Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge Junior Police Academy is in June

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Oak Ridge Police Department Badge

The sixth annual Oak Ridge Junior Police Academy will be held this summer from June 11 through June 29. The Junior Police Academy will be using an age-appropriate format this year, which will allow three separate sessions.

Sessions will be based on the grade that is obtained for the 2017 through 2018 school year, a press release said.

  • 7th grade through graduating seniors: This session will be a Junior Police Forensic Academy, an intensive week of forensic training in crime scene investigation, and the science involved. It is targeted toward those who may be interested in a career in forensic science. The training environment will be classroom and lab setting.
  • 8th grade through graduating seniors: This session will target students who may be interested in a law enforcement career. Training will focus on basic policing and law enforcement techniques.
  • 5th grade through 7th grade: This session will be a junior police camp with a police theme and will focus on group activities and team building exercises.

Are you right for the Junior Police Academy? Answer these questions: Have you thought about what you are going to do after school? Have you ever wondered exactly what a police officer does? Are you interested in a career in law or paralegal? Would you be interested in learning more about law enforcement? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then you are a great candidate for the Oak Ridge Junior Police Academy. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge students compete in Southern Appalachian Science, Engineering Fair

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Ryan Armstrong earned second place for his project titled “Quantifying the Evolution of Gas from Li-ion Battery Materials” under the mentorship of Gabriel Veith of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Along with a $750 scholarship and trophy, Ryan will travel to Los Angeles, California in May to compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair. (Submitted photo)

Ryan Armstrong earned second place for his project titled “Quantifying the Evolution of Gas from Li-ion Battery Materials” under the mentorship of Gabriel Veith of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Along with a $750 scholarship and trophy, Ryan will travel to Los Angeles, California, in May to compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair. (Submitted photo)

 

Seven research students from Oak Ridge High School competed in the 66th Annual Southern Appalachian Science and Engineering Fair hosted at the University of Tennessee. The competition was held March 27-30 with the awards ceremony on Thursday evening. There were 55 Senior Division projects in competition, a press release said.

Five of the students were part of the Math, Science, and Computer Science Thesis course at ORHS that is advised by Tammy Carneim and Jessica Williams. The remaining two did their research independently with the help of teachers Deni Sobek and Sharon Thomas.

Ryan Armstrong earned second place for his project titled “Quantifying the Evolution of Gas from Li-ion Battery Materials” under the mentorship of Gabriel Veith of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Along with a $750 scholarship and trophy, Armstrong will travel to Los Angeles, California, in May to compete at the International Science and Engineering Fair.

Jasleen Narula earned fourth place and $100 for her project titled “Rapid High-Throughput Toxicity Screening of East Tennessee Water Samples Using Autobioluminescent Yeast Assay” under the mentorship of Steven Ripp. [Read more…]

Jefferson Middle School artists take second-place award in Dogwood Arts Festival Chalk Walk

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ChalkWalk_JMS_StudentsPainting

Two Jefferson Middle School sixth-graders, Avery Parish and Anshra Ajaz, along with former JMS student Kiri Nelson, won second place in the Middle School Collaborative category at the Ninth Annual Dogwood Arts Festival Chalk Walk competition on Saturday, April 1, 2017. (Submitted photo)

 

Two Jefferson Middle School sixth-graders, Avery Parish and Anshra Ajaz, along with former JMS student Kiri Nelson, won second place in the Middle School Collaborative category at the Ninth Annual Dogwood Arts Festival Chalk Walk competition on Saturday, April 1.

The girls planned their masterpiece for several months and spent eight hours drawing it onto the pavement at Market Square, a press release said. Their work depicted an old painting of a Kraken attacking a ship and then beginning to emerge in vivid colors from the frame. [Read more…]

Roane State Education Department to host open houses

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The Roane State Community College Education Department will host open houses for anyone interested in becoming a K-12 teacher.

An open house at the college’s Oak Ridge campus at 701 Briarcliff Avenue will be held on Thursday, April 20, at 6 p.m. The event will be held in Room 336 in the Goff Health Sciences and Technology Building.

