The Kingfishers went on a joint art and science adventure to Morgan Park for Earth Day 2015. “Get your art materials together and go out and have fun!” Mrs. Patrick told the students. So, as soon as students arrived, they began to gather resources for their art projects by taking photographs and sketching things they saw.

Some students made funny videos in Morgan Park about the importance of not trashing nature. “Recording those videos was so funny,” said Top. (The entire school watched one video together, featuring a talking raccoon, parakeet, shark and mole).  Next, students helped Dr. Neubauer clean up the park by gathering trash and recyclables. “This is so awesome,” said Dr. Neubauer, watching Meredith, Sarah E., Sarah G., and Lochlyn experiment with oil pastels. The happy group returned to TGS around noon after an enjoyable Earth Day morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TGS ninth grader Avery Rose Higgin’s  painting “Fly Boy” was chosen for the Horry-Georgetown County High Schools 14th Annual Juried Art Exhibition this year! TGS artist-in-residence and art teacher Kathy Patrick was very proud of her student. Indeed, the whole school was thrilled for Avery. “This is a huge honor,” said Mrs. Patrick, “There were around 350 entries and only 77 were picked for the show.” At the opening reception at the Burroughs and Chapin Art Museum on Sunday, April 19, the mood was festive and the food delicious as proud parents, dignitaries and friends wandered around enjoying all the wonderful art.

Congratulations to Avery for her outstanding work and to Mrs. Patrick for being such a great teacher! The exhibition continues through May 17th so don’t miss it.

 

On the weekend of April 17-18, our partner The Mitney Project sponsored the first annual Gospel and Gullah Festival. As part of the festivities and in conjunction with the Cultural Council, tenth-grade art student Sarah Green had the amazing opportunity to learn from two professional artists: Jonathan Green and Charles Williams. “It was great!” said Sarah, “I made two paintings and learned so much.” Jonathan Green’s art features a re-imagining of African-American culture in the Lowcountry painted in vibrant color, where immigrants instead of slaves create a vision of hope and reconciliation. Charles Williams, a native Georgetonian, is a realist painter whose landscapes capture the human emotional response to nature. Sarah had a great morning and was “all smiles” after working with these artists.

As part of our first annual Shakespeare Festival, all students participated in a stage combat workshop, led by two members of the American Shakespeare Center’s traveling troupe. After an active warm-up during which we learned about the history of the ASC, Patrick and Patrick got us to think about what is most important about stage combat: safety, believability, and how the “violence” must help tell the story. There are many tricks to stage fighting. These tricks involve using the sight lines of the audience, choreography, fake noises and more. In Shakespeare’s day, there were not a lot of stage directions spelled out for actors. Patrick and Patrick acted out a scene where Hamlet and Laertes fight. The only real clue that Hamlet and Laertes should be scuffling was the line “I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat.” This is called an embedded stage direction.

Then all the students got foam swords and learned a little about stance, advancing, retreating, parrying and thrusting. The leaders told us always to practice in slow motion and taught us the dueling salute: sword to the face, up to the heavens, figure eight swish in front then tap the ground. En garde!

To help biology students better understand the material they were being taught, Dr. Neubauer required them to create short videos about cellular respiration.  “They were… intriguing and made me question my existence,” Lochlyn laughed.
The students had three genres of films to pick from: western, sci-fi, and horror. After being divided into three groups, each group chose a genre. Savanna, Maston, and Douglas’ group filmed a horror video they called “The Basement.”  Meredith, Isabella, Trinity, and Sarah’s group created a western film. Avery Rose, Charles, Chris, and Hurley’s group put together what Hurley named a “Wi-Fi,” or a Western/Sci-Fi.
“They were very creative and each video was different,” Dr. Neubauer commented. The students used various resources, including the front lawn and the basement of their school building as settings for their videos. They also used many creative props, such as vindaloo curry, a screwdriver, and a mysterious bearded person.  Using all of these materials gave the students the opportunity show their creativity!

