Middle School Students

Two area middle school students will be among the 11 students honored April 17 in the 15th Annual Baltimore County Middle School Writing Contest. The contest, sponsored and judged by the senior literary arts students at George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology county magnet high school in Towson, attracted 330 poems, 106 short stories and 88 works of nonfiction. Kavya Kavanakudy, a seventh-grader at Arbutus Middle School, earned honorable mention for her poem, "The Relief of the Majestic Forest.

Seventh-graders at Harford Friends School have a new opportunity to let their voices be heard as far away as Afghanistan. The only school in Maryland selected to participate in an interactive program entitled "Afghanistan Hearts and Minds," Harford Friends incorporated the program into the seventh-grade social studies curriculum, taught by teacher Lauren Redding. The "Afghanistan Hearts and Minds" adventure is a unique experience for students. Developed by Dina Fesler of the Children's Culture Connection, it takes participants inside Dina's life as a reporter who works to make a difference in an IDP (internally displaced persons)

From Liz Atwood: If your tween doesn't have a smart phone or tablet yet, I'll bet it's on the Christmas wish list. Yet as pervasive as mobile devices are, I was still astounded to see a new study from the Verizon Foundation that shows more than one third of middle school students are doing their homework with the help of a smart phone or tablet. The study found smartphone use crossing income levels and ethnicity. Nearly a third of children from the poorest households said they used smartphones for homework.

Calling all kids interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related activities? The first annual HoCo STEM Festival is June 9, 1 to 4 p.m., at Howard Community College. This free community event is the brainchild of the Committee to Enhance STEM, a group of seven individuals with STEM backgrounds, including Ellicott City resident David Gertler, who want to stimulate and encourage students' interest in the emerging fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Two Harford County middle school students have been informed that they will be suspended for the rest of the school year on suspicion of playing a prank with a firecracker-like device that injured a school custodian.The two students, ages 14 and 15, were at Fallston High School on May 18 for a fashion show when a toilet stall door was booby trapped with the device, called a Pulling Trick.The device is about the size of a fat toothpick with a 3-inch string attached to each end. When the strings are pulled, the Pulling Trick explodes with a sound similar to a cap.The custodian, Eric McClung, received first- and second-degree burns and bruises to his left hand when he tried to push the stall door open.

Brooklyn Park/Lindale Middle School students are working on four projects to benefit the county's homeless and needy.Eighth-grader Brice Carson and his teacher Richard Burger toured Sarah's House, a Fort Meade shelter for women, last month to learn more about how the residents live. Brice walked out the door with a 68-item "wish list" of things needed by residents.In March, he plans to start fulfilling their wishes by asking schoolmates to donate such goods as disposable diapers, baby food, hair brushes, pillows, powdered milk, tuna, and clothing for adults and children.

WESTMINSTER - For sixth-graders Ashley VanDoren and Lindsey Peregoff, after-school life is a slice of Norman Rockwell Americana -- nickel sodas at the local drug store and a stroll down Main Street to the public library."

The Kings Contrivance Community Association invites middle school students who live in the village to enter a contest by submitting photographs that capture the beauty and history of the neighborhood.A single photo or a collage, in either black and white or color, may be submitted.The photo must be shot in Kings Contrivance and be the original work of the student.Entries must be submitted to Amherst House, 7251 Eden Brook Drive, Columbia, no later than 5 p.m. March 16.The winner will receive a $50 cash prize, and have his or her work displayed at Amherst House.

Two West Baltimore Middle School students were beaten with lacrosse sticks yesterday by a group of fellow students who asked the pair whether they were in a gang, the chief of the city schools police said. Chief Marshall T. Goodwin said that more than 10 eighth-graders at the school approached the two students, also eighth-graders, about 8:40 a.m. and asked whether they were "banging" - meaning part of gang. One of the targeted boys wore athletic shoes with red trim, which the assailants took as a gang sign, Goodwin said.

It's the spirit of Christmas, it seems, that home economics students at North Carroll Middle School are discovering this fall. About 200 students are making gifts and Christmas items for the school's first Winter Craft Bazaar, to be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 3.Every stitch and dab of paint by the students is planned to benefit the community, including donations to medical research, to aid for the homeless, for park beautification and improved educational...

Congratulations to the Dulaney High School Math team participants Minwei Cao, Jay Han, Casey Lim, Heetaek Lim and Lisa Ann Tang who were the winners of $1000 for their solution to the Moody's Mega Math Challenge recycling problem: Waste not, Want not: Putting Recyclables in their Place. Their 19-page solution was in the top 43 of 1,054 solutions submitted. In addition, Jay Han was the school winner of the American Mathematics Competition and scored well enough to compete in the second round competition - The American Invitational Mathematics Competition.

