Middle School Students,

Here is a list of some GREAT books to read!!!  I recommend all of them.  Remember, the more you read, the easier life gets!!!!   Many of these are also on this year's North Carolina Battle of the Books list.  Enjoy reading!!!

Mrs. Jobe

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Math, P.E., and Sports Elective- Ms. Brook Stillman

“Every piece of knowledge is a tool; you never know when you may need it.”   

Math

     Students worked the first half of the year mostly on review of last years concepts, building increased fluency with each topic and also on gaining good work habits and routines. The second half of the year the focus will be on new concepts and problem solving.

             Link to Syllabus Collection

PE

     We're on the run again. Our schedule this year is laps Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and sprints on Wednesday. We used a day in math class to measure height and weight, then we found resting and active heart rates and BMI (Body Mass Index). This data will be used to learn math concepts such as mean, median, mode, percent change, and more. The students will also be able to see the benefits of PE by noticing changes in their bodies.

              Click to see the PE leaders

Sports Elective

              So far this year the students have participated in flag football, soccer, volleyball, and basketball.  The students have learned skills, rules, and enjoyed themselves playing games.  They have also worked on physical fitness by running, and doing push ups and sit ups.

     The 3rd quarter students will be active in Ultimate frisbee and floor hockey.  The students are asking for donated frisbee because we often lose them to the roofs or they get stepped on during the games and break.  

Sports Pictures

MDCS track and field records

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Science - Mr. Jim Killebrew

Welcome back to school! This is going to be a great year for science, so go ahead and get excited. We have a lot of outdoor learning opportunities this year for all grades, so make sure and make the most of them. Opportunities like these are meant to be used to the fullest, so take advantage of your lucky stars. You go to Mountain Discovery!

                       Mr Killebrew’s Favorite Science Quotes

            Many great things have been said in the past, and most were repeated. Somebody said that. Anyway, here is a list of some of my favorite science quotes. Hope you like them.

“Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.”  ~Edwin Powell Hubble, The Nature of Science, 1954

“I think science has enjoyed an extraordinary success because it has such a limited and narrow realm in which to focus its efforts. Namely, the physical universe.”  ~Ken Jenkins

“Nature composes some of her loveliest poems for the microscope and the telescope.”  ~Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends, 1972

“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny..."  ~Isaac Asimov

“A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes.  It is innocent, unless found guilty.  A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe.  It is guilty, until found effective.”  ~Edward Teller

“Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.” ~Wernher Von Braun

“The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.”  ~William Lawrence Bragg

And finally, the one that gets me out of bed every morning…

At the 1968 triennial meeting of the IUCN, The World Conservation Union, Senegalese conservationist Baba Dioum observed, “In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.”

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Minimesters/Middle School Opportunites

In addition to regular weekly electives, middle school students also have the opportunity to participate in mini-mesters as a form of electives.  Some of the mini-mesters that have been offered are: murals, pottery, mosaics, photography, theater lighting, wilderness survival, sound and recording, writing, band and construction.  Minimester classes are a minimum of 2 hours long and occur at least twice a  week for the duration of the minimester.  This "large-block" scheduling gives students the opportunity for in-depth, creative application of their core academic skills that simply would not be possible in a more standard length school period.  read more>

Outdoor education and opportunities are another thing that the teachers at MDCS utilize regularly.  With such a wonderful, secluded location the students spend a lot of time outside.  Trail building, fieldwork, gardening, and PE are some of these activities that get them out of the classroom and into our larger, 11-acre learning environment.

Middle school students receive 30 minutes of PE daily, outdoors, throughout the school year.  The students participate in calisthenics, running and games.

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