(by Isabella Neubauer)

Ryleigh continued the fabulous Neubauer spellebrity tradition by placing third at the 27th annual Scripps-Howard Regional Spelling Bee, sponsored by the Myrtle Beach Sun News.  The event was held on March 3 at Myrtle Beach High School and involved 54 elementary, intermediate and middle school students from Georgetown and Horry Counties.

Ryleigh went 9 rounds over about three hours.  Was she scared?  Ryleigh admits she was “very nervous.”  She gave her secret for managing the jitters: “I just listened to music in my head and tried not to pay attention.”  Congratulations, Ryleigh–you are awesome!

On Tuesday, March 24th, The Georgetown School of Arts and Sciences participated in the annual Lowcountry Science and Engineering Fair at the College of Charleston. Students and chaperones got in vehicles and arrived the TD Center at around 11:30 for a long but ultimately very fruitful day. Congratulations to Dr. Neubauer and the Science Department on an extremely impressive showing! More than half of the school attended and received one third of the awards, five of which were overall winners.

(by Joe Skerman)

The Kingfishers competed against the Kings Academy Lions on Monday, March 30 in Florence.  “We were overmatched but it was a good experience,” said mid-fielder Top.  The eleven Kingfishers played the entire game against the Lions’ deep bench and showed they were in excellent shape!  Grayson’s goal was a highlight: ” I was surprised and amused that we scored!” he said.

Coach Gates and the school are proud of the guys and girls who stayed on the field the whole time and we look forward to better results soon.  Go Kingfishers!

On February 27, the normal morning schedule came to a halt for our school-wide Science Fair, an event that all of the students had been preparing for since last fall. Everyone set up their boards all throughout the main hallway, decking the hall with boughs of science. The Science Fair contained projects from various grades and had 5 guest judges: local scientists Brian Williams, Research Associate at Clemson’s Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science, Dr. Dan Hitchcock, Associate Professor at Clemson’s Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science, Maggie Senko, Data Analyst at Mercom, Heather Cox, Zookeeper at Brookgreen Gardens, and Ian McLaren, Engineer, retired.

The middle school winners included Johnathan Lambert’s “Avocado Sprouting” for third place, Jesse DeLuca’s “Can Soda Dissolve Your Teeth?” for second place, and Bronwen Bodie’s “Can Biochar Remove Pollutants from Storm Water?” for first. The high school winners included Elizabeth Exum’s “Cool Blue Luminol” for third place, Avery Rose Higgins’ “Electric Rainwater” for second place, and Lochlyn Hejl’s “Puddles and Pavement” for first place. Ninth grader Chris Attias won an award for Best Theoretical Application with “Tanking Under Pressure: Building a Device to Store Hydrogen.” Top (Thomas) Lee won best overall project with “Investigating the Microbial Consortium Within Pseudoceratina Crassa and Its Surrounding Seawater Using Fluorescent in Situ Hybridization.” All students who participated in this year’s science fair will proceed to the College of Charleston’s 35^th annual Lowcountry Science Fair on March 24.

by Savanna Morris and Top Lee

  The Georgetown School won big at the SCISA Math Meet (Division II), held at the Sumter Civic Center on January 20.  Thirty-six teams from twenty-four schools around the state turned up to show their skills, both individually and as teams.  First, all the students individually took an hour-long written test comprised of 50 questions, then the teams faced off in five speed rounds.

Ninth-grader Christopher Attias placed first overall in the individual competition, beating 180 other students. Great job, Chris!

The Georgetown School captured 7^th place in the team competition, outscoring twenty-eight of the thirty-six teams.  “This was our first time at the SCISA Math Meet and I am extremely proud of our team’s performance and our math program,” said Dr. Gates, “We were probably the smallest school there!” Congratulations on a job well done to Math Team members: Christopher, Elizabeth, Sarah E., Nathan, and Top.