Students learn on the road

Wilson Elementary School is benefiting from the work of Petaluma High School senior Taylor Richardson from Boy Scout Troop 105, who created a brick patio by the campus track. Taylor’s work surrounds two drinking fountains that were a previous Eagle Scout project and near the long jump pit completed by Noah Kai, a Casa Grande senior. “This patio, which includes benches, is great place for parents to watch baseball practices for the Petaluma National Little League,” says Principal-Superintendent Eric Hoppes.

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Lincoln School students made the trek into town and attended a showing of Paddington Bear late last week at the Theatre District’s Boulevard Cinemas. Students brought along their favorite bears and had a great day on their big adventure.

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Petaluma City Schools and the Petaluma Health Center are partnering to provide dental services for students at McDowell Elementary School. For the past two weeks, dental teams have come to the campus. All McDowell students are eligible to receive examinations, cleanings and X-rays on campus. “Many thanks to the professionals who are providing this service. All the students K through third grade will have their teeth checked and cleaned by a dentist during the school year with parents consent,” reports Principal Maureen Rudder. who is very excited about this program benefiting her students.

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For eight consecutive years, Teri Scott, a theology teacher at St. Vincent High School has been taking groups of juniors to St. Anthony’s as part of her social justice class. Scott feels this is a very impactful day for the students. “The kids are immersed in service while truly connecting with individuals facing various forms of adversity in their lives,” Scott says. SVHS students spend their day serving guests in the dining hall, visiting and playing games with the elderly and providing assistance in the clothing store. It is Scott’s hope that the students come away from the day with a greater sense of awareness about the many ways they can continue to contribute to various communities in need.

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Elementary students got a peek into their future when they visited the chemistry classes at Petaluma High School last week. The fifth-grade students at Valley Vista School have been studying a unit on chemistry, trying to understand the wonders of atoms and the Periodic Table of the Elements. With some simple experiments, these students have been able to gain a basic understanding of chemical reactions. Petaluma High School teacher Lee Boyes invited the younger students to visit her high school chemistry classes for a deeper look at chemical reactions, and the subject reached a whole new level. Fifth graders were thrilled to be walking on to the PHS high school campus and entering a real laboratory complete with teenage scientists donning white lab coats.   The older students led small groups of fifth graders through chemical reactions involving fire, heat, color change, gas and cold. The young students were riveted as they watched the older student scientists handle chemicals and light substances on fire. Finally, at the end, Boyes treated the students to the “genie in the bottle experiment.” Using methane gas and fire, flames leaped from the inside of a bottle and went out with a loud pop.

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Grant Elementary School fifth grade students attended a great field trip to Sonoma State University last week. “All of our guides were very knowledgeable and happy to answer all of our questions. I’ve been to SSU many times, but we really got a behind-the-scenes look at the campus,” said parent volunteer Ellen Yant. The tour started in the anthropology department where students learned about the fieldwork the students do to discover artifacts and saw the rows of boxes that contain these important artifacts and how they store them for long-term preservation. The group also visited the library where they saw a tour of their automated retrieval system. The books are found by a robot. When the library was built in 2000, it was one of the first four installations using this cutting-edge technology that is now incorporated in libraries worldwide. The group headed to Green Music Center, visiting the new Schroeder Hall (finished in fall 2014). then visited the amazing Weill Hall and the outside grounds. The guide played a couple of pieces on the piano. The wood they’ve used in the hall maximizes the reverberations of the sound and is the type used on many instruments. There are slats in the seats, so the sound can pass through the seats if no one is occupying them, The seating layout is an unusual design that surrounds the stage and allows the people in the back of the stage to almost become part of the orchestra, according to the guide.

(Maureen Highland is a Petaluma mother and executive director for the Petaluma Educational Foundation. She can be reached at schools@arguscourier.com)