Bel Air Lions Club members Madeline Hartman, left, and Pat Hogan flank the Lions Club International Peace Poster banner at the United Nations in New York, as Lions and the UN celebrated the 25th year of working together on this project. Middle school students from around the world submit posters with their visual interpretation of peace. Lion Hartman runs the program for the Bel Air Lions.

Baltimore County school Superintendent Dallas Dance has recommended closing Eastwood Center Elementary Magnet Program after this school year, drawing outrage from parents in Dundalk. School system officials presented the recommendation Tuesday evening to members of the Board of Education at a meeting packed with Eastwood parents. A board vote on the closure is scheduled for March 5. "Common sense would dictate at least another school year to prepare," parent Michael DiMarzio told the board.

From Liz Atwood: If your tween doesn't have a smart phone or tablet yet, I'll bet it's on the Christmas wish list. Yet as pervasive as mobile devices are, I was still astounded to see a new study from the Verizon Foundation that shows more than one third of middle school students are doing their homework with the help of a smart phone or tablet. The study found smartphone use crossing income levels and ethnicity. Nearly a third of children from the poorest households said they used smartphones for homework.

A Holabird Middle School student was disciplined after an inoperable starter pistol was found in his locker Wednesday, Baltimore County schools officials said. The Dundalk school sent a letter home with students about the discovery of the gun, and an investigation involving county police indicated that the student did not plan to threaten or hurt anyone, schools spokesman Charles Herndon said. A starter pistol shoots blank shells or caps and is typically used at sporting events. "Possession of such a device is still a serious offense, however, and the school has taken appropriate disciplinary action," the letter signed by Principal Julie Dellone states.

In one Baltimore County school next semester, students will swap notebooks for 1-inch touch screens, textbook passages for online articles, worksheets for apps, and writing utensils for a keyboard, launching the first "paperless classroom" in a county school. The program is a pilot with 70 middle-school students enrolled at the Loch Raven Technical Academy's law and finance magnet program, a distinctive program that teachers say requires students to navigate digital platforms to keep up with the fast-paced fields of study.

The eighth annual Lacy/Graves Middle School Tennis tournament, for children in grades 6-8 will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 17 at River Hill High School in Clarksville. The tournament, which is designed to promote a healthy life, was started by Kimberly Lacy in 2000 as a Gifted and Talented project at Patuxent Valley Middle School. She dedicates the tournament to her late mother, Shirley Lacy, who died in 1999 when Kimberly was just beginning eighth grade at Patuxent Valley. Ernest Lacy, Kimberly's father, is a tennis coach for the Howard County Tennis Association.

THIS CHRISTMAS, a group of North Carroll Middle School students is sending a touch of home to all 6,000 crew members of the USS Enterprise, an aircraft carrier that left Nov. 6 for six months in the Persian Gulf.For 130 of the service men and women, that homestyle touch included gift packages and goody bags of candy and snacks.It's part of a year-long project of corresponding with 130 of the Navy personnel to share ideas and learn about geography, current events and commitment.Of Team 7, or about one-third of the eighth grade at North Carroll and their teachers, 124 are voluntarily participating in the project, donating their study period to compose letters and design fund-raisers.

If 2,500 Baltimore middle school students have their way Tuesday, President Barack Obama will be re-elected, children of some illegal immigrants will pay in-state tuition rates, same-sex couples can marry and gambling in Maryland will not expand. The results were announced Monday by the students of City Neighbors Charter School, who through a "Voters of Tomorrow" initiative conducted a mock vote in 29 city schools on key choices facing the state and country on Election Day. The project was a culmination of social studies lessons this fall for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at City Neighbors, which included following debates, arguing different positions in class, and hearing viewpoints from figures on both sides of the issues, including Republican Del. Pat McDonough, Democratic Del. Mary Washington and the immigrant rights group Casa de Maryland.

Reaching the police officer at an Anne Arundel County school — there's an app for that. A new app developed by an Anne Arundel school resource officer lets anyone with a smartphone unobtrusively tap in a message to the officers whose beats are the county's middle and high schools. The app is aimed at students but parents are encouraged to use it as well. "It allows [students] to communicate with us in a medium they're familiar with," said Cpl. William Davis, its creator and the school resource officer at Old Mill High School in Millersville.