This article originally appeared in the spring 2014 Harker Quarterly.
In early January, upper school chemistry and astronomy teacher Rachel Freed presented at the Google Apps for Education Summit in Napa Valley. Hosted by the Ed Tech Team, a self-described “global network of education technologists,” the summit brought together a wide variety of education experts to share how they use technology in the classroom. Freed’s presentation demonstrated how she uses a Web-based tool called LiveBinders to organize the teaching materials she uses in the classroom, including Google docs and online resources. Students also use it to submit their work. In addition, Freed’s session covered the use of LiveBinders to create a project-based environment and how she teaches students to maintain and maximize their online learning experiences.
On a windy and cold afternoon at Boulder Ridge Country Club, the boys golf team outdueled four time defending league champion Menlo by one stroke 208-209 to win its first ever title. After the first two pairings, the Eagles were up by seven strokes. On the last hole, Menlo’s William Hsieh, playing on this home course, lips out the par 4 9th. Then Knight senior and medalist Jordan Stone, who sunk 10-15 footers all day long, lips out another putt, finishing with a remarkable 11 putts for the round. Not to be outdone, in front of the gallery, our own Mr. Clutch, Freshman Avi Khemani calmly sank an eight footer for the one shot victory. Freshman Sandip Nirmel, who is playing his best golf of late, led the Eagles with a 3 over par 39. Nirmel earned his first Harker medalist honors last week at Shoreline against Pinewood. Junior Shrish Dwivedi chipped in with a 40, followed by Khemani’s 41, Ryan Vaughan’s 42 and Jonathan Lee’s 46 to assist in the victory. After hitting a ball out of bounds on his first tee shot on the par 4 fourth hole, Jonathan stuck a 220 yard, blind shot, into the middle of the green to save a remarkable double. The Eagles secure first place in the WBAL with a 9-1 record. This is a culmination of 15 weeks of tremendous amount of hard work, time, and effort by all eight of these gentlemen. Please congratulate Shrish Dwivedi, Dakota McNealy, Nikhil Reddy, Ryan Vaughan, Sandip Nirmel, Avi Khemani, Zarek Drozda and Jonathan Lee on this championship run! Each and every one of them played their role in making this dream a reality and absolutely gave it their all. We can’t be more proud. The team’s next competition will be at League Finals next Wednesday. Go Eagles!!!!
April 22, 2014 Golf
The Eagles are off to their best start ever, even after dropping a contest to rival Sacred Heart Prep by just three shots, 186-189. The Eagles are tied for first place in the WBAL with an 8-1 record. In the close loss, sophomore Dakota McNealy led all other golfers with an even par 33.
At the Champions Invitational in Palm Springs earlier this month, the team placed 22nd out of 40 schools in a crowded field that included teams from Texas, Nevada, Washington and Canada. They have a huge showdown with Menlo today!
Track and Field
The Eagles competed in their second league meet, with seniorshot putter Nithya Vemireddy setting a school record. The day also was filled with personal bests. In addition to Vemireddy’s new record, junior shot putter Julia Wang and sophomore Mehul Khetrapal set personal bests in the 400m. Senior Ravi Bhandia, junior Matt Bloch, sophomore Jonathan Hochberg, freshman Davis Howard and senior Rohan Kapatkar had personal bests in throws. The boys went 1-2-3-4 in the high-jump, led by senior Wei Wei Buchsteiner with a school record of 5’2″!
Senior Claudia Tischler and sophomore Alex Dellar ran 1-2 in the 800m, both with season bests, and junior Allen Huang’s personal best in the 100m was the best Eagle mark on of the year! Freshman Niki Iyer placed second in the 3200m run, breaking her old school record at the CCS Top 8 Invitational with a time of 10:57.39 and edging out the third-place finisher in the final 100m. Then, at the San Mateo Bearcat Invitational, Vemireddy and Wang took fifth and sixth place in the discus, with Vemireddy’s personal best throw just 8 inches shy of the school record set last year by Wang. Vemireddy also took sixth in the shot put, while seniors Sean Nachnani, Arjun Kumar, Krish Sanghi and Nishaant Murali set personal bests in the discus. Kumar equaled his personal best 39’9” to take eighth place in the shot put.
