Education

LANL Connections: Pilot Summer Program Supports Science Teachers

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New Mexico Public Education Department’s Math and Science Director Lesley Galyas, left, visits with teachers at a recent workshop. Courtesy/LANL

LANL News:

Pilot Summer Program Supports Science Teachers

The July edition of LANL Connections is out and features a story about Northern New Mexico kindergarten-through-eighth-grade science teachers spending a week exploring the concept of “matter,” a vital underpinning for many scientific disciplines including physics and chemistry.

The 26 attendees, teacher leaders and instructional coaches, were selected for the pilot program from Read More

PEEC Amateur Naturalist: Have You Seen a Bat Lately?

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PEEC Amateur Naturalist: Have You Seen a Bat Lately?
Column by ROBERT DRYJA
Particular thanks to Chris Judson

Bandelier National Monument once had a colony of bats at a cave roost along the cliff face in the Long House area.

Chris Judson, a park ranger, has been told that the colony has been present on and off from at least the 1930s.

The colony was not present in 1976, but was present from 1985 to 2002. Surprisingly, it did not return from its spring migration in 2003. It has not returned to the Long House cave since then.

Now-vacant bat cave entrance high on the cliff face of the Long House. Photo by Mary Read More

Los Alamos Public Schools Achieve Fully-Accredited Status

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Los Alamos School Board President Jim Hall. Courtesy photo

LAPS News:

AdvancED, which is the global leader in advancing excellence in education through continuous improvement, organization effectiveness and accreditation, has announced that Los Alamos Public Schools received fully-accredited status.

Achieving this status places Los Alamos on an international stage as very few school districts have been awarded this status.

“I am proud to say that Los Alamos Public Schools did receive the highest status possible,” New Mexico AdvancED Director Priscilla Fernandez wrote in an email Read More

LAHS Graduate Meets with Congressional Delegation

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Jackie Cooke, LAHS Class of 2013 graduate, briefs School Board President Jim Hall on her recent visit to Washington, D.C. Courtesy photo

LAPS News:

Jackie Cooke, a recent graduate of Los Alamos High School, traveled to Washington, D.C. as part of a national student delegation to meet with Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich as well as Rep. Ben Ray Lujan.

In conversations with the senators and congressman, Cooke championed the causes of public education.

Among a variety of educational policy topics discussed, were how schools could be transformed through technology and the impact of sequestration.  Read More

Goats Gathered at PEEC’s Summer Family Evening

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PEEC Summer Family Evening baby goat meet-up included a mother goat and babies brought to the event by Jessie Ross of Gypsy Mountain Ranch and Debbie Wood of Second Bloom Farm. Ross and Wood discussed goat care and how they use goats’ milk to make cheese, lotion and soap. Photo by Felicia Orth/PEEC
 
The smallest black goat visiting PEEC for the Summer Family Evening baby goat meet-up is just one week old. Photo by Felicia Orth/PEEC
 
Photo by Felicia Orth/PEEC
Photo by Felicia Orth/PEEC
 
 
 
 
Read More

School Board Meets July 9 and 11

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LAPS News:

The Los Alamos School Board will hold its Regular School Board meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 9 at the Los Alamos High School Speech Theater.

The agenda for the meeting will be posted at the district office, 2075 Trinity Dr., the Thursday before the meeting.

If special accommodations are required, notify the secretary to the superintendent 72 hours before the board meeting at 663-2233.

The Board has scheduled a Special School Board meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday, July 11 at 2075 Trinity Dr., Suite V to discuss the Los Alamos Middle School and Aspen Elementary School construction projects Read More

Final Portable Classroom on the Move

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Portable classroom. File photo

LAPS News:

One more of four portables is on the move from Clovis to Los Alamos High School.

Once all portables are staged at LAHS, Los Alamos Public Schools will begin moving them to Aspen Elementary School July 8-9.

These four portables will be the core of the temporary campus at Aspen to allow construction to commence.

LAPS  asks the public to bear with this inconvenience while the transport of the portables takes place.

 
Read More

Hilltalkers Excel at National Tournament

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Members of the Los Alamos High School Hilltalkers. Photo by Margo Batha

Speech and debate awards announced. Photo by Margo Batha

LAPS News:

Seven Los Alamos High School speech and debate students traveled to the National Forensic League National Tournament June 16-21 in Birmingham, Ala.

The group consisted of Daniel Ahrens, Antonia Batha, Sam Baty, Ali Berl, Naftali Burakovsky, Katie Haynes and Jessie Zhao. Margo Batha and Janet Newton, who coach the speech and debate team, stated this was the Hilltalkers “most successful national tournament since 2003.”

Katie Haynes competed in six preliminary Read More

Luján Addresses Doubling of Student Loan Rates

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U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján

U.S. CONGRESSIONAL News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico’s Third District released the following statement today on the doubling of interest rates on federal student loans.

“As of today, the interest rates on all new federal student loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of a college education for millions of young adults. It is deeply disappointing that Congress has yet to find a solution to this problem that makes college more affordable and does not make it harder for New Mexico’s Read More

Science Café Brings Ravens and Visitors to PEEC

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Ravens seem to love flying, sometimes doing acrobatics for the fun of it. Photo by Bob Walker

Saturday’s presentation about ravens captures audience attention at PEEC. Photos by Katie Watson

PEEC News:

Ravens proved a popular topic for the jam-packed PEEC lecture room Saturday, June 29, when Science Café came up to Los Alamos from KNME in Albuquerque. 

People signed up from all over Northern New Mexico—the maximum of 70 people was reached a week before the event and many were turned away. Some wait-listed visitors took the place of a few no-shows, and it was delightful to welcome people Read More