Northview Middle School News for the Week of Oct. 3

Northview Teacher Visits French Classes

Northview teacher librarian Kate Lechtenberg visited French classes on Wednesday, September 19.  Ms. Lechtenberg earned a minor in French at the University of Iowa, and she has continued to speak French as a teacher at a French language camp and during her travels to Senegal, a former French colony and her husband's native country.   She participated in conversations and role plays with students as well as speaking of her experiences with the French language.

Students Participate in Project Lead the Way

Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is a nationally recognized curriculum promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers to middle school and high school students.  Ankeny Community School District adopted the middle school curriculum this year by teaching Automation and Robotics at the seventh grade level and Design and Modeling at the eighth grade level.  These two foundation classes prepare students to further their education through the Pre-engineering and Engineering classes offered at the high school level and beyond.

Northview Middle School teaches the Design and Modeling foundation class during a nine week exploratory rotation.  PLTW provides a hands-on type of curriculum where students learn about engineering, types of engineering jobs, and how engineers use the design process.  Students also use state of the art design software to create designs of their own. 

Recently, the students learned about the importance of precision measurements and aerodynamics when they built and raced skimmers out of recycled cereal boxes.  The project was not only fun for the kids but reinforced the age old lesson of “measure twice, cut once” and gave a good introduction to aerodynamics and the affect it has on the shape of an object.  Win or lose, the students enjoyed building, racing, and learning about precision measurement and aerodynamics.