Lacrosse
The varsity lacrosse team roared back against Sacred Heart Prep but ultimately fell short, losing 12-9 despite four goals from juniorHannah Bollar, three goals from senior Mary Liu, two goals from seniorMabel Luo and 17 saves from seniorgoalie Christine Lee. The girls bounced back by trouncing York School 14-3 behind four goals from freshmanSarah Baz, three from Liu, two from Luo and one apiece from sophomores Shreya Sunkara and Natasha Mayor, Bollar, freshman Taylor Iantosca and Lee. The girls are now 4-9 overall, and will celebrate their senior day on May 6 when they bid farewell to seniors Alicia Clark, Nikkan Ghosh, Lee, Liu, Luo, Maya Madhavan and Brinda Perumal.
Tennis
The boys varsity squad beat Pinewood and Crystal Springs last week. Their match against Crystal Springs was a tense and heated fight for second place, and the boys prevailed 4-3. This week is a busy one for the team, with four matches! The team will send off senior Kevin Xue at senior day on April 25.
Baseball
The boys crushed Pescadero 11-1 over the break for their second victory of the year. FreshmanNic Bean went 4-4 with a two-run homerun. SophomoreDalton Forbeshad two hits with a triple and an RBI. FreshmanKedar Gupta had two hits, a triple and two RBIs. Senior Varun Kamat pitched a complete game, allowing just one run and three hits while striking out 13 across four innings. The boys play three times this week and host a senior day for Kamat on May 8.
Softball
The Eagles lost to Mercy-Burlingame last week despite hits from juniors Alisa Wakita and Vivian Isenberg. They’ll be back in action today at Blackford against Castilleja.
Volleyball
The boys won the bronze bracket at the Bellarmine Tournament after defeating Cathedral of LA and Nevada Union. They went 3-3 overall at the tournament. Against their league competitors Homestead, they boys fell, dropping their record to 13-7 overall and 4-3 in league. Tonight, they head to Blackford at 6:45 p.m. for a game against Los Gatos. The boys’ senior day is on May 9, where they will send off seniors Samir Chaudhry, Will Deng, Gaurav Kumar, Huck Vaughan, Jithin Vellian, Sean Youn and Andrew Zhu.
Swimming
You can catch the swim team’s senior day on Wednesday at 4 p.m. against rival Sacred Heart Prep. Say goodbye to seniors Brian Tuan, Kenneth Zhang, Manon Audebert and Kimberly Ma.
Harker alumnus and current member of the third-ranked Stanford golf team, Maverick McNealy ’13, joined his parents Scott and Susan McNealy at the annual Harker Golf Classic. The event, held April 14 at the Stanford University Golf Course, raised $28,000 for Harker’s General Endowment Fund.
Harker was extremely fortunate to be able to host the 2014 Golf Classic at Stanford, as there is a long waitlist of organizations wishing to host their golf outings at the coveted course, which is consistently rated one of the finest university courses in the world.
First-place winners were Greg Lawson, Meurig Morgan and Allen Beede. Second-place winners were Scott and Susan McNealy, and Andrea and Chris Umdenstock. Longest drive went to Erik Verbeek (men) and Susan McNealy (women). Closest to pin was achieved by Evan Barth (men) and Dorothy Scarpace (women).
After the final round, golfers were joined by spouses and guests at the McNealy’s home for a fabulous wine reception. Participating wineries were Corvalle and Left Bend, as well as distributor Joseph George Fine Wines.
The Stanford golf course, designed in 1930 by renowned golf course architects William Bell and George C. Thomas, is located in the foothills above the Stanford University campus. In 2009 Stanford was rated the nation’s third-best college course by golf coaches.
After the event, the advancement department gave special thanks to the day’s presenting sponsors: Sarvajna and Seema Dwivedi, Shi An Liu and Ping Xu, Ram and Indira Reddy and Wayin. Further sponsorship was provided by Big Valley Ford Lincoln for donating a car for the hole-in-one contest. Golfsmith provided the longest-drive contest prizes and Golftec provided swing analysis sessions to the second-place winners. Additionally, C. Denise Brodersen, CFP, Wealth Advisor with UBS Financial Services, was a hole sponsor and Harry and Lovelee Singh sponsored a cart.
At the end of the day, beyond enjoying a good game of golf, all the participants left secure in the knowledge they had helped raise funds for Harker’s General Endowment, which will help benefit generations of students to come.
