Five teams from Penn High School qualified for the nationals in the Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science competition. The nationals are scheduled for June 28-July 1 in Nashville, Tenn.

Sponsored by Penn High School Math instructor Becky Tagliaferri, Penn students excelled in the regional TEAMS competition. Each team consists of eight students working together to solve an engineering problem. The regional competition has two parts, the awards were for part one, and part two is a written/design portion.

“I am so proud of these students and their desire to learn about engineering,” Tagliaferri said of Penn’s national qualifiers. “This really says a lot about our math/science program here at Penn.”

Penn’s TEAMS state champs in the 11/12 division – Megha Devaraj (team captain), Jack Bao, David Kim, Matt Shan, Edward Atkinson, Olivia Mercurio, Kanika Arora and Yejee Oh lead the Kingsmen contingent in the national competition.

Other Penn qualifiers for the nationals include:

Team E (fourth in the state): Jewon Oh (team captain), Peter Jung, Presto George, Riley Vreeke, Tim Porsche, Nick Thurin, Hannah McGinness, Michelle Tapp.

Team B (fifth in the state): Josh Zhao (team captain), Rachel Casetti, Nick Casetti, Baker Nasser, Chris Yun, Muqsit Buchh, Audrey Murray, Eric Pfrender.

Team C (12^th in the state): Julia Kwak (team captain), Peter Rutkowski, Vishal Patel, Andrew Bernard, Annaliza Canda, Mason Lee, Alex Dobbins, Monesh Devireddy.

Team A (fifth in the state): Tina Liu (team captain), Chelsea Chen, Rebecca Yuan, Keegan Palonis, Leah Ingle, Celine Wang, Amy Bernard, Priya Chaudhary.

By ARIELLE KIRSCH

Penn High School student reporter

On April 21 and 22 at 6:30 p.m., Penn High School students will perform this year’s children’s play, “Gooney Bird Greene”.  Taking place in the Studio Theater, the show tells the story of a quirky yet extraordinary girl who uses her creativity for good as she becomes a new student at her school.

Caroline Carrier, the Penn sophomore who has the role of Gooney Bird Greene, speaks very highly of the show and the experiences it has brought to her and the other actors.

“The most exciting part of playing the lead is getting to be so involved in all of the different scenes,” Carrier said. “It's a lot of fun getting to be a big part of something so unique and enjoyable.”

Directed by Penn High School teacher David Dutton, the play features fun scenes and crazy stories.  It is an interactive show directed towards audiences with children, and will be exceptionally entertaining for people of all ages.

Carrier has been involved in theatre productions since the age of 9, and she has been cast in numerous shows throughout her short high school career.

“Gooney Bird Greene has been a blast,” Carrier said. “It's a great show with a great cast, and we've made it the best it can be since day one.”

Tickets can be purchased for $5 at www.ticketracker.com or at the door.

Parents, show your support for Penn High’s leadership AND help raise money for your child's school.

At the P-H-M Education Foundation’s 20^th Anniversary Gala on April 23, P-H-M principals will perform Vaudeville-style acts, competing against other P-H-M school teams. 

All the acts will be unique and definitely entertaining, but only one team—the one with the most votes—will win the PHaMmy award!

Here’s how you can help raise money for your school:

• Votes cost $10 each and you can cast multiple votes between now and the evening of the Gala.
• 50% of what each team raises will go directly back to that team’s schools!
• The first 100 votes for each team will be matched dollar for dollar by Gary Fox of Crowe Horwath.   (Mr. Fox is P-H-M Board of School Trustees President and an Education Foundation Board Member.)

   

Does Principal Steve Hope and his talented team deserve your vote?

You bet they do! Just watch the video.

►START VOTING TODAY & give TEAM ONE a head start! Follow these easy steps:

1. Click "Browse, Bid and Buy – View Items"
2. ​Click "Register” to create a Gesture account 
3. Vote for TEAM ONE (Auction Item #101)

Check here daily to see how the votes are coming in, and which team’s in the lead!

►WATCH LIVE STREAM OF THE GALA PERFORMANCES (Sat., April 23, 7:30 p.m.) on the Penn News Network—then vote again! Votes will be tallied and a winner announced at the end of the evening.

►PARTICIPATE IN THE SILENT AUCTION at the same “Browse, Bid and Buy” page where you cast your votes. Check out the many attractive items being offered, then stay on top of the bidding to get what you want and benefit the Foundation.  

