MHS Newsletter

October 19, 2018

Hi All,

This week's newsletter is a special STEM/STEAM edition in honor of STEM Week, October 22nd through October 26th. Please scroll down and take a look at a few sample lessons that illustrate the learning going on at MHS!

8th Grade Opportunities Night is taking place on October 25th starting at 6:30PM in the Auditorium. We invite parents and guardians of rising 9th grade students (current 8th grade students) to explore MHS and learn more about our academic and extra curricular programming.

Reminder... MHS Spirit Week is going down the week of October 29th with a pep rally at the end of the school day that Friday. Your very own STUCO and a team of committed MHS educators have been hard at work... rumor has it that the teachers may be performing a dance routine...

Have a fabulous week!

Best regards,

Mary Watkins

Shreya Ahuja was selected as a 2018 Massachusetts Aspirations in Computing Honorable Mention Awardee by the National Center for Women & Information Technology. She was recognized at a statewide award ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology earlier this year. Mansfield High School recently received a glass trophy to display in recognition of Shreya's achievement. Pictured are Shreya and Mrs. Prester, her nominating teacher. Congratulations, Shreya! We are so proud of you!!

Engineering students in Mrs. Elofson's Introduction to Engineering classes are putting their creativity and math to work in designing the World's Best Organizer. Students use quick mock-ups and drawings to communicate their design ideas. Students will be using SketchUp Pro to create CAD drawings.

Ms. Kenny attended the MassCUE technology conference last year and walked away wondering how she could use the ideas she learned to make poetry more "hands on" for students in her English classes... as a result, her students are now using Legos to explore sonnet structure. Students are creating poetry Lego models to illustrate rhyme scheme, syllable count, and stanza division. Shakespeare.. no problem!

Entrepreneurship students participated in the popular Marshmallow Challenge, seen here in Tom Wujec's TED Talk. Students were tasked with building the tallest structure to lift a marshmallow off of the table, engaging them in team building skills, critical thinking, problem-solving methods, and the engineering design process.

Students in Ms. Sclafani's classes started the year with a boat building float off! Students were given 15 minutes and a limited supply of resources to try to build a boat that would hold as many pennies as possible before sinking. The boat with the lowest cost per penny won. Students had a blast refining their teamwork and problem-solving skills.

Students in Ms. Sclafani's classes studied qualitative vs quantitative measurements by examining "Coolness Graphs" (www.coolnessgraphed.com). Students discussed how coolness, though qualitative, can be quantified by displaying it graphically and adding a scale. Students then tried their own hand at creating coolness graphs. See the linked tweet for photos (we even got a retweet by artist RC Jones, who created the website!)

https://twitter.com/nas196/status/1048328101694980098

The Computer Science Club had its first two meetings of the year and are now up to 22 in attendance! Biweekly meetings are planned on Tuesday following monthly themes determined by President, Nishanth Potturu, Secretary, Amr Melhem, and public relations officer, Connor Peavey. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, October 23rd in Mrs. Elofson's room 171. All are welcome!

Interested in learning how to code? Here's a pic from last Wednesday's "Girls Who Code" meeting. All are welcome! See Ms. Jarvis or Ms. Sclafani for more information.

Students, consider writing and recording an audio essay for the VFW's "Voice of Democracy" audio essay competition.

Theme: "Why My Vote Matters"

Record and submit your original 3 to 5 minute essay

Enter to win Audio Essay Competition Grand Prize scholarship of $30,000!

Visit http://www.vfw.org/VOD, or reach out to the Mansfield VFW, Voice of Democracy Chairman, at VFW Post 3264 at 61morrissey@comcast.net for more details.

Buy now and save $$$! Books are on sale for $63 until Halloween, October 31. Go to https://www.yearbookordercenter.com/index.cfm/general/homepage?portal=true

Senior Parents: Senior portraits and blurbs are due by October 31st. Please go to mansfieldhighschoolyearbook.com for more information and links for submitting.

At the Mansfield Public Schools, student safety is top priority. At the present time, we recognize the need to improve the conditions during student drop off in the morning at MHS and QMS. Effective Monday, November 5, vehicles will not be aloud to enter the “bus loop” between 6:45 am and 7:25 am. Students at MHS should be dropped off either at the side entrance by the Athletic Wing or from the East Street parking spots which were created for this purpose. We thank you for your understanding!

Mary Watkins, Principal

Zachary Abrams, Assistant Director, Special Education

Abigail Barlas, Assistant Principal, Student Support Services

Joshua Fogel, Assistant Principal, Grades 10 & 12

Timothy Tichacek, Assistant Principal, Grades 9 &11

Email: firstname.lastname@mansfieldschools.com
Website: http://mhs.mansfieldschools.com/
Location: 250 East Street, Mansfield, MA, USA
Phone: (508) 261-7540
Twitter: @MHShornets