First Two Days of School

Tuesday -

2 hour advisory (back to school stuff, laptops, trans passes, schedules, paperwork, etc.)

8:15-10:15am - 2 hour advisory

10:20-11:35 - X1 band

11:40-12:45 - Y1 band

12:50-1:55 - A1 Band

2:00-3:05 - B1 Band

Wednesday -

1 hour advisory (get back paperwork, discuss any changed schedules)

8:15-9:15am - 1 hour advisory

9:20-10:25 - C1 Band

10:30-11:35 - D1 Band

11:40-12:45 - E1 Band

Dismiss -- Grade-Level Advisors will assign work for the kids to do. (12th - Naviance, etc...)

Dear SLA,

The art students are going to start collecting plastic bottle caps for thier first marking period unit. PLEASE! Bring in all the bottle caps you can to help with our mission.

Essential Questions:

How are plastics affecting our environment/food supply?

What percentage of plastics are being recycled / injested by humans and animals?

What can be done with the excess plastic created?

Summer Institute 2010

***ATTENTION UPPERCLASSMEN!  Your sleep is important to us -- please do NOT arrive until 10:00am on Monday.  We will have a meeting in the library at 10:00am and then you may welcome our new 9th-graders to SLA. 

General Schedule for 9th-Graders

Please contact Ms. Gierke at jgierke@scienceleadership.org with questions!

Attention all incoming 9th graders!

Summer Institute is happening next week! We will begin at 9:00am on Monday and dismiss at noon.  For Tuesday through Friday, we will begin again at 9:00am but dismiss at 12:30pm.  We encourage you to bring your own lunch and/or snacks as lunch will not be served in the Café.

If you are volunteering as an upperclassman, please arrive by 8:45am with your labcoat or SLA t-shirt.  

Cross-Country practice will begin next Monday, August 23rd, at 4:00 in the Café. Come join us hydrated and dressed to run! All students are welcome but will be required to get a physical in order to compete.  Please contact Srta. G. with any questions.

Official Fall soccer practices start Monday August 16th at 8am.  

Meet at the school with water, running gear and soccer gear.

Practice will last 1.5-2 hours.

Contact Mr. VK @ mvank@scienceleadership.org with any questions.

The Science Leadership Academy was named America's ten most amazing schools in the September 2010 issue of the Ladies Home Journal! The SLA community is proud to be honored along such a prestigious and innovative group of schools! Be sure to read the article to find out more about some of the most interesting schools in the country! 

The Girls' Volleyball team will begin practice on Tuesday, August 24th at Greenfield Elementary School (22nd & Chestnut Streets) from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm and continue throughout the week.  Anyone interested in being part of the team MUST come to preseason practice and MUST have a completed physical.  Participants should also bring a volleyball and knee pads to practice.  If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail Mrs. Hirschfield at khirschfield@scienceleadership.org or call 917-797-9807.  

Congratulations to Science Leadership Academy's first graduating class, the Class of 2010!!!

We are all so proud of all your accomplishments, and we wish you the best of luck! Stay in touch!

Here are the photos from graduation, taken by Darryl Moran.

Mr. Lehmann has spoken the text of his speech on his blog. The ceremony will be online soon, and we will be selling copies of a DVD of graduation as well.

During the 4th quarter, 9th grade students of African American history created 30-second commercials.  Several components of the project included the following:

• Inquiry: Students defined their own questions and topics about African American history (1865-present)
• Research: Students researched "freedom and liberty" (as described in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights) and related each to their inquiry
• Collaboration: Students worked together to write a non-fictional profile of a historical event and how it relates to freedom and responsibility --- with 3 MLA citations.
• Presentation: Students used a variety of media (iMovie, garage band, blip.tv, Wikispaces) to organize and
  share their non-fiction profile essays and 30-second commercials.

Here are a few student samples:

Danny Weinman's take on Martin Luther King, Jr.

Congratulations to juniors Melissa Buchanico and Lauren Mobly for making the School District of Philadelphia's Carpenter Cup all-star team. They will be playing their first game at 9am on June 21st in front of local media and college scouts. Congratulations to Lauren and Missy for their hard work!

We would also like to recognize SLA's All-Public softball players: Lauren, Melissa and Bria Wimberly on 1st team and Maggie Long and Emma Hersh on 2nd team.

The Art in the Open performances were amazing!! Great job!
You can see photos on AiO's Facebook in addition to the gallery here.

