Shaking a box of Nerds candies and pouring them into a bowl is nothing to brag about, but try doing it in 15 steps! Four members of Briarcliff Middle School’s Science and Engineering Club certainly earned their bragging rights when they took second place in the National Rube Goldberg Contest, for doing just that.

April showers bring…April flowers. One of America’s most celebrated artists, Georgia O’Keefe, focused on creating abstract art which displayed a unique perspective of close-ups of flowers. Todd third graders in Therese Verderosa’s class began an art project this week that featured magnified views of flowers similar to O’Keefe’s methods.

There is a lot of symmetry in nature, such as in flowers, leaves and pinecones. Butterflies also have a symmetrical shape and symmetrical patterns on their wings.

Now that it is spring, butterflies are the perfect way to teach young learners about the concept of symmetry so Todd kindergarten teacher Jeanne Dal Piaz came up with a creative project for the students: she had them turn themselves into butterflies.

Hard to believe, but our fifth graders will be secondary students in just a few short months. They will have to make all kinds of new choices, one of which might be about which drinks to buy at the school cafeteria.

Shoveling snow in the schoolyard and cleaning classroom floors are not typical activities for American students. But as first graders in Lee Lee Wong’s ENL class recently learned, they are commonplace for high school students in China.