The P-H-M Education Foundation has many reasons to celebrate its 20 years of service to the P-H-M community.  Since 1996, the Foundation has distributed more than $520,000 to our schools and classrooms via innovative teaching grants. The Foundation also uses proceeds to underwrite district activities with widespread impact such as “Running is Elementary” and the “Summer Visual Arts Academy.”  Its mission: To support excellence in education.

A vote for TEAM ONE is a vote for excellence in education!

​           

The Black Knights placed 10th overall and received the “Regional Engineering Inspiration Award” at the Indiana State Championships, held in Kokomo on April 14-16, 2016.

Placing in the top ten secures their place at the FIRST World Championship competition (April 27-30, St. Louis), and winning the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award resulted in a $5,000 grant from NASA to cover that competition’s entry fee! 

The Regional Engineering Inspiration award was given in recognition of “outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community.” 

The nearly 40-member student team has won awards at the two other competitions they’ve participated in this season. They won the “Judges’ Award” at the Tippecanoe District Tournament (West Lafayette, Ind.) March 11-13.  They also received the “District Engineering Inspiration Award” at the Perry Meridian District Tournament (Indianapolis) March 24-26.

Members of the 2015-2016 team include: Conrad Adams, Edward Atkinson, Sam Battalio, Jacob Bobson, Soren Campbell, Kayla Cole, Chris Dell, Adam Dewey, Alec Evans, Austin Finnessy, Aaron Fish, Kenny Ham, Cole Harding, Lizzie Heisler, Cason Jones, Chase Kidder, Bayley Lackie, Jimmy Leibengood, Alexis Marks, Jenni Muñoz, Aileen Norton, Tyler Nowak, Aidan Palonis, Nathan Petrie, Connor Russell, Frank Salek, Caitlin Stabelfeldt, Tyler Styles, Conner Swift, Andrew Umbaugh, Zach Varmette, Blake Witchie, Evan Witous, David Wojciechowski, Brandon Wood, and Brandon Ziegert. 

 The team is very appreciative of their Penn Faculty Coordinators Jim Langfeldt and Josiah Parker, as well as many adult mentors who graciously volunteer their time and talent:  Holly Austin, Joe Bishop, Allie Bishop, Grant Carlile, Andy Edelbrock, Tom Evans, Liz Kindelan, Tom Leathers, Jacob Pelletier, Troy Stablefeldt, Bob Stevenson, Robin Varmette, Andrew Whiteman, Bill Whiteman and Don Zmudzinski.

Through participation in FIRST Robotics Competition, the Penn robotics students experience the excitement of science, engineering, technology and innovation. They build life capabilities such as self-confidence, communication and leadership, while also qualifying for over $25 million in college scholarships! 

And Team 135 gives back to the community through various problem-based learning projects. In May 2015, several team members collaborated with other Penn students to build a prosthetic arm using a 3-D printer for Madison Elementary School third grader Grace Hildreth. “The Hand of Grace” project received widespread recognition and media coverage locally, across the state, and even nationally. 

Also a part of Team 135’s regular activities are visits to P-H-M’s elementary and middle schools to inspire younger students and invoke interest in STEM classes and activities and eventual careers.

Team 135 is thankful for its community sponsors who have provided ongoing support, along with grants from the Penn-Harris-Madison Education Foundation. It takes a total of $70,000 to fund the championship team’s endeavors for the competition season, and the students have been busy raising money since last August. 

Funding is still needed to cover the costs not only for the expensive supplies it takes to build the robots (such as aluminum, batteries, and control system components), as well as travel expenses for the entire team.

Please check out the team’s website to see other accomplishments, view videos of the team in action, or find the donation link:  http://www.team135.org/

School will be in session at Penn High School on Friday, April 29, 2016.

This is the make-up day for the Feb. 25, 2016 snow day.

The make-up day on Friday, April 29, 2016, will be a Gold Day.

On Wednesday, April 20, more than 300 Penn students will showcase their musical abilities in the spring band concert.

The event will take place at 7 p.m. in the Penn Center for Performing Arts. Tickets can be purchased online by clicking here or at all lunches Monday and Tuesday both for $5, or at the door for $6.

One concert selection entitled, “Angels in the Architecture”, will feature a vocalist and a massive church pipe organ, according to band director, Mr. Northern.

The concert will also showcase a variety of other music, so there will surely be something for every music taste.

