SIUSLAW NEWS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER ❚ JANUARY 2016
SCHOOL
ZONE
A Monthly Newsletter for the Siuslaw and Mapleton Schools and Florence Community PTA
SMS 8th-graders
to visit Ellis Island
at FEC Monday
T
Life’s a ride with
amusement park
physics
Science students research Laws of Motion
SIUSLAW NEWS FILE PHOTOS
hanks to an arrangement with SEAcoast
Entertainment Association, Siuslaw
Middle School students will experience
a live performance about immigration in the
early 20th century, titled
“The New American,” by
Rachel Atkins of Living
Voices.
Three performances are
scheduled to accommodate
all the students.
Living Voices is a non-
profit educational group
that presents solo perform-
ers and integrates audience
interaction to teach histo-
ry. Oftentimes they use
COURTESY PHOTO
archival film as their Rachel Atkins as
stage’s backdrop.
Bridget Fitzgerald
SEAcoast
is
the
in “The New
American”
Florence-area nonprofit
that brings high-caliber
arts and entertainment to the Florence Events
Center and contracts with entertainers to do
community outreach for schools and senior liv-
ing communities.
“For me, working with Living Voices is one
of the high points for our concert season. They
are bringing a dramatic, artistic element to
enhance the students’ year-long studies about
immigration,” said Rachel Pearson, SEA’s edu-
cation outreach coordinator.
“They turn history into a moving, personal
journey to help young audiences understand and
access the past,” said Pearson. “The project will
further the students’ studies this year on the his-
tory of immigration, and allow for an informed
discussion and comparison of historical immi-
gration to the issues of immigration today.”
This will be the second year Living Voices
has come to Siuslaw Middle School to augment
its history curriculum.
“The New American” is an imaginative story
beginning in 1912 rural Ireland, where students
meet Bridget Rose Fitzgerald. The Fitzgeralds
barely manage to hold onto their farm in bad
times.
Her father sends Bridget to America in hopes
she will be able to send back enough money to
save their home.
Bridget is placed in steerage on a steamship
headed for New York. At Ellis Island, she is
tagged and numbered along with thousands of
immigrants crammed into a huge, noisy facility.
After a barrage of tests and a long list of con-
fusing and embarrassing questions, Bridget is
passed through and taken to Manhattan where
she begins work at a sweatshop.
After many challenges, and after studying and
passing the citizenship exam, Bridget fully
embraces her new homeland.
Through it all, students will learn what
American liberty and opportunity mean to peo-
ple around the world.
“During the production, students will become
so engaged in the dramatic telling of Bridget’s
personal story, they won’t realize all the lessons
they’re absorbing about history, cultural differ-
ences, character development and the immigra-
tion process,” says Pearson.
Eighth-grade social studies teacher Heather
Wiggins was provided a teacher’s guide for pre-
and post-performance instruction to assist stu-
dents in gaining a greater understanding of the
process of immigration and assimilation of the
early 20th century, and then to draw parallels
between then and now.
Included are hands-on activities to reinforce
new concepts through a mix of writing, art,
presentation, and discussion on topics emanat-
ing from the presentation.
For more information about SEAcoast
Entertainment Association and the remaining
performances of their 2015-2016 concert series,
visit www.SeacoastEA.org.
Teens ride the Pharaoh’s Fury at a recent Rhododendron
Festival, where Newton’s Laws of Motion reign supreme.
W
hat do
bumper
cars,
Pharaoh’s Fury and
roller coasters have in
common? Physics!
And, of course, they
can all be found at
amusement parks.
Eighth grade science stu-
dents recently finished up a
unit where they applied
their understanding of
Newton’s Laws of Motion
and the energy of motion
through a variety of amuse-
ment park ride simulations.
First, students simulated
pendulum rides, like
Pharaoh’s Fury, which
many have ridden during
Rhody Days’ carnivals.
Students performed two
different tests on pendu-
lums. One was to deter-
mine whether or not string
length made a difference on
how fast a pendulum
swings. The other was to
determine whether or not
additional mass made a
difference on how fast a
pendulum swings.
Students concluded a
shorter string (or rod)
makes the pendulum
swing faster, but that
adding mass to the pen-
dulum string did not
have an effect on the
pendulum’s swings.
Next, students simu-
lated bumper car rides
COURTESY
PHOTO
by causing marble colli-
sions at varying speeds
Alexis Wells’ eighth grade students create roller coasters dur-
and angles.
ing a lesson on amusement park physics.
Students demonstrated
piece of track to another.
Students designed their
the conservation of
Students realized during
roller coasters to include an
momentum by transferring
initial hill, a loop and addi- the design and test phase
momentum from one mar-
that the initial hill had to be
tional hill, while ensuring
ble to another much like
that their marble made it all the very tallest in order for
bumper cars bumping into
the marble to have enough
the way to the end of the
each other.
potential energy to make it
track.
They observed how the
along the entire length of
Students made tracks
marbles moved when hit at
the track.
using half pieces of foam
different angles and
While we couldn’t take a
pipe insulation, which easi-
inferred how their bodies
might move if they were in ly twisted and bent to form field trip to an amusement
loops and hills.
park, students can’t wait
a bumper car collision.
for the Rhody Days carni-
Some
students
added
Finally, students used the
val to see more physics in
additional loops and even
concepts of kinetic and
action. —Submitted by
created gaps where their
potential energy to create
Alexis Wells
marble jumped from one
marble run roller coasters.
CYAN MAGENTA YELLoW BLACK
P h ys i cs i n
A ct io n
SEAcoast brings “The New
American” to 3 shows