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The Chromebooks are Coming!

February 6, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

The Chromebooks are Coming!

by Jesse Shuter and Zoe Schwingel-Sauer

Staff Writers

Photo Courtesy of http://www.inferse.com/11164/dell-joins-world-chromebooks/

On thursday, January 23, 2014, Science Leadership Academy (SLA) along with partners from the Franklin Institute and Dell officially announced a partnership for both computers and learning.

The arrangement will provide the incoming Science Leadership Academy students along with the current ninth grade students, the new Chromebook 11. These are not only a brand-new model of Chromebook, but they are the first Chromebook to be made by the Dell company.

The grant provides 620,000 dollars to SLA from Dell to be used to buy the new machines for these students, but also create what will be called the Center of Excellence for Learning. This new center will be used to showcase the innovative use of technology in the classroom, as well as help other schools follow in SLA’s footsteps.

Science Leadership Academy Principal Chris Lehmann, described the concept of the center as “an everyday Educon.” Educon is an event held each year at SLA where teachers and school officials from all over the world come to SLA to learn about the school’s innovative style of learning. They also come to take lessons from SLA back to their schools so that they can keep growing as a place of learning.

Lehmann said the goal for the Center of Excellence was to “create an environment where the learning is transparent.” Essentially, educators come to SLA to learn the style of learning, and take back the lessons and integrate the ideas into their own teachings, in a new way.

Lehmann also emphasized that the goal for the center was, “Not so [educators] can go back and do exactly what we do, but to take the lessons that we have learned, and make them their own.”

At the official announcement speeches were given by Principal Chris Lehmann, Congressman Chaka Fattah, Dr. William Hite of the Philadelphia School District, Dell Representatives Jon Phillips and Deb Bauer, and finally Franklin Institute CEO Dennis Wint.

All speakers emphasized the importance of this new partnership for education purposes.

Teachers are excited about the change, and are also relieved about the transition.

English and Drama Teacher Matthew Kay said, “Fundraising for laptops each year was an incredible burden for the school each year so the fact that Dell stepped up with this arrangement was a real life saver”

Freshmen do not feel the same way. Most Freshmen that were interviewed expressed worry about the Chromebooks’ lack of features.

When asked if he was excited about the new laptops, freshman Declin Zisser said, “No, Chromebooks are awful. They have nowhere to put disks in and you can’t download anything.”

While some freshmen feel this way, most people at SLA are embracing the change and looking forward to the new laptops.

The Laptops are going to be distributed on February 6th, 2014. It remains to be seen how the freshmen will adjust to the new laptops.

SLA’s 2016 Building Lease, Where Will We Go?

January 30, 2014 by lpahomov 1 Comment

By Staff Writer Melissa Alvarez

Science Leadership Academy’s center city location on 22nd and Arch Street has a lease, and time’s a tickin’. In 2016 the lease for the building will be up and the question we’re all starting to ask is, where’s SLA going?

Principal Chris Lehmann let SLA Media in on the scoop about the possibilities.

“I thought we would just have class in the street” he chuckled, “Well we have 3 possibilities on the table right now. Us actually buying the building is one of them.”

When asked about SLA possibly being co-located with another school, he explained that this is not an option he likes, nor will it be considered.

We questioned him about if he had any preference to the options being considered at this time.

“I have no preference to the 3 options we have right now. I do want to stay accessible in center city, especially because of our Wednesdays at the Franklin.”

All SLA freshman walk to the Franklin Institute every wednesday and are given the opportunity to take mini-courses there for the entire year. This being part of the partnership the school has with them, which also includes a membership for each student as well.

We asked sophomore Marcus Cruz on his thoughts about the building’s lease being up the year he graduates.

“I don’t think it’s fair because by the time we get to graduate, the rest of them get to move. It’s not fair because we don’t get that experience.”

When questioned about if he liked the current building or not he said, “In this building we don’t have a full gym, like a court. I’ve never even seen the music room in here, and we just don’t have a lot of space.”

As the time gets closer, we will soon find out the fate of SLA’s center city location. Will we stay or will we be moving to a new location? If you have an opinion you’d like to share with us, comment below!

Philadelphia’s Low Murder Rate

January 28, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

As many Philadelphians know, there is a lot of crime in the city of Philadelphia. Some of these crimes are things like theft and drug distribution, but some are even more serious. Philadelphia has a very high murder rate. But in 2013 the number of annual murders greatly lowered. There were 247 murders in the city of Philadelphia in 2013, according to the Philadelphia police department, a twenty seven percent decrease from the 33l murders in 2012. The question that the police, and the people of Philadelphia have is, why has the murder rate gone down so much recently?

