This week Rainbow Community School will be participating in Strive Not to Drive Week. This initiative started back in 1991 as Bike to Work day with the goal of encouraging bicycle commuting in Buncombe County.
From Friday, May 15th to Friday the 22nd, our community will be striving not to drive by either taking the bus, walking, riding a bicycle or joining a car share.
You can find more information about Strive Not to Drive on their official website here
Did you ever go to a symposium at a convention center as a kid? Like a space symposium?
Because that’s what the science fair was like. All the classrooms transformed into exposition sites, complete with beautiful posters, and display boards of colorful, imaginative, and quite advanced scientific experiments and investigations last week.
Every class at Rainbow had a chance to visit other classrooms to see what other students did. In fact, each class played host, and each class visited all the other classrooms on campus and listened while other students presented their work.
Here you can see Omega visiting the fifth grade classroom. Not only were the fifth graders great presenters, but they also had the Omegans quite interested in what they were doing!
In fourth grade, many more fun and innovative projects characterized the classroom. Fourth graders presented to second grade. It’s simply amazing how well fourth grade presented and how attentive second grade was!
Wouldn’t you like to know more about “What does and does not conduct electricity?” Yeah, we were interested, too.
All around, these projects were quite sophisticated and complex. Each student investigated what interested him or her. To be sure, they take the meaning, “citizen scientist” to a whole new level!
In the video below, we focus on two third grade presenters. Their projects show such in-depth research!
Another third grader looked at hovercraft and if the amount of air in them affected how they float:
And really, does corn syrup actually make bubbles last longer? You’d think so, right?
You’ll have to ask the third grade to find out! How’s that for a cliffhanger?
Over in Omega, you could get a glimpse into how well you read emotions if you’re not looking at someone’s whole face to take in all the information:
And take a look at the Omega classroom itself. It looked like a veritable convention center of scientists and peers at work!
We have so many more fun photos to share! The photos below are courtesy of Sheila Mraz. She was all over campus snapping photos of all the exhibits and presentations.
And we have a resident photographer on campus! The following photos were taken by Ban, one of our Omega students!
You can really capture a glimpse of the breadth, scope and sophistication of these science projects. They’re a big deal around here.
Now, if you have any questions, just ask one of our citizen scientists!
Imagine students who are leaders.
Students with high social-emotional intelligence.
Students who express deep levels of empathy.
That’s exactly what we’re fostering at Rainbow and we are now part of the Ashoka Changemaker Network. Rainbow is one of 44 schools across the country to have this honor, because of our innovation and desire to exact social change.
Ashoka Changemaker Schools
www.startempathy.org
We became an Ashoka Changemaker school because we are committed to addressing the needs of our community through developing empathy, teamwork, problem-solving and leadership skills in our students.
As Bill Drayton, founder and CEO of Ashoka, says:
Once a young person has had a dream, built a team and changed his or her world, he or she has the power to express love and respect in action. He or she will become a changemaker for life – a real contributor in a world where value no longer comes from efficiency in repetition, as it has for millennia.
Ashoka works to identify social entrepreneurs around the world. The world needs people who have the mindset for problem-solving capabilities. The Changemaker initiative looks for schools in the U.S. and abroad who exemplify these ideals. In conjunction with schools and leaders around the world, people can become changemakers.
The goal is “Everyone a Changemaker” – a world where people can quickly identify social issues and effectively address them – because they have the knowledge, freedom, and a support network to bring about needed change.
Rainbow Mountain Children’s School’s executive director, Renee Owen, has been chosen as one of ten “Educators of Excellence” in North Carolina to travel to Ecuador this summer with the Museum of Natural Science. The Educators of Excellence Institute programs are designed to give deserving educators an opportunity to learn about the ecology and natural history of other regions. Educators of Excellence Institutes are a learning opportunity for teachers who want to pass on to their students the ability to envision themselves as part of the global web of life.
Renee’s Ecuadoran adventure will be from June 18 – 26. She and her fellow educators will spend time at the Heifer International’s alpaca farm in the highlands of Ecuador, learning about Heifer’s innovative program to reduce poverty in the region. The group will have several days in different regions of Ecuador, learning its natural history. One location is the Isla de la Platas, which is home to many of the same wildlife as the Galapagos Islands. In Palmar, on the Southwestern coast of Ecuador, the group will be working in a rural school teaching classes and working with students and teachers. The team of teachers will meet again in Raleigh, in October, to purchase educational materials for the Ecuador school and design lessons for the 2013 “Educators in Excellence” team.
Congratulations, Renee, for this honor. We are excited for your adventure. If you would like to follow Renee’s trip through Ecuador, the group will be posting a daily blog at http://ecuadorinstitute.wordpress.com. Renee is looking forward to sharing lessons and information about Ecuador and Heifer International with families and students at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School both on the blog and when school starts back up in the fall.
“From the mouth’s of babes…” What a POWERFUL speaker. This girl reminds me of some of the young people who have graduated from Rainbow Mountain.
~Renee Owen (Executive Director)
PS. The video is slightly out of focus, but totally worth it.
Come by for a tour today!
