FSAPS ROBOTICS TEAM WON 1ST PLACE IN REGIONAL FLL TOURNAMENT

Team keep calm and innovate technology won 1st place
On Saturday, Dec 6th, three of our five robotics teams, Keep Calm & Innovate Technology, clever Five, and Fiery Phoenix competed at three different FLL Regional Qualifiers.

Keep Calm & Innovate Technology won not only "Best Robot Performance Award" but also 1st place overall among 18 teams in the regionals and advanced to Super Regional Qualifiers.

Best Robot Performance award recognizes a team that scores the most points during the Robot Game.

Keep Calm & Innovate Technology includes the following students: Damien Davis, Neel Bhatt, Abhijn Gutta, Sedat Akgun, Pranav Madadi, Taha Tas, and Faris Unal.

Our second team, fiery phoenix won both best robot performance award and mechanical design award
Mechanical Design award recognizes a team that designs and develops a mechanically sound robot that is durable, efficient and highly capable of performing challenge missions.

Fiery Phoenix includes the following students: Shreyan Ghelani, Siyona Patel, Sameer Cheema, Micheal Rico, Celil Teber, Aaron Weinberg,Jacob Grisgsby, Mario Machado.

Team Fiery Phoenix and Team Clever Five are still waiting for the notification of the qualification for FLL Super-Regional Qualifiers. We are very hopeful that our other teams will advance to Super Regional Qualifiers as well.

GREAT RESULTS IN CENTENNIAL HIGH SCHOOL MINI MODEL UN COMPETITION

On Friday, November 21st the FSAPS Model UN Team competed in the Centennial High School MiniMUN competition.

It is inspiring to see our students working and behaving like young delegates, showing decorum and following rules of procedure as they debate and propose realistic solutions for some of the major issues facing our world today.

All of our students performed admirably and had a terrific time while picking up invaluable experience. I am proud to announce that FSAPS students received recognition in each of the award categories:

Jaeden Amiri-Owens was named Outstanding Speaker representing Austria in the Economic and Social Council. Kian Nijaf, representing Greece in the World Health Organization, was recognized for Outstanding Diplomacy. Christina Wang, representing Sierra Leone in the Human Rights Council, was awarded Best Position Paper. Both of our delegated in the United Nations Security Council received honors, with Shreya Rekapalli, representing Chad, being named Outstanding Speaker and Chloe Richardson lauded for Outstanding Foreign Policy in her representation of the Russian Federation.

Congratulations to our entire team for their hard work and excellent showing!

PARENTS MAY BEGIN TOURING OUR NEW CAMPUS ANY SATURDAY FROM FEBRUARY ON

Our faculty members have begun to visit our new campus in small groups this past week. Beginning February the new campus may also be toured by our parents on Saturdays. We we will send you an e-mail and explain how you can schedule your tour.

The great news is that the campus construction is 10 days of schedule as of today and will be completed sometime in May 2015. Hopefully, we will start moving our class furnitures and start decorating our classes at the end of May, 2015.

After 13 years in our current facility, these are such exciting times for our FSA community. :)

For those of you wondering, our new address will be:
3035 Fanfare Lane
Alpharetta GA 30009

FAMILY THANKSGIVING DINNER WAS WONDERFUL!

On Thursday, November 20 our families enjoyed a wonderful thanksgiving dinner altogether. The vent included Book Fair, Medieval Bazaar, Thanksgiving Dinner, and performances by our talented students. A big THANK YOU goes to FSA Parent Volunteer Organization for such wonderful organization of this family event. It was such a great night for everyone.

Our second big family dinner event will be held second semester and is called International Cafe. The dates will be announced soon.

Please see some pictures from the thanksgiving dinner here:

FSA FACULTY THANKS TO PARENT VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION

PVO volunteers literally rolled out the red carpet for our students during the Scholastic Book Fair. Who would imagine that a dimly lit corridor and former classroom could be transformed into a castle complete with drawbridge, sentry, gargoyles, and parapets?

Students from pre-K to 8th grade loved spending time shopping for books and trinkets all to benefit the Media Center and Reading Room. The raffles and estimation games were wildly popular and competition in the Boys vs. Girls Challenge was fierce, with the boys winning a dress-down day due to a few last-minute donations.