It’s not easy being a new parent. So discovered grade 8 students who, after spending a week caring for five-pound flour sack “babies,” better understood the demands of having a newborn.
For a week in early February, as part of their health education curriculum, eighth graders were responsible for the well-being of their babies at all times, taking them to and from school, bringing them to classes and arranging for childcare when needed.
Ensuring the safety of their sack babies enabled the students to earn points for both science and health education. However, they lost points due to any abuse or neglect of their babies.
The project, while fun, was taken seriously, complete with day care centers set up for “parents” participating in after-school activities. Students also took turns serving as babysitters for each other.
“The purpose of the project was to give the students an idea of what it is like to have a baby and be responsible for it while at school for an entire week,” said Harker P.E. specialist Chrissy Chang, who annually spearheads the middle school project.
This report provided by Jenny Heidt The Harker Forensics team had a record-setting weekend at the National Debate Coaches Association Championship at Weber State University April 11-14. The speech and debate team won national championships in three out of the four events at the tournament! Eight students went home with titles in three categories: Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum and Congress. Pranav Reddy, grade 11, won first place in Lincoln-Douglas debate; Misha Tseitlin, grade 9, placed first in Congressional debate; and Jasmine Liu, grade 10, and Kevin Duraiswamy, Arjun Kumar, Stephanie Lu, Sreyas Misra, and Sebi Nakos, all grade 12, were co-champions in Public Forum debate.
“We’ve had different parts of the program win a title before, but we’ve never had this much overall strength all at once,” said Jenny Heidt, debate coach.
Nakos added, “I don’t think it was as much of an individual effort as much as it was a team effort. As a team everyone put in their part and did their part and everyone put the work they needed to do well as a team.”
More than 300 students from states throughout the nation participated in the tournament. Harker sent 26 upper school students to compete. To qualify for the national tournament, students had to do well at various debate tournaments throughout the invitational season.
Debaters grapple with very complicated issues of public policy and philosophy. The Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas topics were about potential conflicts between economic development and environmental protection in poorer nations. The Congressional debaters covered a wide range of issues, including assistance to the Ukraine in maintaining its independence from Russia and whether or not various groups or nations ought to be removed from the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations. Coach Greg Achten said, “It is not possible to achieve the level of success in an activity as challenging as debate without a tremendous amount of hard work. Succeeding in debate not only requires incredible intellectual acumen, it also requires a very strong work ethic.”
This year’s debate team set a new precedent for the future success of the school’s speech and debate program. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s the single most successful weekend in the history of Harker speech and debate,” Heidt said. Coach Carol Green summed it up nicely by saying, “We are really proud of all of the students and the work they have done in addition to the successes they achieved.”
The team has several more important tournaments coming up at the end of the 2013-2014 season, including travel to Kentucky, Illinois, Kansas and Texas.
Harker’s Middle School Spring Art Exhibit went on display in the upper school’s main lobby gallery after an opening reception on April 3. The show, which will run until April 23, also spilled over to the Nichols Hall atrium.
Sponsored by Harker’s middle school visual arts program, the exhibit features select works from the 2013-14 school year, including colorful paintings, sketches, ceramics, figurines and wire sculptures.
This year’s exhibit included an impressive array of ceramics, such as tea pots, plates, boxes and figurines. Students in grades 7-8 showcased clay and glass works called “African Granary Doors.” Whimsical wire sculpture figures with accessories such as umbrellas, golf sticks and building blocks also filled the shelves. Grade 6 ceramics students displayed work done during the fall semester titled “Art Shoes,” which took the form of dinosaurs, rabbits, dragons and more. And, adorning the walls, were drawings of bikes, colorful landscapes, and assorted fruits and vegetables.
Encased in a glass display were several sculptures that won regional Scholastic Art Awards earlier this year. Eight Harker middle school students won the prestigious awards for their outstanding artwork. Two received the coveted gold and silver key awards, while six others were lauded with honorable mentions. All of the winners’ work was featured in the exhibit. (To read another HNO story about the art award winners: http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/eight-middle-school-students-win-scholastic-art-awards/).
Meanwhile, a series of drawings called “Renaissance Self-Portraits” was on display in Nichols Hall. For this project, second-year middle school art students were asked to do a self-portrait of what they will look like at age 50, and at the same time put themselves in the time of the renaissance. To accomplish this feat, they studied Rembrandt’s self-portraits and followed that period and style as closely as possible.
