body and design.  We first had a discussion on how the animals’ structural features help them survive.  Then we completed labs, where we dissected a clam and a squid to see their features.  To dissect the clam, the first thing we did was open the shell.  We looked at the clam’s body and labeled its various parts in our lab manual.  When we were done, we put the clam away and got a squid.  For the squid, we also dissected it.  We had taken out the mantle, eyeball, beak, and ink sack.  We sketched the squid in our lab manual and labeled its parts.  One of the most fun things for the students to do was write with the squid’s ink.

 Here are some students’ comments:

“I loved doing it.  I thought it was really interesting.  I especially liked writing with squid ink.  The squid also had lots of cool parts like the tentacles and mouth.” –Emma B.

“It was really gross but also interesting to see the parts of the squid.” –Hallie A. 

-- Text and Photos by Jackie M. (Class of 2016)

Publish Post

March Madness - Student vs. Faculty Basketball Game

On Friday March 11, at 2:15 in the Gym, the Faculty took on the Students in the Annual March Madness Basketball Game. If the Middle School Students won, they would get an Out of Uniform Day. The Students were all pumped up, even for their warm ups. The Faculty was warming up, getting ready to defeat the students and earn their own Out of Uniform Day.

The Faculty took on the Eighth Grade students first. The Faculty went up by a few points, with the students tagging behind. The Eighth Graders tried their best to keep an even game.  When it was time for us, the Seventh Graders, to sub in for the Eighth Graders, the students were not too far behind. Representing the Seventh Grader, we did our best, trying to give the students some more points, but sadly did not. The Faculty went up by a lot more by the time the Sixth graders came in to relieve us. They tried and tried to bring us back, but the Faculty just went up more. The Eighth graders went back in for one last chance to win the game. They tried to bring us back a little bit, but did not bring us very far, not enough, anyway, to win the game.  The Faculty had a victory, and the students did not win their Out of Uniform Day.   

-- Text by Hailey M. ; Photos by Julianna M.

Money, Money, MOH-NAY!

Nylah A., Mimi N. and Emily O at JA Finance Park

It was such a fun learning experience to be able to go to JA Finance Park on Thursday, March 10, 2011. Throughout the last month in History class we learned about finance in the real world, such as credit and debit cards, stocks, and budgets. This program is not well known, in fact the GFS Middle School was the first class to participate in the pilot of the program. Everyone in the Seventh Grade was looking forward to this day and I know we all had a great time.

Biztown Center

The Day started off at 9:30 AM when we first entered Finance Park. It looked like a mini town, with streets, trees, and shops; for those of you have been there is was just like Biztown! We were all called to the center of the town where we were told about what we were going to do that day. First, we were assigned a home base, a place where you could organize your files and complete your expenses worksheets.

GFS Girls Balancing Their Budgets

Once we were there we were assigned a life card, this included your job, number of kids, marital status and income. I was very fortunate to get a good job. I was an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Compliance Officer and had a Gross Annual Income of $53,758. I had two kids (6 years and 9 years) and was single. I was lucky to get such a good job that paid well. Some people got Jobs like a Pet Caretaker and were paid as little of a Gross Annual Income of $20,000 a year. After we got our life scenarios, we began to budget the amount of money we could spend a month in categories like Housing, Transportation, Dinning Out and Electrical.

After we budgeted our money, we went around to all of the business to collect sheets explaining about what you could buy from this business. Next, with the sheets that we had collected, we decided the amounts we wanted to spend in each category. For Example, the worksheet for housing showed you six housing options within your price range that you could purchase. Lastly, we went back to all the businesses to make our final payments.

Overall, Finance Park was a fun and educational learning experience.

As Julianna M. said, “It was a great experience and an important life lesson.”

Also Jackie M. commented, "I thought it was really cool the way it was set up. It taught what I need to know to do when I am older and gave me an important life lesson. I think it is a topic that everyone should know, because after college you will have to use it.”

I’m sure we will be able to put this knowledge to good use in the future!

-- Text and Photos by Emily O. (Class of 2016)

So You Think You Can Lead?

Joining Forum or having a role in leadership can help you throughout your educational career and even afterwards. There are multiple leadership roles such as Class President and Vice President, Honor Board, President and Vice President of the Middle School, Forum Reps, Light/Dark Spirit or Cheerleaders and Communications Director. Depending on what grade you are in determines what leadership roles you can hold.

In 6^th grade you can run for everything listed except for President or Vice President of the Middle School and Communications Director of the Middle School. Similar to 6^th grade, in 7^th grade you can run for all of the roles except for President or Vice President of the Middle School again but this year Communications Director of the Middle School is open to only 7^th graders. In 8^th grade you can run for anything except for Communications Director of the Middle School but don’t worry! There are Communications Directors for the individual grades also. There are many roles to run for depending on how you want to lead your class or the Middle School.

This year the current Middle School President, Vice President, Honor Board Rep, and Communications Director are (in that order) Isabelle T., Allie D. , Kiki D. and Brooke F. I currently hold the Vice President of the 7^th grade class with the 7^th grade class President, Julianna M. When you are in Forum a basic routine is going to Forum once every two weeks for a brief meeting on new ideas and ways to improve our school. The weeks we don’t have Forum, we have class meetings to explain to the class about what is happening that week. It is similar to Morning Meeting, but the class is asked questions and sometimes we vote on how we should do certain things. One of the most favorable things about being in a leadership role is that you have a bigger say in what happens in the Middle School. 

Depending on what role you want to pursue, you can help the middle change in so many ways! You can help the environment, animals, shelters, and even the Middle School itself! I hope you are inspired to fill a leadership role next year. It is always a new and fun experience!

 -- Text and Photos by Sarah R. (Class of 2016)