District News
·May 1: Orefield Middle School Chorus Concert, high school auditorium, 7 p.m.
·May 2: Springhouse Middle School Chorus Concert, Parkland high school auditorium, 7 p.m.
·May 3: Community Resource Fair, Asbury United Methodist Church 11 a.m.-2 p.m.; Parkland Football Booster Club Golf Classic, Southmoore Golf Course. For information, go to e-sportsclubs.com.
Achievements and Announcements
A team of four elementary students led by Ironton fifth grade teacher Tiffany Houser, entered the first K'Nex STEM Design Challenge (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in the Lehigh Valley and won first place.
This means they will compete at state level in May.
The challenge students faced was to create an environmentally friendly people mover out of K'Nex pieces.
Students could not exceed 1,400 pieces and had to include at least one motor.
The team of Pierce Bell, Luke Gutman, Prathysha Kothare and Blake Ziegler created the E-Line Nalis (elevator and zip-line, and Nalis which is Latin for thinker).
Their idea was inspired by Curiosity, a Mars rover considered a self-thinker for its ability to land and make adjustments without NASA.
Their system consists of a working elevator, zip-line and vehicle.
In addition to all of the above, students contacted local companies such as Krause Toyota, CNG Applications, and Wildlands Conservancy to develop their research on environmental components to fit their system.
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Parkway Manor fifth grader Emily Gardner took third place in the ninth annual Lehigh Valley Press Student Poetry Contest.
The contest was open to all Lehigh Valley elementary, middle school, and high school public, parochial, private, charter, cyber and home-school students in the circulation areas of the Lehigh Valley Press newspapers. Her poem was titled "Winter."
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Solomon Frankel, the grandfather of a 10th grade student, spoke to 10th grade American Studies classes and spoke about his life and survival of the Holocaust during World War II.