Spectrum Charter School Winter Newsletter

Spectrum Gazette -Winter 2020

Spectrum Charter School

Celebrating Education & Community Service Since 1999

MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission is to provide a life changing environment where students and

their families feel safe, comfortable, and achieve their highest potential. We envision every child being educated, with skills identified,

to live successful and fulfilling lives.

A Big THANK YOU!

A sincere thank you to all those who donated to Spectrum during Giving Tuesday! Your contributions will help us get closer to our goal of developing a life-skills center on the school grounds.

Toy Drive Success!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Children’s Hospital Toy Drive this holiday season! We raised $230 plus $125 in gift cards! Toys are currently being purchased on Spectrum's behalf from the money raised by the toy drive.

Spectrum Family Pride

We want to thank all our students and families for all your flexibility and support! Whether you have been a remote-learner since the start of the year, or just went back to learning from home, we are all so proud of your ability to be resilience and to persevere. These are trying times, and we know remote-learning can be challenging. Keep up the good work, and know we are here to help!

Science is Cool!

Learning from our homes has had its challenges, however it hasn’t stopped Mrs. Yurkovich’s science class! The students were learning about the atmospheric pressure and to further explain the topic, Mrs. Yurkovich conducted a fun science experiment. The object of the experiment explained that air is all around us even though we can’t see or touch it and it’s pushing down in all directions all the time. By using a little bit of heat, the air pressure was able to move an egg sitting on the top of a glass bottle to inside the glass bottle. Prior to the experiment, the students made hypotheses of what might happen and why. After the experiment the students were able to summarize how the egg moved into the glass bottle. Even though the learning environment looks different, it hasn’t stopped the students from learning and conducting cool experiments.

If you would like to complete the experiment from your home, please visit the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKMKKOV7xhM. Remember that it's important to ask for parent permission first, follow the directions carefully, and wear safety glasses when performing the experiment. Have fun!

A Follow-Up to Our Environmental Science Seed Germination Project

Mrs. Rosendale’s and Mrs. Garbin’s students completed their experiment on seed germination in Environmental Science. Using daisy flower seeds, students kept all variables the same except the number of drops of water given daily per seed. Team “Americano” was the only team whose seeds germinated with 8 drops of water. With less water, the seeds did not germinate. When we return to Spectrum, we will continue our experiment with a different type of seed and more water!

Turkey Trot

We celebrated our annual Turkey Trot virtually this school year! Students completed a Nearpod and a Quizziz on Thanksgiving facts. Then, we all came together for a game of Thanksgiving Jeopardy! Team Yurkovich/Coates took an early lead, but team Rosendale/Garbin came back to win the game at the last minute!

Gratitude Hunt:

Let us all practice an attitude of gratitude and go a scavenger hunt to find all the wonderful things that we have in our lives that we are grateful for!

STEM: Rube Goldberg Machines

In STEM class, students invented their own Rube Goldberg machines using recycled and renewable resources. The challenge was to create a machine using at least 3 simple machines. Students not only displayed their engineering skills, they also showed creativity!

A video of my machine: https://youtu.be/EGoM7dPA4Ms

The picture and video of my machine include an incline plane (Cardboard box), Wedge (Scissor blades), and a lever (Fulcrum joint and blades of scissors) to cut paper. An object is dropped down the inclined plane onto the lever and uses the wedge to cut the paper after several uses.

"Travels" to Egypt

Mrs. Coates’ and Mrs. Yurkovich’s classes have gone on several “field trips” to far off lands despite our current state of quarantine. The internet has allowed us to travel to Egypt to learn of its amazing history. First, we used Google Earth to see what Cairo, Egypt looks like today.

Next, we traveled to the Great Pyramid of Giza. We learned that it took approximately 20 years to build and that 10 football fields could fit inside its base. The following link allows a 360 degree view of the inside of the Great Pyramid. The viewer can move the camera to explore as it progresses through the Grand Gallery, King’s Chamber, and Queen’s Chamber. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMzouTzim0o

We visited the Pyramid of Unas, viewing his sarcophagus and the many walls covered with hieroglyphics and drawings. We learned that these inscriptions contained spells to ensure the pharaoh's successful journey to the afterlife.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/video/life-after-death-in-ancient-egypt/?utm_source=Bibblio RCM_Row

Finally, we visited the tomb of King Tut in the Valley of the Kings. We learned of his short life and the amazing treasures found in his tomb that were to provide for his afterlife. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avqafc6fZwc

And, of course, you can’t learn about ancient Egypt without learning about mummies! Our class is mummifying apples by packing them in salt and baking soda! For another project, our students created their own model of a “shaduf”. This is a lever like tool that the Egyptians used to transport water from the Nile River to their fields.

We hope you click on the links and enjoy your own Virtual Field Trip to Egypt!

‌

Holidays Around the World

Even though everyone is at home learning right now, Spectrum staff and students were still able to have one of their holiday traditions. On December 22, 2020, the students participated in Holidays Around the World. Each classroom researched a country and then created a presentation to teach the other classrooms about it. Mrs. Garbin’s class researched holiday traditions in Israel. Mrs. Rosendale’s class checked out Estonia. Mrs. Yurkovich’s class took us to the continent of Africa and taught us about how the holidays are celebrated in Kenya. Mrs. Coates’ classroom went across the Pacific to teach us about traditions in Japan. The students enjoyed the presentation by all of the classes and played a fun game on Quizizz where they tested their knowledge on the different holiday traditions. The celebration wrapped up with a sing-a-long. The students were invited to bring their pets to sing with them for the final song.

Career Research & Planning

Career research and planning are a big part of what we do in the Transition Department. Despite learning remotely, we have met with industry leaders and engaged our students with the community. A local Geologist and entrepreneur talked to students about his career path and environmental clean-up business.

Earlier this month, students in Mrs. Garbin/Rosendale’s class attended a presentation about entrepreneurship through our recently purchased Nepris program. Nepris connects students with industry professionals through live, as well as prerecorded, online chats. This purchase was funded by the Competitive Integrated Employment Grant we received from the PA Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education.

We will continue to connect with trade schools in our community. In January, a representative from New Century Careers (NCC) will be speaking to our students via Zoom about the machinist trade and the free training opportunity offered through NCC.