“Scrolling through photos of Renaissance poses and portraits, I found a picture of a man with flowing, curly hair very interesting. Incorporating my cheerful countenance into the body of a royal ancient figure was extremely difficult, but weeks of sketching self-portraits eventually paid off to help accomplish this piece,” recalled art student Darren Gu, grade 8.
Classmate Kaitlin Hsu, also grade 8, said that for her Renaissance portrait she chose to draw herself as a young maiden who “probably lived the life of a servant.” Drawing this portrait, she noted, was fun and interesting since the clothing, accessories, and style at the time were very unique and distinct. “Using various materials to finish this portrait was fun,” she added.
Also in the atrium were drawings from first-year art students, including illustrations of Audubon birds and sketches of rocking chairs. The drawings were done in the Italian artistic style of chiaroscuro, which utilizes strong contrasts between light and dark (similar effects in cinema and photography also are called chiaroscuro).
The middle school art show is unique in that it hosts its opening reception at the upper school. After the exhibit’s run there, it will be relocated to the middle school multipurpose room where it will join the middle school’s end-of-the-year exhibit.
Each spring, each of Harker’s campuses hold art shows, giving students age-appropriate venues in which to display the special works they have completed throughout the year.
The lower school gym was magically transformed into “the enchanted kingdom of Harker” when, in early April, it was taken over by a live television crew from WOLF TV, Channel 18.
So began the library department’s 18th annual Ogre Awards. In a new twist this year, an imaginary TV network covered the “star-studded literary awards show,” which it deemed the highest-rated program in Fairyland.
Late breaking news threatened to interrupt the much-anticipated broadcast, as the wolves discover that the Ogre Awards do not have a “Best Wolf” category. The distraught wolves begin howling about the injustice. They even threaten to “huff and puff and blow the house down.”
Starring all grade 2 students (otherwise known as the Ogre Academy), the awards show was dedicated to the characters of 21 classic folk and fairy tales, as well as the storytellers who created them. The beloved production was created by former library director Enid Davis. Since her retirement two years ago, the library department has proudly carried on the tradition of hosting the Ogres with Danny Dunn, lower school technical director, serving as director.
The idea behind this year’s Ogre Awards, which was emceed by lower school librarian Kathy Clark, was to take stories that have been around for in many cases centuries and to show them holding their own against television, explained Dunn. “We wanted to compare books and stories to television – the point being that whatever you might enjoy about television, there is always a book or story that could fill that entertainment need. Books are just as relevant and entertaining as TV – in fact, we would argue more so!” she said.
“In the future, we plan to continue this trend of looking at the classic stories through the lens of something current and relatable,” Dunn elaborated. “Each year will have a different hook.”
The second graders enthusiastically portrayed characters and creatures from the folklore of cultures worldwide (including enchanted royalty and objects, fools, witches, heroines, villains, tricksters and, of course, wolves), which they had learned about during the school year. Folk stories and fairytales featured in this year’s awards ceremony came from such well-known, endearing stories as The Frog Princess, Snow White, The Water of Life, Butterball, Peder and the Water Sprite and more.
During the show, a whole host of special guests from the faculty and staff presented the awards, which took many forms such as the “publisher’s fairyhouse” sweepstakes check, and a plaque in the sports hall of fame.
All but one of the Ogre Awards are bestowed upon fairytale characters, with a special honor going to a real person who provides exceptional service or support to the Harker libraries. This year the honor went to lower school library assistant Moureen Lennon, who oversees library volunteers and champions the Fifth Grade Reads project.
In her acceptance speech, Lennon said she was thrilled to receive the 2014 Special Ogre Award for Lifetime Achievement. She then recalled the explosive growth of the lower school library, which she said began primarily as a center for storytelling and has since become a “full-fledged literary service.” She also praised the library’s dedicated group of parent volunteers, many of whom have stayed on even after their children matriculated to higher campuses.
Toward the end of the show, all of the student wolves took to the stage in protest of their perceived exclusion in the Ogre Awards. Holding picket signs, they chanted their outrage until special guest Sarah Leonard, primary school head, observed that there were more wolves on stage than in any other year’s awards show – at which point they promptly stopped complaining and apologized in unison.
