Gurney GamesThe Gurney Elementary students have been involved in a…

December 27, 2012

Gurney Games
The Gurney Elementary students have been involved in a new activity this year called Gurney Games. Mr. Justin Cannon, the building’s physical education teacher, paired up first with third-grade classes and second with kindergarten classes to play cooperative games each month where the focus is on leadership, teamwork and other important skills.
As an extension to these monthly games, many buddy classes meet at other times to get to know each other better. Mrs. Julie Albrecht’s first-grade class and Mrs. Sheryl Halagan’s third-grade class have done a variety of activities together over the past several months. They worked on an interview project, created an ABC Halloween photo story, wrote holiday cards to send to the military and are currently creating a reindeer craft with a story to go along with it.
It is amazing to see the connection that the students have with their buddies and to see them when they pass each other in the hallways. It has had a positive influence on the leadership skills of the third graders, who work patiently with their buddies to complete the weekly projects.
Senior Is Student of Integrity
Chagrin Falls High School senior Katherine Widman was recently selected as one of four greater Cleveland area students as a winner of a Better Business Bureau’s Students of Integrity Scholarship. The program honors high students in the area who exemplify integrity through leadership and academic excellence, community service and strong character ethics. Dozens of high schools nominated students from Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake and Lorain counties for the scholarship.
Katie was honored with the other finalists from Mentor, North Royalton and Maple Heights high schools, as well as ten students earning honorable mention, at the Better Business Bureau’s Centennial celebration breakfast on Dec. 6.
Sound Waves At CFMS
Students in Mr. Jeremy Rothstein’s Chagrin Falls Middle School science classes have been studying sound waves and their properties and have discussed how sound waves travel through longitudinal vibrations. To make this more relevant to his students, Mr. Rothstein brought in a friend, Jimmy Mrozek, to speak to his class.
Mr. Mrozek, who is in a band called “The Dear Jimmy Band,” introduced the idea of how sound waves are produced from a guitar and how our ears detect the sound through the outer, middle and inner ear. He was able to help show the students that frequency determines pitch by playing different chords. As he played a higher frequency, it gave off a higher pitch and vice versa with a lower frequency and lower pitch. The students were able to hear the difference and then model it using visuals.
Mr. Mrozek was also able to show resonance, natural frequencies and sound quality. These terms are critical to understanding sound waves. Mr. Mrozek, who is a certified social studies teacher and girls basketball coach at Andrews Osborne School, also helped the students through scientific inquiry.
He would play a song on two different guitars and students had to figure out what about the songs were different and why they were different. He was also able to walk around as he played, demonstrating the Doppler effect. As he walked closer to the students, they could detect a higher pitch/frequency and as he walked away, it gave a lower pitch/frequency.
Students also were able to explain the difference between two of the same songs while discussing a difference in intensity measured in decibels. In addition, the students made the connection that as intensity of Mr. Mrozek’s guitar strokes increased, the waves had larger amplitudes (or energy). Lastly, students discussed the acoustics of different environments and why a performer would sound best playing in the choir room instead of a classroom.
Select Choir Performs On TV
After their performance last year, the Chagrin Falls Intermediate School Select Choir was invited back to perform on the “Live on Lakeside” show last week with Holly Strano and Michael Cardamone. Under the direction of Pat Haynish and accompanied by Marcia Snavely, the choir performed several 30 second “teasers” and one full song “Gonna Catch that Santa” during the show. They also taped a song for the WKYC holiday special, which will run sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Day.