Gorham Middle School SAIL

This is a picture from yesterday's Google Meet with  Jason Wheeler, Maine's Odyssey of the Mind Coordinator. He needed Jessica's final approval of her Chickadee pin design before it got sent to manufacturing. The meeting was very sweet. He shared with her that her bird pin design was his favorite Maine bird pin ever...and he has been doing Odyssey since he was nine years old. :)

  Every year, Odyssey of the Mind holds a pin competition inviting OMERS to create pins representing our beautiful state. This year's pin requirements had to represent Maine animals munchin' on Maine foods, with one of the pins being a bird. Pin collecting is HUGE in the OM world, and every state and other countries designs pins to represent their part of the world. At World Finals, Pin trading with OMERS from around the world is an incredibly popular hobby, and this year, Jessica Loiselle's design was selected by the Maine Odyssey of the Mind Board as the official 2024 Maine Bird Pin! For the last 23 years, Maine OM has sent a bird pin to the World Finals. There are people from around the world who are on a mission for the Maine Bird Pin every year. So, this year, I am very excited to share that Jessica's pin design will be sent to the manufacturer soon and used to represent our state at the World Finals this year.  Below are some images of pin trading at the World Fin...

 Every year right before Halloween, the SAIL-ELA students write two-sentence horror stories for a schoolwide competition. Students and staff read the stories and vote for their favorites.  This year the winners were... 6th grade winner: Riley Peters   I just had a terrible nightmare, and wake up to the absence of color that is a blind person’s life, when I hear my mother’s voice say “Don’t worry, it was just a dream.” My mom died 13 years ago today.  7th grade winner: Max Moreno My husband asked what kind of meat was in our soup. Funny that he didn't notice that our two kids weren't at dinner that night. 8th grade winner: Dexter Vance The driver of my Uber was utterly silent, only talking at the beginning of the ride, saying that he was locking the doors from the outside “for your own safety.” I heard my phone ding and checked it; it was from Uber; the message said: “I’m out front.” Overall winner: Dexter Vance!! Wahoo!!

  The International Academic Competitions offer regional, national, and international competitions for students in grades K-12 through competitions including the National History Bee, National Geography Bee, and National Science Bee.  Students need to first complete a regional qualifying exam consisting of 50 multiple-choice questions in 20 minutes to be eligible for the regional finals. At this time, w e currently have 8 students registered for the  Southern Maine Regional Finals (wahoo)! The competition is scheduled for  March 2nd  at St John's Catholic School in Brunswick.    Here is the schedule:  Regional Finals Schedule This link provides more information on the process and how it all works:  Qualifying Process . Lastly, here is the website with many resources and information:  International Academics Competitions .

 The 6th-grade science excursion group attended a Zoom meeting with scientist  Jaida Elcock. She shared her journey to becoming a scientist and her shark research with the group. 

  SAIL-math students are currently participating in a national math competition.  Teams are matched first by skill level so that the competition is even and then by common time availability so that teams can play live where possible. Data from the 2 Qualifying rounds are used to determine bracket assignments. The top 64 teams are assigned to the Title bracket. The remaining teams are then evenly placed in additional brackets based on team size, with all teams competing in a bracket. Within each bracket, teams are sorted by skill and seeded accordingly, following NCAA March Madness protocol. We have three teams competing in this bracket-style tournament: an 8th-grade, a 7th-grade, and a 6th-grade team. All teams just completed their first qualifying round.  Out of 48 middle school teams, the 8th grade is currently ranked 4th, the 7th grade is 18th, and the 6th grade is 27th. We have one more qualifying round to complete, and then it's our first bracket round! 

  New this year, SAIL has a 6th-grade science excursion group. Students completed observations over the summer and are now using those observations to create Nature Notes for the Findings from the Field Science Journal.   Here is a brief overview of the process of publishing work in Findings from the Field: Step 1.  Students use their observations to produce a Nature Note.  Step 2.  Students submit their work to the online platform.  Step 3.  Students perform two peer reviews of scientific work from other Maine and New Hampshire schools. Step 4.  Students receive peer review and editorial board feedback. Accepted submissions are published in the Gulf of Maine Institute's online Ecological and Environmental Science journal.  Step 5.  Yay! We celebrate if students are selected for publication!  In addition to Nature Notes, the science excursion group will participate in the Scientist-To-Go program. This program  connects stu...