Many thanks to Book Fair Chair Susie Miramontes for her vision, creativity, and endurance in planning and running this week-long event. Thanks as well to the dozens of parent volunteers who assisted with decorating and staffing the book fair.

KINDERGARTEN THANKFUL FEAST WAS LOTS OF FUN!

On Wednesday, November 19th Ms. Fichter and Ms. Przedpelski's Kindergarten classes had a Thankful Feast. Families and friends came to join their Kindergarteners for a fun performance and some delicious food! During our feast, our two kindergarten classes performed 3 different Thanksgiving songs, and one very silly Turkey Time dance. Students were able to show off their hand-made place mats, head bands, and some extra special shirts made by one of our wonderful Kindergarten Moms. Students enjoyed the company of their guests during the feast. It was a very exciting and special day in Kindergarten at FSAPS!

The video of the performance can be viewed here

HELP A CHILD THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!

MUSIC AND DRUMMING (3RD - 5TH GRADES)

So far this year, our Music and Drumming students have learned about different places of the world and how their music represents a variety of elements in their culture. We have composed and arranged our own music within different boundaries/guidelines decided upon as a team. We have also enjoyed reading stories and bringing them to life by created musical sound effects to help enhance the story in a magical, life-like way. Our favorite thing to do is learn new rhythms and beats with different percussion equipment and create a true ‘drum circle’ environment, including ALL the bells and whistles!

PULSERA PROJECT

his month the WORLD Language department is in charge of a charity event called “Pulsera Project”. With this event we will be collaborating with a non-profit organization that educates, empowers, and connects Nicaraguan youth with students in more than 800 US schools through the sale of colorful, hand-woven bracelets, or “"pulseras"” in Spanish. This project is a registered 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible and provide critical support for programs in Nicaragua. Most of their Nicaraguan programs are guided by a philosophy of empowerment. Rather than just giving things to people, they empower people with skills, opportunities, and education that allow them to provide for themselves and their communities.

The Nicaraguans have made this beautiful Pulseras and sent them to us. We would like to support their efforts by purchasing them. Each PULSERA costs 5 dollars. For elementary students we will have some 8th grade students passing by your child’s room every morning during second period, which at this time your child will be able to purchase a “pulsera”. For middle school, there will be a table set up outside of the cafeteria for purchasing. We are hoping each student from the school buys at least TWO pulseras, a total of 10 dollars. These could be a great addition to your holiday presents. J Our goal is to be able to sell 400 pulseras in total.

If you have any questions please contact Mrs. Atchison, Mrs. Teber, Mr. Duman or my self- Mrs. Carmona. You can also ask your child’s homeroom teacher. We will try our best to help you with your purchase. We would be deeply grateful for your support of this philosophy and the many young Nicaraguans who will benefit through your generosity.

1ST GRADE KINDNESS TREE

Mrs. Houston's first grade class is working to fill up our class Kindness Tree. The Kindness Tree is a place to display the random acts of kindness each students performs over the next few weeks. For example, our new student Chase picked up litter on the Old Mill trail while hiking over the weekend with his family! Please stop by to see all of the random acts of kindness our class is performing.

WINNERS OF SPANISH POSTER CONTEST

The three winners of the Spanish poster contest have been selected.
Seventh grader Christina Wang, Eight graders Elaine Wen and Gwyn O'Sullivan. Congratulations! They will have a dress down on Friday.
This year the theme was Espanol: Un puente al futuro (Spanish: a bridge to the future)
Every single student had the opportunity to show their art skills while drawing what Spanish means to them in a creative way. These posters are a demonstration of students understanding of the importance and uses for learning new languages.
The selected pictures will be participating at the National Poster Contest in April 2015.
A BIG thank you to our great art teacher Mrs. Millar. This could have not been possible without her help.

1ST GRADE PILGRIM SIMULATION

Mrs. Whitlock's class had a terrific time during our two-week Pilgrim simulation. Students imagined they were Pilgrims on the Mayflower, wrote journals imagining what key events of the Pilgrims' journey would be like, learned about the differences between the Pilgrim and Wampanoag Native American cultures, created Mayflower fact books, and even created Pilgrim hats! We used our hats and special woven placemats we made for our first grade "Friendsgiving." We learned so much about the Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving and had a blast in the process!

CONGRATULATIONS SCIENCE OLYMPIAD TEAM!

