Congratulations to the following honorees at this week's Gateway Term 4 Honors Assembly:
Amazing Aces (highest course grades):
Katherine Brea (Biology and Geometry), Salma El-Behaedi (History) and Christelle Salomon (ELA)
Busy Beavers (highest homework grades—4 core courses):
Katherine Brea, Annie Moy, Brendon Tan, Claribel Rosa
Courageous Climbers (greatest course improvements):
Renee Baxter (Biology), Maya Copeland (History), Ramsel Lara (ELA), Tai Tang (ELA), Isaiah Vance (Biology), Marquette Webster (Geometry)
Students Who Made a Splash (“Golden Duckies”):
Renee Baxter, Michael Creese, Sindy Ortiz, Marquette Webster
Cum Laude (3.00—3.49 GPA)
Vicmarys Brito, Marleah Cummins, Ramsel Lara, Julia Li, Angellica Meng, Sindy Ortiz, Christina Perry, Lydia Price, Gjergji Prifti, Wadea Sakhta, Brendon Tan, Tai Tang, Marquette Webster
Magna Cum Laude (3.50–3.89)
Katherine Brea, Pierline Durand, Salma El-Behaedi, Annie Moy, Claribel Rosa, Christelle Salomon, Tiffany Wu
At this final honors assembly of the year, we recognized the efforts of all fifty students and our dedicated team of Grade 9 teachers, for their hard work and achievements throughout the year. Thank you for making our first-year program a resounding success!
Gateway Term 4 Honors
So Many Labs, So Little Time to Post...
The month of May has seen a whirlwind of lab activities in the Gateway program, both inside and outside of school. We began at the very end of April with a two-day visit by Dr. Kathy Vandiver from MIT's Center for Environmental Health Sciences, who led us through a bacteriophage hunting activity sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Phagehunting Program at the University of Pittsburgh.
During the month of May, Gateway students also have enjoyed the opportunity to return to the Broad Institute three more times, to undertake lab activities ranging from C. elegans (roundworm) genetics to phylogenetic tree construction to transformation of plasmid DNA into bacteria.
Trip to MIT Museum and the Broad Institute!
Today, the Gateway biology classes traveled to Cambridge on a joint visit to the MIT Museum and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. This field trip was packed with hands-on activities related to genetics.
At the MIT Museum, the students explored protein synthesis using both LEGO manipulatives and computer simulations.
At the Broad Institute, the students engaged in a DNA fingerprinting (genotyping) laboratory activity, using the technique of gel electrophoresis.
In May of this year, the O'Bryant Bio Scholars Club will be heading back to the Broad Institute for more lab activities, so stay tuned for more updates on the laboratory adventures of the Gateway students!
Thank you to Kathy Vandiver, Jon Bijur, and Megan Rokop for helping organize such a fantastic field trip for the Gateway students! We look forward to repeating this experience with next year's class!
Gateway Term 3 Honors
Congratulations to the following honorees at this week's Gateway Term 3 Honors Assembly:
Amazing Aces (highest course grades):
Pierline Durand (Biology), Annie Moy (Geometry), Christelle Salomon (ELA and History)
Busy Beavers (highest homework grades—4 core courses):
May Bumar, Salma El-Behaedi, Julia Li, Annie Moy, Christina Perry, Claribel Rosa, Wadea Sakhta, Brendon Tan, Tai Tang, Tiffany Wu
Courageous Climbers (greatest course improvements):
Anthony Antonelli (Geometry), Renee Baxter (Biology and ELA), Kevin Herman (History)
Students Who Made a Splash (“Golden Duckies”):
Alex Brown, Delroy Demontegnac, Christina Perry, Lydia Price
Cum Laude (3.00—3.49 GPA)
Vicmarys Brito, Pierline Durand, Kanjo Kamara, Julia Li, Angellica Meng, Wadea Sakhta, Brendon Tan, Tiffany Wu
Magna Cum Laude (3.50–3.89)
Salma El-Behaedi, Annie Moy, Claribel Rosa, Christelle Salomon
Congratulations to these students on your excellent work this past term, and thank you to all of the family members, classmates and teachers whose support helped make these successes possible!
Happy Pi Day at the O'B!
Today, March 14 (3.14), mathematicians around the world celebrated Pi Day, in honor of the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. All of the math teachers at the O'Bryant sported Pi T-shirts and planned special classroom activities in honor of the occasion.
Along with many other O'Bryant math classes, the Gateway Geometry classrooms held pi recitation contests to celebrate Pi Day, with the first-place winners in each class winning pi(es) - although I believe Mr. Figueroa gave out cakes instead!
In the first-period class, Vicmarys Brito took first place by reciting 48 digits correctly, using the "paired numbers" memorization strategy. Here's a link to Vicmarys' winning recitation.
In Period 2, the early recitations were far off Vicmarys' mark, until the students were told her winning number. It then became a point of class pride to top Vicmarys. Justin Weathers carried the day for Mrs. Shields' homeroom by blowing out the competition with a recitation of 70 digits on his third try. Here's a link to Justin's victorious recitation - he spoke very softly, so listen carefully!
Congratulations to all of the students who were brave enough to stand up and put their best pis forward today!