The number of murders Philadelphia has not been as low as it was in 2013 since 1967, when there were only 234 murders. This sudden decrease in the number of murders is surprising given the high number of murders there have been in Philadelphia in recent years. In the past decade there have been annual murder numbers in the high two hundreds to high three hundreds, with 406 murders in 2007. The number of crimes in the city has gone down as well.

Philadelphia has the fourth highest number of annual murders of any city in the United States. It also has the highest number of murders to population ratio of all of the country’s ten largest cities, about 21.6 murders per every 100,000 people living in the city. Chicago had the highest number of murders in the U.S in 2013, it had just over 400, but this is a decrease from 600 murders ten years ago. Other cities in the U.S. are also experiencing this decrease in murders. This drop in homicide is not just a local decrease.

The Philadelphia police are not exactly sure what caused this drop in homicide. Has Philadelphia become a nicer place to live, or have hospitals gotten better at saving the lives of victims of violent crimes, or has the police have gotten better at stopping these murders? Technology allows the police to analyze crime data better. This makes it easier to keep track of crime statistics. It is easier for them establish which neighborhoods remost likely to have lots have crime, and they can pay more attention to those neighborhoods. They are also keeping close eye on suspects, and ex criminals. The police may be getting more efficient at preventing murders.

The Philadelphia police department predicts that 2013 will not be the only year with a low murder rate. They expect that this will be a continuing pattern, and that Philadelphia’s murder rate will get even lower. This could make Philadelphia a safer city to live, and cause more people to want to live here. Experience in dealing with high murder rates may have lead to the Philadelphia police being able to lower them.

Chromebooks Unveiled at SLA Next Week

January 16, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Chromebooks Unveiled at SLA Next Week

by Jesse Shuter and Zoe Schwingel Sauer

Staff Writers

Photo from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57616317-94/chromebooks-surge-at-business-in-2013-researcher-says/

After many months of anticipation, the time has finally come for the freshman at Science Leadership Academy (SLA) to receive their long awaited laptops.

As previously reported, these new computers are going to be Chromebooks. Not only are these Chromebooks, but SLA will be presented with all new Dell Chromebooks.

These Chromebooks are coming to SLA through a grant provided by Dell. The 1:1 laptop program at SLA is an innovative idea that Dell wanted to be a part of.

On Thursday, January 23rd, there will be an official announcement and press conference for the media hosted by Science Leadership Academy and The Franklin Institute. They will also be announcing the SLA Center of Excellence for Learning, which will showcase the best ways to use technology in schools and classrooms.

In attendance will be Mayor Michael Nutter, U.S. Representative Chaka Fattah, and other elected officials, local leaders and education visionaries. Dell representatives will also be in attendance to present the SLA students with their brand-new Dell Chromebooks.

The event starts at 11 AM in the SLA library. Freshman from SLA will be invited to attend.

Culling Local Deer

January 3, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

There is an overpopulation of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in Pennsylvania. A lack of natural predators in the state has allowed the population to go out of control, causing destruction of forests, crops, and causing car accidents. The forests of Pennsylvania cannot support this many deer, and it is causing a problem for the environment.

This wasn’t a problem a century ago. White-tailed deer were hunted nearly to extinction in the state. So why are there so many of them now? Many of the deer’s natural predators such as wolves and cougars have been pushed out of the state by hunters and destruction of their habitat. But the deer have adapted and thrive on farmland and even in urban areas like Philadelphia. Urban habitats offer protection from predators, and food. They can feed on crops and raid gardens.

An annual deer hunting season every autumn has helped control the populations in rural parts of the state, but what about in urban areas, like the city of Philadelphia? Hunting is illegal in the city, and as a result the deer populations in areas like fairmount park, Valley Forge, Pennypack park, and other places have gotten out of control. So these parks decided to have a deer cull.

The deer cull happens in winter. Hunters go into the woods at night, when the parks are closed to the public. They use bows to kill deer in the park. The meat from the deer doesn’t go to waste, it is donated to homeless shelters, so it is eaten. This deer cull allows the population to be regulated. The Wissahickon park tries to keep the deer population down to thirty deer, which is a healthy number for the park to sustain, but the deer population is usually about 40-50 deer after the cull.

The killing of Philadelphia local deer has caused some controversy among people. While some people support the cull because of the believe in its environmental benefits and/or dislike deer raiding their gardens, spreading tics, and causing car accidents, others are against the slaughter of deer. Anti deer cull protests occur throughout the city, and elsewhere. They don’t believe that we humans should fulfill the role of the deer’s predator. But if we don’t, then what will?

Because we humans have eliminated the deer’s natural predators, Fairmount park has decided that we should fulfill the predatory role, and cull the local deer population in order to regulate it. This poses a controversy because an overpopulation of deer is bad for the local ecosystem, but some people are against the killing of our local deer. Urbanization has disrupted the natural balance of the local environment, the question is “should we as humans interfere to to try to fix it?”