Science Olympiad Team brings home 2nd Place from Chattahoochee Invitational

On Saturday, Fulton Science Academy Private School Science Olympiad Team competed in the Chattahoochee Invitational in Johns Creek. This was the first tournament of the season and included teams from throughout the metro Atlanta area, including rival Dodgen Middle School. The FSA team took first place and many FSAPS students earned medals in their events.


Head Coaches Pam Walsh and Gloria Stathos were pleased with the team’s performance. “This early in the season it’s difficult to be prepared for each of the 23 events. Many of the building events require much trial and error. Students were calibrating their devices all week and to have a working device for each event this early in the season is quite an accomplishment,” said Mrs. Walsh.


Individual awards were earned by the following students:

Air Trajectory – coached by Ms. Tang
1st Place – Sruthi Chatrathi and Saad Maan

Anatomy – coached by Ms. Doraiswami
3rd Place – Hasan Unal and Araneesh Pratap

Bio Process Lab – coached by Mrs. Uppaluri
4th Place – Brian Shoffeitt and Faith Lucas
5th Place – Sanjeev Uppaluri and Vihan Karnala

Bottle Rockets – coached by Mr. Seker
1st Place – Prajwal Vedula and Akash Bhatt
2nd Place – Andre Hamelberg and Sophie Richardson
3rd Place – Faris Unal and Karen Pederson

Bridges – coached by Mr. Seker
1st Place – Faith Lucas and Sophie Richardson
2nd Place – Akash Bhatt and Ananya Pottabhathini

Can’t Judge a Powder – coached by Ms. Lang
1st Place – Sarah Lucas and Hasan Unal
3rd Place – Soleil Moffitt and Christina Wang

Crime Busters – coached by Ms. Lang
2nd Place – Sarah Lucas and Hasan Unal

Disease Detectives – coached by Mrs. Bhatt and Ms. Chirumamilla
1st Place – Brian Shoffeitt and Araneesh Pratap
2nd Place – Akash Bhatt and Saad Maan

Dynamic Planet – coached by Mrs. Walsh
3rd Place – Mira Mutnick and Sophie Richardson
4th Place – Akash Bhatt and Christina Wang

Elastic Launch Glider – coached by Mrs. Walsh
3rd Place – Karuna Kumar and Avinash Pratap

Entomology – coached by Mrs. Butler
2nd Place – Soleil Moffitt and Will Mutsch
4th Place – Bella Sims and Maddie Dressel

Experimental Design – coached by Mrs. Stathos
3rd Place – Simon Wang, Mira Mutnick, and Ananya Terala
5th Place – Karen Pederson, Krishna Kumar, and Shreya Puvvula

Fossils – coached by Ms. Beres
2nd Place – Araneesh Pratap and Faith Lucas
5th Place – Karen Pederson and Ameya Rekapalli

Green Generation – coached by Ms. Larson
1st Place – Faith Lucas and Sarah Lucas
3rd Place – Soleil Moffitt and Christina Wang

Meteorology – coached by Mrs. Walsh
1st Place – Araneesh Pratap and Ananya Terala
5th Place – Saneev Uppaluri and Callie Webster

Picture This – coached by Ms. Fichter
4th Place – Sophie Richardson, Ananya Terala, and Avinash Pratap
5th Place – Katherine Li, Kayti Duchiene, Sanjeev Uppaluri

Robo-Cross – coached by Mr. Kaya
4th Place – Mira Mutnick and Hasan Unal

Simple Machines – coached by Ms. Duzyol
1st Place – Karuna Kumar and Araneesh Pratap
5th Place – Krishna Kumar and Destiny Abbey

Solar System – coached by Mrs. Walsh
4th Place –Brian Shoffeitt and Andre Hamelberg

Write It, Do It – coached by Mrs. Stathos
2nd Place – Katherine Li and Vihan Karnala
3rd Place – Sedat Akgun and Faris Unal

CONGRATULATIONS TO MODEL UN TEAM!

Congratulations to the FSA Model U.N. team! Last week, the team traveled to Statesboro, GA to compete in the 33rd Annual Georgia Southern Middle School Model United Nations competition. The team this year has a total of 27 students, many of whom have never competed or been involved in Model U.N. before. Mr. Stiffler and Ms. Pruett are so excited to announce that our team won Honorable Mention as a school delegation, and had 9 students win individual awards.


