Mini Maker Fridays

Mini Maker Fridays are AWESOME!

From Candy Corn flying across the room to glowing creepy cords, mini maker fridays are awesome! I went there just today, and had the best thirty minutes of my life! We made circuits, shot candy corn onto the board, and had a great time!

When I came up to the PRISM room, it was covered with tape that said Enter at your own Risk. I had to accept the risks, but it was worth it! We were building random electrical circuits, awesome dark action, and more! Some students wore GoPro cameras as well, but the footage is still being uploaded...
#MiniMakerFridays

Halloween - A Candy Fest!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween began as a festival to ward off the spirits of the dead several centuries today. We have come to know it today as a festival of costumes, pumpkins and candy.

Did you know that Halloween is the day when the largest amount of candy is consumed in the United States? This year candy sales is expected to $2.23 billion during Halloween.On an average, kids consume about 3 cups of sugar (3500 - 7000 calories) worth of candies just in that one night. That is as much as 144 teaspoons of sugar! Compare this against a recommended daily sugar quota of 9 teaspoons! If you think it is not too much, think of it this way -  a 100-pound child who eats 7,000 calories worth of candy would have to walk for almost 44 hours or play full-court basketball for 14.5 hours to burn all that sugar! If you don’t burn that off, it will accumulate as fat in your body. Don’t forget those dental cavities either!

That doesn't mean one shouldn't trick-or-treat. It is a great way to hang out with friends for sure... Some of that walking on Halloween will actually even do us a lot of good! But we can always choose to pass up on candy and just enjoy the decorations... However, if that need for sugar is too much, the key is to be responsible and become aware of how much candy is being eaten and moderate it. It is our body after all!

Enjoy Halloween Responsibly!

Here is a link to an info-graphic that illustrates the amount of sugar consumed on Halloween. Don't forget to check it out!

Attention FPS Participants!

Attention FPS Participants!

     Just a reminder that your first practice problems are due on Halloween! I'm sure you all did a great job!*   

P.S. # HappyHalloween!

P.P.S. #GMOPumkinsDon'tTasteThatBad

*Assuming your team actually worked on the problem....

Food Day Article from Princeton Packet

PLAINSBORO: Community Middle School student organizes Food Day

By Jennifer Kohlhepp, Staff Writer Published on Tuesday, October 28, 2014 12:33 PM EDT  PLAINSBORO — Candy isn’t the only thing that’s sweet this time of year. During Food Day at Community Middle School, students learned about the sweet winter squash pumpkin, which can be used in pies, muffins and bread. Lori Appelgat of Appelgat Farm in West Windsor demonstrated how to remove pumpkin flesh while her assistant, Virginia Perry-Unger of Lambertville, gave kids bags of pumpkin seeds roasted in honey, nutmeg, clove, salt and cinnamon. All of this happened while Tilly, one of the farm’s chickens, looked on. "Basically Food Day started off as an idea stemming from one of our Gifted and Talented students — Akila Saravanan, an eighth-grader who started this idea last year in April 2013. She participated in the 2014 National History Day project on food and food lab and wanted to continue the topic and make a difference in the school. She also applied for a West Windsor-Plainsboro Education Foundation grant and was awarded grant money, which she used to have posters made," Principal Shauna Carter said. Thirteen-year-old Akila started the project under the direction of Prism Gifted and Talented teacher Karen Rosnick, who has since retired, and continued it with the help of new Prism Gifted and Talented teacher Rebecca McLelland-Crawley. She also engaged Life Skills teacher Alicia Buck in the project. "The adults helped Akila make connections with local farmers," Principal Carter said. "She also worked with our cafeteria manager so like most other days students have healthy choices. Today we have more healthy choices."Akila’s project also consists of a website for teachers to use as a resource for finding ways to incorporate "eating fresh foods and making healthy choices" into their classroom curriculums. In the Gifted and Talented classroom that day, Ms. McLelland-Crawley taught a lesson on scenario writing, picking "processed foods" as the essay topic to go along with the theme of Food Day. She presented her students with an apple from this year’s harvest and a 2034 apple, which was gigantic and had cracked skin. "We’re writing a creative 1,500 word short stories on the future of our food," she said. After looking in on the various Food Day activities going on in the school, Akila spoke about what inspired her to organize Food Day.  "I learned a lot about healthy eating and the secrets behind the junk food that we eat and it completely changed my eating habits," she said. "It’s important to me that if I learn something the people around me know it to."

Exploring the Outdoor Classroom

We explored the Outdoor Classroom yesterday afternoon with the Environmental Club. We went on a scavenger hunt and were able to experience nature right outside of our building. Some of the students also wore the GoPro cameras and took footage of their explorations!

See it from their perspective.

Scenario Writers Only

So...  What topics are all scenario writers doing?  I'm not trying to steal your idea, I already came up with mine.  Anyway, if you want to post your topic and plot-ish thing here.

PS.  Mine is on the impact of social media.  Not saying anything else :)

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog, where we plan to share with you the unique investigations and research conducted by the gifted middle school students of PRISM.