An open house at the college’s Roane County campus, 276 Patton Lane in Harriman, will be held on Thursday, April 27, at 6 p.m. Visitors will meet in Room 224 in the O’Brien Humanities Building. [Read more…]

Community meeting to discuss new preschool in Scarboro on April 20

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The new preschool could be located at Elm Grove Park in east Oak Ridge or Scarboro Park in central Oak Ridge, pictured above on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017, and the city's school board expects to recommend one of the two sites on Monday, Feb. 27, a school official said Friday. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The new Oak Ridge Preschool is expected to be located at Scarboro Park in central Oak Ridge. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

There will be a community meeting in Scarboro on Thursday, April 20, to discuss the plan to build the new Oak Ridge Preschool at Scarboro Park.

There was some opposition from Scarboro residents and former residents, as well as requests for more discussion before a vote, during a special Oak Ridge City Council meeting on March 27. But the City Council voted 5-1 during that meeting to select Scarboro Park for the preschool.

City officials said they want to continue to discuss the project with the community.

The April 20 meeting is like a public forum, and it is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Scarboro Community Center. It’s part of the ongoing dialogue with the community, a city press release said.

A previous community meeting was held at the same venue on March 23 to discuss the site selection for the preschool. [Read more…]

Roane board to discuss school consolidation plans this evening

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Roane County School Board will have a work session at 6:30 p.m. today (Thursday, April 6) to revisit an earlier decision to begin the process of consolidating the five high schools in Roane County into one larger school.

The work session will be in the auditorium of Roane County High School in Kingston.

The board is meeting at the high school due to what is expected to be a large crowd. The proposal to consolidate the high schools has met with vocal resistance, especially from parents of students attending Midway and Oliver Springs high schools, who say the proposal would seriously affect travel time to and from school, making trips for students there much longer. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge-based intensive training produces national Memory Master

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Colby Salzman achieved Memory Master after demonstrating mastery of over 500 pieces of information learned weekly. (Submitted photo)

Colby Salzman achieved Memory Master after demonstrating mastery of over 500 pieces of information learned weekly. (Submitted photo)

 

On March 29, 8-year old Colby Salzman, son of Lee Salzman and Oak Ridge High School 1985 graduate Andrea (Poteat) Salzman, wrapped up 24 weeks of intensive memorization efforts by earning his Memory Master award. He subsequently ate a fruit snack and went out to play with his friends.

“Memory Master” is an honor bestowed to students who have mastered all the memory work learned through the Classical Conversations (CC) classical homeschooling curriculum. Classical Conversations defines “mastery” as the storing of information to long-term memory, which means the students do not cram for a single test and then move on; instead they learn to use each fact as a hook for more facts.

Colby puts it more simply, “When I hear 1789, I can’t help it. I think about aristocrats’ heads being chopped off by the guillotine in France.”

During the school year, students (age 4-12) meet weekly at Calvary Baptist Church in Oak Ridge and work together to learn facts through song, movement, experimentation, drawing, and laughter, a press release said. [Read more…]

Reminder: Community Wellness Fair is today

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Reminder: The Community Wellness Fair is today.

The Wellness Fair is hosted by the City of Oak Ridge Wellness Committee and Oak Ridge Schools Coordinated School Health. It’s scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. today (Wednesday, April 5) in the Oak Ridge Civic Center. Admission is free and everyone is invited.

A variety of health screenings will be offered. Topics to be covered include: [Read more…]

Education Foundation to award more than $90,000 in grants in April 26 ceremony

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A photo from a grant award last year for a 3D printer for Robertsville Middle School. (Submitted photo)

A photo from a grant award last year for a 3D printer for Robertsville Middle School. (Submitted photo)

 

In the final year of its “Making the Critical Difference” campaign, the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation will award more than $90,000 in grants to Oak Ridge teachers at a ceremony on Wednesday, April 26, a press release said.

Shirley Raines, president emeritus of the University of Memphis, will be the featured speaker, the press release said. She will give a talk titled, “Dreamers, Thinkers, Doers.”