In a first for our school, an entire delegation, in this case representing Nigeria, was recognized for their individual accomplishments; a tremendous feat!


Honorable Mention was awarded to Sanjeev Uppaluri (France) in the Security Council, Addie Hobbs (Chad) and Sophie Richardson (Nigeria) in the African Union, Sophie Chan (France) in the Human Rights Council, and Neeha Marupudi (Nigeria) and Savannah Flowers (Nigeria) in the General Assembly.


Further, Chloe Richardson (Nigeria) in the Security Council, Kian Nijaf (Kenya) in the African Union and Jaeden Amiri-Owens (Nigeria) in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation were all named as Distinguished Delegates for their roles.


The team now has to quickly turnaround and prepare for their next competition on November 21st at Centennial High School.


Congratulations to these students, and to the entire team for such an outstanding performance! Mr. Stiffler and Ms. Pruett are so proud of them, and hope you will share in our excitement as you congratulate these students!

CONGRATULATIONS PUMPKIN BOOK REPORT CONTEST WINNERS

Edgar R. (5th grade), Austin G. (4th grade), Athiwat A. (3rd grade), Kai R. (2nd grade), and Krish Patel (1st grade)! Each of these students won a free book from the Scholastic Book Fair! The students went together to visit Sir Readalot's Castle and each chose their own book to take home. What a wonderful day to celebrate reading!

SCIENCE OLYMPIAD ENTOMOLOGY TEAM FIELD TRIP TO UGH

On Saturday, November 8th Science Olympiad Entomology students Katherine Li, Sarah Lucas, Soleil Moffit, and Isabella Sims along with coaches Mrs. Stathos, Mrs. Butler, and parent driver Malisa Sims visited the UGA entomology department. Entomology is the study of insects and we were out for an education!






Several UGA undergrad students were there to greet us and introduced us to some live insects. They then introduced us to Nancy Miorelli, a graduate student in entomology. We learned that Nancy had taught several classes including Entomology for Teachers, Forensic Entomology, as well as the Ecuador Term Abroad-Insect Natural History & Plant Biology. It was wonderful to have access to a scientist so knowledgeable and passionate about her subject!


She began our adventure by bringing out various bug collections and even allowing us to view the insects under special microscopes while she explained how to identify them and how they impact our lives. We got a short course in forensic entomology and how scientists use insects that inhabit decomposing remains to aid legal investigations. Very interesting! We then explored mouth parts, leg, antennae, and wing adaptations, adaptations to different environments, and how insects mimic both other insects and the environment.


We would like to give a big FSA thank you to Nancy Miorelli for sharing her knowledge and time with us and to parent Malisa Sims for driving.

ATTENTION PARENTS WHO WORK IN THE MEDICAL AND DENTAL

Our Middle School Science Olympiad Anatomy coaches would love to have any old anatomical models and charts or posters with information about diseases and preventive measures that are being replaced.


For this year they are looking for anything in Cardiovascular, Immune, Integumentary (including sense organs) and Endocrine systems but all other systems are gladly accepted.

If you have any that you can donate to FSAPS, we would be glad to have them. Please drop them off at the front desk with Pam Walsh or Gloria Stathos.

DISCOVERY EDUCATION ACCOUNTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE!

All FSAPS students are given their individual Discovery Education accounts today. Our students will be trained on this new addition to our school program in their classes. It is a very user friendly program and can be a great resource to check during thanksgiving holiday! If you need help with your account, please contact Mr. Turan at nturan@fultonscienceacademy.org

JAEDEN WON THE MIDDLE SCHOOL WATER ESSAY CONTEST!

Congratulations to 6th grader, Jaeden Amiri-Owens for winning the 2014 Middle School Water Essay Contest. Jaeden received the news in the bus when he was traveling to Savannah with other FSAPS students to compete in the State Model United Nations Tournament.

We congratulate Jaeden, his parents, and his teachers for this achievement!
 

 

 

ART BARN FIELD TRIP WAS FARM-TASTIC!

