News

Cyclohexene causes Classroom Disruption

February 21, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

The third floor was evacuated yesterday, February 20th, due to the intense chemical smell seeping out of room 304, Science Teacher Matt Vankouwenberg’s classroom.

The evacuation began around 10:20 at the end of E band; teachers yelling for students on the floor to go to the Café.

The chemical named Cyclohexene, is a colorless, but very pungent liquid. It was being used in an experiment about whether polar and non-polar substances were miscible or soluble in Senior Advanced Chemistry.

The spread of the odor is attributed to the windows being closed before the class started after Mr. VK had opened them in preparation.

Classes on other floors resumed, but third floor teachers held their classes in other places–the Café, the Library and free classrooms on the 5th floor.

Science Teacher Tim Best taught his 10th grade Bio-Chem class in the Library. He said the projector didn’t have a dongle and then it overheated, unaccustomed to being used for a class period at a time. Teaching out of the normal classroom posed problems associated with technology.

Junior Niyala Brownlee was in Ms. Rami’s English Class during E band and said, “It was very faint, but when we walked in the hallway you could really smell it.”

Erring on the side of caution, the evacuation stayed in effect for the remainder of the school day. Mr. VK said, “If we had spilled 350,000 times as much [cyclohexene], we would have still been within OSHA regulated limits to stay in the room for 8 hours.”

Assuming none of the smell escaped the room and all of it turned into a gas, none as a liquid, there would have been about just under one part per million in the room, knowing it’s safe to be a room with 300 parts per million in an 8 hour time period. (source)

That being said, some complained of headaches because the funk was particularly sharp in the halls.

To remedy the smell, dirt from a flower pot was used to soak up liquid from the lab bench and then discarded safely. Coffee was used on the benches to help the lingering smell in room 304, today.

Classes returned to their normal locations today, and the smell seems to have dissipated.

Girl Scout cookie season is here!

February 6, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jesús Jimenez

Staff Writer

Girl Scout Cookies come in a variety of flavors. Thin Mints are by far the best seller.

Girl Scout cookies have snuck their way into SLA culture in the past few years. Many students’ favorites like Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties, and Caramel deLites have always been available through the few Girl Scouts we have within our school.

Until recently, Senior Jenn Wright, has sold the famous cookies since her freshman year. Now a former member of her troop, Wright remembers the popularity and demand that came with the cookies. On average, she sold around 600 boxes per season, most of her sales being from school.

Putting these up for sale also took quite a bit of work, “The hardest part was bringing them for school,” said Wright. Eventually she made a special box to transport the cookies that literally took some weight off of her shoulders.

Jenn would also advertise through e-mail to potential customers and waited patiently at a table everyday in order to sell them.

Her departure from the Girl Scouts isn’t the end for Girl Scout cookies at SLA, though.

Other girls like Freshman Isabella Mezzaroba and Melanie Harrington are active members of the Girl Scouts, which means that there will be no shortage of cookies this season.

While the job of selling cookies may be stressful, Mezzaroba finds the challenge enjoyable to some extent. What’s her motivation to sell this season? “My troop is going to a trip to Europe this year,” she answered. “So I wanna raise money for that.”

Like Jenn, Mezzaroba normally sells between 500 and 600 boxes. This year Mezzaroba is confident that she will surpass that average, expecting to sell 700 to 800 boxes because of the popularity of the cookies at school.

It will be awhile before the remaining Girl Scouts leave SLA. But until then, we can count on them to provide a delicious treat to many of us this cookie season.

Baird and VK Travel to Egypt

February 1, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By: Nomi Martin-Brouillette

Staff Writer

Last year, Mr. Baird and Mr. VK were contacted by Frederic Burtley, Vice President of The Franklin Institute, saying that the US government had given a grant for an exchange program to between STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) educators in Egypt and schools in the US. They were told that they would like to have them involved in the program.

“We went to Egypt last March and we were there again in November. We were running workshops for teachers in schools in Egypt. They are special schools for students in interested in STEM.” say’s Baird.

Last May, after hearing about SLA, some educators from the Egyptian end of the program came to visit our school. The purpose of this program was to help teachers in Egypt learn from teachers in the US, and vice versa. They bounced ideas off of each other, and visited each others schools.

“Were going again 2-3 more times starting February 1st, and then spring break and then 4 weeks this summer.” says Baird. “It’s open for teachers to come this summer, we’re hoping they can come to share their extersit and knowledge with the Egyptians, it’s a really interesting program.”

