Elem HAL Robotics 2015, A Great Experience

“A Great Experience” by Maddie Hansen

 
If you don’t know what building a robot is like (and chances are you don’t) then here’s a chance to find out. Constructing a robot is much more difficult than it appears. Most people don’t think about how you have to put together hundreds of tiny pieces correctly to get a nice finished product; they think about the robot, not the people who spent hours of hard work on it. Well, this year our sixth-grade HAL class discovered what it felt like from the other point of view: We built the robots.
 
The most frustrating part of constructing a robot was paying close attention to tiny details in instructions. One tiny screw may not seem very important, but if you put it in the wrong place you will be forced to spend tons of time backtracking.
 
Screwing in a bolt without someone to help you hold the robot is hard, and there’s many things you can’t do without a partner. That’s why teamwork and communication are vital.
 
While working, you also have to find a balance between being too reckless and overly cautious, because if you work too quickly, you mess up, and if you work too slowly, you would never get your robot done in time to present.
 
Building robots is a time to work on robotics skills (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), and most importantly, to have fun. Everyone had a great experience doing this and really enjoyed the end results. We loved presenting to the rest of the school, it was a great time to “show off” what we learned.
 
 
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Click the following link to see a short demonstration. Elementary HAL Robotics Movie

DJ’s Hero Award 2015

The Salvation Army held the DJ’s Hero Awards Luncheon Tuesday May 5th. The award is given to deserving young people who have overcome adversity to excel academically and in life.  The keynote speaker was Liz Murray who tells her life story in which she went from being homeless in high school to studying at Harvard. Congratulations to Samantha Maria Garcia, one of the recipients this year.  Sam was be awarded a $10,000 scholarships funded by David and Peggy Sokol.  An excerpt from her application essay reads, “Now, I am beginning to understand that no matter what you go through you can get through it and move on with your life.  Winning this award will enable me to pursue my dream to help others overcome their own obstacles.”

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2015 Pinnacle Bank Outstanding High School Leaders Award.

Congratulations to Fort Calhoun’s outstanding high school leaders recognized by Pinnacle Bank and Midland University. Fifty-one students from 14 area schools were honored at the luncheon held at Midland University on May 1st. Students selected from Fort Calhoun were Riley Grosse-Rhode, Kayla Holder, Tessa Stevens.

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March Madness at the Elementary 2015

March Madness was set up as a double elimination competition with classes going head-to-head against one another to see who could read the most at home. The Clausen Wolverines (kindergarten) and Leishman Zappers (3rd grade) competed for the championship, with the Wolverines coming out on top. Both classes shared a lunch of  Godfather’s pizza and a visit from Creighton basketball players Austin Chatman, Isaiah Zierden and Will Artino.

 

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Vans Custom Culture

Earlier this semester, our art department applied and was accepted to participate in the Vans Custom Culture, a national shoe designing competition. Up to 3,000 schools nationwide had the opportunity to participate, and we were fortunate enough to make the cut this year.

Students submitted designs based on the four shoe themes: Art, Local Flavor, Action Sports, and Music.  Designs by Vince Hartline, Taylar King, and Killian Roehr were chosen as the winners. Designs were tweaked and four art students were chosen to transfer them to the shoes. Vince, Destinie Bradberry, Heather Remm, and Zane Fickbohm worked extremely hard designing, creating, and applying the art to the physical pairs of shoes.

Jim Shields was kind enough to lend us his photography expertise to take photos of the shoes. Please view the attached images, which were submitted for the competition. In addition to the photos, we made a 1-2 minute video, thanks to Jake Polesky and Hannah Nieto.  When you see these students, please congratulate them on their hard work and dedication.

On April 24th we will find out if we made it into the top 10 schools in our region. Wish us luck.

The shoes are on display across from the high school office in our glass display case.

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2015 Audubon Society of Omaha Art Contest

2015 Audubon Society of Omaha Art Contest

Congratulations to the following students for earning prizes and recognition at this year’s Audubon Society of Omaha Art Show.

-Maddie Rheinheimer earned an excellence award for realism, as well as Best of Show.

-Jessica Gravert earned an excellence award for graphic design, as well as a merit award for realism.

-Clayton Pratt earned a merit award for realism.

-Zane Fickbohm earned two excellence awards for realism.

-Brooke Sutherland earned a merit award for realism.

-Killian Roehr earned a merit award for cartooning.

-Heather Remm earned two excellence awards for realism, as well as Best of Show.

Not Pictured is Christopher Lopez, who earned an excellence award for graphic design, as well as Best of Show.

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Planting Seeds

Students at Fort Calhoun Elementary had the opportunity, on Monday March 23rd, to plant a few flower seeds including Crimson Sunflower, Poppy seeds, and Coreopsis with Judy Siever on March 23rd. They learned a few facts about seed germination while helping to beautify our school. Thank you Judy for helping our students with this fun project.

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Art Class Field Trip 2015

On Wednesday, March 18th, upper level art students attended a field trip to Hot Shops Art Center and the Omaha Public School Teacher Administrative Center building.

Hot Shops Art Center is located in the NODO area of Omaha. Hot Shops is an old Serta mattress factory that was converted to artist studios and galleries in 1999. Manager Tim Barry gave students a tour of the facility, and they had an opportunity to see demonstrations in both ceramics and glass blowing. They saw inside a few art studios, many professional works on display in hallways, and pieces done by local high school students, which were on display in one of the large galleries.

Twice a year, Hot Shops holds an open house where anyone is invited to tour the facility, see demonstrations, and purchase works or pay for services provided by some of Omaha’s amazingly talented artists. Each year the open house events are held the first weekends of December and May.

The students also viewed artwork on display at the OPS TAC building. The works on display are winners in this year’s Scholastic Art Competition. Fort Calhoun has one student, Senior Heather Remm, whose work is on display. Remm received honorable mention for her portfolio submission. The works are on display through March 31, 2015.

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