Fulton Science Academy elementary grade students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade visited Farmer Sue and her fabulous Art Barn on Friday, November 7. All the kids participated in a hayride, had a tutorial on the life cycle of the chicken (from egg to adult), learned all about beekeeping and pollination, had a picnic lunch, and created a painting of a sheep in the Art Barn! However, the BEST part about visiting the Art Barn was learning about and interacting with all of the rescued animals on the farm. From baby chicks to donkeys, this farm has friendly animals in all shapes and sizes! We thank Farmer Sue very much for the wonderful day. Please see some pictures below:

A BIG PRE-K THANK YOU TO DR. RABEEA JANJUA

A big Pre-K THANK YOU to Dr. Rabeea Janjua for coming to speak to our class about being an Ophthalmologist during our study on community helpers. The children used stethoscopes to listen to their heart and lungs and saw the different instruments that Dr. Janjua use for her practice.

PRE-K AND KINDERGARTEN HANDS-ON SCIENCE CLUB

This semester in Pre-K/K Hands-On Science has been so much fun! We have discussed and explored our five senses, talked about color and how to make new colors, learned all about pumpkins, and have been talking about turkeys! Students love to take part in the discoveries we've made together!

We used the three primary colors red, yellow, and blue to create all of these secondary and tertiary colors!

Students mixed colored vinegar with baking soda to make colorful fizzing dot art!

After learning about turkeys, we did a Thanksgiving-themed activity where we drew hand turkeys and wrote what we are thankful for.

1ST AND 2ND GRADE HANDS ON SCIENCE CLUB

In Hands on Science, students have been having a fun “hands on” time discovering facts about different science topics. So far this semester, some of the subjects the students have learned about are; the five senses, how planes fly and what happens when you add dish soap to milk containing food coloring.

The last two weeks the students have been learning about the reaction between baking soda and vinegar, so this week we started to build and design small bottle rockets. Once they are finished, we will take them outside, where I will add vinegar and soda and will launch them for the students so that we can see how high they will fly.
 

 

 

1ST GRADERS WRITING FRIENDLY LETTERS

Mrs. Whitlock's first grade class has spent the past few weeks learning how to write a friendly letter. We have also been discussing how to write our home addresses, which has provided a connection to our social studies unit on maps. Last week, students wrote and edited letters to their parents, addressed envelopes, and mailed them home. We even got to take a mini field trip to the school mail box and practiced raising the flag to tell the mailman there was mail to deliver! The students had a great time with our real-world letter experience!

1ST GRADERS ARE LEARNING ABOUT THANKSGIVING

Last week Mrs. Houston's first grade class started a unit all about Thanksgiving. The focus of the lessons are 1. Understanding the experiences and hardships encountered by the Pilgrims on their voyage to the New World and in establishing a new settlement. 2. Discovering how two very different groups of people in the New World lived. 3. Exploring the different aspects of Plimoth colony's first harvest feast.

Students have had the opportunity to take virtual field trips aboard the Mayflower, pack imaginary bags for their trip to America, read/watch interviews with Pilgrims and Wampanoag, write Thank You cards for the Wampanoag, and much more! Our unit will culminate on Friday, November 21 with our First Grade Friendsgiving with Mrs. Whitlock's class.

THANK YOU MR. JORGE!

5th Grade Music Class had Mr. Jorge as our special guest last Thursday! As we learn about different cultures and their traditional dances and music, Mr. Jorge was gracious enough to present Mexican music and teach the 5th Grade Music Class a Tradition Mexican Dance! The students had a great time and we are very lucky to have him here at FSA! THANK YOU MR. JORGE!

A BIG THANK YOU TO MRS. PORTER FROM CITY OF ALPHARETTA!

On October 29th, 2014 Earth Science students discussed the earthquakes, agents of earthquakes and different seismic waves that are occuring during earthquakes. Terry Porter, Environmental Educator, City of Alpharetta discussed what are kinds of waves and how we monitor them to predict earthquakes with hands on activities. A big thank you goes to Mrs. Porter for educating us on these important facts regarding earthquakes.

8TH GRADE SPANISH CLASS TRIP TO EL PORTON!

Last Friday 8th grade had their field trip to the "El Porton"restaurant. Students and parents had a great time. Students were able to practice their Spanish the waiters as they order their food. Here some pictures.

PRIVATE MUSIC LESSONS REGISTERING FOR 2ND SEMESTER

FSAPS Private Music Lesson Web Flyer
FSAPS Private Music Lesson Registration Form
FSAPS Private Music Lesson Policies & Procedures

FSAPS Private Music Lesson Teacher Bios
For more information, please visit: http://www.fultonscienceacademy.org/academics/private-music-lessons