Concluding the Ogre Awards was the much-anticipated Best Folk or Fairy Tale award, which this year went to the Norwegian fairytale “Butterball.” Leonard then approached the podium to thank the dedicated team (of volunteer faculty and parents), both on hand and behind the scenes, who generously helped out with technical direction, music, costumes, videography and choreography.
Although the audience undoubtedly recognized many familiar tales, several of the stories told were new to the Ogres this year. This year also saw the introduction of a new category expanded to include all villains (in addition to witches, which have their own category). “We are happy to report you can expect wolves to continue to make an appearance in future years along with other audience-eating villains,” said Dunn.
After being diagnosed as a freshman with hypothyroidism – a disorder in which the thyroid gland fails to produce sufficient thyroid hormone, causing fatigue, lack of focus and other symptoms – Samantha Madala, now grade 11, became determined to help prevent health problems from interfering with children’s education.
To that end, Madala founded Healthy Scholars last year to raise awareness of health issues that could stymie education. In December, Madala and her team trekked to Varni, India, to perform screenings for medical problems that could be obstacles to learning. Healthy Scholars worked with organizations in India, including the Lions Club, NICE Hospital and LEAD Foundation, to offer blood pressure tests, individual medical consultations, dental exams, vision and hearing tests and more to nearly 600 schoolchildren.
“Students who exhibited symptoms such as intense fatigue, inability to concentrate, memory loss, weight gain, cold intolerance, irregular menstrual cycles and dry skin were referred to bloodwork,” Madala said. “During the screening process, I also interviewed and helped identify girls who were suffering from hypothyroidism, like me, and had yet to be diagnosed.” Healthy Scholars paid for the necessary blood tests with funds provided by donors and other charitable organizations.
Those with impacted hearing were treated to ear cleanings with an ear wax removal device provided by Clear Ear, whose president Lily Truong is also on the Healthy Scholars team. The Meghna Institute of Dental Sciences offered free dental cleanings to students with dental problems. “Ultimately, students received thorough physical examinations, with emphasis on symptoms that can impact learning, and were connected to affordable or free treatment options. For many of these students, our screening was the first physical health exam they had ever received,” Madala recalled.
That same month, Healthy Scholars kicked off a fundraising effort, raising nearly $4,000 via fundraising website Crowdrise. An additional $25,000 donation enabled Health Scholars to stage more screenings. Madala is planning another trip to Varni in early June. Stateside efforts are also on the agenda. “We also aim to hold a similar health screening camp for at-risk Native American youth in Montana.”
Healthy Scholars also is looking into the possibility of partnering with Stanford University’s Medical Scholars Research Program, which would provide the opportunity to conduct medical research at screenings. An iPhone app designed to help maintain ear, nose and throat health – with a focus on ear and thyroid problems – is also in the works.
More information about Healthy Scholars and its current activities can be found at its website. Healthy Scholars is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization, so all donations to the organization are tax-deductible.
They call themselves members of the CIA, although their work is anything but secretive. “They” are Harker’s tech-savvy grade 5 Computer Instruction Assistants (aka CIAs) who, in early March, gave a well-received presentation at the Silicon Valley Computer Using Educators (SVCUE) conference.
Seven group members (Andrew Chavez, Nikhil Gargeya, Jason Lin, John Lynch, Akshay Manglik, Russell Yang and Bowen Yin) spoke about their work as CIAs during SVCUE’s Teach Through Technology event, which was held at the upper school and attracted more than 400 attendees.
SVCUE is the local affiliate for San Mateo and Santa Clara counties of Computer-Using Educators Inc. of California (CUE). CUE and SVCUE are committed to networking, resources and the integration of all forms of technology throughout the curriculum.
“The 2014 Teach Through Technology event was a huge success!” enthused Lisa Diffenderfer, assistant director of instructional technology, adding that the conference included a variety of presenters and workshops designed to help teachers enhance the classroom experience by integrating technology. “The students did a great job representing the school and the wonderful work they are performing as a member of the CIA team.”
The CIA group comprises 18 grade 5 students. Both teachers and students can take advantage of the CIA website, which is hosted on the Harker server. Through it, classmates can submit requests for tech help, especially regarding ongoing issues. Also available on the site are helpful hints/tutorials for online programs, printable documents, FAQs, videos and other relevant applications.
