Schools – Page 79 – Fairbury Public Schools

Road Trip

Fairbury High School juniors in Mrs. Julie Petersen’s Standards Math class are planning a road trip! Project Based Learning is defined as “A teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.” The big idea question is “Where do I want to go on my road trip after school is dismissed for the summer?” This group of students get to spend $2000 on a road trip to three landmarks. They are expected to not only budget their money for landmark entrance fees, souvenirs, car rental, hotels, and food, but also calculate mileage using MapQuest, miles per gallon for their chosen rental car, and the total cost of gasoline using the national average per gallon. Writing across the curriculum is also a requirement for this project as students reflect on their research and write a paragraph for each destination.

Mrs. Karen Dux, Fairbury Public School’s technology integration specialist, visited classes to teach how to tell a story on a user friendly app called Tour Builder. Jessa said, “It’s actually really easy to create a story about my road trip.” Mrs. Petersen is pleased with how students can show what they know from this PBL. Brandon is engaged in class work time stating, “I really like this project. And I want to plan a road trip for this summer.”

This PBL is helping math students improve their proficiency at the following Nebraska Standards and apply these lessons to life: 12.1.3d, 12.2.5b, 12.2.5d.

Student presentations will be on Tuesday, April 17th if parents would like to attend. View the student presentations by clicking on the link below:

Kane

https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICg2uK_yggM

Alexia
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICg2pbX-QgM
Josh
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICgmsPOmwgM
Destanie
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICg2vbBrgoM
Tristin
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICg2sPUvgoM
Jessa
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICg2v3TrQoM
Brandon
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICg2sWX8wgM
Olivia
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICgmqP6oAoM

Freshmen Attend Hastings College

The Freshmen Class was able to visit Hastings College yesterday as part of the EducationQuest College Access Grant that Fairbury High School was awarded a year ago. Students were able to tour the campus facilities, dorms, classrooms, and even eat lunch in the cafeteria. The visit allows students to see what different types of college campuses have to offer.

Indirect Measurement of Height

Geometry students calculated the height of the classroom ceiling and the hallway. Cooperative groups of four students each fulfilled their responsibility to measure three segments and solve for a missing value. Using similar triangles theorem Angle-Angle-Similarity allowed students to set up a proportion. This is an indirect measurement of height since we didn’t actually get a ladder and measure the wall.

Students appreciate the hands-on application of lessons to life. We do many story problems, but today students also had to read the tape measure!

Reading Classics Division II State Champions and Division I Runner Up!

CONGRATULATIONS to the “B Awesome” team of Aldo Ramos, Natalie Heidemann, Heidi Ramos, Toby Julin-McCleary & Adeline Blatny on winning the Division II State Reading Classic Competition! After many hours and many books these students were put to the challenge Saturday March 24 at the State Reading Classics Competition at Tri-County School. Placing 1^st in the semi-final round against 6 other schools they headed into the buzzer round facing Stoddard Elementary from Beatrice. They triumphantly won 5 to 2 in a very intense round of oral questions. We are very proud of their accomplishment. Continue to “B Awesome” & keep reading!

On Saturday, March 24th, the Division I Reading Classics Team traveled to Tri County for State Competition. After the written competition, Fairbury & Seward were announced as the top two teams. In the final buzzer round, Fairbury fell to Seward with a score of 5-7. Fairbury students were awarded a State Runner-Up medal and a trophy!! We are so proud of our excellent readers!! They have been very motivated throughout the year to read all 78 books! We would like to thank all of the volunteers who make this event possible!

Reading Classic Division I State Runner-Up Champions are Nic Smith, Abby Hynek, Dominic Joe, Micah Friesen, and Iaunna Lucking.

Trying to Save Lives

On 3-20-18 Officer Charlie Cook, Officer Tim Pickering and Paul Aden of Fairbury came to speak to Mr. Scott’s Driver’s Education class. The officers came and showed the students what can happen if seatbelts are not worn and you are involved in an accident. The point was to instill in the students that wearing seat belts saves lives statistically. There were some videos shown and quite a few actual photos taken right here in Jefferson county of accident victims. Some were pretty hard to look at but the fact remains, when you get behind the wheel of a car, you are in charge of a very heavy object. Students also learned that speed is a major factor in accidents as well. Students got the opportunity to also try to walk a straight line wearing what some call the drunk goggles. The goggles were to simulate a certain Blood Alcohol Content or BAC.

Students also got to sit in a huge truck that was brought to the school by Paul Aden of Fairbury. Paul has been very helpful over the years to help out with parades, floats and is always ready to help. Paul talked about semis and how they have bigger blind spots than regular passenger vehicles. He stressed to the students to be aware of where you are in relation to a truck making a right or left turn.

I want to thank both the Nebraska State Patrol, and Paul Aden for their continued support to the Fairbury Driver’s Education program.

Reading Classics Champions!

