No debate about it, Josie’s headed to Washington

Josie holds her medal on stage after winning first place at the National History Day competition in Columbia, Mo.

Josie is headed to Washington, D.C.!

Last Saturday, she took first place in the junior individual performance category at the statewide National History Day competition in Columbia, Mo. Her project is titled “Frontiers in History: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates.”

The national competition will be held June 11-15.

“I’m glad I was able to be there with my friends,” Josie said. “It was an exhilirating experience, and I was very surprised when I won.”

Josie’s not alone — several of her classmates at STEAM Academy Middle School either won special awards, or placed high enough to advance to Washington.

Josh takes notes about an 1858 letter at the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Ill.

Josie has spent many hours researching, writing, editing, and performing her project. After advancing in her school and regional competitions, she traveled with her family to the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Ill., where she read first-person accounts of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and even handled a document from 1858 written by a Republican committee in Galesburg, Ill., in which they promised that “our champion [Lincoln] understands the ‘little dodger,’ [Douglas] and will no doubt pin him to the wall as he has heretofore.”

I drove Josie out to Columbia early on Saturday, and we stayed there until the evening. This was NHD’s first in-person competition in several years, and it was fun to see creative costumes and props as students crowded the halls waiting for their turns.

It was fun to walk the campus and the city. Besides seeing Josie compete and win, the next best part of the day was our visit to Cafe Poland. It’s a tiny place with authentic, homemade food that was even better than I hoped. I ate the bigos (stew with sauerkraut and meat), Josie had crepes, and we brought home some pierogies to share. One of my favorite all-time dining experiences.

Houston, we have some Unicorn Girls!

The Unicorn Girls robotics team from Vogt Elementary at their St. Louis Expo

Over the past few years, I have coached both First Lego League and First Lego League Jr. teams at Vogt Elementary. The older FLL team has always been called the Viper Bots. The younger team has changed its name over time: First they were the Sci Girls, then the LadyBots. This year they became the Unicorn Girls.

Well, we ended up having so many interested 1st-3rd grade girls that we had to add a second Jr. FLL team: the Unimermaids. It was quite an experience coaching these two teams, along with co-coaches Yoli and Heather Roberts, and our middle school helper, Ludi.

Continue reading “Houston, we have some Unicorn Girls!”

Jadzia: Spelling Bee finalist!

Jadzia spells a word at the Post-Dispatch spelling bee finals.

Editor’s note: After winning the Ferguson-Florissant district-wide spelling bee for the second straight year, Jadzia reached the finals of the 2017 Post-Dispatch Spelling Bee. Here’s what she had to say about it.

Winning my school bee wasn’t too hard because there were only five contestants! My real challenge started with the district bee. Although not required to move on to the Post-Dispatch bee, it puts in a good bit of practice for me. After a bit of challenge from another student, I won the district bee for my second time in a row.

After that came the regional semifinals, a written bee. I successfully managed to spell 19/20 (or 24/25) out of the words and move on to the finals.

I was very nervous about getting so far, but the fact that I was there and that I had a chance to move on was quite astounding! I did my best. I had studied lists of words that were used for the first several rounds, but beginning with the fifth round, the words were taken from a giant dictionary and the bee got increasingly difficult. I managed to survive to the 6th round, before losing on the word “dromond.”

It was a great experience and I hope to be back in 2018!

Jadzia’s words (in order):

  • incorruptible
  • staccato
  • virgule
  • anschluss
  • minatory
  • dromond

Jadzia on the air waves

As a member of Vogt Elementary’s chess club, Jadzia has had opportunities to be featured in stories about the “Your Move” chess program in the Ferguson-Florissant School District. Here are a couple of her recent appearances:

“Crossing Continents” (BBC Radio 4)
Episode: Checkmate Me in St Louis

Ascension Health
Ascension Your Move Chess on YouTube

Ascension Your Move Chess, longer Viddler version

Our great summer: Science and reading

Mad Science at the Prairie Commons County Library.
Mad Science at the Prairie Commons County Library.

This summer our kids had more science and library activities than ever before.

In June, Vogt Elementary held a weeklong “Scary Science” camp at the school. Each day there was a scary theme, like making a mummy or eating bugs. The girls were surprisingly thrilled to be eating crickets, insisting that I try one. “They’re good, they’re really good!” they both kept exclaiming.

Continue reading “Our great summer: Science and reading”