Twenty-two Eagle View students have been selected for regional recognition by the Scholastic Writing Competition, including the following special interest students: 

Ali Banach...gold key...personal essay/memoir

Scott Benton...honorable mention...science fiction/fantasy

Alex de Ramon...honorable mention...short story

Brad de Ramon...honorable mention...short story

Laura Downer...silver key...short story

Jenna Eberly...gold key...poetry

Ellie Farber...silver key...dramatic script 

Maizie Ober...gold key...flash fiction

Maizie Ober...silver key...short story

Cooper Shirey...honorable mention...short story

Anne Slevin...honorable mention...short story

Zach Snyder...silver key...flash fiction

Twenty-five teams were registered to compete in Central Pennsylvania's 6th annual Future City Competition. The competition was held on Saturday, January 21st, at the State Museum of Pennsylvanis in Harrisburg. This is the third year for Eagle View special interest students to participate, and their third place win was the best showing our school has had in this competition.

What is the Future City Competition? Like every other team competing this year, Eagle View’s team had to imagine, design, and create a city that exists at least 150 years in the future. Each year students are faced with a new engineering problem. Students then research the engineering problem and write a paper, plan a virtual city using SimCity software, construct a tabletop model to scale with recycled materials, write a city narrative, plan and practice a skit, and then finally present their ideas at the regional competition before several teams of engineering judges in both informal and formal settings. This is a very intensive competition, requiring countless hours of preparation and employing all subject areas. The team began their work back in September, staying for after-school work sessions once and twice a week. They even came in over the holiday break for a five-hour work session.

This year, Eagle View’s Future City team located their city, Quieta Quis—Latin for tranquil environment—on the North Island of New Zealand. Their team had a very creative history for their city, weaving the Mayan calendar prophecy into their story, thanks to team captain and main writer for this year’s team, Laura Downer. Team presenters--Laura Downer, Scott Benson, and Kaelin Wolf--played the roles of a New Zealand Maori descendant/tour guide, an exuberant tourist, and a knowledgeable city engineer respectively. Scott also created the virtual city, and Kaelin was involved in research and helping to write the research paper. Other team members included Jenna Eberly, Alex Cook, Liam Rothwell, Kyle Tissue, Vanshika Agarwal, Tabitha Novak, and Opie Singh. Each student brought different talents to the team. Kyle and Opie were instrumental in the decision to locate the city in New Zealand, and they did much of the design for the underground industrial portion of the city. Liam also helped construct the underground structure and the maglev wind turbine. Jenna and Tabitha brought their artistic talents to the team, with Jenna designing the background for the city and Tabitha designing many of the buildings for the city. Alex was in charge of constructing the two-tiered base for our city and designing the maglev transportation system. Vanshika welded a lot of the buildings and came up with the idea for a lake which included a boat that moved through the use of magnets.

Congratulations, kids, on a job well done!

Students will be working on their Hershey Story History Writing Competition pieces. This is an excellent opportunity to enrich both the English and the social studies curriculums. Students first choose a person, event, or era for their research. The research forms the basis for their writing, which can be either a creative (poetry, short story, diary, journal) or an informational (essay or research paper) piece. A  bibliography is submitted with the entry. More information on this competition can be found at www.hersheystory.org. Rough draft hard copies are due by about December 15th. Final copies, submitted electronically, will be due by mid January. We will be submitting our entries online during the later part of January. Last year's 1st and 2nd place entries can be found on Hershey Story Museum's website, including four pieces written by Eagle View Middle School students... 

The fall middle school KMO, Knowledge Master Open, competition will be held Wednesday, December 7th. The team will consist of approximately 20 special interest students who will work together to answer 200 questions on a wide-range of subjects. Interested students were asked to sign up before Thanksgiving. 6th grade SI students will compete in a 5th/6th grade KMO in early 2012. In the spring, all Eagle View special interest students will have the opportunity to again participate on a middle school KMO team.

If your child has not already had you review his or her independent project proposal, you should be seeing it during the early part of this month.

8th grade special interest students visited the Benjamin Olewine III Nature Center and the National Civil War Museum. The nature center, located just off Harrisburg's HACC campus, is a great place to study wetland ecology, while the museum gave students an opportunity to enrich their understanding of Civil War history. The field trip was designed to support fall studies in their core subject classes of science and social studies. 

6th grade special interest students visited the Lackawanna Coal Mine and the National Heritage Anthracite Museum. This field trip supports the mineral study which is part of the 6th grade science curriculum. Students went down, down, deep underground to see where miners used to work to bring coal to the surface for heating homes. At the museum they learned about how coal is formed and what life was like for both the miners and their families. They met Slats, an elderly gentleman who grew up in a company town and who now volunteers his time as a docent at the museum.

A group of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade SI students interested in the theater, spent a morning with actors at Mount Hope Estate in Manheim, Pennsylvania. This was Mount Hope's annual Poe Evermore show. This year's performances included The Raven, The Tell-tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Premature Burial.

Students will be working on their independent project beginning in September, finishing them by the end of April. Students are expected to spend at least ten hours on their project. Students may wish to use their optional special interest time to work on their project in school. See the Independent Project section of this website for additional information.

Last year's projects included the following...

• Personal topic of interest resulting in a classroom presentation
• Study helps video
• Art projects
• Rubberband competition
• Scholastic writing...This student went on to win a gold key.
• Future City Competition...Eagle View's team was recognized for having the most sustainable city.
• Listen to a Life Essay Contest...This student's essay was recognized as one of the top 20 in the nation!
• History Day...Two students advanced to the state level.
• Rube Goldberg machine
• Animal adoption services
• Career shadowing
• Medical field