PAGE of Wake County

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Morning Classes:

AM (Grades K-2) Ecosystems and Terrariums
Calling Dr. Young-Scientist! Budding biologists and nature lovers will learn about the environment and Earth’s ecosystems in this earth science class. We will cover animal life cycles, environmental features such as lakes and mountains, and weather patterns such as earthquakes and volcanoes. Students will gain new knowledge and apply it as they build a terrarium ecosystem of their own to take home!

AM (Grades K-4) LEGO WeDo Robotics
LEGO robotics is a fun and easy way to learn about robots. Small groups will build, program and exercise their models through various challenges. Students will progress through activities designed to teach programming, engineering, sensors, and feedback. It’s an action-packed, fun-filled Robo-class! Note: This class uses LEGO WeDo Robots, which are designed for elementary aged students. For more information on these robots, please see LEGO’s website.

AM (Grades K-8) Tennis
Tennis is a game of angles and momentum, force and acceleration. You have to think and solve problems on your feet! Whether you are just learning the game or already proficient, this class will help you polish your tennis skills and teach you to optimize your game. Wear comfortable clothes with tennis shoes and bring a towel and water bottle. If you need a racquet, we’ll have them, or bring your own. Come play with us!

AM (Grades 2-5) Beekeeping for Kids
How much do you know about bees? Do you know how important they are to us? What would life be like without bees? In this class we will look at the basics of beekeeping. We will see what beekeeping is all about, examine what equipment is used, and learn why bees are so important to our society. *Note to parents: This class will be using an observation hive, which is a frame with bees and wax inside a glass case. There will be live bees but they will be contained. Anyone with allergies should use their judgement.

AM (Grades 3-5) Write Your Own Fairy Tale
Do you like stories about magic and mystery, heroes and villains, beautiful castles and dangerous forests? Would you like to write one of your own? In this class, you will learn about fairy tales and look at different versions from different countries. You will then interpret and rewrite a fairy tale in your own book to take home! If you like to write and you like fairy tales, this is the class for you!

AM (Grades 3-8) LEGO Mindstorms
In this class students will be introduced to the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robotics kit. They will work in small groups with other students to explore NXT-G programming and the use of sensors. Students will exercise their new skills throughout the class with challenges.
Instructor: Wuchen Jong

AM (Grades 3-8) Build Your Own Crystal Radio
Do you want to learn how a radio works and how just some pipe, wire and your finger will make a radio like the one in your car? In this class, students will make their own crystal radio out of these common elements. They will be able to pick up local AM stations using just the radio they build and their fingers! Students will work in groups to complete their radios and will be able to take them home.

AM (Grades 3-8) Knitting
Do you know that there is always a knitting panel at the Mathematics Association annual conference? And that a mathematician who is a knitter recently knitted a solution to a topology problem? Knitting can be an exercise in creativity, dexterity, number theory and spatial dynamics. In this class, your budding knitter will be introduced to the fundamentals of knitting and will start a project to continue at home. Knitting needles and yarn will be provided and will go home with you. So get casting!

AM (Grades 4-8) Travel Log Writing
When you travel, you want to tell everyone where you went and what you did. A travel log is a great way to do that! In this class, you will learn how to record your adventures for your friends to read and marvel at and for you to remember and cherish. We will learn about some special places you can visit, like the NC Zoo, and how you can use your new skills to share with your loved ones and preserve your experience forever!

Afternoon Classes:

PM (Grades K-4) LEGO WeDo Robotics
LEGO robotics is a fun and easy way to learn about robots. Small groups will build, program and exercise their models through various challenges. Students will progress through activities designed to teach programming, engineering, sensors, and feedback. It’s an action-packed, fun-filled Robo-class! Note: This class uses LEGO WeDo Robots, which are designed for elementary aged students. For more information on these robots, please see LEGO’s website.

PM (Grades K-8) Tennis
Tennis is a game of angles and momentum, force and acceleration. You have to think and solve problems on your feet! Whether you are just learning the game or already proficient, this class will help you polish your tennis skills and teach you to optimize your game. Wear comfortable clothes with tennis shoes and bring a towel and water bottle. If you need a racquet, we’ll have them, or bring your own. Come play with us!

PM (Grades 2-3) IMACS Summer Camp Sampler
Students will rotate through three different IMACS programs – Logic Puzzles, Computer Programming & Virtual Robotics, and Electronics. Students are immersed in fun-filled academic pursuits such as playing strategic logic games, designing and building electronic devices, and programming computers. In Logic Puzzles, mysteries of pure logic are presented in fun, compelling stories. Computer Programming & Virtual Robotics gives students a taste of writing computer programs! With guidance, students learn basic programming and problem-solving skills, which are applied in the IMACS Virtual Robotics Lab, where programmable, configurable robots exist in a virtual world that contains the physical realities of friction, acceleration, and conservation of momentum. In Electronics, students learn about electrical components and use them to construct a project (which they will bring home).

PM (Grades 3-5) Write Your Own Fairy Tale
Do you like stories about magic and mystery, heroes and villains, beautiful castles and dangerous forests? Would you like to write one of your own? In this class, you will learn about fairy tales and look at different versions from different countries. You will then interpret and rewrite a fairy tale in your own book to take home! If you like to write and you like fairy tales, this is the class for you!

PM (Grades 3-8) Knitting
Do you know that there is always a knitting panel at the Mathematics Association annual conference? And that a mathematician who is a knitter recently knitted a solution to a topology problem? Knitting can be an exercise in creativity, dexterity, number theory and spatial dynamics. In this class, your budding knitter will be introduced to the fundamentals of knitting and will start a project to continue at home. Knitting needles and yarn will be provided and will go home with you. So get casting!