An enormous thank you to Leah Stein and Danielle, Juma, David, and Jaamil from the Leah Stein Dance Company for making this project possible.

Jeff and Wil were honored yesterday by Mayor Nutter and the School District of Philadelphia for outstanding Science Fair projects. Congratulations!! 

Performances will be in the Schuylkill River Park on Wednesday, June 9th between 11:00-1:00!!
Click here for a full schedule of performances. See attachment below for printable version.
Click here to see more photos from the project.

 To the SLA Community:

Thank you for another wonderful year of ILP experiences. This past year, SLA students have worked with many different organizations throughout the city of Philadelphia, and have once again have exemplified SLA’s core values. Students participated in ILPs ranging from hospitals to libraries, schools, Arabic drumming classes and law classes.

One class that was hosted at SLA was the inaugural year of the StartUp Corps Program. This program mentored nine SLA students through the process of designing and creating a small business. These students worked throughout the year in their class, attending events, and ultimately presenting their business plans at Pierce College on May 12^th.

Eleven SLA 10th graders attended the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science state competition on May 17th at Penn State's main campus.  This is the first year SLA has had students enter the PJAS fair, and we're extremely proud of everyone!

Ashley Etheredge, Elisa Hyder, and Natasha Ashby won 3rd prize.  Marina Stuart, Natalie Sanchez, Markia Johnson, Blase Biello, Jeff Kessler, and Doug Wallace won 2nd prize.  Will Felinski won 1st prize for his project on wind turbines, and Zayd Alsardary also won first prize for his project on the genetics of E. Coli.

Congratulations to all the students who participated in this year's PJAS science fair!

Congratulations to SLA softball for winning the Group 1A championship game in a dominating 17-2 win over division rival, Parkway West for their second division win in two years as a varsity team!  Lauren Mobly had 6 strikeouts and led the team offensively with a homerun and a double.  Melissa Buchanico and Julia Boyer continued the offensive streak with a single and double each.  

Come out and support the softball team as our SLA Rockets take on Girls High in the public league semi-final game. The game is Tuesday, May 25th at 3pm at LaSalle University (1900 W. Olney Ave.) Admission is $3.00.  GO ROCKETS!!!

Our study of Macbeth culminated in a project which tracked the character development of Macbeth or Lady Macbeth across the span of the play through the creative representation of key textual quotes. The process was two-part; students had to pull meaningful quotes from the text to analyze and allign with their character and then creatively represent that character's journey. This quote analysis reflected the steps of placing the quote in context, decoding the text, and discussing its significance to the play and to the character's growth over the course of the drama.  The second part was the creative presentation. The students in Orange and Red Stream English voted on the student projects they believed best represented them. They are proud of each other's achievements.  Please enjoy as we have! PLEASE CLICK THE BLOG TITLE TO BE ABLE TO VIEW ATTACHMENTS AND VIDEOS.

SLA is half way through its first Blood Drive!  Kiana Sample, an SLA senior, collaborated with the Red Cross to host a blood drive.  All eligible blood will benefit the sickle cell unit at CHOP.

Congratulations to Sinnea Douglas for being one of only 6 Philadelphia poets to make the city's Youth Slam Team! Sinnea has now established herself as one of the best poets in the city, regardless of age.When she approaches the microphone, crowds now crackle with anticipation. Sinnea now gets to represent her city and SLA at the nationwide Brave New Voices festival in Los Angeles.

SLA came within a few decimal points of having two representatives. Toni Marshall, the youngest poet in the contest, finished in seventh place, claiming her place among the city's best young writers. In only a few months, she has gone from shyly joining poetry club to having her voice recognized and praised by Philadelphia's most known spoken word artists. We look forward to her continued growth!

As seen on HBO: http://www.hbo.com/russell-simmons-presents-brave-new-voices/index.html

The School District of Philadelphia will be opening two hours late due to the Pennsylvania Primary. The SLA schedule will be as follows:

E 10:15 to 11:00

A 11:05 to 11:50

Y 11:55 to 12:40

X 12:40 to 1:25

B 1:30 to 2:15

C 2:20 to 3:05

Congratulations to the SLA athletes who qualifed for and competed this past Wednesday and Thursday in the Public League Championship held at Germantown and Northeast High Schools! 