Penn High School’s Robotics Team 135 is competing in the state tournament in Kokomo this weekend.

Team 135 won the "Judges' Award" from the March 11-13 district tournament in West Lafayette, Ind, and "Engineering Inspiration Award" from the March 24-26 event in Indianapolis.

Students of Penn High School’s Earth and Space Science class can put their hands in a sandbox and push the sand around to form various shapes.

But when Earth and Space Science class instructor Mark Watts turns on an augmented reality projector, colorful moraines, drumlins and kettle lakes spring to life. Snow appears on top of mountains formed out of the sand, and ripples wash across blue lakes.

Watts constructed an augmented reality sandbox that has students engaged in learning. Instead of struggling to visualize 3-D shapes from a flat map, the students are creating the 3-D shapes.

“It would be a lot harder to learn with just a 2-D map and a book, and it wouldn’t be as much fun,” Penn High School student Mitchell Spangler said. “On a map, it’s just flat. It’s a lot hard to visualize how it looks. With the augmented reality sandbox, it shows the topographic lines, but when we mold it, it shows how the different lines correspond with the different heights and the spacings.”

Watts’ wife, Penn World Languages Academy leader Kelley Watts, gets the assist for the engaging learning device.

“My wife found the information about the augmented reality sandbox on a Facebook page,” Watts said. “I contacted an instructor at the University of California-Davis, and he had a tutorial on how to set it up, and how to use the ‘Kinect’ camera from a PlayStation 3 for the video input, and then a regular projector for a computer. About the only thing it needs that is really special is a high-quality graphics card, because it actually simulates water and ripples and waves.”

In the augmented reality sandbox, colors contour to the elevation. The computer sees the sand in 3-D, and then a color-coded image is projected onto the top of the sand. As the sand shapes change, so does the color-coded map. Blue represents low areas, red represents high areas. White represents the highest elevations (snow on a mountain).

Students can demonstrate their learning from a two-dimensional map by showing it with the shapes they form in the sandbox.

“For common people, this would be an example of trying on clothes and seeing how they would be on your body type, your height, your width, your size and your weight, but you wouldn’t have to go on through all the hassle of trying on different types of clothes,” Watts said.

Watts put in about 40 hours constructing the device. It involved learning computer software and constructing a frame.

“That was not a small learning curve, but it wasn’t bad,” Watts said of learning computer code. “I really have to give credit to Oliver Kreylos at UC-Davis, who wrote the tutorial. It pretty much walked me though step-by-step.”

Spangler agreed with Watts that the augmented reality sandbox is a difference-maker in the classroom.

“The virtual reality sandbox gives us a visual on how topography affects different things, like movement of water, or other substances, such as lava,” Spangler said. “Other equipment can switch the settings to where the liquid falling off of the sand has the same viscosity as lava or even snow.

“It’s really helpful. It gives us a chance to use our hands to sculpt the environment and see how the rain might fall off of the slopes, or see how long it takes for snow to be permanent on top of a mountain. It allows us to experiment with the shapes of different features, because volcanoes can’t have a slope of more than 30 degrees, because they’re just sediment. We can find that out by pushing the sand together, and if it goes over a certain angle, then gravity will pull the loose sediments down. Because of that, it can only be at a low angle and still be stable.”

Watts said that he has many former students contact him about their learning experiences in Earth and Space Science class.

“One of the things that the kids who go into the armed services tell me is, ‘I thought we were done with that topographic map stuff, but the first thing we had to learn when we got into the service was how to read a topographical map.’ I grin and chuckle and say, ‘It is a good idea where you and everybody else are.’”

Watts said that the time he put into constructing the augmented reality sandbox has paid big dividends in the classroom.

“The students think it’s the coolest thing – for a good 10 minutes, I have their complete attention,” Watts laughed. “ If you’re trying to get a grade school or grammar school kid in earth and space science or geology, this would be just the thing to have them play around with.”

TECHNOVATION 2016—part of the IDOE’s Summer of eLearning conference series—is all about educators sharing what they have learned about using technology effectively in the classroom.  

The two-day conference (July 20 and 21) will be centered on the intentional placement and innovative practices of technology in the classroom.  The conference will be held at Penn High School (56100 Bittersweet Road, Mishawaka IN). All sessions and workshops will be designed to benefit K-12 educators and those who support instructional technology in school districts across northcentral Indiana. 