The grants ceremony is open to the public, and it will be held in the Oak Ridge High School cafeteria beginning at 4 p.m. April 26.

Demonstrations and displays of some of the projects and technology funded by the Foundation will be given after the formal ceremony, the press release said. Light refreshments will be provided courtesy of Oak Ridge Utility District.

The 2017 grant recipients are as follows: [Read more…]

Sister City Support Organization, Oak Ridge Schools select middle school exchange delegation

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The Sister City Support Organization in cooperation with Oak Ridge Schools has selected the 2017 delegation for the middle school exchange with Oak Ridge's sister city, Naka-shi, Japan. Delegates for the 2017 exchange are front, from left to right, Jordan Oxendine, Aidan Seay, Henri Scott, Mateo Cacheiro, Thomas Schultz, and Savanna Maddux; and back, RMS Chaperone Julie Kinder-McMillan, Bert Everitt, Alex Dahl, Alex Shanafield, Allison Myers, and JMS Chaperone Kristina Casalenuovo. (Submitted photo)

The Sister City Support Organization in cooperation with Oak Ridge Schools has selected the 2017 delegation for the middle school exchange with Oak Ridge’s sister city, Naka-shi, Japan. Delegates for the 2017 exchange are front, from left to right, Jordan Oxendine, Aidan Seay, Henri Scott, Mateo Cacheiro, Thomas Schultz, and Savanna Maddux; and back, RMS Chaperone Julie Kinder-McMillan, Bert Everitt, Alex Dahl, Alex Shanafield, Allison Myers, and JMS Chaperone Kristina Casalenuovo. (Submitted photo)

 

The Sister City Support Organization in cooperation with Oak Ridge Schools has selected the 2017 delegation for the middle school exchange with Oak Ridge’s sister city, Naka-shi, Japan.

The 10 rising eighth-grade students, representing both Robertsville and Jefferson middle schools, will be accompanied by two teacher chaperones. The group will travel to Japan in July and welcome the Naka students to Oak Ridge in August. This is the 26th year of the U.S.-Japanese exchange.

This press release and photo were submitted by Jerry Luckmann.

Roane State’s Anderson County Middle College students excited about graduation day

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Roane State Middle College students, from left, Miranda Vanover, Braelee Givens, and Emily Pooler will graduate from Roane State Community College before they graduate from high school. (Photo by Roane State)

Roane State Middle College students, from left, Miranda Vanover, Braelee Givens, and Emily Pooler will graduate from Roane State Community College before they graduate from high school. (Photo by Roane State)

 

By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer

A group of bright high achievers from Anderson County will be wearing commencement’s traditional caps and gowns twice this spring.

Members of the first graduating class of Middle College students from Anderson County will receive associate degrees from Roane State Community College on May 6.

Then, they’ll be graduating from their respective high schools later that month.

Middle College is a two-year Roane State program where area high school sophomores with qualifying grades and test scores are invited as juniors to attend college in the mornings and return to their high schools in the afternoon.

Middle College gives participants a huge leg up in terms of college credits, and they’ll start the rest of their collegiate careers with two years of higher education classes under their belts. [Read more…]

Roane State staff encourages girls to pursue engineering

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Roane State mechatronics director Gordon Williams shows students how to operate a robotic arm during the “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” event at Y-12’s New Hope Center. (Photo courtesy Roane State)

Roane State mechatronics director Gordon Williams shows students how to operate a robotic arm during the “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” event at Y-12’s New Hope Center. (Photo courtesy Roane State)

 

Two Roane State staff members helped introduce more than 200 high school girls to the world of engineering during an event at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

Showing the students how to operate a robotic arm was Gordon Williams, director of the college’s mechatronics program. Kim Harris, director of Workforce Training and Placement at Roane State, assisted in the presentation.

The demonstration was part of “Introduce a Girl to Engineering,” a program held February 23 at Y-12’s New Hope Center.

Students from 15 area schools participated in the event conducted in concert with “Girl Day,” an initiative founded by DiscoverE, formerly the National Engineers Week Foundation. [Read more…]