To become a voluntary student tech helper, fifth graders must be nominated by a teacher, tech savvy and doing well academically. During CIA meetings, which are held during lunch, group members go over agenda items, such as establishing new networks and email protocol.
The main purpose of the group is to help other students troubleshoot minor issues while using their Chromebooks in class (major problems are directed to their teachers in computer lab). When a tech request form is submitted to the CIA, all members of the group can view it.
During the SVCUE conference, CIA members spoke passionately about their role as student tech helpers at Harker. “One audience member suggested that I pay these students for their services!” said Diffenderfer. “I’m going to start paying them in dessert at our lunch meetings. Another audience member from a local high school was very impressed with the students’ enthusiasm for assisting their fellow classmates and teachers.”
This story originally appeared in the spring 2014 Harker Quarterly.
The Harker School is known for its unique student and teacher exchange programs with educational institutions around the world. But Harker’s rich global education doesn’t stop in between such visits. Throughout the school year, middle school students keep connected virtually with their foreign pals via interactive video conferences and online forums.
In grade 6, video conferences between students and their same-age buddies from Harker’s sister school in Tokyo, Tamagawa Academy K-12 & University, help build excitement for future visits. And in grades 7 and 8, two separate online forums fuel dynamic conversations between Harker students and their peers in both Kazakhstan and China. Here’s a look at how Harker keeps globally connected through video conferencing in grade 6 and online forums in the older middle school grades.
Grade 6 Video Conferences
In mid-December, grade 6 students enjoyed connecting with their buddies from Tamagawa Academy during a series of interactive, game show-style video conferences, held on the middle school campus.
“After emailing each other this past semester in their computer science classes, students came face-to-face with their email buddies in a ‘Family Feud’-style game show!” reported Jennifer Walrod, director of Harker’s global education program.
“Questions (ranging from discovering favorite desserts to best after-school activities) were generated by students with a focus on interests of middle school students,” said Walrod, explaining that half of the grade 6 students participated in the conferences, with the remaining half slated for next semester.
“Designing an educational yet fun game was a very interesting task. I also had fun at the video conference talking to the Tamagawa students and playing ‘Family Feud,’” said student Sejal Krishnan.
The video conferences set the stage for the grade 6 trip to Japan in the spring.
Grade 7 Online Poetry Forum
Last year grade 7 students in Mark Gelineau’s English class launched an online poetry forum with a school in Kazakhstan. Using the forum, Harker seventh graders connected with peers from the Nazarbayev Intellectual School (NIS) to discuss selected poetic works.
Gelineau created the forum in conjunction with Lauren Gutstein ’06, who works at the NIS school in Astana, one of seven state-funded selective schools for middle and high school age students spread throughout major cities in Kazakhstan.
Through their online postings, students from both Harker and NIS share insights and observations about posted poems. Using the forum, more than 100 students recently read and discussed American and Kazakh poems about winter.
Grade 8 Online World Issues Forum
Where we live and how it affects our perspective on global issues was the topic of a recent grade 8 World Issues Forum with the World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS) in Shanghai. Other topics covered have included personal choices and the global ecosystem; global perspectives; issues preventing access to the global community; and leadership in today’s society.
“This is not new as we’ve been doing it for numerous years. However, it has really strengthened over the past couple years and the forum now gets hundreds of posts throughout the semester,” Walrod said.
In fact, the middle school’s annual trip to China was originally based around the grade 8 computer science class’ global issues forum. Last year the trip also incorporated the grade 7 historical component of learning about ancient China. Including seventh graders on the China trip was such a success that it will be repeated again this year.
“I really enjoyed participating in the forum with the students from WFLMS. By talking to them, I learned totally different perspectives on some things that I had never even heard before. I also learned a lot about the cultures of China. Now, I have left the class with a greater knowledge of the world than I had before,” said student Megan Huynh.
“It is indeed exciting and interesting to communicate with people from the other side of the world and the discussions are supposed to be diverse and offering an insight on both sides’ point of view,” agreed fellow student Nastya Grebin.
“Adding the online forum discussions to my computer science curriculum has provided a great opportunity for students to combine their technical knowledge to global issues related to the world they live in. The students’ forum discussions have been compulsory to their studies of systems that are the basis for their computer science final project applications,” noted Abigail Joseph, middle school computer science instructor.