So what will this look life for the general SLA Community?

“There are a couple things in the works to try to build some virtual exchanges with the students in Egypt. There is also the benefit sla is serving as a model for other schools.” say’s Baird.

The main struggles are that the Egyptians are running into problems when trying to acces visas to come to the US, due to current political struggles. The future of the program is still up in the air.

“The biggest thing is simply that realizing that the type of learning and teaching we do at SLA is really well thought of.” says Baird. “The Egyptians could have gone anywhere, but they chose SLA. People need to realize that our school is having a big influence on the world.”

SLA Reacts to School Closings

January 22, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By: Jamie Murphy

Staff Writer

On December 13th, the School District of Philadelphia announced its plans to close or relocate close to 40 schools in the city.

New superintendent Dr. William Hite announced these plans in the hope for better quality schools and schooling environment.

In an interview published on News Works, Hite said that, “At the end of this process, we believe that we will have a system that better serves all students, families, and stakeholders.”

SLA is not on the list of schools, and does not expect any changes in location or enrollment.

Principal Mr.Lehman reasures by saying, “Anytime you have to close schools that majorly its a really hard place, but we are fortunate as a community that our school is not closing.”

However, the changes are still having an influence on the SLA community.

Sophomore Melanie Harrington is worried because her mom works at the Tanner Duckery school, one of the schools being shut down.

“When schools close they are usually force transferred, but that may not happen since so many teachers are losing their position,” she said. “There may not be a position for everyone. So that would leave some out of jobs.”

Junior Ellen To mentioned, “It’s affecting a lot of other public schools too. My little sister, who goes to Greenfield Elementary school, will have like 10 or 15 more kids in her class now.”

Parents of the students attending the schools that are closing are protesting. As this is a major event, affecting a very large number of people.

Activist group, Parents United for Public Education stated in refute to the plan, “National studies have shown that Districts do not improve academically or financially though mass closings,” “The [Philadelphia] District has failed to demonstrate what it will do differently from other cities to address those concerns.”

Most of the SLA community are in their own bubble as it is safe to safe to say, we’re in the clear.

Photo credited to Philly.comStudents, teachers, and parents protest out side school headquarters. — Photo credited to Philly.com
Students, teachers, and parents protest out side school headquarters.

Juniors Begin Keystone Exams

January 14, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Heather Campbell

Staff Writer

Science Leadership Juniors will begin testing for the Keystone Exams starting on Tuesday, January 15th. This is the first time the Keystone Exams are being introduced to the Philadelphia School District, replacing the previous PSSA exam.

The Keystone Exams are the new state mandated end-of-course test designed to determine the status of high schools and their students proficiency in core subjects. The exam will test the students’ understanding of Literature, Algebra I, and Biology.

As a part of the national No Child Left Behind laws, each year the school has to hit certain percentages in testing to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress.

“This year it’s important because it’s how SLA is measured against other schools in Philly,” stated Testing Coordinator and Math Teacher Mark Miles.

Right now, the tests are only used to assess the school. Starting for the class of 2017, however, the Keystone Exams will become a graduation requirement for all students.
According to the Philadelphia School District, the state plans to introduce more exams as part of the graduation requirements. A Composition exam is expected to commence in 2019 and a Civics and Government exam in 2020. A Geometry, U.S. History, Algebra II, Chemistry, and World History exam may be implemented for voluntary use.

For the past couple of months, juniors have been preparing for the exams. “In English and Math class, we’ve had review packets and quizzes,” commented Junior Jhonas Dunakin, “It’s kind of like a refresher from what you learnt from before.”

With all of the review, Juniors are both feeling the pressure to perform and starting to get burned out on the practice.

“I want it to be finished. It’s taking away from what we usually do,” stated Junior Victoria Yarbrough, “We put on hold our trigonometry, which I really need to know, for something I already know.”

The juniors are not the only ones preparing for the exams. Mr. Miles has been running training sessions for proctoring during professional development. Being a school that does not hold much value in testing, the faculty and staff have a tradition to make the experience more bearable.

“It started with Mr. Chase, who didn’t like the whole testing coordinator thing, so he gave himself a different nickname.” commented Mr. Miles. This tradition has allowed the testing coordinators to give themselves a different persona to separate themselves from the position.

“There is the educator, who we are normally,” said Mr. Miles, “and then there is the testing coordinator.”

This year the juniors’ Keystone Exams are run by Marky Mark and his helpers, the Funky Bunch.