Division One Champions at the Jefferson County Reading Classics Competition on March 19th, are team members Micah Friesen, Abby Hynek, Dominic Joe, Nic Smith, and Iaunna Lucking. They will compete at State Reading Classics on Saturday at Tri County School. Great Job!!!

Team B came away with a 3rd place win and did an awesome job as well! Team members are Parker Jacobi , Konrad Kuzelka, Alecia Bedlan, & Madison Haddan. Not pictured is Brooke Held. Good job!!!

On March 19th two Division II teams from Fairbury competed at the Jefferson County Reading Classics Competition. This competition was the culmination of six months of extensive reading of 84 books for the 10 fifth & sixth graders on the two teams. Both the “B Awesome” team, consisting of team members Aldo & Heidi Ramos, Toby Julin-McCleary, Natalie Heidemann and Adeline Blatny, and the “UR Awesome” team with members, Samantha Starr, Addison Marschman, Eliza Kroeker, Mailee Garner, and Chloe Tracy, put in a good effort. In the end the “B Awesome’s” were victorious over the other teams from Thayer Central, Meridian, and Fairbury. They will head to Tri-County School March 24th to compete in the State Reading Classics Competition. Good Luck and Well Done Teams!

Nebraska Attorney General Visits FPS

Monday, March 19 was a special day for the 6th grade students at Jefferson Intermediate. Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson stopped by to visit. Mr. Peterson talked to our students about his job as Attorney General. He is a lawyer for the State of Nebraska and oversees 70 other lawyers who handle criminal cases across 93 counties. He talked to our students about making good choices with friends and technology. He shared with them that if he could talk to all parents and students, he would tell them these two pieces of information. Every night whatever computer students use, the computer should be in a place where the screen can be seen by adults at all times. The other piece of advice he offered was that parents should never allow a young person to take their cell phones to their own rooms. We appreciate that Attorney General Doug Peterson took time out of his very busy schedule to talk to our 6th graders!

Operation Lifesaver

On March 1, 2018 Mr. Dave Bruna, representing Operation Lifesaver, was a guest speaker for Mr. Scott’s Driver’s Education class. He is a R.S.E.R. Instructor and also a train engineer for Union Pacific Railroad and resides in Marysville, Kansas.

Operation Lifesaver’s mission and purpose:

Operation Lifesaver is a nonprofit public safety education and awareness organization dedicated to reducing collisions, fatalities and injuries at highway-rail crossings and trespassing on or near railroad tracks.

Operation Lifesaver’s History: They started in 1972 when the average number of collisions at U.S. highway-rail grade crossings had risen above 12,000 incidents annually. To address this, the Idaho governor’s office, along with the Idaho Peace Officers and Union Pacific Railroad launched a six-week public awareness educational campaign called Operation Lifesaver to promote highway-rail grade crossing safety. After Idaho’s crossing-related fatalities fell that year by 43%, the successful program was adopted by Nebraska (1973) and Kansas and Georgia the following year. Within a decade it had spread around the country; in 1986 a non-profit national Operation Lifesaver office was created to help support the efforts of state OL programs and raise national awareness on highway-rail grade crossing issues.

Mr. Dave Bruna, from Marysville, Kansas has been with the Union Pacific Railroad for many many years. He plans on retiring in June of this year. He informed Fairbury students that he has had seven incidents where there were collisions with passenger vehicles. He is very passionate about his job and teaching Operation Lifesaver to young drivers. He told me if he can save just one life, it’s all worth it as he is not paid to teach the classes. He does it all on a volunteer basis. This year he put on a presentation and showed two different videos. Statistics say it takes a fully loaded train traveling at 55 MPH up to 18 football fields to come to a complete stop. That is measured from the time the train engineer sees a problem and puts the train into a panic stop situation. Trains can’t swerve out of the way and when one is approaching, it is an optical illusion just as it is when a jet comes in for a landing. I think it did open the eyes of Fairbury students. Mr. Scott wants to thank Dave for coming to his classes over the years and doing such a fine job. I know his passion has influenced a lot of students to stop, look, listen and live at all highway-rail crossings. It’s programs like Operation Lifesaver that are great for our country and our communities.

Officer Charlie Cook from the Nebraska State Patrol will be here on March 20, 2018 to talk to the kids about texting and driving. He usually also talks to the kids about the dangers of drinking and driving. There are 27 students in Driver’s Education this year.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Central & Jefferson Family Night, Give the Gift of Reading was held Thursday, March 1st. Families gathered at the Fairbury Jr/Sr High School to enjoy a pancake supper sponsored by the Fairbury Kiwanis. Teachers, staff and volunteers operated many Dr. Seuss-based activities. Students and families enjoyed playing games, making arts & crafts, taking silly Seuss pictures and listening to guest readers. Each PreK-6 student received a free book from the Kiwanis pancake feed. It was a SEUSS-tastic night!

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