PM (Grades 3-8) LEGO Mindstorms
In this class students will be introduced to the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robotics kit. They will work in small groups with other students to explore NXT-G programming and the use of sensors. Students will exercise their new skills throughout the class with challenges.
Instructor: Wuchen Jong

PM (Grades 3-8) Build Your Own Crystal Radio
Do you want to learn how a radio works and how just some pipe, wire and your finger will make a radio like the one in your car? In this class, students will make their own crystal radio out of these common elements. They will be able to pick up local AM stations using just the radio they build and their fingers! Students will work in groups to complete their radios and will be able to take them home.

PM (Grades 4-5) IMACS Summer Camp Sampler
Students will rotate through three different IMACS programs – Logic Puzzles, Computer Programming & Virtual Robotics, and Electronics. Students are immersed in fun-filled academic pursuits such as playing strategic logic games, designing and building electronic devices, and programming computers. In Logic Puzzles, mysteries of pure logic are presented in fun, compelling stories. Computer Programming & Virtual Robotics gives students a taste of writing computer programs! With guidance, students learn basic programming and problem-solving skills, which are applied in the IMACS Virtual Robotics Lab, where programmable, configurable robots exist in a virtual world that contains the physical realities of friction, acceleration, and conservation of momentum. In Electronics, students learn about electrical components and use them to construct a project (which they will bring home).

PM (Grades 4-8) Techsplorers: Outer Space Siren
An experienced electrical engineer from Techsplorers will guide students to build an electronic musical instrument that you play without touching! Add a few more electrical components and you can turn it into a police siren! Along the way we’ll also teach you some of the electrical engineering theory behind how it works. Learn about Ohm’s Law, voltage, current, resistors, capacitors, and the 555 Timer Integrated Circuit chip! This is a really fun class and a great way to get started with electronics hobbying! OPTIONAL: If you would like to keep your project at the end of class, you may choose to bring an additional $20 to be given directly to the instructor to cover the cost of the electronic components.

PM (Grades 4-8) Modular Origami
Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. But from it’s traditional beginnings, origami has grown to be both an art and a field of mathematics. In this class, students will learn a new type of origami called modular origami, from which they can make geometric shapes of dizzying complexity. After learning the Sonobe unit, the basic building block of this type of modular origami, the students will learn to put the units together to make a cube, an octahedron and an icosahedron. After that, the only limit is their imagination. . .

PM (Grades 4-8) Travel Log Writing
When you travel, you want to tell everyone where you went and what you did. A travel log is a great way to do that! In this class, you will learn how to record your adventures for your friends to read and marvel at and for you to remember and cherish. We will learn about some special places you can visit, like the NC Zoo, and how you can use your new skills to share with your loved ones and preserve your experience forever!

PM (Grades 6-8) IMACS Summer Camp Sampler
Students will rotate through three different IMACS programs – Logic Puzzles, Computer Programming & Virtual Robotics, and Electronics. Students are immersed in fun-filled academic pursuits such as playing strategic logic games, designing and building electronic devices, and programming computers. In Logic Puzzles, mysteries of pure logic are presented in fun, compelling stories. Computer Programming & Virtual Robotics gives students a taste of writing computer programs! With guidance, students learn basic programming and problem-solving skills, which are applied in the IMACS Virtual Robotics Lab, where programmable, configurable robots exist in a virtual world that contains the physical realities of friction, acceleration, and conservation of momentum. In Electronics, students learn about electrical components and use them to construct a project (which they will bring home).

Congratulations to all of the participants in the 2013 spelling bee! You all showed tremendous determination, courage and perseverance during a very long and intense day!

First Place: Ethan Wagner – St. Michael’s School
Second Place: Liliane Watkins – Thales Academy
Third Place: Jack Cicin – Lufkin Road Middle School

Good luck to Ethan as he travels to Washington, DC for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May!

Here are files with information for the Spelling Bee contestants.

website letter 1

Scripps parent letter prior to bee

The 3^rd Annual PAGE of Wake County Spelling Bee will be held on February 23^rd at the McKimmon Conference Center, North Carolina State University, 1101 Gorman Street, Raleigh, NC 27606.   The doors open at 8:00am and the bee begins at 8:30am.  It is open to the public so feel free to come watch!

This bee is part of the Scripps National Spelling Bee Program and the winner will go on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC in May, 2013.

The format of the Bee will be as follows.  We will have a morning and an afternoon session.  The day will begin with registration at 8am, then the morning bee rounds at 8:30am.  All rounds are oral single-elimination rounds.  When we get down to around 20 finalists or by 11:30am, whichever comes first, we will break for lunch.

The afternoon Championship Finals will begin at 1pm and continue until we have our winner.  Immediately following the finals, we will have an awards ceremony to bestow prizes and then have time for media.

For study materials or more information about the Scripps National Spelling Bee program, go to spellingbee.com.  If you are already a school champion, you should get information on studying from your school bee coordinator, including the 2013 Spell It! Booklet and the grades 1-8 word lists.  Remember that the bee will include words not on these lists.  Therefore, you will want to study spelling patterns and word roots, not just individual words.  Also, be sure to familiarize yourself with the Rules of Local Spelling Bees.

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to thank everyone who came out to Super Saturday on November 17th.  The classes were packed, the parent sessions were lively and there was a wonderful energy in the air.  Thank you for supporting PAGE as it seeks to serve our gifted students, their families and our community.  It was a great day!!