State Superintendent of Instruction Glenda Ritz will address conference attendees July 20, and Mr. George Couros will deliver the July 21 keynote address.  Couros is the Division Principal for Parkland School Division, Canada, and an Innovative Teaching, Learning, and Leadership consultant. Couros also recently released the book The Innovator’s Mindset and he hosts the website The Principal of Change.

Penn-Harris-Madison is pleased to host this conference for the second time. Last year the school district participated in the Summer of eLearning by hosting the one-day Technovation “Road Trip.” Over 300 attendees, speakers, volunteers and vendor-partners participated in the 2015 conference. 

Organizers anticipate that this year’s event will draw more than 400 people—all ready to share what they know about teaching and learning in the digital age!

WHAT TO EXPECT

July 20 – WORKSHOP DAY

• Day One will feature a keynote by Indiana State Superintendent Glenda Ritz, as well as half day workshops centered on use of technology in instruction. Lunch will be provided.

July 21 – CONCURRENT SESSIONS

• Day Two will feature a keynote by George Couros, author and leading educator in the areas of innovative leadership, teaching and learning. Also planned: Concurrent sessions and a chance to see what’s new in technology from our valued partners. Lunch will again be provided, as will opportunities to win door prizes!

►Find out more at the Technovation 2016 eLearning Conference Website

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

Register now for general admission using the link below.

►Register online at Technovation 2016 Attendee Registration

After May 1, go back online to see the schedule of sessions and workshops and reserve seating for the ones you would like to attend.

CALL FOR PRESENTERS

The strength of a conference is built on the quality of its sessions! We will be offering multiple concurrent sessions (approx. 50 min.) and workshops (approx.120 min.) spanning teacher, leadership and tech director strands.

If you would like to present at TECHNOVATION 2016, click on the link below to propose a session. We are looking for topics that are relevant across the K-12 spectrum and can engage beginning, intermediate and advanced adult learners. (Know that if demand for a particular session is low, that session may be removed from the schedule.)

Please share this opportunity with anyone you know who might be interested in presenting at TECHNOVATION 2016.

►Session Proposal Google Form 

James Kempa, a Penn High School senior and member of the Health & Human Services Academy, is one of only 14 high school students statewide to be recognized with the Indiana Career and Technical Education Award for Excellence.

This award is presented in recognition of outstanding achievement in scholarship, citizenship, leadership, employability, and technical skill proficiency.

James was nominated by Michelle Zachary, Emergency Medical Technician program instructor at the Elkhart Area Career Center. He was evaluated on a portfolio of academic, service and leadership activities, along with letters of recommendation.

James accepted his award at a ceremony in Indianapolis on February 23, 2016. Glenda Ritz, Indiana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, addressed the award winners at the event, congratulating them on their achievement.

“James is a very dedicated learner, and he is a born leader,” Zachary said of Kempa. “He helps the other students for the success of the whole group.” 

Kempa said that he is grateful that Penn offers him an early start on his career path. Kempa plans to be an emergency-room doctor. He will study medicine at Calvin College.

“Actually getting to start the process in high school of learning emergency-room medicine, which is my ultimate goal, is great,” Kempa said. “The most important thing we’ve learned is medical assessment, asking the questions and assessing the vital signs, so you get an idea of what’s going on with your patient. We’ve had some lecture, and some of the class is skills practice. We do a lot of scenario work, and we’ve done clinicals on the ambulances and in emergency rooms in the area.

“This is great that Penn offers its students a resource like the Elkhart Area Career Center,” Kempa said. “It’s an awesome opportunity, and I’m thankful for it.”

Among James' other achievements:

• Earning EMT certification through the EACC program
• Attaining American Heart Association, American Red Cross, and FEMA certifications
• Earning 13.5 dual college credits through Ivy Tech Community College
• Qualifying for both Academic and Technical Honors diplomas
• Member of the National Honor Society
• Member of the National Technical Honor Society
• Achieved rank of Eagle Scout, BSA
• Lettering all 4 years in a sanctioned sport
• Served as 2015-16 captain of the Penn Boys' Swim Team
• Participating in the German American Partnership Program (GAPP)

James attended Horizon Elementary and Discovery Middle Schools before attending Penn. Following graduation, he plans to attend Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI) where he will pursue pre-med studies and continue to swim. His goal is to become an emergency medicine physician.

“Own Your Future” is a credo that motivates many Penn students to do their best while in high school—even as they lay plans for future success. James is a great example of this!