By Donna Hayward, HKHS Principal.
March has seen a flurry of activity at Haddam Killingworth High School with April promising to be just as eventful! Spring sports have started, as has preparation for the spring musical. Seniors are making decisions about which colleges they will attend and the administration is putting the finishing touches on the 2019-20 master academic schedule. A few of our current highlights are featured in this article:
THE HKHS STUDENT TUTOR CLUB IS UP AND RUNNING! We have over a dozen student tutors who have been meeting with peers to help with their classes. Students are available to tutor a variety of subjects including math, history, science, and languages. We also have several upperclassmen who are willing to peer edit papers written for English and history classes. Students who are in interested in meeting with a peer tutor for help in one or more of their classes can sign up for tutoring in room C213. Any questions can be directed to Fijare Plous or Mrs. Adamczyk.
M3 Math Challenge
At 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 3, 2019, ten dedicated HKHS juniors and seniors arrived at the school to participate in the 2019 M3 Mathworks Math Modeling Challenge. Through participation, students experience what it’s like to work as a team to tackle a real-world problem under time and resource constraints, akin to those faced by professional mathematicians working in industry.
This year’s challenge problem, “One is too many and a thousand is not enough: Substance Use and Abuse,” prompted students to research how the financial and non-financial consequences of substance abuse ripple through society and affect more than just the user. Students were challenged to provide a mathematical model to help predict the spread of nicotine use due to vaping over the next 10-years, to analyze the numerous internal and external factors that contribute to substance abuse, and to develop an “impact of substance abuse” metric to help illustrate the influence of various substances on society.
By 9:00p.m., both solution papers were submitted. Now…students wait, with fingers crossed, for the results of the review of their papers by the more than 125 PhD-level applied mathematicians who serve as judges
throughout three rounds of judging. If the team’s submission is chosen as a winning solution paper, the team can earn up to $20,000 in scholarship money…Go Cougars!
To read more about the M3 Math Challenge, and to see the full 2019 Challenge problem, please visit https://m3challenge.siam.org/ .
See photos from the day below.
HKHS Enjoys a New Instructional Model
This year, we have enjoyed piloting a new instructional model for some of our courses. Blended Learning is a mix of traditional in-class instruction, independent online learning by students, and collaborative learning among students and/or experts in the field. Mrs. Ritter has used this model for one of her U.S. History classes and Mrs. Zukowksi has employed the model for her UCONN Horticulture class. In this first year, students and teachers have learned alongside each other as Google classroom has been introduced and as new and exciting instruction and assessment features are shared. For example, students often take their assessments online, getting immediate feedback and saving classtime for person-to-person discussion, labs, and other more meaningful activities. Students report enjoying more independence and teachers report the benefits of working more personally with smaller groups of students while other students are working online or with their peers. As news of the pilot success spreads, we have several other classes queued up to be taught in the blended model next year including: Physics; UCONN Environmental Science; Early Childhood Education Lab; and Select Choir.
HK Student Work Featured in Shoreline Arts Alliance Future Choices Art Show
Now in its 35th Year, Future Choices recognizes and celebrates the talent and passion of our region’s high school students. Open to grades 9 through 12, this competition and exhibition are adjudicated by a panel of fine arts professionals.
Students whose work is selected will have their pieces displayed in a gallery show at the Sill House Gallery of the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts for three weeks. Categories that are judged are Ceramics, Drawing, Mixed Media, Painting, Pastels, Photography, Prints, Sculpture, and Video. The exhibition is free and open to the public. High schools are recognized for their efforts in keeping the arts a vibrant part of the curriculum.
Students whose work was accepted and hung in the show include:
- Emma Anziano
- Becca Fisher
- Zoe Smith (Sculpture Second Place)
- Hannah Averill
- Kaitlin Hall
- Sydni Therrien
- Emily Bagnoli (Prints Second Place)
- Anna Mercier (Drawing First Place)
- Autumn Walton
- Elena Boyington
- Lauren Miller
- Tessa Wills (Prints First Place)
- Charli Cancroft
- Mikayla Nuhn
- Grace Yantosh
- Autumn Coady
- Malin Nystrom
- Morgan Yazmer
- Rebecca Conti (Ceramics Third Place)
- Julia Saglio
- Briana Yepes
- Melissa Danaher
Hiroko Kaimoto, Jane Bell, and Ryan Klimaszewski from the Advanced Art Projects Class teamed up to paint the HK logo in the weight room.
