Oak Ridge Today

ORAU awards two teachers with $5,000 Extreme Classroom Makeover grants

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Donna Widner and her students at Oliver Springs Middle School received a $5,000 grant as runners-up in the 2017 ORAU Extreme Classroom Makeover competition. (Photo by ORAU)

Donna Widner and her students at Oliver Springs Middle School received a $5,000 grant as runners-up in the 2017 ORAU Extreme Classroom Makeover competition. (Photo by ORAU)

 

Oliver Springs Middle School in Roane County and Shannondale Elementary School in Knox County have been announced as runners-up in the 2017 ORAU Extreme Classroom Makeover competition during surprise classroom visits, according to a press release on Friday.

ORAU made surprise visits to the two schools and their students and teachers, and presented each with a $5,000 grant as runners-up in the competition.

April Lamb, a STEM teacher at Shannondale Elementary School in Knox County, and Donna Widner, a math teacher at Oliver Springs Middle School in Roane County, will use the grants to outfit their classrooms with new technology. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. [Read more…]

Martin Luther King Jr. Day events

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Reneé Kesler

Reneé Kesler

There are at least three events scheduled on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Monday, January 16).

Atomic City Sportsmen Club hosts 28th Annual Martin Luther King Fellowship Breakfast Program

The Atomic City Sportsmen invite the community to the 28th annual Martin Luther King Fellowship Breakfast. The Breakfast will be held on Monday, January 16, at the Oak Valley Baptist Church, 191 Hampton Road in Oak Ridge.

The program begins at 8 a.m., and this year’s keynote speaker will be the Reverend Reneé Kesler, president and chief executive officer of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center Inc. in Knoxville.

Beck was established in 1975 as a primary repository of black history and culture in East Tennessee and remains dedicated to researching, collecting, conserving, preserving, and exhibiting works of art, writings, artifacts, memorabilia, and other evidence of contributions relating to the history and culture of African Americans in this region while fostering and promoting educational, artistic, and cultural activities and experiences, a press release said. [Read more…]

Updated: Nine students injured when Roane County school bus rolls off road

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Roane County School Bus Crash Workers Oct. 21, 2015

Nine students were injured after a Roane County school bus went off the right side of the road and rolled on its side down a steep embankment on a curvy, country road southwest of Oliver Springs on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 4 p.m. Oct. 22.

ROANE COUNTY—Nine students were injured after a Roane County school bus dropped off the right side of Mahoney Road and rolled onto its right side down a steep embankment on a curvy, country road southwest of Oliver Springs on Wednesday afternoon.

Two middle school students were taken to Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge by ambulance, and a third student, possibly also a middle school student, was transported by a parent, said Gary Aytes, Roane County Schools superintendent. The injuries were not life-threatening, Aytes said. He said one student might have a broken arm, and the others had cuts and abrasions.

Thursday update: The Tennessee Highway Patrol later reported that nine students were taken to Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge. Two were transported by ambulance, and the other seven were taken in private vehicles.

The crash was reported in the 600 block of Mahoney Road, just west of Johnson Road, at about 3:50 p.m. Wednesday. There were 22 children on the bus from Oliver Springs High School, Oliver Springs Middle School, and Dyllis Springs Elementary School in Roane County. [Read more…]

Girls middle school soccer team wins Smoky Mountain Tournament

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Oak Ridge Girls Middle School Wildcats

The Oak Ridge Girls Middle School Wildcats are front row, left to right, Eden Gee, Sami Jaffery, Emily Avila, Reagan Ross, Yuni Ramirez, Carter Valencia Van Booraem, and Isha Bhandari; and back row, left to right, Alyssa Tittsworth, Lorelei Heffernan, Muskaan Vohra, Laura Snyder, Lauren Bass, Midori Hammer, Sarah Hammonds, and Bailey Thompson. (Submitted photo)

 

By Gerry Palau

A group of middle school girls from Jefferson, Robertsville, and Oliver Springs middle schools that banded together as the Oak Ridge Middle School Wildcats recently won the end-of-season Smoky Mountain Middle School League Tournament during the weekend of October 25-26.

The Smoky Mountain league is the premier middle school soccer league in the metropolitan Knoxville area with more than 50 girls’ teams competing this fall. The Smoky Mountain League has been in existence since 1987, hosting a girls soccer season each fall, and a boys soccer season each spring. [Read more…]

Middle school students competing regionally for National Science Bowl finals

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Middle school students from Oak Ridge, Norris, and Oliver Springs are participating in an upcoming competition to determine what team will represent Tennessee in the middle school national finals of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s National Science Bowl.

The winner of the regional competition, scheduled for Feb. 1 at Roane State Community College in Oak Ridge, will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the Office of Science’s National Science Bowl in late April.

The winner of the national competition will win prizes for the team members and their schools.

Here are the teams that are competing: [Read more…]