Field Events

• Marina Stuart (7th-long jump, 9th-triple jump)
• Ian McClendon (13th-triple jump)

Sprinting Events

• Ipiphani Battle (5th-400m, 17th-100m, 11th-200m)
• Jason Davis (36th-200m)
• Mike Miller (12th-400m)

Distance Events

• Will MacFarlane (8th-3200m)
• Matt Ferry (15th-3200m)

Relay Events

• Mike Miller, Chris Cothran, Matt Ferry, Will MacFarlane (13th-4x800 Relay) 

These athletes among others from their team will compete in the District XII Championship next Wednesday and Thursday at Germantown and Northeast where they will compete for spots at the PIAA State Championship. 

After last Friday's offensive explosion "Shocked and Awed" all in attendance, a drop-off in production loomed, and our rematch vs Lamberton stood a serious chance of being a nail-biter. However, after the second inning the bats had already produced 7 runs, and most impressive was their 11-run response after letting the lead slip away in the 3rd. Hard to believe it, but our guys actually topped their previous offensive display in every category, and went 16-30 for a .530 team batting average en route to tallying 25 runs on 16 hits.

When all was said and done Mother Mercy was once again called in to save Lamberton's trio of pitchers who struggled against some seriously disciplned hitters that immediately converted 17 walks into 28 stolen bases, and a shocking .690 On-base-percentage.

Community Tech, which convincingly beat SLA in their first meeting, was seemingly en route to an encore performance after they batted aorund and dropped a 6 spot on Joe Rainis in the first inning. The bench was understandably silent once the onslaught was finally subdued. Fast forward 3 hours and 15 minutes later, and you would be hard pressed to convince a late comer that this was the same game or the same team from the thunderous roar of the SLA bench.

The bases were loaded with only one out. Four runs had already crossed the plate in the bottom of the sixth when John Sample stepped up to bat with an intensity more characteristic of a big leaguer than a high school senior. Comm Tech's relief pitcher, who had struggled and walked the bases loaded, stared Sample down and delivered. The sweet clang of the bat rang true and set the SLA bench on fire as Sample's bullet went screaming up the middle.

The Rockets defeated a dominating Prep Charter yesterday in an exciting 6 inning game that ended 15-3.  Lauren Mobly held the Huskies to 5 hits with 10 strikeouts.  She dominated on offense as well, with a single, triple and out of the park homerun.  Missy Buchanico, Bria Wimberly and Emma Hersh continued the offensive slugfest as the entire team rallied around one another in an impressive show of teamwork and athletic prowess.  Jeremy Spry made a cameo appearance as first base coach and the girls were running like pros!  Come see the Rockets take on Divisional rival, Parkway West, today - May 7th at 48th and Aspen - in hopes of completing a week-long win streak!

Congratulations to Sinnea Douglas and Toni Marshall for making the finals to join the Philadelphia Youth Slam Team. Both are among the top 10 slam poets aged 13-21 in the city! Should either of them make the team, they will compete in Los Angeles this summer, as part of the Brave New Voices competition.

As seen on HBO:

http://www.hbo.com/russell-simmons-presents-brave-new-voices/index.html

The finals are May 14, 6-10 PM. At Cohen G17 on UPENNs campus. All are welcome!

Bill Gates speaks at Science Leadership Academy from Chris Alfano on Vimeo.

On Saturday, April 24th, eight SLA students competed in the final tournament in the year.  Team members include Dennis Mawson, Kabbour Risq, Domnique Miller, Rumman Haq, Aimee Leong, Stephanie Millwood, Chris Cassise and Andre Serrano.  Throughout the debate our four teams represented our school well, having 2 teams advance from the quarter-finals, to the semi-finals.  In the end, Domnique Miller and Rumman Haq competed in the finals, bested by a very strong Constitution High School team.  The results are as follows:

SLA Team - Voices Overall Top Scoring Team

Rumman Haq and Domnique Miller - 2nd place

Chris Cassise and Andre Serrano - 3rd Place

Rumman Haq - 1st Place Speaker Award

Stephanie Millwood - 3rd Place Speaker Award

CONGRATULATIONS to the team and thanks to Perspectives Debate, ASAP Debate and our parents for all their support throughout the season!

On Thursday, April 29th, Bill Gates - Chairman of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - will come to SLA to speak to students as part of the partnership between The Franklin Institute and the Science Leadership Academy. Mr. Gates is the 2010 Franklin Award winner for the Bower Award for Business Leadership. Mr. Gates is speaking at SLA as part of The Franklin Institute's long-standing program of having a Franklin Award winner speak to our students. SLA's in-house film crew - Rough Cut Productions - will be streaming Mr. Gates' talk live to schools all over the world. The students of SLA welcome Mr. Gates and are preparing for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!